Barnes Compton - Early Life

Early Life

Barnes Compton was born on November 16, 1830, in Port Tobacco, Charles County, the son of William Penn Compton (?-1838) and Mary Clarissa (Barnes) Compton (?-1833). Both parents had strong connections to the history of southern Maryland and its leading families in Charles and St. Mary's counties. (Barnes Compton was able to trace his ancestry to politician Philip Key, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1779 to 1790, who was a maternal great-grandfather.).

Born into wealth on his family's plantation, Barnes Compton was orphaned when young. His mother died when he was three, and five years later he lost his father. His maternal grandfather John Barnes became guardian of Compton, the only child of the marriage. After Barnes died in 1843, Compton at age 13 was sole heir to both the Compton and Barnes' estates. (Use Compton for the primary subject.) These totaled eight properties that provided an income of over $5300 per annum by the time Barnes came of age. When he took possession of his inheritance in 1851, he became the second largest slaveholder in Charles County.

The young Compton saw family members bicker over guardianship and inheritance. Two months after his grandfather died, Compton petitioned the Orphans Court of Charles County for guardianship to pass to his maternal uncle, Richard Barnes, rather than to his paternal uncle Wilson P. Compton. At age 14, Barnes Compton testified that he had

"since his earliest infancy been in constant association with Richard Barnes and become attached to him, while to his other relations who have applied for his Guardianship a comparative stranger ... and he could hardly think that thus applying they can be activated by any regard for the interests of the petitioner."

Richard Barnes was a judge in the Orphans Court. With his wife Mary, the couple raised three children of their own and took in at least five others, many near the young Compton's age. When the court overruled Barnes Compton’s plea and granted guardianship to Wilson Compton, the boy fought against the ruling. His case was dismissed by the Maryland Court of Appeals.

Compton moved with his appointed guardian Wilson Compton and his family to Rosemary Lawn, a plantation inherited from Barnes' mother in the Hill Top District, Charles County. Along with his uncle, aunt and cousin, his paternal grandmother Elizabeth Penn Compton resided on Compton's estate. Wilson immediately set to improving his nephew's properties. Over the next five years, he frequently petitioned the Orphans Court for permission to use part of Compton's income for supplies and contractors to that end. The additional properties owned by Compton were: Rosemary Lawn, Muncasters, Hill Top, Green Wood Farm, Rog's Cold, and Chimney House in Port Tobacco; and another plantation in Charles County large enough to have two separate houses for tenants.

The elder Wilson Compton further protected his nephew's inheritance in court actions. He filed a caveat against John Barnes' will on behalf of ward Compton, declaring that non compos menti (mental incompetence) negated John Barnes' last testament and that all property should pass to Compton. In fact, his will left almost the entire estate to his grandson Barnes Compton, excepting $500 to William C. Barnes and the value of two slaves who were manumitted, thus taking them out of the property of the estate.

After disputing the grandfather's will, Wilson Compton turned to Compton's inheritance from his mother. A pecuniary legacy of $3000 from Samuel Bond to his grandniece, Mary Barnes Compton, was placed in the hands of John Barnes, executor of Samuel Bond and guardian of his daughter. In 1845 Wilson Compton filed in the Court of Chancery for this legacy to pass to his ward Compton. The defendants claimed that the late William P. Compton, Mary's husband, had already spent the money. The Chancery Court ruled that Compton was entitled to relief, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the decree (Crain vs. Barnes, 1845; Barnes vs. Crain, 1849).

While his uncle waged legal battles, the young Compton was groomed as a Southern gentleman. At age fourteen, he entered Charlotte Hall Military Academy. He boarded there for the next four years, returning in summers to Rosemary Lawn. His uncle gave him an allowance for clothes and spending money each year, from which he also bought a horse. In December 1847 the court awarded $700 annually for the young man's education at Princeton College, New Jersey. Compton graduated from Princeton with an A.B. degree in 1851.

Compton returned to Charles County to take over his inheritance. Wilson Compton's improvement of his estate paid off. Between 1847 and 1851, the income from the Compton properties more than doubled.