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25-617: Construction began under Corbin Lee, who died in 1773. It was completed under Harry Dorsey Gough , a wealthy Baltimore merchant, in 1776. Gough named the estate Perry Hall, after his family 's ancestral home of the same name within what is now Perry Hall Park , in Perry Barr , England , a northern suburb of Birmingham . From the 16-room mansion, Gough administered his vast plantation operation, where dozens of slaves tended cattle, various food crops, and stands of tobacco. The Perry Hall estate

50-635: A Baltimore orphanage. He set about improving the livestock on his farm with European imports after the end of hostilities; in 1786, he was elected as the first president of the Society for the Encouragement and Improvement of Agriculture in Maryland and he may have been the first to import shorthorn bulls to America. In this early period, Gough was one of the largest owners of slaves in Maryland, with around 70. Gough credited his own conversion to

75-438: A chapel near the mansion's eastern wing that allowed him to quietly pursue his religious worship, along with his family, servants, and other neighboring landowners. Perry Hall remained under the ownership of Gough's descendants until 1852 when it was sold to investors who subdivided much of the property among immigrant families who built dozens of farms. The mansion remained in private ownership for over two centuries, and by 2001,

100-578: A connection to the Goughs would also explain Hosier's close relationship with Bishop Asbury. Gough could nevertheless prove furious and merciless to runaways leaving before the end of their term: he offered $ 40 for the return of the runaway Will Bates, whom he called "a very ungrateful young rogue" and "an atrocious Ingrate" to make an example of him before his other term laborers. By 1804, Gough and other planters had passed legislation allowing them to increase

125-523: A master plan to help guide the future use and continuous improvement of the mansion and grounds. Harry Dorsey Gough Harry Dorsey Gough (28 January 1745 – 8 May 1808) was a prominent 18th-century merchant, planter , and patron of the fledgling Methodist Church in Baltimore , Maryland , in the early United States. Harry's father was the English merchant Thomas Gough, who emigrated to

150-474: A young age and became a successful merchant. The money came from his English half-brother John William Gough (1729–1767), by Thomas Gough's first wife Ann Brooksby. John's year-old son was subsequently brought to America and raised in Maryland. Confusingly, this nephew was also named Harry Dorsey Gough (1766–1807) and his son (1793–1867) would later also bear the same name. The eldest Harry Dorsey Gough's estate eventually comprised 2,000 acres (810 ha) along

175-606: The American Revolution , Gough was a Nonjuror who declined to swear the oath of allegiance to the rebel government . As such, he was excluded from political office and even indicted in October 1778 for illegal preaching at his house chapel. (Many of the early Methodist exhorters returned to England during the Revolution and those who didn't, such as Asbury, were often suspected of Loyalist sympathies. Swearing

200-584: The Great Gunpowder River northeast of Baltimore. Much of this was Corbin Lee 's 1,000-acre (400 ha) plantation The Adventure, which Gough purchased for £5,000 in 1774 from Archibald Buchanan after Corbin's death in 1773. He renamed it Perry Hall in honor of his family's ancestral home in Staffordshire and completed construction of its 16-room manor in 1776. Many years later, modern Baltimore's Bel Air Road ( U.S. Route 1 )

225-897: The Big Gunpowder. The headquarters of the Gunpowder Falls State Park is located in Harford County along the bank of the Little Gunpowder Falls, in the historic Jerusalem Mill Village . The remainder of the boundary between Baltimore and Harford counties is formed by the Gunpowder River, the tidal estuary of the Chesapeake Bay formed by the union of Little Gunpowder Falls and the Gunpowder Falls rivers. Both

250-467: The Gunpowder and Little Gunpowder Falls flow through hilly agricultural and forest land for much of their length. In fact, there are no less than four separate state parks that form Gunpowder Falls State Park , the largest state park in Maryland. At two points, Gunpowder Falls is dammed to form major reservoirs for the Baltimore metropolitan area : Prettyboy Reservoir and Loch Raven Reservoir . By

275-541: The Perry Hall Mansion has received a comprehensive exterior renovation. In addition, a structure has been created to allow the public to be directly involved in shaping the future of this historically significant property. The Friends of the Perry Hall Mansion is a freestanding organization, formed in September 2007, that aims to work to complete the renovations at the mansion, and care for the structure once

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300-671: The United States prior to the outbreak of its Revolution against Britain. As his new home was near Patapsco Ferry and his new wife had extensive holdings in the colonies , Thomas would later side with the revolutionaries against the Crown. Thomas had already married the American Sophia Dorsey, who bore him Harry on January 28, 1745, in Annapolis . In addition to his father's wealth, Harry inherited £ 70,000 at

325-518: The distinctive architectural features of the home as well as the lush gardens on the surrounding grounds. When one looks at the mansion as it existed in Gough's time, it is clear that the house included features that mirrored the diverse facets of Harry Dorsey Gough's life. The impressive wine cellars and expansive grand hall used for entertaining symbolized Gough's socially prominent life before his conversion to Methodism . After his conversion, Gough built

350-648: The executor of his father-in-law's estate. The related papers are maintained by the Maryland Historical Society . Great Gunpowder River The Gunpowder River is a 6.8-mile-long (10.9 km) tidal inlet on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland , United States . It is formed by the joining of two freshwater rivers, Gunpowder Falls (often referred to locally as "Big Gunpowder Falls") and Little Gunpowder Falls . The Big Gunpowder, 56.7 miles (91.2 km) long, begins in

375-726: The extreme southern part of Pennsylvania 's York County . From there, the Gunpowder flows in a generally southeast direction through the length of Baltimore County – past the Perry Hall Mansion and the site of its former plantation – until it reaches Joppatowne where it is joined by the Little Gunpowder and the Bird River , becoming simply the "Gunpowder River" once it passes the Amtrak train bridge that joins Chase and Joppatowne . The nearby site of old Joppa

400-476: The oath of allegiance was a necessary condition of leading a lawful religious assembly.) After the Revolution, Gough swore the oath of allegiance and again became active in politics, philanthropy, and experimental farming. He was a member of the Federalist Party in the fledgling United States. He had already helped with Maryland's first Alms House in 1773; in 1806, he helped manage St. Peter's School,

425-469: The project is finished. The officers and directors will work to achieve the group's mission to educate the public about the Perry Hall Mansion and provide input to the Baltimore County government on its uses and operations. The Friends' agenda includes continued fund-raising for the interior renovation of the building, the initiation of an archaeological dig on the property, and the completion of

450-648: The purpose of mocking the attendees; instead, he found himself moved and contemplating the meaning of his life and even suicide. He subsequently joined his wife in supporting them, befriending Asbury in March 1776 and building first a cabin and then the Camp Meeting Chapel off Perry Hall's eastern wing. Perry Hall was also where Asbury and Thomas Coke planned the Christmas Conference which established American Methodism in 1784. During

475-509: The terms of their indentured servants' contracts in the event of runaways. Gough's funeral was attended by over 2,000 mourners and presided over by Bishop Asbury. His estate was estimated to be worth $ 300,000 (~$ 8.67 million in 2023) and still included 51 enslaved laborers. His wife succeeded him by 14 years, dying on 23 June 1822. His only child was his daughter Sophia, who married James Mackubin or Maccubin. Mackubin later changed his name to Carroll as part of an inheritance and served as

500-847: The time the Gunpowder reaches the Bay, however, it is no longer a rural river, but a suburban river that passes under Interstate 95 and many bedroom communities for Baltimore. Nonetheless, Gunpowder State Park on the Chesapeake Bay may give one the impression that this is still a somewhat remote river. Both streams flow over the Fall Line separating the Piedmont Plateau from the Atlantic Coastal Plain just downstream of US Route 1 . This creates some class III whitewater opportunities for kayakers and canoeists when

525-907: The touching sermon of thanksgiving he found being preached to his slaves by an African Methodist from a neighboring plantation. He subsequently took the abolitionist teachings of Wesley and the English Methodists to heart enough that he discontinued lifetime servitude on his lands, forming contracts with his slaves promising them freedom after a term of years (a "term slavery" similar to the earlier English indentured servants ). Seeing "the injustice of detaining my fellow Creatures, in Slavery and Bondage", forty-five were manumitted in April 1780. His ties to Methodism and relatively generous treatment of these slaves have caused some to link Gough to " Black Harry " Hosier's otherwise unknown Baltimore master;

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550-551: The vast estate had been whittled down to approximately four acres. That year, the mansion was sold to Baltimore County for future use as a museum and community center. The home in its original form appears in three large paintings made about 1803 by Francis Guy . It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Since its acquisition by the Department of Parks and Recreation for Baltimore County,

575-487: Was an important deep-water seaport, and rival to the port of Baltimore, in colonial American times, until sedimentation of the Gunpowder River -- caused by upstream development -- made its harbor inaccessible to large ships. Little Gunpowder Falls, as its name implies, is much smaller than the mainstem Gunpowder Falls. Throughout its 25.2-mile (40.6 km) length, it forms much of the boundary between eastern Baltimore County and western Harford County until it reaches

600-491: Was known as "Gough's Road" or "Perry Hall Road". In 1771, the 26-year-old Gough married the 18-year-old Prudence Carnan, sister of future governor Charles Ridgely . While her husband held raucous parties, she followed the lead of her aunt Rebecca Dorsey Ridgely in befriending Bishop Francis Asbury , the "Father of American Methodism ". In 1775, Gough attended a Methodist camp meeting in Baltimore with his friends for

625-466: Was so influential that maps from the period typically identify modern-day Bel Air Road ( U.S. Route 1 ) as "Perry Hall Road" or "Gough's Road." Gough died on May 8, 1808. Due to his statewide prominence, more than 2,000 people attended his funeral, which was held at the Perry Hall estate. The mansion was generally viewed as being at its zenith during the early Nineteenth Century. Visitors commented on

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