Title

Newtown

Description

Smaller than both St. Inigoe's and St. Thomas's, Newtown is situated between the two estates on the Potomac between Bretton's Bay and St. Clement's Bay, just a few miles from what is now Leonardtown. Unlike the first two estates, which were colonial claims, Henry Warren, SJ, purchased Newtown from a prominent local family, the Brettons, for 40,000 pounds of tobacco in 1668. Between 1668 and 1717, the Jesuit superiors resided at Newtown, building a small fenced-in compound that included a two-story brick manor house, a meat house, a chicken house, and stables. Given its central location, Newtown served as a hub of activity for the Catholics in St. Mary's County. From 1677 to 1792, the Jesuits ran a preparatory school from the estate that served as a launching point for sending the elite Catholics in the area to St. Olmers in Flanders to complete their education, since there was not yet a Catholic university in British North America.

(Joseph Zwinge, "The Jesuit Farms in Maryland. Facts and Anecdotes.," Woodstock Letters XL, no. 2 (1911): 180-99, and Edward Devitt, "History of the Maryland-New York Province, III," Woodstock Letters LXI, no. I (1932). 11-25.)

Date

1668