I Hope This Information Helps Clear Up the Confusion

7/31/2019 I Hope This Information Helps Clear Up the Confusion

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I hope this information helps clear up the confusion. Joppatowne is a development within

Joppa Town. Below you will find some historical information regarding Joppa Town and how itwas founded.

Joppatowne is an unincorporated "bedroom community" in southwestern Harford

County, Maryland, United States. It was established in 1961 as a Planned Unit Development

(PUD). Joppatowne is a census-designated place (CDP): the population was 11,391 at the 2000census. Joppatowne is only a small part of what is currently described as the "Joppa" area of

Harford County. Joppa is an area technically defined by the US postal zip code 21085, and a

designated planning region for the county. Joppa zip code 21085 extends some 12 miles (19 km)above Joppatowne, nearly to Bel Air, MD at its northernmost tip.

The namesake of both Joppatowne and Joppa is the original town of "Joppa" ("JoppaTown"), which was a major seaport in American colonial times, and stood within the boundaries

of present-day Joppatowne. In colonial America there were three towns in the area of present-

day Joppatowne, each established and abandoned in succession: Gunpowder Town, Foster's

Neck, and Joppa. The first two were short-lived, but Joppa proved quite successful for some 50

years. Gunpowder Town, or simply Gunpowder, was a failed English settlement that pre-datedcolonial Joppa, and was located close to it. This first attempt to establish an English settlement

on the Gunpowder River was apparently abandoned because it proved to be a poor locationchoice. Though documents and records exist for the settlement, including official papers in the

archives of the United Kingdom, nobody knows exactly where it was located. It was somewhere

northwest of present-day Joppatowne, situated between the confluence of the Big Gunpowder

and Little Gunpowder, at a place known as "Sims Point". Its location cannot be accuratelypinpointed because at that time mouths of the Big and Little Gunpowder were about a mile

further inland (above present-day US 40), and no trace of the town is known to have ever been

found.

In 1706 the Provincial Assembly of Maryland chartered another town nearby, known as

Foster's Neck. It was located on the eastern bank of the Gunpowder River, at the stream later

known as Foster Branch (or "Foster's Branch"), at the southernmost boundary of present-dayJoppatowne. Again, though mill ruins still remain in this area, the town's precise location is

unknown. Foster's Neck was intended to succeed the town of Old Baltimore (no relation to

Baltimore City) on the Bush River as the county seat of Baltimore County. However, Foster'sNeck was abandoned only a year later, in 1707, reportedly due to an outbreak of smallpox. St.

John's Parish temporarily moved inland, to where the Officer's Club at the Edgewood area of

Aberdeen Proving Ground is currently located, and relocated to Joppa in 1712. After the declineof Joppa, St. John's Parish was finally moved to nearby Kingsville in the late 18th century. The

Assembly directed the site at Foster's Neck "to be deserted, and in lieu thereof fifty acres to be

erected into a town on a tract of land on the same river, belonging to Anne Felks, and called

Taylor's Choice, and the court-house to be built there." All acts of Assembly required the royalassent, but as it was not supposed there would be any objection to the change of site proposed in

the law of 1707, work was at once begun on the new town, streets were laid out, and the

courthouse was in course of construction, when, to the general surprise, the queen dissented bothto the act of 1706 as well as to that of 1707. For the next five years Joppa, if it lived at all, lived

only as a sort of illegitimate town, and probably consisted simply of the buildings in process of

construction and those already built when the queen's veto suspended its legal existence and


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checked its progress. In 1712, however, a new act was passed, fixing the County Court at the

house built on Taylor's Choice, "in the town of Joppa."

Joppa, as we have seen, was laid out into forty lots of half an acre each, exclusive of the

one-acre lot set aside for the use of St. John's parish church, and was divided by Court Street and

Church Street running east and west, and Low Street and High Street running nearly north andsouth. The lots were offered at one pound seven shillings each, to be paid to Col. James

Maxwell, with a fee of two shillings and sixpence to the clerk for every entry made by him. The

original Joppa was a major seaport and commercial hub in the 18th century. The town properwas located on what is now called Rumsey Island, where the Big Gunpowder Falls and Little

Gunpowder Falls meet to form the Gunpowder River. The only original building remaining is the

Rumsey Mansion, once home of colonial patriot Benjamin Rumsey. There are original buildingfoundations and gravesites on the adjacent Church of the Resurrection property. Ruins of the

original wharf and docks, as well as the town jail, were still visible until Hurricane Agnes swept

through in 1972. The Old Joppa Site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in

1979. Joppa was the county seat of Baltimore County from 1712 to 1769. Present-day Harford

County was part of Baltimore County until 1773.Joppa "mile wide harbor" on the Gunpowder River could accommodate the largest ocean-

going ships of the day. Joppa was Maryland's most important commercial center in colonialtimes, with tobacco being the primary export. It was once among the busiest seaports in the

western hemisphere, long before Baltimore was established. For many years Joppa Town reigned

the mistress of the Chesapeake bay. Within its borders were the county court-house, the chapel,the county prison, several inns and a number of commodious warehouses and stately mansions.

In its harbor were vessels from New England, the West Indies, and ports of Europe. It became

the seat of the social and civil life of the county and of the adjoining hundreds and parishes, and

being located upon the public highway leading to the Northern colonies, it became a well-knownresort for travelers and merchants. Joppa was a vital hub for land transportation, and it was said

that "all roads lead to Joppa". Joppa was the original terminus for Joppa Road, which ran

northwest to what is now Towson and north to York, PA (prior to the York Road being built in

1810). Joppa Road connected to Rolling Road to points west. The original post road toPhiladelphia also went through Joppa Town, and a ferry across the Gunpowder River connected

to points south via what is now the community of Chase and Eastern Avenue. Many famous

colonial figures invariably passed through and boarded at Joppa.

Economic growth was also stimulated via the establishment of various commercial

enterprises just north of Joppa, utilizing water power from the Little Gunpowder Falls. The mostnotable of these is the still standing Jerusalem Mill Village complex in Kingsville, which, among

other enterprises, fabricated weapons for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

As the state's primary port-of-entry and county seat of its most populous county, Joppawas the focal point of virtually all aspects of colonial life in central Maryland. Joppa was the hub

for all communications and media of the day, and central Maryland's ground-zero for politics and

elections. Many major horse races were held there. Many convicted criminals were publiclyhanged there on the courthouse grounds.


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By the end of the 18th century, agricultural and other land development upstream caused

the Gunpowder River and Joppa's harbor to silt up, making access by large ships impossible.Ellicott City's port suffered a similar fate. Baltimore became Maryland's major shipping port, and

in 1769 the county seat was moved to Baltimore. Joppa went into decline, and by 1814 was

mostly abandoned.

Benjamin Rumsey (17341808), the namesake of Rumsey Island and the Rumsey

Mansion (the only colonial building that survived the decline of Joppa), was a delegate for

Maryland to the Second Continental Congress, and the first Chief Judge of the Maryland Courtof Appeals for over 25 years (17781806). In 1768 Rumsey married the widow of Colonel James

Maxwell, who had been the primary landowner in Joppa, and who had the "Rumsey Mansion"

built between 1720 and 1724. Rumsey relocated from Cecil County to Joppa sometime around1771, after having the Rumsey Mansion substantially renovated. Benjamin Rumsey eventually

acquired all the land where Joppa once stood, and all of the surrounding areas, and this came to

be known as "Joppa Farm", a slave plantation. Upon Benjamin Rumsey's death in 1808, Joppa

Farm passed to his son John Beal Rumsey and/or his grandson Charles Henry Rumsey. Upon

Charles Henry Rumsey's death, his children sold Joppa Farm to the Murray family. JamesMurray is the last known private owner of Joppa Farm, though there was at least one more owner

prior to the Panitz Brothers Company acquisition of Joppa Farm in or about 1961. MarylandHistorical Society records indicate the property was owned by the ""Maryland-Virginia Joint

Stock Land Bank" in 1936.

We hope you and your family are able to come out July 1stand celebrate Joppa Towns300th anniversary at the parade and enjoy the concert after. If I can be of any further assistance

please do not hesitate to contact me.

Councilman Dion F. Guthrie

District A


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Documents

I Hope This Information Helps Clear Up the Confusion