Harry Dorsey Gough (28 January 1745 – 8 May 1808) was a prominent 18th-century merchant, planter, and patron of the fledgling

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, in the early United States.

Family and estate

Harry's father was the English merchant Thomas Gough, who emigrated to the United States prior to the outbreak of its

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

against Britain. As his new home was near Patapsco Ferry and his new wife had extensive holdings in the

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

, Thomas would later side with the revolutionaries against the Crown.Williams, T.J.C. & al. ''History of Frederick County, Maryland'', Vol. 1
pp. 940 ff.
Regional Publishing Co. (Baltimore), 1967. Thomas had already married the American Sophia Dorsey, who bore him Harry on January 28, 1745, in

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

. In addition to his father's wealth, Harry inherited £70,000 at a young age and became a successful merchant.Kief, Sean.
The Historic Perry Hall Mansion
". 2009. Accessed 20 October 2013. 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 along the Great Gunpowder River northeast of Baltimore.Vlach, John. ''The Planter's Prospect: Privilege and Slavery in Plantation Paintings''
pp. 56 ff.
UNC Press (Chapel Hill), 2002. Much of this was Corbin Lee's

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

Marks, David. ''The Historical Marker Database''.
Harry Dorsey Gough Marker
2008. Accessed 20 October 2013. The Adventure, which Gough purchased for £5,000 in 1774 from Archibald BuchananKief, Sean & al. ''Perry Hall Mansion''
p. 13
Arcadia Publishing, 2013. after Corbin's death in 1773. He renamed it Perry Hall in honor of his family's

ancestral home An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

and completed construction of its 16-room manor in 1776. Many years later, modern Baltimore's Bel Air Road (

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

) was known as "Gough's Road" or "Perry Hall Road".

Methodism and American Revolution

In 1771, the 26-year-old Gough married the 18-year-old Prudence Carnan, sister of future

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Charles Ridgely Charles Carnan Ridgely (December 6, 1760July 17, 1829) was born Charles Ridgely Carnan.Gerson G. Eisenberg, ''Marylanders Who Served the Nation: A Biographical Dictionary of Federal Officials from Maryland'' (Annapolis: Maryland State Archives, ...

. While her husband held raucous parties, she followed the lead of her aunt Rebecca Dorsey RidgelyBeirne, Francis F. ''The Amiable Baltimoreans''
pp. 133 ff.
E.P. Dutton & Co. (New York), 1951. Reprinted JHU Press (Baltimore), 1984. in befriending

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Francis Asbury Francis Asbury (August 20 or 21, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. During his 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States, he devoted his life to ...

, the "Father of American

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

". In 1775, Gough attended a Methodist camp meeting in Baltimore with his friends for the purpose of mocking the attendees; instead, he found himself moved and contemplating the meaning of his life and even suicide.Melton, Gordon J. ''A Will to Choose: The Origins of African-American Methodism''
pp. 129 ff.
Rowman & Littlefield ( Lanham), 2007. He subsequently joined his wife in supporting them,Marks, David. ''The Historical Marker Database''.
Harry Dorsey Gough Marker
2009. Accessed 20 October 2013. befriending Asbury in March 1776 and building first a cabin and then the Camp Meeting ChapelWarfield, J.D. ''The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland: A Genealogical and Biographical Review from Wills, Deeds, and Church Records''
pp. 65 ff
Heritage Books, 1905.Marks, David.
Camp Chapel Marker
. 2008. Accessed 20 October 2013. off Perry Hall's eastern wing. Perry Hall was also where Asbury and Thomas Coke planned the

Christmas Conference The Christmas Conference was an historic founding conference of the newly independent Methodists within the United States held just after the American Revolution at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1784. Prior to the revolution, ...

which established American Methodism in 1784.Andrews, p. 102. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, Gough was a Nonjuror who declined to swear the oath of allegiance to the rebel government.Papenfuse, Edward Jr. "The 'Amending Fathers' and the Constitution: Changing Perceptions of Home Rule and Who Should Rule at Home" in ''The South's Role in the Bill of Rights''
p. 72
Univ. Press of Mississippi (

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

), 2009. 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 Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cro ...

sympathies. Swearing the oath of allegiance was a necessary condition of leading a lawful religious assembly.)

Postwar

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 The Federalist Party was a Conservatism in the United States, conservative political party which was the first political party in the United States. As such, under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801. De ...

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, 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 The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late eighteenth century. The breed was developed as dual-purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however, certain blood lines within the breed always emp ...

bulls to America.Goff, Phillip. ''The Four Goff Brothers of West Virginia: A New Perspective on Their Lives''
pp. 65 ff
Masthof ( Morgantown), 2003.

Slave holdings

In this early period, Gough was one of the largest owners of slaves in Maryland, with around 70.Andrews
pp. 130 ff
Gough credited his own conversion to 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 Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

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 servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an " indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment ...

s). 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; 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 the terms of their indentured servants' contracts in the event of runaways.Whitman, T. Stephen. ''The Price of Freedom: Slavery and Manumission in Baltimore and Early National Maryland''
pp. 86 ff.
University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1997.

Death

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 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 the executor of his father-in-law's estate. The related papers are maintained by the

Maryland Historical Society The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...

.''Maryland Historical Society''.
Carroll-Maccubbin Papers, 1644–1888, MS. 219
. 2001. Accessed 23 October 2013.

Legacy

* The Belair Road bridge over the Great Gunpowder River was named in his honor in 2004. * In 2013, Gough Park opened in Perry Hall.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gough, Harry Dorsey 1745 births 1808 deaths People from Annapolis, Maryland American planters American merchants Methodists from Maryland People from Baltimore County, Maryland American slave owners