The Early Owners of Haberdeventure

A field near the Thomas Stone House

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John Barefoot (Bearfoot) was the first owner of a 150-acre plantation he named, "Habberdeventure." For over two decades, Barefoot's family cleared virgin forests, farmed, and built a variety of structures for their own use.

In 1708, the property was purchased by John Lambert for 500 pounds of tobacco, several casks, and "...diverse other considerations." According to the deed, the sale included "...dwelling houses, barns, stables, gardens, orchards, and outhouses."

In 1724, the site was purchased by Robert Hanson, one of Charles County's leading citizens, for 2,000 pounds of tobacco and five barrels of "Indian corn." Twenty-six years later in 1750, Haberdeventure, along with an adjoining tract called Hanson's Plains became a 225-acre inheritance for Hanson's daughter, Mary, and her husband Daniel Jenifer, Thomas Stone's uncle.

In 1768, Daniel and Mary Jenifer successfully doubled their land from 225 acres to 442 acres without having to pay for the extra land. How you may ask? Surveys in the 17th and 18th centuries were not always reliable, with the results of a survey potentially riddled with inaccuracies or unverifiable information. One survey listed a starting point as "a stone...at the foot of a thorn bush." Other boundary markers used in surveys included locust posts, piles of stone, and "witness" trees; well-trimmed trees that were decidedly not wild trees. Over time, these markers could disappear or be moved, causing confusion as to the ownership of the land.

Sometimes surveys resulted in overlaps with neighboring properties, and contested surveys might be litigated in court for years. Other surveys might leave gaps of "unclaimed lands" between properties as small as several square feet to hundreds of acres.

Numerous surveys were conducted at Haberdeventure for over a century. When Daniel and Mary Jenifer had their lands resurveyed in 1768, gaps of "unclaimed land" that existed between their property and that of their neighbors were added to the property, and they were able to acquire over 200 acres of unclaimed lands.

Two years later, in 1770, Thomas Stone purchased the 442-acre Haberdeventure property from Daniel Jenifer, for four hundred pounds British sterling. By the time of his death in 1787, Stone had increased the property's acreage to 1,077 acres. Today, Thomas Stone National Historic Site consists of 328 acres, 70% of the property Thomas Stone purchased in 1770.