William Smallwood

William Smallwood portrait by Charles Willson Peale, 1823. The portrait is featured in the Maryland State House Old Senate Chamber.^[1]

William Smallwood (1732 – February 14, 1792) was an American planter, soldier and politician from Charles County, Maryland.^[2] He served in the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of major general. He was serving as the fourth Governor of Maryland when the state adopted the United States Constitution.

Early life

Smallwood was born in 1732 to planter Bayne Smallwood (1711–1768)^[3] and Priscilla Heaberd Smallwood (born 1730).^[4][5] He had six siblings: Lucy Heabard Smallwood (born c. 1734), Elizabeth F. Smallwood (born c. 1736), Margaret F. Stoddert (born c. 1738, married Walter Stoddert c. 1760), Heabard Smallwood (born c. 1740), Priscilla Courts (born c. 1742, married John Courts c. 1760), and Eleanor Smallwood.^[4] His sister Eleanor and brother Hebard served with him later in the Revolutionary War.^[6] His parents sent the boys to England, for their education at Eton. His great-grandfather was James Smallwood, who immigrated in 1664^[7] and became a member of the Maryland Assembly in 1692.^[8] James' son Bayne (1685–1709) followed him later in the Assembly.^[9] Bayne (1711–1775) and his sister Hester were the great-great-grandchildren of Maryland Governor William Stone; Hester (Smallwood) Smith's daughter-in-law Sarah (Butler) Stone was the grandmother of James Butler Bonham and Milledge Luke Bonham. A first cousin of James and Milledge Bonham was Senator Matthew Butler

Smallwood served as an officer during the French and Indian War (the North American theater of the Seven Years' War). He was elected to the Maryland provincial assembly.

American Revolution

When the American Revolutionary War began, he was appointed a colonel of the 1st Maryland Regiment in 1776. He led the regiment in the New York and New Jersey campaign, where the regiment served with distinction. On December 21, 1777, he commanded 1,500 Delaware and Maryland troops at the Continental Army Encampment Site to prevent occupation of Wilmington by the British and to protect the flour mills on the Brandywine.^[10] For his role at the Battle of White Plains, in which he was twice wounded, Smallwood was promoted to brigadier general. He continued to serve under George Washington in the Philadelphia campaign, where his regiment again distinguished itself at Germantown. Thereafter, he quartered at the Foulke house, also occupied by the family of Sally Wister.^[11]

General George Washington Resigning His Commission by John Trumbull, Capitol Rotunda (commissioned 1817) in the Maryland State House in Annapolis. The portrait features William Smallwood as the third person behind Washington.^[12]

Letter from George Washington to Gen. Smallwood asking for an update on recruiting troops. July 1782.

In 1780 he was a part of General Horatio Gates' army that was routed at Camden, South Carolina; his brigade was among the formations that held their ground, garnering Smallwood a promotion to major general. Smallwood's accounts of the battle and criticisms of Gates' behavior before and during the battle may have contributed to the Congressional inquiries into the debacle. Opposed to the hiring and promotion of foreigners, Smallwood objected to working under Baron von Steuben. He spent the remainder of the war in Maryland. He served as the first President-General of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati in 1783.

Governor

Smallwood was elected to Congress in 1785. He was elected Governor of Maryland before he could take up the Congressional seat and chose the governorship. In 1787 he convened the state's convention that in 1788 adopted the United States Constitution.

Late years

Smallwood never married. The 1790 census shows that he held 56 slaves and a yearly tobacco crop of 3000 pounds.^[13] When he died in 1792 his estate, known as Mattawoman, including his home the Retreat, passed to his sister Eleanor. By one account she had married into the Stoddard family, which was related to the Smallwoods. (e.g. Smallwood's nephew William Trueman Stoddard was orphaned at age 9 and raised by his maternal grandfather, Bayne Smallwood).^[6][13] In another account, Eleanor married Col. William Grayson of Virginia, and in 1827 the Mattawoman estate passed to Grayson's son William.^[5][14] His burial site is now the Smallwood State Park in Marbury, Maryland.^[15]

Gravestone of Gen William Smallwood at his home, Smallwood's Retreat, near Marbury, Maryland.

Legacy

Local historical signs in Calvert, Maryland, note that General Smallwood occupied the "East Nottingham Friends House" at the intersections of Calvert Road and Brick Meetinghouse Road (near the intersection of 272 and 273) about 6 miles east of Rising Sun, Maryland.^[16] During his occupation of the building in 1778, Gen. Smallwood used the building as a hospital. Some of the soldiers who died in the building were buried in the graveyard directly outside.^[17] Smallwood frequented the "Cross Keys Inn" (built in 1774), at the time a several-room inn and bar. This building stands as a private residence at the intersection of Calvert Road and Cross Keys Road directly down the hill. His restored plantation home, Smallwood's Retreat, is located at Smallwood State Park. Smallwood Church Road leads from the State Park toward Old Durham Church, where he was a vestryman.

Several paintings exist of Smallwood. One hangs in the Old Senate Chamber in the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.^[18] The portrait of George Washington resigning within the Maryland State House, which hangs in the US Capitol Rotanda, features Smallwood.

Featured in the Maryland Historical Society is The William Smallwood Collection, 1776–1791, MS. 1875.^[19]

Smallwood's name was honored in places and organizations.

• The Baltimore chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is called the General William Smallwood Chapter (established 1907).
• The General Smallwood Middle School in Indian Head is another namesake.
• In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, a coastal fortification developed in the late 1890s was named Fort Smallwood was named in his honor and the location is now known as Fort Smallwood Park.^[20] The road running from Fort Smallwood Park through Pasadena, Maryland and into Baltimore City is named Fort Smallwood Road.

References

External links

• biographic notes at Maryland's Smallwood State Park
• notes for the Smallwood Retreat House
• Account of Smallwood's Revolutionary War Campaign and Governorship from J.D. Warfield (1905).

Governors of Maryland Provincial (1632–1776) L. Calvert Greene Stone Fendall P. Calvert C. Calvert, 3rd Baron Wharton Notley C. Calvert, 3rd Baron B. Calvert Joseph Coode Neh. Blakiston Copley Lawrence Andros Greenberry Andros Lawrence Nicholson Nat. Blakiston Tench Seymour Lloyd Hart Brooke C. Calvert, 5th Baron B.L. Calvert Ogle C. Calvert, 5th Baron Ogle Bladen Ogle Tasker Sharpe Eden State (since 1776) Johnson T. Lee Paca Smallwood J. Howard Plater Brice T. Lee Stone Henry Ogle Mercer R. Bowie Wright E. Lloyd R. Bowie Winder Ridgely C. Goldsborough Sprigg Stevens Kent Martin T. Carroll Martin G. Howard J. Thomas Veazey Grason F. Thomas Pratt P. Thomas Lowe Ligon Hicks Bradford Swann O. Bowie Whyte Groome J. Carroll Hamilton McLane H. Lloyd Jackson Brown Lowndes Smith Warfield Crothers P. Goldsborough Harrington Ritchie Nice O'Conor Lane McKeldin Tawes Agnew Mandel B. Lee Hughes Schaefer Glendening Ehrlich O'Malley Hogan Italics indicate acting officeholders