rdens were terraced down to the creek behind.

On one of the outlying plantations Sir Thomas King also established
the little village of Kingston, of which he built and owned every
house. He brought hither settlers, but the little place did not
thrive. Plantation life and proprietary ownership were not conducive
to the growth of cities. As the old settlers died out the houses were
abandoned, and the post office was removed to a corner of the Hall
plantation, then known as Kingston Corner. A new settlement grew up
there, and since emancipation has changed the conditions of life it
has grown and thriven. It is now a promising little place of 250
inhabitants. It has assumed to itself the name of the older village
and is known as Kingston on the present maps.

At the Hall Sir Thomas King established his family residence. Here he
lived and here his wife died, leaving but one child, a daughter,
heiress to these wide estates, the future mother of Governor Thomas
King Carroll and the grandmother of Anna Ella Carroll, whose
interesting career is the subject of our present relation.

Through all the early history of Maryland the contests between
Catholic and Protestant form one of its most conspicuous features.
Early settled by Lord Baltimore, a Catholic proprietary, his followers
were at once involved in a struggle with still earlier settlers at
Kent Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, and the Protestants who followed,
while condemning Catholicism as a rule of faith, associated it also
with the doctrine of divine right and arbitrary rule. Bitter contests
followed. The most active minds of the Colony enrolled themselves
enthusiastically in the opposing parties.

St. Mary's, a little town on the western side of the Chesapeake, was
the ancient capital of the State and the headquarters of Catholicism.

Sir Thomas King, on his side, was a staunch Presbyterian. This
household was strictly ruled in conformity to his faith, and by
liberal contribution and personal influence he was largely
instrumental in building the first Presbyterian meeting-house, at the
little town of Rehoboth, a few miles from his own domain, a great
barn-like structure of red brick, which remains to this day. The
marriage of Miss King with her cousin, young Mr. Armstead, of
Virginia, the ward of Sir Thomas King, was an event that had been
planned for in both families, and was looked forward to with great
satisfaction on all sides.

One may well imagine, then, th