Henrietta Maria Earle: The Portrait of a Lady—Francis Scott Key's Poem for his Friend, William Hemsley, Esq.— A Tribute to Mary Davidson Callahan Pippin
/The Long Road Home: Henrietta Maria Hemsley Earle Returns to Cloverfields
by Rachel Lovett, Furniture Consultant
When twenty-year-old Henrietta Maria Hemsley (1779-1821) sat for her miniature portrait in 1799, she could not have imagined its journey through time (Figure 1). Nor could she have foreseen that nearly 220 years later, Cloverfields, her childhood home, would be preserved to reflect the year 1784, the time when she was just five years old. Yet history has taken a remarkable course. Now, after more than two centuries away, Henrietta Maria's miniature portrait has finally returned to Cloverfields, coming full circle.
Figure 1: Henrietta Maria Hemsley Miniature portrait by Robert Field (American (born in England), 1769-1819). Cloverfields Preservation Foundation Collection No. 2024.39.
Henrietta Maria (pronounced Mur-I-ah) was the seventh of Colonel William Hemsley's twelve children. Her birth in 1779, during the thick of the American Revolution, coincided with her father's election to the Maryland State Senate and important war-time appointments as both Continental loan, and procurement officer for Queen Anne's County.
By the time Henrietta Maria was born, her father had lost his first wife. Henrietta Maria's mother and Hemsley's second wife was Sarah Williamson, who he married in 1768. The couple's marriage and his rising status likely served as the impetus for the ambitious renovation of Cloverfields that due to the war would not be complete until 1784.
The couple possibly named Henrietta Maria after Colonel William Hemsley's first wife. If so, it is unknown how Sarah, known to the family as “Sally,” felt about naming her daughter after her late predecessor; however, such a naming convention was a fairly common practice in the period, as was the name itself. Hemsley had a sister and more than one cousin named Henrietta Maria.
Young Henrietta Maria Hemsley's large family included three older half-siblings: Mary "Polly" b. 1760, Charlotte b. 1762, William b. 1766, and three older full siblings, namely Anna Maria b. 1773 and died young, Philemon b. circa 1777, and Sarah b. 1778. She also had five younger siblings: Thomas b. 1781, Alexander b. circa 1785, Anna Maria b. 1787, and James and Juliana, for whom dates are unknown.
With such a large household, it was likely challenging to find a voice in the crowd, yet her miniature- the only known portrait of one of Colonel Hemsley's daughters - provides us a rare glimpse into the woman behind this ivory likeness.
Henrietta Maria began life in late-18th-century Maryland amid the privileges and opportunities reserved for a daughter of the land-owning elite. In contrast to her elder sisters, Henrietta Maria's personality is somewhat less known. Her beautiful eldest sister, Polly, had an excellent sense of taste and fashion. She married Colonel Joseph Forman of Rose Hill at Cloverfields in 1782, in a lavish wedding befitting a woman of her station [1].
Second eldest, the savvy business-minded Charlotte is perhaps the most well-documented of the Hemsley girls. She never married and is regularly mentioned in family records, including correspondence from her father to family in Philadelphia advising them Charlotte was authorized to conduct her investments as she saw fit. Sarah, just a year older than Henrietta Maria, was likely her confidant and roommate at Cloverfields.
According to family lore, Sarah was a bit of a wild child. On one occasion, she ran away from home to Spa Spring to socialize with the local Native American community without telling anyone of her whereabouts, as related in family historian Frederic Emory's self-published book The Hemsleys of Maryland, written in 1886.
Henrietta Maria's daily life would have been marked by the genteel customs and expectations of an affluent young woman, including cultivating social graces, education in music, literature, fine arts, and participation in local social circles and events.
Henrietta Maria's upbringing involved learning the management of a household, a skill essential for women of her class. She would have been trained in the art of hospitality, overseeing the production of domestic goods like food and textiles, and managing the enslaved household staff. Her education, while limited compared to that of her male counterparts, would have emphasized refinement and preparation for marriage, ensuring she was well-versed in the social and cultural codes that governed elite society.
While many of her days were likely filled with leisure activities like riding, attending social gatherings, or participating in the local church, she was confined by the rigid roles and expectations that governed the lives of women of her status.
Business often took Colonel William Hemsley to Philadelphia, allowing his children to travel with him and expand their horizons outside of rural Queen Anne's County, Maryland.
At the dawn of the 19th century, Philadelphia was a lively center of cultural and economic life, and one of the most influential cities in the early United States (Figure 2). Serving as the nation's capital from 1790 to 1800, it drew many prominent figures and fresh ideas, establishing itself as a center for innovation in art, politics, and fashion.
Figure 2: Philadelphia in 1799 as shown in this engraving titled “Arch Street, with the second Presbyterian Church,” published by W. Birch & Son. Photograph courtesy of the Library company of Philadelphia.
It was here in Philadelphia that Henrietta Maria had her miniature portrait painted in 1799 by the English-born artist Robert Field (1769-1819), who had come to the United States in 1794. Field was an engraver, miniaturist, and portrait painter who based his career on commissions from wealthy members of society.
Field made several significant connections in Philadelphia with Maryland families. In the fall of 1801, he shifted his focus to the plantation families of Maryland's Eastern Shore. During this period, Field likely stayed with the families whose portraits he painted, including possibly Henrietta Maria's eldest brother William Hemsley, Esq. (1776-1825), whose miniature is now in a private collection.
Throughout 1802, Field fulfilled numerous portrait commissions in Queen Anne's and Talbot Counties, working with large plantation-owning families deeply intertwined through societal and familial bonds. Many of his works from this time remain in the private collections of their descendants.
Field's career stretched from London to the new United States, Canada, and finally, Jamaica, throughout which he stayed in one place for only brief amounts of time before moving on to another customer base.
In contrast to other contemporary miniaturists who worked on smaller surfaces, Field distinguished himself by using larger ivory pieces imported from England. This approach enhanced the luminosity of his subjects. Fine hatchings characterize Field's miniatures and typically feature backgrounds in blue or brown. His figures are prominently placed high in the center of the composition, with clear, definitive brushstrokes and occasional stippling in the background. Most of his works are signed "R.F." and include the entire year. Compared to his peers, Field's miniatures often exhibit lighter skin tones, giving his portraits an almost ethereal, airy quality.
American miniatures were typically created using watercolor on ivory sourced from tusk or whalebone. Often enclosed in oval cases, these miniatures frequently featured a lock of hair from the sitter on the reverse side. Henrietta Maria’s miniature contains no hair. These small, cherished keepsakes were given to loved ones on special occasions and were commonly worn as jewelry.
Painted when she was twenty, this portrait captures Henrietta Maria in the prime of her youth before her marriage to Thomas Chamberlaine Earle (1771-1843). Thomas was the son of Richard and Ann Chamberlaine Earle, an affluent Eastern Shore planter family well-known to the Hemsleys.
Thomas was a relation to Henrietta Maria, although indirectly. His father was the brother of her father's first wife Henrietta Maria. Therefore, Thomas was a first cousin to her half-siblings Polly, Charlotte, and William through their mother.
Thomas decided on a career in law and government work and initially worked for the firm Nicols, Chamberlaine & Earle. In 1795, at the age of 24, commercial business took him to England. While in England, Thomas visited Chamberlaine relatives in Cheshire, England. He was the first family member to visit England since 1723. During his visit, he obtained the family lineage from John Chamberlaine of "Saughall," which he later published [2].
It is unknown where Thomas and Henrietta Maria initially lived after their marriage, but by the early 19th century, they rented Lexon, a 200-acre estate on Corsica Neck Road, outside of Centreville, Maryland (Figure 3).
Built ca. 1760, Lexon is an elegant, two-story, Flemish-bond, brick dwelling with a pitched gable roof and a center-passage plan. The well-appointed interior exhibits a blend of Federal and early Greek Revival styles introduced during renovations in the early 19th century, possibly when Henrietta Maria lived on the property. While smaller than Cloverfields, Lexon is typical of the type of house popular with Queen Anne's County families of above-average means.
Figure 3: Lexon, located near Centreville, Maryland was the early-19th-century home of Henrietta Maria and THomas C. Earle. Photo by Sherri Marsh Johns.
Henrietta Maria's life at Lexon was likely comfortable and the best of circumstances afforded to a woman of her station in life. Little is known about the daily household operations, but the couple's privileged lifestyle was likely made possible by enslaved workers who cleaned, cooked, and tended the grounds. The 1810 Federal Census records indicate the Earle household included nine enslaved persons.
In addition to his legal career, by 1804, Thomas Chamberlaine Earle owned a general store in Centreville, Maryland. During the early 19th century, Centreville emerged as a burgeoning commercial and social center following the relocation of the county seat from Queenstown in 1782. The town's French-inspired name reflected post-Revolutionary admiration for France. Officially planned in 1794, Centreville's layout included 37 lots along the north-south axis formed by Commerce and Liberty Streets and bisected by the main east-west road, Water Street. The courthouse, completed in 1796, is the oldest in Maryland and remains a central town landmark.
The town also saw the establishment of key structures and institutions: a market house in 1796, replaced by a town hall in 1877, an academy in 1803, and a primary school system by 1826. The local economy was seasonally influenced by horse racing, which began in 1805.
The marriage produced no surviving children. However, the couple appeared devoted to each other and had a warm, caring extended family frequently in attendance at Lexon. The pair, in turn, visited their many nearby relations.
In contrast to her life as a younger daughter at Cloverfields, Lexon was a place where she could express her individuality in practice, if not in name.
Henrietta Maria's husband Thomas also had a sister named Henrietta Maria, and his brother Samuel also married a Henrietta Maria, and that is not to mention the cousins and next generation of nieces. Dinner parties must have been challenging with so many relatives of the same name.
In all likelihood, these ladies developed a variety of nicknames to differentiate themselves. Her brother Alexander affectionally called her Henny. An 1801 letter from Alexander to their sister Anna Maria notes that "sister Henny" is helping with his shirts [3].
Thomas' legal career continued to prosper, and starting in 1815 he served as the Register of Wills for Queen Anne's County, a position he held until his death in 1843. As Register of Wills, Thomas' principal tasks were recording wills and ensuring the proper administration of a decedent's estates. His office also oversaw Certificates of Freedom for the enslaved individuals of Queen Anne's County, freed per the wills he registered.
Thomas invested in the Centreville-based Maryland Silk Company in 1839, which was part of a larger area initiative by private companies to grow Mulberry trees for the production of silk. The industry never took off, however, mulberry trees are still found around the old-line state, notably the one in front of the William Paca House in Annapolis, Maryland, which was planted within the same era as the Centreville, Maryland Silk Company.
Sadly, Henrietta Maria passed away on Christmas day 1821, when she was just 42 years old, and Thomas lived until age 72, continuing on at Lexon as a widower.
Around the time of Henrietta Maria's passing, her miniature was given to her younger brother Thomas Hemsley (1781-1830), who gave it to his son William Hemsley (1810-1862), who gave it to his daughter Mary Hemsley Sterrett (1834-1911).
Having no heirs, Mary Hemsley Sterrett sold it to collector and family member John Hemsley Johnson of Baltimore, the great-grandson of Philemon Hemsley (1777-1822), an older brother of Henrietta Maria. Johnson didn't have any children either, and the piece passed down in the line of his brother Richard Pleasant Johnson (1871-1940) and continued in his line until it was recently sold at auction in July of 2024 by a descendant.
While out of Cloverfields' 1784 period of interpretation, the piece plays an integral role in connecting the Hemsley children to the wider world of Queen Anne's County in the 19th century. The miniature is now on display at Cloverfields in the Hyphen Gallery, which serves as an exhibition space for items related to the family outside of the 1784 period of interpretation.
The design is complete to recreate the childhood bedroom of Henrietta Maria and her older sister Sarah on the second floor. The room will include a camp bed with a green check pattern, a Philadelphia dresser, and a variety of children's toys befitting a room for a 6- and 5-year-old pair of sisters in 1784.
The Cloverfields Preservation Foundation is pleased to reunite the portraits of father and daughter and bring Henrietta Maria back to Cloverfields after an absence of more than two centuries (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Henrietta Maria’s miniature by Robert Field shown in the parlor at Cloverfields next to the portrait of her father, Colonel William Hemsley, painted by John Hesselius.
[1] Maryland Historical Society, “Letters of Molly and Hetty Tilghman,” Maryland Historical Society Magazine, Volume 21, Issue No. 1 (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1926), p. 34.
[2] James Bordley, “The Hollyday and Related Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Including the Truman, Vaughan, Covington, Lloyd, Robins, Chamberlaine, Hayward, Carmichael, Murray, Bennett, Earle, Chew, Hemsley, Tilghman, Goldsborough, and Other Families,” (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1962), p. 235, original from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
[3] Alexander Hemsley to Anna Maria Hemsley, February 14, 1801, James Woods Poplar Grove Collection, Maryland State Archives, Special Collection, Image 5807-01-0009.
Remembering Mary Davidson Callahan Pippin (1927-2024)
We at the Cloverfields Preservation Foundation are saddened to learn of the recent death of Mary Davidson Callahan Pippin and offer our sincere condolences to her family.
Mrs. Pippin was the wife of the late James Olin Pippin, Jr. and mother of four. She was active in the community, most notably with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Queen Anne’s County Garden Club.
Mrs. Pippin’s grandparents, Thomas and Ann Callahan, purchased Cloverfields from the Hemsley descendants in 1897. She grew up at Cloverfields with her brother Thomas Callahan III, and half-siblings Elizabeth Carter Draper Brice, and James Carter, all of whom predeceased her.
Figure 1: A young Mary Callahan holding her half-sister Elizabeth Carter at Cloverfields in an undated photograph. Image courtesey of Mary Pippin.
Mrs. Pippin had a great passion for gardening, for which she credited her mother, Martha Greenwalt Callahan Carter (1895-1989). In 2021, CPF had the pleasure of dedicating Cloverfields’ gardens to mother and daughter. At the dedication celebration, guests enjoyed hearing Mrs. Pippin’s recollections of her mother’s garden and the visits and honors it received from the Maryland Garden Club.
Both Mrs. Pippin and Mrs. Brice shared many family stories and memories of Cloverfields with CPF during Cloverfields’ restoration. Video recordings of their recollections are available on our website. Mrs. Pippin and Mrs. Brice also shared photographs, including the earliest known photographs of Cloverfields, which proved invaluable in understanding the evolution of the house in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Figure 2: Dedication sign to Marthan Greenwalt Callahan Carter and her daughter Mary Davidson Callahan Pippin. Photo by Sherri Marsh Johns.
CPF is grateful to these two remarkable women, and to their mother, whose preservationist spirit safeguarded Cloverfield during the nearly sixty years it was her home.
Cloverfields’ Key Connection
September 13th, 2024 marked the 210th anniversary of the failed British attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Well-known is the story of amateur poet Francis Scott Key, who, while on a diplomatic mission, was detained by the British aboard his ship in the Patapsco River and watched the 25-hour bombardment unfold (Figure 1).
As dawn broke, a fearful Key rejoiced upon seeing “that our flag was still there.” The great garrison flag flying triumphantly over the fortress indicated the Americans had not surrendered; the British would not land troops, and Baltimore - and perhaps the young nation - was saved.
Figure 1: A view of the bombardment of Fort McHenry by JOhn Bower, 1814. The morning after the battle, Francis Scott Key saw the proud and defiant American Flag still flying above the beleaguered fort. Image courtesy of the Maryland Center for History and Culture.
Deeply affected by the stirring sight of the 30 ft. x 42 ft. “star-spangled banner,” Francis Scott Key penned a deeply moving poem on the back of a letter about what had witnessed. Within a week, Key’s words appeared in print titled “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” with instructions that they should be sung to the tune of a British melody, “Anacreon in Heaven.” Soon renamed “The Star Spangled Banner,” it quickly became a much-beloved patriotic song. Despite its popularity, it was not until 1931 that the United States Congress recognized the “Star Spangled Banner” as the nation’s official anthem [1].
Figure 2: William Hemsley, esq., painted 1802 by Robert Fields (American (born in England), 1769-1819). field had previously painted Hemsley’s half-sister Henrietta Maria in 1799. Image Courtesy Thomas Edgar.
While “The Star Spangled Banner” is by far Francis Scott Key’s most famous poem, it was far from his only.
Key was a family friend and related to the Hemsleys by marriage. Key developed a close friendship with William Hemsley, Esq., the eldest son of Colonel Hemsley (Figure 2).
Both men were of similar age and trained as lawyers. They shared deep religious convictions and, at one time, considered becoming Episcopal priests. The pair also found common ground on the issue of slavery, which both believed to be immoral.
A collection of Key’s poems was published in 1857, after his death, and released nationally (Figures 3 and 4). Many of Key’s other poems had religious themes that were used a Christian Hymns. Notably, the volume included a piece written in memory of his friend William Hemsley, Esq. that he penned some three decades earlier as an epitaph for Hemsley’s gravestone (Figure 5).
Figure 3: The Title page from Poems of The Late Francis S. Key.
Key’s brother-in-law, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, wrote the introduction. The same year Taney delivered the majority opinion in the Dred Scott Decision.
Figure 4: Francis Scott Key’s poem written in memory of his late friend William Hemsley Esq. Image Courtesy Maryland Center for History and Culture.
The text of that poem reads:
Here lies a man whose life proved and adorned
The faith by which he walked. By all esteemed,
By many loved, hated or feared by none,
He moved, secluded from the world's vain gaze,
Within a narrow, but a glorious sphere
Of Christian duty, shedding love and peace
Around his path, where many an eye that once
Beheld and blessed him, now is dim with tears.
Reader! if thou dost know the grace of God,
Thank Him for this His gift; and pray that thou
May'st live, like Hemsly, to thy Maker's praise,
And, like him, die with steadfast hope in Christ,
The victor, not the victim, of the grave!
A widower and childless, upon his death in 1825, William’s final arrangements fell to Anna Maria Earle Forman, the young widow of William’s late nephew, Ezekiel M. Forman. Anna and Ezekiel’s sons, William H. and Ezekiel T. M., were the heirs to Cloverfields.
Anna, or perhaps Key, at her request, changed the first two lines to a personal expression of love for the father figure whose home she had shared with her husband and young sons. The rest of the poem remained as Key wrote it. The verse was carved upon Hemsley’s original ledger stone and its replacement, both of which lie in the family cemetery at Cloverfields.
Figure 5: William Hemsley, Esq.’s current ledger stone was placed on top of the deteriorated original stone during an early-2000s cemetery repair and restoration effort. Both the original and the replacement stone bear Key’s poem. Photo by Sherri Marsh Johns.
[1] Smithsonian Institution, “The Real Story Behind the Star-Spangled Banner, the Flag That Inspired the National Anthem,” smithsonianmag.com/history/real-story-behind-star-spangled-banner-flag-inspired-national-anthem-149220970/
Garden Notes
The weather remains warm and Cloverfields’ pollinators remain busy with end-of-season activities. A few of them were willing to pause for photographs.
Photos by Sherri Marsh Johns.