Queen Anne, Prince George's County, Maryland - History

History

The town was created in 1706 when the colonial Maryland Legislature authorized surveying and laying out the towns of Queen Anne Town, Nottingham, Mill Town, Piscataway, Aire (also known as Broad Creek) and Upper Marlboro (then known as Marlborough Town).

Queen Anne's Town was created as part of a 1706 act "for the advancement of trade and erecting ports and towns in the Province of Maryland." The town grew to a population of about 150.

In 1747, the legislature tried to improve the quality and the method of marketing tobacco, then the major crop of the area, and established a formal system of tobacco inspection and quality control. A tobacco inspection station and warehouse was located on Hazelwood, then owned by Thomas Lancaster, one of the towns leading merchants. This was one of seven state tobacco warehouses built in Prince George's County. A horse racing track was also built in the town.

By the mid-18th century, upland farming in the Patuxent basin without erosion control led to massive silting of the river. The ports along the Patuxent quickly filled with silt and could no longer take in ocean-going vessels such as the snows that frequented the town. The last cargo ship left for England about 1790, and the town began to decline.

During the War of 1812, the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla commanded by Joshua Barney scuttled his entire fleet in the half dozen miles of river below Queen Anne to avoid the vessels being captured by the advancing British.