.
He resided nearby at the site of 3206 M. Street. Later on, in 1745,
George Gordon bought an estate for a permanent home; it is thought to
have been near Holy Rood Cemetery or near the Industrial Home School on
Wisconsin Avenue. After the death of his wife, George Gordon left his
Rock Creek Plantation, and went to live at "Woodyard" with Stephen West.

The will of George Gordon is dated May 10, 1766. At the time of his
death he had a son, John, and a daughter, who had married Tobias Belt.
To his son, John, "mariner," who was in the East India service, he
devised the dwelling house at Rock Creek Plantation on Goose Creek and
the waterside lot in Georgetown numbered 75.

In those days tobacco was, of course, the big crop, and an English
writer called it "the meat, drink, clothing, and money of the
colonists." Regulations were very strict in regard to the exportation of
tobacco.

Inspection houses for tobacco such as that of George Gordon were also
called Rolling Houses, from the fact that the hogsheads of tobacco had a
hole bored in each head and an axle run through from one end to another.
To this axle a shaft was attached, and drawn by a horse or an ox, so
rolled along over the rough roads of that time to their destinations.
Here was the one place in Frederick County for inspection; here was a
natural site for a town, and so came the demand for one.

On June 8, 1751 the Assembly of the Province of Maryland appointed
commissioners to lay out a town here in the county of Frederick, which
had been formed in 1748 from Prince Georges County. The first appointed
were: Captain Henry Wright Crabb, Masters John Needham, James Perrie,
Samuel Magruder III, Josiah Beall, David Lynn. Appointed as their
successors from time to time as vacancies occurred, were: Andrew Heugh,
1754; Robert Peter, 1757; John Murdock, 1766; Thomas Richardson, 1772;
William Deakins, Jr., 1772; Bernard O'Neill, 1782; Thomas Beall, of
George, 1782; Benj. Stoddert, Samuel Davidson, 1785; John Peter, 1789,
and Adam Steuart. The last named gave up his American citizenship and
went to Europe to live, as he was not in sympathy with the Revolution.
His land was confiscated by the State of Maryland. The Surveyors and
Clerks of the Commissioners were:

Alexander Beall, 1751-1757; Josiah Beall, 1757-1774; Robert
Ferguson, 1774, and Daniel Reintzel, 1774-1782.

Meetings were held in private houses through all the years until 1789,
when, at last, George