Ridgely-Worthington Cemetery

Nearer by several miles to Annapolis than "Belvoir," and reached by a slight deviation from the same road, lies the old Ridgely-Worthington estate that has been divided into several holdings owned or leased by small farmers.

The old family graveyard has been more than usually abused, and one may say in this case, profaned, in that a rough cellarless [sic] cottage was built on the site some twenty years ago over the actual graves, many of the footstones still remaining upright in the ground and visible under the floor of the house. The oldest and best preserved of the gravestones was a gray granite slab to the memory of Henry Ridgely, the second of his name. This full length stone served as a step to the cottage porch at the time of the visit of the ladies of the Memorial Committee and had been broken in two places by wagons driving over it. The inscription, however, was in good preservation and also the skull and cross bones inside a circle top.
In view of its being a seventeenth century stone and to the memory of a man distinguished alike for his own personal services and as the son and namesake of one of the earliest founders of the county, an honored Councillor of the Province, it was decided to make an effort to remove the tombstone for preservation in the churchyard of St. Anne's in Annapolis. This was ultimately accomplished in the year 1899 with the pecuniary assistance of several of his descendants.

The only other stones in this graveyard on which the inscriptions are not obliterated by time or abuse are two in white marble of much later date, erected in memory of Beale M. Worthington and his wife Elizabeth, who was the granddaughter  of Henry Ridgely II. The inscriptions read:

In Memory of Beale M. Worthington Died December 22nd 1824 in the 40th year of his age.

In memory of Elizabeth R. Relict of Beale M. Worthington who departed this hie April 22nd 1837 in the 52nd year of her age.

In the third election district of Anne Arundel county, is a farm known as " Pendennis " belonging to the estate of the late Tilghman Brice. About 100 feet north of the house,
which stands on a hill across the Severn Bridge, is the tomb of the founder of the Worthington family, inscribed as follows:

Here lyeth the body of Captain John Worthington who departed this life the 9 day of April 1701, aged 51 years.

Source:
Helen W. Ridgely;  Historic Graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia; Edited under the Auspices of the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America; Grafton Press, New York; 1908
Submitted by: Candi Horton - 2007 © Genealogy Trails
Note: [transcribers notes] (original authors notes)

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