Page 90 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

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Morgan Jones ceramics from Patuxent Point (18CV271).
archaeological evidence does not reveal obvious differences between Catholic and Protestant households. There are differences, however, in the distributions of materials associated with folk beliefs. While the Calverts and their supporters (including Thomas Notley, William Digges, and Henry Coursey) were building houses according to the latest fashions, the unidentified residents at Patuxent Point, who enjoyed the pleasures and comforts of many consumer goods, were none- theless engaged in practices rooted in English folk beliefs. A woman who died in childbirth was denied a Christian burial, a practice frowned upon by the Anglican Church, but not uncom- mon in rural areas. A second individual was bur- ied holding a white clay tobacco pipe with a brass dome button, grave goods sometimes accompa- nying individuals of African ancestry. A feature tentatively identified as a witch bottle, part of a ritual to counteract the spell of a witch, was also identified at Patuxent Point.58
The artifacts recovered from Patuxent Point also show interesting differences. Both locally- made red tobacco pipes (many made by Native Americans) and locally-made Morgan Jones ceramics occur in significantly higher proportions at this site than at any other. The distribution of red pipes at the sites under consideration in this chapter show greater proportions at early sites and sites along the Potomac. Patuxent Point, occupied no earlier than 1658, stands out on the Patuxent. The distribution of Morgan Jones
ceramics, at 9.8 percent of the total European ceramic assemblage, is also unusual. Economic consideration may explain the choice to use these locally-produced objects but the many other artifacts recovered from Patuxent Point do not suggest a household impacted by poverty.
Research at plantation sites elsewhere in Maryland and Virginia have revealed that Morgan Jones ceramics are unevenly distributed. The households acquiring these ceramics tend to be affiliated with anti-Calvert colonists. The choice to purchase these ceramics may have been a strategy to minimize or altogether avoid fees to the Calvert government, fees that would bene- fit a family they sought to challenge. The potter Morgan Jones had begun his career in Mary- land on the plantation of Robert Slye, whose father-in-law, Thomas Gerard, was an enemy of the proprietor. The household at Patuxent Point remains unidentified, so their political views remain unknown. But the archaeological evidence is certainly suggestive.59
Epilogue
In July 1689, a rebel force of 250 men calling themselves the Protestant Associators marched on the Maryland capital at St. Mary’s City. There they found Baltimore’s son-in-law, Colonel William Digges (also a Protestant), barricaded in the brick state house with 100 loyalists. Days ear- lier, the rebels had relayed rumors of a “Catholic
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PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIA A. KING, COURTESY OF THE MARYLAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSERVATION LABORATORY.