Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Church-County Land Swap

Local lore has it that the County swapped land with the Vestry of Port Tobacco Parish, the new church built on the courthouse site and vice versa. The land record that may be the source of this misunderstanding is Liber IB 17, folio 333, dated 04 August 1821. This deed from the Justices of the Levy Court, replacing one from 1819 which had not been filed, specifies the:

"Lott of Land situate in Port Tobacco Town...whereupon the Church known by the name of Christ's Church now stands, also the land attached thereto for the space of fifteen feet in width."

Although we have not yet found a deed from the vestrymen to a private citizen conveying the one-acre lot originally reserved for the church, it appears that the 'new' Christ's Church was built on the three-acre courthouse lot. The cemetery that we partially exposed this past June very likely lies on the original one-acre church lot and the original church site also probably can be found on that same lot.

Jim

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