Peeking Through The Keyhole-remote Viewing

MagsStardustBlack

I too sensed the same girl, but in two of the other pic's, as previously posted, also the lady with the blue dress had dark curly hair....
 

cherryberry

just bumping this up, as I am really interested what the story is with the photos

Exciting!! :)
 

mingbop

Pic 3 with the cherry blossom and big house - I think we read this before in a circle ?? Anyway the loudest thing I get with this is a feeling of important men and important papers being signed. 1800s. Maybe government business was conducted here ?
 

celticnoodle

OKAY!

Last call for anyone who is interested in trying to pick up on information on this place. I'll be ending it tomorrow and putting up a new one for us to work on. so, anymore want to try???
 

Jemoflight

Hi all, this is my first try with remote viewing so here goes nothing.

1st pic - Someone peering through the window. I get the feeling that it was sometimes used as a storage area, I see apples. Was also used as a prison/hideaway at times. I get a frightening feeling

2nd pic- Happy family, wartime, arguements, sympathizers, warmth. Not much, but that's all I got for that one.

3rd pic - Large family, kids playing, tree swing, peaceful but sometimes turbulent place. A hanging, lively, vacant.

4th pic - Accident, carriages and horses, terrible accident.

That's all I got, can't wait for the reveal. This was a lot of fun
 

celticnoodle

okay, the big reveal! :D

first of all, everyone did very well again! :thumbsup:
and, anyone who does go to the Wednesday circle, may recognize the place, (like mingbop did), because we did do some of these same pictures at a circle!

while this thread doesn't necessarily have to have haunted places, this one is a well known haunted place. but, I chose this place, because it holds a special place in my heart, being that I grew up in the same town. it's a beautiful piece of property and holds a lot of history to it!

I'll post what I was able to find on the history of this place, but in a nutshell, the place was first built upon in the 1650s. so, it's a very early (for U.S. history) home place.

it was also a plantation during the days of slavery, and slaves did indeed live and work there. many famous people lived here on this property as well as those who worked there and were not so famous. but both contributed to its amazing history, and if you ever have the chance to visit this lovely place, do so! you won't be sorry!

Sotterley mansion is located in St. Mary's County where Maryland's colonial history began. From its site overlooking the tidewaters of the Patuxent River, it is only fourteen miles to the Colony's first capital, St. Mary's City, the site of the founding of the First Maryland Colony in 1634.

The mansion itself, a low white structure 100 feet long and 20 feet deep, one and a half to two stories high, is superbly situated on a ridge from which gently falling meadows sweep down to sandy bluffs at the river1 s edge. Its steeply pitched roofs and tall chimneys give the effect of a long, low farmhouse. This picture of Sotterley mansion was familiar to generations of seafarers whose vessels sailed into Sotterley Creek to pay customs duties, or to deliver and accept cargo. In this way the productivity of the plantation was woven into the commercial fabric of Maryland, of the other colonies and the mother country.

With its two and a half centuries of history and tradition, this picturesque manor ranks high among Maryland’s historically and architecturally important landmarks. Today, under the auspices of the Sotterley Mansion Foundation, Inc. and the sponsorship of the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities, it is made available for the enjoyment and education of the public.

SOTTERLEY'S HISTORY

1650-1729 History of Land on Which Sotterley Was Built

In 1650, Cecelius, Lord Baltimore, granted to Captain Thomas Cornwallis a 4,000 acre tract on the western shore of the Patuxent River, about 10 miles above the river's mouth and opposite the present St. Leonard’s Creek, Calvert County. To this property Captain Cornwall is gave the name Resurrection Manor.

Nine years later in 1659 Cornwallis sold it to John Bateman, "merchant and haberdasher of London."[1] After Bateman’s death in 1663, claims were made against the estate by Henry Scarborough of London. There followed a long period of litigation ending in 1674 when the manor was sold to Captain Richard Perry and the proceeds divided between Scarborough and Bateman's sole heir, his daughter Mary. The ten years of Perry's ownership marked a profound change in the nature of the property. At the time of its sale in 1684, Perry was in a position to turn over not a simple tract of land uncleared and unadorned, but, "... all the Manor of the Resurrection," including all the outbuildings, tobacco houses, barns, and negroes on said property[2] for £500."

The purchasers this time were the cousins, Thomas and George Plowden, scions of an ancient Shropshire family and grandsons of Sir Edmund Plowden, self-styled Earl Palatine of New Albion. It was during the Plowden ownership in 1694 that nearby St. Mary's City was supplanted by Providence (later called Annapolis) as Maryland's capital.

In all the transfers of the property by grant, sale, and inheritance so far described, Resurrection Manor had retained the large part of its original acreage. In 1710, however, George Plowden sold 890 acres to James Bowles, a Freeman and a member of the Council of Maryland. The Bowles purchase represented the first substantial division of the original manor. In the early official records it is referred to as "Bowles’ Preservation," but is also often called "Bowles: Separation." With James Bowles, a member of the Council of Maryland, begins the record, so distinguished in later years by the Platers, of owners identified with the political life of Maryland.

History of Sotterley Mansion

Sometime after 1717 James Bowles built the house which almost undoubtedly constitutes the main part of the present mansion. He also increased his land holdings in the neighborhood by some 400 acres, much of which was cleared and farmed. From the inventory of Bowles' property at the time of his death [3] in 1727, we have a picture of his home and plantation, and of the way of life of a Maryland Gentleman in the first quarter of the 18th Century. In addition to the residence there was a dairy, a meat house, an accounting house, a barn, a shop and many other outbuildings. A platt drawn up from a 1716 survey of Bowles’ property conforms accurately to the outline of the present-day Sotterley.

In 1729 Bowles' widow, the former Rebecca Addison, married George Plater II, thus commencing almost a century of occupancy by the Plater Family.

1729-1822 Plater Period

With George Plater II began a remarkable tenure of this property by four generations of the same family with the same given name. He followed his father in the law and in distinguished service to the Provincial Government as Naval Officer of the Patuxent District, member of his Lordship’s Council and Secretary of the Province. When his wife, Rebecca (the former Widow Bowles), died sometime between 1742- 1749, the property reverted to the three Bowles daughters, Jane, Eleanor, and Mary, who by that time had married into prominent Virginia families. Although Plater as widower was entitled to remain on his wife's estate as long as he lived, his attachment to the manor and the fact that he had a son to whom he wanted to bequeath it, led him to purchase the property from his step- daughters.

Upon his death in 1755, George Plater II "was able to bestow upon his children a rich patrimony, and he established the name Plater so firmly in Maryland, it became synonymous with efficient and effective public service…"[4]

George Plater III inherited the manor two years after graduating from William and Mary College in 1753. It was he who first named the property "Sotterley” after the ancestral home of the Playters in Suffolk, England, from whom he was descended. The first known written reference to it by that name appeared as headings on letters written by him in 1776.

His appointment as a delegate to the lower house of the Assembly 1757-1759, marked the beginning of a 35 year career, during which he held many important political offices. These included Naval Officer of the Patuxent District 1767-1777, member of the Council 1771-1774, member of the Council of Safety 1775, member from Maryland in the Continental Congress 1778-1780, President of the Maryland Senate 1781, President of the Maryland Convention which ratified the U. S. Constitution 1788, and Governor of Maryland from 1791 until his death on February 10, 1792.

After his death, at Annapolis, his remains "were attended by honorable members of the Council, the officers of State and a numerous company of citizens to South River on the way to Sotterley, his seat in St. Mary's County,"[5] He was buried in the garden overlooking the Patuxent.

The next heir to Sotterley was George Plater IV who lived only ten years after inheriting the property. His death in 1802 orphaned his son, George Plater V, at the age of five. By the time the boy reached majority and actually came into possession of Sotterley, he was already hopelessly in debt and had mortgaged Sotterley to his uncle, John Rousby Plater Jr. In July 1822 he deeded Sotterley and other large holdings to his step-uncle, Colonel William Clarke Somerville, for the sum of $29,000. Thus, after four generations, the estate passed from the ownership of the family which had named it and had given it so much of its amenity.

1822-1910

Within the month Colonel Somerville, who already owned Mulberry Fields, resold Sotterley mansion and a large acreage to Thomas Barber for $7,000. In 1826 the property was again partitioned by Barber's will; the mansion and 425 acres passed to his step-daughter Emeline Dallam, while his daughter, Lydia Barber, inherited an adjoining 500 acres.

The marriage of the heiress Emeline Dallam to Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe in 1826, marked the start of a second era of almost 100 years in which Sotterley was to remain in the possession of a single family -- in this instance the Briscoes.

When Emeline Dallam Briscoe died she provided that Sotterley be sold and the proceeds be divided among her children. One of her sons, Reverend James Briscoe, bought Sotterley at auction in 1890 and lived there until his death in 1904. He left the estate to his daughter, Elizabeth Briscoe Cashner, and his son, James Briscoe, Jr., who signed over his half interest to his sister. During the next six years the Cashners lived at Sotterley only in the summer. They reserved a part of the house for their own use, and leased the rest on a year-round basis to a tenant farmer who used the panelled drawing room as his kitchen.

1910-1961

In 1910 the late Herbert L. Satterlee of New York bought the mansion, and farm. The appeal of the charming old manor house in its matchless setting was enhanced for him by the fact that, like the Platers, his ancestors had owned and lived in the original Sotterley in Suffolk, England. His collection of books on Maryland's colonial history and architecture served as a guide to the careful rehabilitation of the house which he undertook.

His daughter, Mrs. Mabel Satterlee Ingalls, who inherited the estate in 1947, has continued to use, preserve and improve the mansion in the same spirit that motivated her father. The concept of the "restored house," the house "brought back" to represent a single period of time, has been rejected. Instead, every attempt has been made to sustain the flavor of its total history as reflected in the taste of all its occupants, past and present.

A chronological list of the owners and their dates can be found at the end of these notes.

SOTTERLEY'S ARCHITECTURE

Present

Sotterley mansion has already been described as a long, low; white structure 100 feet long, 20 feet deep with its front facing the river. Its plan is basically that of a long rectangle, running roughly north to south, with a single wing extending west on the side away from, the river and joining the main building at a point about one third the distance from its northern end. It is one and a half stories except for the northerly 60 foot stretch on the front, or river side, where the roof has been raised to create a two story facade. The mansion is roofed with shingles colored Spanish Brown, evidence for -which was found on original round butt shingles discovered under the later porch; its siding is of wide, flush beaded boards, bevelled on both edges and painted white. The three ends and the west side of the northern end of the building are of brick. Four brick chimneys punctuate the roof line; one each at the north and west brick ends, another at the end of the present dining room, and a fourth at the south side of the small parlor.

A lantern or cupola crowns the roof at the point where the ridge of the wing joins the roof of the main building. Except for this raised section, the roof is steeply pitched from ridge to plate; then much more gently pitched to form the portico roof, front and rear.

Just south of the mansion and connected to it by a covered passage is a one and a half story brick building, built in 1914 in the colonial style, with a kitchen on the ground floor and bedroom above.

The mansion's most conspicuous and pleasing exterior features are the flagstone-paved portico which extends the full length of the mansion on the river side, and the brick-paved portico in the rear or land side. The portico roofs are one story high and are supported by tapered, panelled columns.

The ground floor plan of the mansion is as follows: at the extreme north there is a drawing room; next comes the entrance hall and stair well; then the small parlor which connects with the dining room. On the southeast, the dining room gives on the back hall and stairs; on the southwest, it gives on a storeroom and a long pantry. Finally, the wing of the mansion is formed by the library which opens to the west from the entrance hall. Under the library there is an old brick cellar, the other rooms all being on beams laid directly on the ground.

On the second floor, bedrooms are located over the drawing room, small parlor and library, all of which open off the upstairs hall and are reached by the entrance hall stairs. Two other bedrooms are found over the dining room and are reached by the back hall stairs adjacent to the dining room, and by a small secret ladder in the closet off the small parlor. It leads to the northern one of the two bedrooms.

Among the more arresting internal features of the mansion are the unusual Chinese Chippendale staircase, the massive mahogany door to the drawing room with its large brass rising hinges , the unique carved shell-patterned alcoves flanking the drawing room mantel, and finally the pine panelling of all walls of the mansion’s three major early rooms and stair hall as well.

Past

Sotterley mansion as it stands today is not the architectural product of any one man or even of any one family. The successive generations of Bowles, Platers, Briscoes, and Satterlees who have owned it have fashioned it to their needs and tastes. The chronology of these changes is not easily established. To supplement the limited documentary evidence presently available, Walter M. Macomber, expert in historic house restoration and advisor to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, made a detailed examination of the mansion. His observations and conclusions are quoted freely in the discussion that follows.

Bowles Period 1710-1729

An "inventory of the goods and chattels of the Honorable James Bowles Esquire Deceased" taken by Mr. Richard Hopewell and Mr. Edmund Plowden on February 12, 1727, gives an excellent idea of the dwelling and its furnishings at that time since it lists each room by name with its contents. As described in the inventory, Bowles’ structure fits the plan of Sotterley as it is today, allowing for the subsequent alterations and additions.

On the ground floor there were the "Hall" (drawing room), "New Room Passage" (present entrance hall), "New Room" (present library), "Madame Bowles1 room" (present small parlor), kitchen and kitchen chamber. On the second floor were the three chambers, one each over the "Hall," "New Room" and "Madam Bowles Room."[6] Two of them contained andirons or fire tools, but the one over the "Hall" did not. The inventory also included 928 feet of plank, 3,000 cypress shingles and 20 dozen Newcastle flagstones.

The physical evidence uncovered by Mr. Macomber, which will be quoted fully under the "Plater Period" below, leads us to conclude that in 1727 the house was still an unmodified, one and a half story structure; that the rooms were very probably plastered and whitewashed, a usual practice of the day, and that the ceilings of all first floor rooms were of similar height. In addition, the original stairs were probably of much simpler construction, and over the present front door there was a pediment.

Plater Period 1729-1822

According to Mr. Macomber the construction of Sotterley's most notable features, the long portico, the Chippendale staircase, and the magnificent panelling of the three rooms and hall took place in the mid-18th Century. Specifically, he says: "…with an opportunity to review all the evidence, I became convinced that the interiors of the parlor (drawing room) , the card room (small parlor) and the stair hair we re done at the same time the library wing was added. This means that originally the ceiling height was the same in the parlor as it was in the front hall and other rooms. The ceiling of the parlor (drawing room.) was raised to accommodate the design of the room as we now see it.

"I believe it is reasonable to assume that when the ceiling was raised the porch was added, as raising the ceiling would have affected the exterior cornice line or would have caused splayed intersections of the exterior walls and the ceiling in this room. This would tie all our problems in one small package - the wing - the porch and all the first floor interiors, including the stair, having been constructed during the 1750 period, as a good guess. This, of course, does not include the dining room which we feel sure was considerably later than this date."[7]

In the discussion of the raising of the drawing room ceiling, Mr. Macornber states: "There can be no denial of the evidence found establishing the fact that the main roof on this (the river) side of the building was raised to its present appearance for the purpose of allowing more head room in the bedrooms on this side and in the stair hall. Exposed beneath the line of the porch roof was the original plate, upon which the studs which carried this raised roof rested. This plate is level with the plate on the opposite side where the roof is still in its original form. The exposed plate shows the marks of the rafters where they rested originally when they formed a symmetrical gable at each end of the building."

Furthermore, removal of a section of the porch roof near the front door revealed that the front door had had a pediment over it and the whole surface had been originally painted and sanded to give the effect of stone. Mr. Macomber states that this was "a very unusual treatment, one used by George Washington at Mount Vernon about 1758, and also found on the "Lindens" - the King Hooper house built in Danvers, Massachusetts, and now located in Washington, D. C. The thin coating of paint and sand indicated that the surface uncovered had not been exposed to the elements very many years before it was covered by the present porch. It was in excellent condition and appeared to have had only one treatment." It is not known which owner was responsible for the elegant stone effect nor who replaced it with clapboard. The elaborate architectural improvements which -were made early in the Plater period would seem to suggest that as the most likely time this was done. In this same uncovered section were remnants of several Spanish Brown butt end shingles.

The cupola which crowns the junction of the ridge of the main building with the ridge of the library wing also dates from this same period. Speaking of it, Mr. Macomber says, "It is quite apparent that the lantern, or cupola, was built at the same time the wing was added, although a quantity of modern material has been used in repairs, there is sufficient original hand-hewn and sawn material to establish its period... It is also apparent that this little structure was built to conceal the greater ridge height of the library wing. Without this, the point of the library ridge would have been shown projecting about 18" above the main ridge. Another condition supporting its origin theory is the fact that the front of the cupola rests only a few inches on the main roof whereas its major portion is resting on the library roof --a treatment that would have looked extremely awkward in the absence of the wing."

In renovating the mansion's interior, the Plater owner of the "1750 period" selected a staircase style which is known to have been employed also in two other colonial houses - "Bushwood," destroyed by fire in the 1930's, and "Bohemia," built about 1745 in Cecil County, Maryland. Waterman[8] has described it as worked in mahogany "with detail as fine as contemporary furniture." The bannister "grille is notable for its continuous pattern and for the fact that it finishes against the tread."

Another interior architectural feature that existed during the Plater occupancy deserves mention. It was a transverse passage running east to west between the small parlor and the dining room. Through it j one might pass from the land sideto the water side of the house or gain access to the small parlor or the dining room. This passage existed until its incorporation into the dining room in 1914.

Briscoe Period 1826-1910

The Bowles-Plater house continued largely unaltered during the long Briscoe ownership. However, during this period a kitchen was built at right angles to the dining room and extending toward the river. The addition of this kitchen wing obliterated the view of the river from the dining room. The dining room was further darkened by the closing in of the portico between it and the new kitchen to create a covered passage between them.

Photographs taken of the house in 1910, at the end of the Briscoe Period, show it to have been sheathed in clapboard. Some of the boards still in place are very wide old hand-hewn ones, while the second floor raised front section and other parts had much narrower later-type boards.

During Dr. Briscoe's occupancy, the little customs house, in which several generations of Platers as Naval Officers of the Patuxent District had collected revenues, was moved from its position near the mansion into the farm yard where it was used as a tool shed. It was still there in 1910.

Satterlee and Ingalls Period 1910-1961

The account of Sotterley's growth and architectural change may be completed for the present with a brief description of the physical alterations accomplished chiefly in 1914. In the years immediately preceding Mr. Satterlee’s ownership, the mansion had fallen into a sad state of disrepair. The rehabilitation that proceeded under his direction included the replacement with brick of the rotted wood end walls of the drawing room and library; the insertion of windows in the west brick end to lighten the closets on each side of the chimney in the bedroom over the library, and the changing of the cellar door from the west end of the library to the south side of that wing. Brick was put into the west wall of the drawing room to replace the clapboards in the 1920’s, when termites had been found undermining the ground floor rooms. The dining room was lengthened by the inclusion of the transverse passage. A pantry was installed in an old covered-in bit of porch on the west side of the house (adjoining the dining room and leading to an open porch to connect with a newly constructed brick kitchen building), The Briscoe kitchen was removed, thus reopening the river view from the dining room. In 1910, for the first time at Sotterley, a bathroom was installed in what is now the pantry.

A few years later (1914), approximately 5 feet was cut off the bedroom over the drawing room to allow for a linen closet on the river side and a bathroom on the land side, with an entry passage to the bedroom between. In connection with putting in the bathroom, it was necessary to interrupt the cuddy which had run from the upstairs hall all along the west side of the bedroom, which at that time had no windows to the west. The two present dormer windows on the west were put in then; one for the bathroom and one for the bedroom itself.

A bathroom was also installed on the ground floor under the new back stairs which led to the bedroom above the dining room.

The mansion roof was extended to cover this newly constructed back stairwell and bath. This extension of thereof also covered over the old vaulted, partly brick, storeroom, incorporating it into the house along with the back stairwell and the new pantry. This made for a somewhat unusual feature since the storeroom already had and continues to have a shingled roof of its own.

About 1950 a bathroom was installed in the closet to the right of the chimney in the bedroom above the library. Extensive revisions were made in the part of the house created by Mr. Satterlee when he extended the roof and put in the back stairs. Most recently, the marble fireplaces in the drawing-room, small parlor, library, and dining room were refaced.

It is worth noting that the physical changes made in Sotterley during this 51-year period have served to enhance and preserve, rather than to change its essential character.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to John H. Scarff architect and former secretary of S.P.M.A., and to Phelps Warren, for the use, as major sources of material for this account, of papers written by them on the history of Sotterley.
 

celticnoodle

For those of you who got names associated with the property:

Chronological List of Owners of Resurrection Manor, Bowles' Preservation and Sotterley

Resurrection Manor

Captain Thomas Cornwallis; 1650-1659

John Batsman & Mary, his daughter; 1659-1674

Richard Perry; 1674-1684

Thomas & George Plowden; 1684-1710

Sotterley (Bowles' Preservation)

James Bowles & Rebecca Bowles; 1710-1729

George Plater II & Rebecca Bowles Plater; 1729-1755

George Plater III (Governor), Hannah Lee, & Elizabeth Rousby; 1755-1792

George Plater IV, Cecelia Bond, & Elizabeth Sornerville; 1792-1802

George Plater V; 1802-1822

William Glarke Sornerville; 1822-1822

Thomas Barber; 1822-1826

Emeline Dallam & husband Dr. W.H.S. Briscoe; 1826-1890

Rev. James Briscoe; 1890-1904

James Briscoe Jr. & sister Elizabeth B. Cashner; 1904-1905

Elizabeth Briscoe Cashner & husband John; 1905-1910

Herbert L. Satterlee; 1910-1947

Mabel Satterlee Ingalls; 1947-1961

Sotterley Mansion Foundation, Inc.; 1961-





Hillery Kane
Slavery to Freedom
(1848 -1928)

Hillery Kane was born a slave in St. Mary's County in 1818, a time when agricultural production of a single valuable crop, tobacco, significantly increased labor needs. Through his life, we can observe some of the more distasteful aspects of the institution of slavery: considered "chattel", slaves could be bought, sold, auctioned, given as gifts, and handed down by will; slaves, as "property" were often sold away from their families; slaves were subjected to inhuman working and living conditions; and slaves had virtually no control over their lives. Hillery's life straddles an interesting period in our country's history. It chronicles a life within the confines of slavery, the increasing tensions and eventual war between the North and South, emancipation, and the post-Civil War period of Reconstruction.

Hillery Kane was born to Raphael Kane and a slave woman named Clara. Raphael and Clara were owned by different Masters, and Hillery lived with his mother on the plantation owned by William Neale of Jeremiah, until he was about eight when his mother was sold to another plantation. In 1827, at the age of nine, Hillery was given to James J. Gough to settle a debt.

On Gough's plantation, Hillery learned the craft of plastering. He also learned farming. In 1837, he married a young slave girl on the plantation, fourteen-year-old Mariah, and they had seven children, the youngest, Frank, was born in 1848. That same year, Master J. J. Gough died, and his will dictated that the family be divided among Gough's seven children. J. J. Gough's estate was liquidated and Hillery Kane, his wife and 3 remaining children were put on the slave auction block in Leonardtown.

Hillery was sold to Colonel Chapman Billingsly for $600, a good price for a slave now thirty years old-which was the average life span for a slave. (It is thought that Hillery's skills as a plasterer commanded the high price.) A good price could not be gotten for Mariah, described as "sickly". A year later, in 1849 Mariah and her children were sold to Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe, whose plantation, Sotterley, was situated next door to Billingsly. Hillery was permitted to live at Sotterley with his family. Mariah died shortly after arriving at Sotterley, and Hillery married a young 15-year-old, Alice Elsa Bond. Together, they had thirteen more children, all born in a small cabin in the slave quarter at Sotterley.

Elsa was a spinner and a laundress, and she taught these skills to her daughters. Dr. Briscoe maintained a boarding school for girls on the Sotterley property, and many young ladies would live in the manor house during the school year. Elsa would tend to their laundering needs. Hillery's son Frank was responsible for lighting the fire in the schoolhouse, and keeping the classroom clean-an irony, since slaves were not allowed to go to school or read and write.

Hillery was often away from Sotterley, as his Master, Colonel Billingsly often rented him out for plastering jobs. It has been said that Hillery Kane plastered many of the finest homes in St. Mary's County. He also plastered the small cabin he lived in along the Patuxent River with his family. There is a story of hog killing time on the plantation, when slaves would collect the bristles that were scraped from the skin of the newly killed hog. These bristles, when mixed with clay and salt from the river served as important "chinking" between the cabin's rough hewn logs for the winter months-a kind of plaster, if you will.

But when he was with his family at Sotterley, and not laboring in the fields, Hillery made furniture and musical instruments. It has been said that Hillery made several beds, chairs, and tables for the cabin. He also made, and played quite well, the banjo. Hillery was also knowledgeable about medicinal herbs, according to Agnes Kane Callum a descendent. Hillery was considered the "doctor" for the slaves, and used roots and herbs to treat a variety of ailments. The family also spent time outdoors, cooking their rations of fatty pork and corn that they would get at the back door of the Manor House on Saturdays, and hunting for rabbit, deer, and possum to supplement those rations. On Sundays, the Kanes, Catholic by all accounts, attended the local Episcopal church, the faith of their Masters, the Billingslys and the Briscoes.

During the Civil War, three of Dr. Briscoe's sons joined the Confederate Army, including Dr. Henry Briscoe, Chief Surgeon for the army serving in Virginia's 26th Regiment. Back home, Sotterley, was actually an encampment for the Union army, although the Briscoes remained staunch Confederate supporters. Life was tumultuous on the Plantation during these years. When freedom finally did come to the slaves through Maryland's law to abolish slavery in 1864, and through the 13th amendment to the Constitution ratified in December, l865, Hillery Kane, for the first time in his forty-six years of life, was free.

Like many freedmen following emancipation and Reconstruction, Hillery chose to stay on the plantation where he had been enslaved. Most likely, he received wages for working on shares of Sotterley Plantation, along with other tenant farmers. During this time, he saw his son, Frank, marry Evelina Steward in the parlor of Sotterley's manor house. After the ceremony, Sotterley's cook served all the guests sweetbread and sweetened water. The guests then returned to the Kane home for music and dancing. In 1879, nearly fifteen years after emancipation, Hillery and Elsa left Sotterley to settle in their own home in Hollywood, Maryland, "within calling distance of their former Master".

Hillery died in 1889. He lived nearly seventy-one years, and had endured some of the greatest hardships man has ever known.

James Bowles, son of a wealthy London tobacco merchant and member of Maryland's Lower House of the Assembly, purchased a 2,000 acre tract that would become Sotterley Plantation. In 1703, he built the original two room house which today stands as a unique record of a method of construction called post-in-ground architecture, once common in the Tidewater regions.

Two years after the death of Squire Bowles in 1727, his young widow, Rebecca, married George Plater II. Over the years, the Plater family converted the simple residence into a charming 18th-century Mansion house, which they named after their ancestral home, Sotterley Hall, in Suffolk, England. It was under George Plater III, sixth governor of Maryland, that the house reached its distinctive form which was much admired by George Washington, and perhaps served as a model for Mount Vernon. The design of the Chinese Chippendale staircase and the shell alcoves in the drawing room is attributed to Richard Boulton. They are considered among the finest examples of 18th-century American woodwork.

19th Century

In the late 19th century, Sotterley experienced a period of decline, and ownership was transferred to the W.H. Stone Briscoe family in 1826. It was during this era that the Plantation was site of one of the largest communities of enslaved African-Americans in the Southern Maryland region. While the traditional historical record contains scant information about members of this community, much is known about the Kane family. Hillery Kane, a skilled plasterer, his first wife Mariah; then his second wife Elsa; and fifteen of his twenty children, resided at Sotterley at mid-century. During this time, Sotterley continued to play a major economic role in the region as a busy steamboat landing.

View the genealogical records found in the Slave Statistics of St. Mary's County on the emancipation of the Kane family and other Briscoe slaves. (This information is provided through the AfriGeneas Slave Date Collection website).

20th Century

In 1910, Sotterley changed hands once again when it was sold to Herbert L. Satterlee and his wife Louisa, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan. In a twist of fate, the Satterlees, like the Platers, traced their ancestry to Sotterley Hall in England. The Satterlees spent several years restoring the Mansion house and grounds to their 18th century condition, subsequently using it as their summer residence. Their daughter, Mabel Satterlee Ingalls, purchased the plantation in 1947. Having grown to love Sotterley through a childhood of summers spent amidst its charms, she determined to preserve it and to share it. In 1961, she created the non-profit Sotterley Mansion Foundation which holds the historic site trust for the public.



The People of Sotterley

18th Century

Richard Boulton (?-1801)
James Bowles (?-1727)
Elizabeth Rousby Plater (1751-1789)
George Plater II (1695-1755)
George Plater III (1735-1792)
George Plater IV (1766-1802)
George Plater V (1797-1846)

19th Century

Mary Blades (1814-1886)
Dr. Henry Briscoe (1832-?)
Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe (1801-1885)
George Briscoe (1839-1865)
Alice Elsa Kane (1840-1889)
Frank Kane (1848-1928)
Hillery Kane (1818-1889)

20th Century

Agnes Kane Callum (1925 - )
Mabel Satterlee Ingalls (1900-1993)
Herbert Livingston Satterlee (1863-1947)
Louisa Morgan Satterlee
 

celticnoodle

while i cannot proof and give fb to what everyone picked up on--here is a few interesting things picked upon!

nyx77--yes, the name William was big there--not sure if the time frame was correct, i cannot recall--but there was an early William owner there.

the sense of home cooking and sweing would be a definite for the time period too. and, it is/was a plantation. slavery is good for there too, and if memory serves me well, at one time it was a school too. for a time anyway.

queenxofxwands--at one time indians did live here--before the land was put in the control of the white men in the 1650s. scary other things you saw! yikes! nothing i know about associated with this place. At one time, the place had the name of Resurrection Manor. and, Crown land would be good too, as it was founded and settled by Kings men.

magsstardustblack-the house is really a beautiful place, and on a beautiful setting too! while it has a history of both good and bad, it was the times - and so, not any place that was thought of as 'evil'. no need to run & hide! :)

since it is right on the water too, it is very possible that there was a drowning, and more then likely more then one! the main house was the home of the plantation owner, so yes, that can be a bit sinister by today's standards.

ana luisa, yes, the house may be considered chaotic today. it is now a museum, and was also a restaurant at one time too, maybe still. i'm not sure about a sanitorium or asylum though.

nytebugg, the smaller bldgs that were slave quarters were slightly hidden from view--at least from the main house.

cherryberry, it's interesting how everyone is getting bad vibes on this first picture. unfortunately, i do not know enough about it to answer that! the big house was actually lived in, and it may have been a lonely place for at least the first 150 to 200 years, or longer, as it was pretty much out into the country. though, at one time, it was also a major port for ships bringing people into the area.

greatdane, I think you captured the truth with the main house and also the cabin and hearth.

starrystarrynight, yes, you've got it! it was the homestead/plantation home and a slave cabin. the slaves were eventually emancipated, some before the civil war, some after in the area. i'm not sure when the slaves here on this particular plantation were emancipated though.

mingbop, yes, there would've been hens and chickens about and roosters too, as well as other farm animals. it was a self supporting farm for a long while. and, there were important men through out this homes history who lived there and important documents signed there also. most likely some of it govenerment business.

my_logic, again with the chest problems in that first pic! wish i knew why it was that everyone is picking up on such negative energies there. this was the cabin for the Kane family--who were slaves here.

jemoflight-it may have been used to store things at one time, and perhaps even as a hideaway. not a prison ever-as far as i am aware. this home did see families through war time--many wars, and some fought right in the area of this home, probably even on its property!

so, while I cannot confirm everything that people have picked up on, I feel you did rather well over all.

thank you everyone for participating and stay tuned for the next remote viewing set of pics. if you have any pictures you'd like to share, or places you think would be great, let me or mingbop know please! thank you!
 

celticnoodle

Remote Viewing Exercise 3

here are the pictures for the next place. I had a very hard time getting pictures to upload. they were saved to my desktop in jpeg format, but for some reason, these are the only 3 out of 10 saved that I could post! L one is from the inside, and is THE ONLY inside picture to post here! lol! should be an interesting exercise!
 

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greatdane

Hmmm?

First pic, stairwell, I pick up money, lots of money, a mansion turned into a museum or at least now people can now pay to visit it.

The door in the tree. Weird. I'm not picking up anything of significance that's really old, other than the tree. I'm not picking up people in there in old times or anything. I suppose could have been used as storage, but I'm not getting old energies. I pick up newer vibes. Like it's either been created in modern times or resurrected in modern times.

The wagon, I pick up hearts, I can't tell if joy or heartache, but something with deep emotion.