Several years ago it was proposed to have the Greenberry
tombs transferred from the Greenberry's Point farm to the same
shelter, but here an unexpected difficulty arose, and one
that had its humorous side.
The "Farm," having had its ups and downs (like most of
the old estates), had finally passed into the hands of a
worthy farmer, who provided the " Ancient City " with milk.
Being approached about the removal of the stones, he offered
no objection, but his wife opposed it vigorously. Upon being
questioned as to the motive of her refusal, she answered
that the stones were bought with the place, and she did not
intend to part with them as they were her's and "company"
for her! She then explained that people came from all parts
of the United States to visit them and she evidently
appreciated the social intercourse thus provided her in her
seclusion. As no descendant of the former chancellor and
"acting" Governor has appeared to dispute her right, the
stones, which are not thought to mark the graves of the
departed, have been allowed to remain, though a movement has
been set on foot to inclose [sic] them where they are, in
order to protect their crumbling surfaces from the greed of
merciless relic hunters.
Col. Nicholas Greenbeny was also one of the commissioners
appointed for the laying out of Anne Arundel Town. This
community, originally designated as the "Town at
Procter's," received the name of Annapolis in 1695, when its
life as a naval station began. The inscriptions on the stones
read:
Here lieth Interred The Body of Colin Nicholas Greenbeny
Esqr Who departed this Life The 17 Day of December 1697
Aetatis Suae 70.
Here Lieth Interred The Body of Mrs. Ann Greenberry Wh
Departed This Life The 27th Day of April 1698. Aetatis Suae
50. . . .
Lyes interred the . . . Roger New(man) . . . born at London
... in Talbot County in ... 25 years and . . . The 14 of . .
. 1704.
In Roger Newman's will, dated June 14, 1704, and probated June
28, he appointed his friend, Charles Greenberry, his executor.
This trust, for reasons best known to himself,
the latter declined, and yet we find Newman's tomb, or at least
what remains of it, near those of Greenberry's parents.
Tradition says that the old meetinghouse of the Puritan
settlers stood somewhere hereabouts—on Greenberry's Point, in
fact—and was accessible by water to those who lived miles apart
by land. It is possible that a graveyard
surrounded this meetinghouse. However that may be, these tombs,
which no longer cover the dust of those whose names they bear,
form an interesting group to speculate about.
At the top of the Newman slab, otherwise much broken, is an
elaborate escutcheon still distinct. Strange to say it combines
the Bennett coat-of-arms with that of the Lloyds—
the three demi-lions of the one and the lion rampant of the
other. In Heraldry in America, Zieber gives these arms as
"on the tomb of Newberry, 1704, near the Greenberry
tombs." This, of course, is a mistake. It might not be
unreasonable to suppose that a fine slab, such as the Newman
stone undoubtedly was, had survived the Puritan graveyard
of the earlier period, and that it had simply been recut [sic]
with Roger Newman's name, when a stone was needed to mark his
burial place. Knowing as we do how closely the names
of Lloyd and Bennett were associated with the arrival of the
Puritans in Maryland, it would not be irrational to infer that
this escutcheon pointed to the union of the two families in
previous times, and that this stone had covered the remains of
some relative of an earlier generation, buried near the old
meetinghouse on Greenberry's Point. In fact, unless it be
known to the contrary, it might have been originally devoted to
the memory of Richard Bennett, the first husband of Henrietta
Maria Neale of revered memory, the commissioner's
son who was drowned while quite a young man. The date of the
third Richard's birth is given as September 16, 1667, which, if
our inferences be correct, would approximate
the age of the Newman stone.
