The Montgomery County Courthouses

     My first book talk is scheduled, appropriately enough, for Law Day, May 1, at the Montgomery County Courthouse.  I say appropriately because two of Yarrow's owners were chief clerks of the court.  Indeed, Brooke Beall was the first clerk and was succeeded by his son Upton.  Initially, the court met at Hungerford's Tavern.  The plaque at right, which is on the side of a bank, marks the spot where the tavern once stood.

     But the court outgrew the tavern, and a new courthouse was built.  It too was outgrown and torn down.  The third courthouse on the spot was the so-called "Red Brick"  courthouse, shown in this picture.  It still stands, obviously, but later a fourth courthouse was built.  It's where the court meets today, but the modern building isn't as picturesque as the red brick one.

    

     Although in modern times Montgomery County has gained a reputation for being somewhat of a liberal bastion, this wasn't always the case.  As detailed in From Slave Ship to Harvard, when the county was created in 1776, its residents were tobacco planters, and their slaves worked the fields.  But tobacco wore out the land, and more traditional crops had to be planted. Yet the old planter mentality held sway for generations.  Because of this, during the Civil War, young men from Montgomery County went South to enlist in the Confederate Army.  As a result, on the left side of the Red Brick Courthouse is a statue of a Confederate soldier, looking South.  Erected by surviving Southern sympathizers, the statue stands on a base with an inscription that shows the old planter mentality was still alive in the county as late as 1913.

Upton Beall and Manumission

The house at right was built in Rockville, Maryland by Upton Beall, the man who manumitted Yarrow Mamout.  It is common to say that "manumission" was what freed a slave, but that's not quite accurate.  A slave could gain freedom by running away or moving off on his or her own, by the owner simply saying "you're free," or by the grant of freedom in a last will and testament.  Manumission was the legally recognized grant of freedom that could be proved in several ways.  Neighbors or acquaintances could testify someone was free, or the person himself could swear he was free.  Still, it was common to give a freed slave a piece of paper, a manumission, to prove he or she was free, and ex-slaves were well advised to record this paper with the county recorder of deeds as permanent proof should the need arise.  Brooke Beall, Yarrow's owner, promised freedom to Yarrow in the future, but Brooke died without following through.  It was Brooke's widow, Margaret, who told Yarrow he was free.  She didn't sign the manumission though.  Her son Upton did.  He never legally owned Yarrow.  He was, however, clerk of the Montgomery County Court in Rockville, which was two blocks away from this house (now known as the Beall-Dawson house), and no one would question a manumission signed by such an important government official.