WOOLSEY MANOR
MARYLAND
This article should bring to a close any questions we had concerning "Woolsey Manor" in Maryland. It was NOT named after John Woolsey, who was "transported" to Maryland in 1666, but is a derivation of the name WOLSELEY of England and Maryland, through Anne Wolseley, daughter of Sir Thomas Wolseley, who married Philip Calvert.
!ON-LINE: 4 Aug 2000. Kent Co, Maryland Land Grants. "Woolsey or Chancellor Point" - 1000 acres surveyed 25 Aug 1659 for Philip Calvert, Esqr. - Talbot County, Maryland. Chancellor's Point, in Bolingbrook Neck on the Choptank River, is located at the southern end of the tract of land called "Woolsey Manor," containing 1000 acres, which was originally surveyed for Philip Calvert, Esq., who was sometime Chancellor of the Maryland Province. Hence his land was, and continues to be, called Chancellor's Point.
!ON-LINE: Archives of Maryland Vol. 0051, Preface 0037. Philip Calvert, the Chancellor, born a short time prior to 1628, very possibly in Ireland, was the son of George, first Lord Baltimore by his second wife Joan, (whose maiden name is not known), and was, therefore a half brother of Cecilius, the second Lord Proprietary.
Philip had married in England bef 1656 when he is noted to have "immigrated" to Maryland with his wife, Anne Wolseley, d/o Sir Thomas Wolseley of Staffordshire. Philip had been Governor but a little more than a year when Cecilius in 1661 was sent to Maryland to succeed him as Governor. It was Cecilius' son, Charles, who was, 14 years later, while serving as Governor, to become the third Baron & Lord Proprietary.
The commission from Cecilius to his son, Charles, as Governor dated 14 Sep 1661, conferred upon him all the numerous and varied offices which were usually vested in a Maryland Governor "except that our said brother [Philip] is still to Continue and remayne our Chancellor & keeper of our Great Seal there, and we do further hereby authorize and appoynte our Deare Brother Philip Calvert to be our Deputy Lieutenant *** under our said Dere Sonne" [Arch. Md. iii,439).
INTERESTING SKELETONS BROUGHT TO LIGHT
!NEWS: The Huntsville Times, Wed. 6 Apr 1994. Nation. by Lauran Neergaard (The Assoc. Press) MARYLAND'S DEAD HISTORY COMES TO LIFE. Washington:
Remarkably preserved 300-year-old skeletal remains paint a vivid picture of Maryland's founding family, from what they looked like, to what they ate and the kinds of illnesses they suffered.
Scientists on Tuesday said Philip Calvert, Maryland's fourth colonial governor, and his wife, Anne Wolsley, were the mystery occupants of lead coffins buried in the 1680s in St. Mary's City, Maryland's 17th-century capital.
The finding not only fills great gaps in what historians know about the influential couple, but it illustrates the colonial life of the wealthy along the Chesapeake Bay. And scientists say the techniques used to identify the couple will enhance archaeology worldwide.
"This is a very important new piece of science," project director Dr. Henry Miller said of a new method that used nuclear isotopes to detect evidence of the couple's diet hidden deep in their bones.
Archaeologists unearthed three lead coffins in 1992. They suspect the third body, a baby girl, was Calvert's 6-month-old daughter from a second marriage.
The lead made the bodies the best preserved of the fewer than 100 - 17th-century skeletons ever found, said Dr. Douglas Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution, where parts of the skeletons were displayed Tuesday.
"We know how his hair was trimmed, how his beard was shaved ... information you simply cannot find in any historical record," Owsley said. "The 17th century has been almost like a black hole. This was an opportunity to examine the bones and learn from the people themselves."
Scientists had suspected the adults were the Calverts, but it took 16 months of painstaking research to prove, a task made harder because so little is known about the pair. Calvert was sent to Maryland from England by the second Lord Baltimore to re-establish a Catholic government after radical Protestants seized the colony in the 1650s. He was governor from 1660-1661 and the colony's chancellor, second in command, for 25 years.
The scientists determined that Calvert stood 5 feet, 6 inches tall and was portly and sedentary. He had flowing auburn hair, locks of which survived the 300-year burial. He died in 1682, around age 55, with no signs of long-term illness.
But someone apparently tried to embalm Calvert, because his bones are crystallized from the waist up. So researchers couldn't get a picture of him from his skull - a bitter disappointment to historians because no painting exists of the man.
They did, however, create a sculpture of Mrs. Calvert, showing a blue-eyed, brown-haired, small boned woman who was 5 feet, 3 inches tall. She died around 1680 in her late 50s, apparently in agony.
She had broken her leg and the bone twisted before healing, leaving a permanent limp and a painful abscess. She had a fondness for sweets that caused serious tooth decay. She had lost all but five teeth, leaving her very malnourished.
But she was obviously cherished, said St. Mary's historian Dr. Lois Carr: Someone tied a silk ribbon in a bow around her hands, wrapped her in fine linens and sprinkled rosemary, the herb of remembrance, over her before sealing her coffin.
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