MATTAPONY

'Mattapony' is an area in Maryland, United States of America
Before the erection of Worcester County in 1742, Somerset County (erected in 1666) stretched from Georgetown, Delaware to the Maryland/Virginia border, including the present-day towns of Salisbury, Princess Anne, Pocomoke City and Snow Hill. Like other colonial counties, Somerset County was divided into "hundreds." (The "hundred" originated in England as an area which could produce 100 fighting men in time of war.) Seventeenth-century Somerset County was divided into hundreds for administrative purposes only. What is now southern Worcester County was named "Mattapony Hundred," often referred to simply as Mattapony. "Bogerternorton Hundred" and "Pocomoke Hundred" lay to the north.
Mattapony's borders were the Pocomoke River on the west and northwest, Corker's Creek on the northeast, Chincoteague Bay on the east, and Accomack County, VA on the south. Hamlets that arose in the hundred included present-day Girdletree, Rabbit Knaw, Big Mill (also know as Welbourne), Goodwill (formerly known as Davis Cross Roads), Klej Grange (named Lindseyville until 1880), Stockton (known as Sandy Hill until 1870), and Pocomoke City (known first as Stevens Landing, then as Newtown until incorporated as Pocomoke City in 1888). Two main roads crossed Mattapony, one from Mattapony Landing (on the Pocomoke River near Beth Eden) to Sandy Hill (Stockton) via Klej Grange, the other from Snow Hill to Pocomoke City via Klej Grange and Davis Cross Roads. The seaside stage route from Delaware into Virginia ran through Girdletree and Stockton.
A web site called Mattapony, devoted to the history of the area, is currently under the auspices of MyFamily.com and accessible only by password (send E-mail to bobjones@ezy.net). Members of the web site disseminate and gather historical data, photographs, and information about Mattapony, limiting themselves to the confines of "Mattapony Hundred" (reflected in the boundaries of the twentieth-century Eighth Election District of Worcester County), with emphasis on the hamlets of Stockton and Girdletree.
"Mattapony" was one of the most widely used place-names of the Algonquin Indians in Maryland and Virginia. Mattapony was set aside as Mattapony Hundred in the year 1683, thirteen years after the establishment, in 1670, just to the north, of Bogerternorton Hundred, stretching from Snow Hill to Ocean City. Both Hundreds were on the Seaboard Side, butting up to the Atlantic Ocean and its tributaries. Mattapony Hundred became the southeastern-most part of the state of Maryland and butted the Virginia State Line. Pronounced "Matta-po-NYE," it was known as a "Landing Place" -- for example, Mattapony Landing on the Pocomoke River in Worcester County. But the word also designated "pathways" and "waterways." As early as 1639, there was a "Mattapony Path" in St Mary's County, which led to Mattapony Creek and on to the Patuxent River. "Place Names of Maryland" states that the Algonquin meaning of "matta" was "joined," or "junction," and "apo" was "water," "current," or "expanse of water," i.e., "meeting of waters at a sand spit" {split?}. Assawoman (Assawarmett) Inlet was also known as Fenwich's Inlet. Mayre states in the ''Maryland Historical Magazine'', in an article entitled "Sea Coast of Maryland":
:"In the interest of accuracy it should be admitted that this place-name may refer to Mattapony inlet, as the heads of these inlets seem to have been close to one another."
Not restricted to Maryland, "Mattapony" was the name John Parker gave to his 600-acre estate in Accomack Co., Virginia, in the year 1660. Also in 1669, a patent was issued to Mrs. Ann Toft for 1,700 acres, which became known as Mattapony, or Mattapony Neck (also known as Swansgut Creek), as referenced in Whitelaw's "Virginia's Eastern Shore," p. 1361. Swansgut Creek is the outlet for overflow from Big Mill Pond, near Remson's Church, and empties in the Chincoteague Bay near Red Hills.
One other note: Webster's Dictionary defines "Matapan=Cape or promontory of Greece". {A promontory is stated as being a peak of high land that juts out into a body of water; a headland.} Thus, one might say that "Mattapony" was a name with far-reaching resonance, but, to the early settlers as well as to the Indians on the Eastern Shore, it meant survival and a unique way of life. So far, no seventeenth-century map showing the confines of Mattapony Hundred has been found. In the year 1723 there were, in Mattapony, approximately 140 taxable heads of household, as taken by the constable of Mattapony. Ruth Dryden, who transcribed the Calvert Papers Rent Rolls of Somerset County (before Worcester Co. was established in 1742), 1663-1723, makes the point that the rent rolls were copied as written by the colonial clerk. In an attempt to establish the northernmost limit of Mattapony Hundred, it is helpful to look at the 1783 map of Bogerternorton. The last tract on the southeast border is "Durham" and, to the far east, "Cow Quarter." These are the southernmost tracts in Bogerternorton. Then, beyond "Durham" and "Cow Quarter," going southward, the first tract one encounters is "Nunsgreen," 350 acres, 1681, near Middleton at a corner tree of "Durham," possessed by Matthew Scarborough. "Nunsgreen" would then appear to be the northernmost tract in Mattapony Hundred. This is not conclusive proof for establishing the northern boundary, but, if one looks at all the maps, tracts, and waterways, it does present a good case.

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★ Uses material from Mattapony Site by Bob Jones.