At Billingsley's Point, just north of Mount Calvert, archaeologists have recovered thousands of artifacts from both the American Indian and colonial periods.
American Indian Legacy
American Indians inhabited Billingsley for at least 8,000 years. The Mattapany and Patuxon Indians occupied the property when Lord Baltimore granted it to Major John Billingsley in 1662. The 1674 Proceedings of the General Assembly of Maryland state: "That the Mattapnay & Patuxon Indians doe Continue upon the Land on which they now live...Billingsle, having formerly Purchased it of the said Indians..."
Unearthing the Colonial Past
Colonel Thomas Hollyday bought the property from Billingsley's heirs in 1687. Hollyday, an influential man in political and business circles at Mount Calvert, built a house on the property. The building is long gone, but in 1999 archaeologists uncovered the ruins of a wood frame building adjacent to the existing house. They believe it was Hollyday's house.
The brick house at Billingsley was constructed in the 1740s, most likely by Dr. James Weems. The Weems family occupied Billingsley for the next 100 years, and the Meloy family owned the property for most of the 20th Century.
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