Richland Farm (Clarksville, Maryland)
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Richland Farm
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Richland Farm, Main House, May 2014
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| Location | 4730 Sheppard Ln., Clarksville, Maryland |
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| Coordinates | 39°14′40″N 76°56′45″W / 39.24444°N 76.94583°WCoordinates: 39°14′40″N 76°56′45″W / 39.24444°N 76.94583°W |
| Area | 132.75 acres (53.72 ha) |
| Built | 1719 |
| Architect | Turnbull, Bayard (1919-20 changes) |
| Architectural style | Colonial, Colonial Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 08000217 |
| Added to NRHP | March 26, 2008 |
Richland Farm is a historic home and farm complex located at Clarksville, Howard County, Maryland, United States. The main house is a log and frame house, the earliest section of which is presumed to date from 1719. The main block comprises three sections, with a large addition on the rear added in 1920. It features a one story shed-roofed wrap-around porch supported by 22 Doric order columns. Also on the property are the Overseer's/Superintendent’s House, Gardener’s Cottage, wagon shed, tractor shed and smokehouse with board-and-batten siding, a bank barn, a stone spring house and “Barrack.”
Richland was originally part of "Altogether," a land grant surveyed on May 10, 1719 by Thomas Worthington and his brother-in-law, Henry Ridgely. A small portion of Richland was also part of "Worthington's Range." Thomas Worthington left 300 acres of Altogether and 63 acres of Worthington's Range to his daughter, Ariana Worthington Watkins, who was married to Nicholas Watkins, Jr. Thomas Worthington's will, dated January 9, 1752 and proved after his death in 1753, indicates that Ariana's inheritance was already part of a plantation established by her husband. Ariana divided her holdings among her three sons, John, Nicholas and Gassaway. Richland was part of Gassaway Watkins's inheritance. Gassaway Watkins returned to Richland to live after his service in the American Revolutionary War.
The current boundaries of Richland were set in 1801. It shares its northeast border with the original boundary of Doughoregan Manor, patented to Charles Carroll the Settler on 7,000 acres and later expanded to 10,000 acres. Doughoregan Manor served as the summer home of his grandson, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence and the only Catholic to do so. Like Richland, Doughoregan remains in the original family today.
Gassaway Watkins, born in 1752, was a president of the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland and, when he died in 1840, he was the last surviving member of the Maryland Old Line (General George Washington reportedly referred to the Maryland Line as the "Old Line" due to the quality and length of their service during the Battle of Long Island.). He was one of the Maryland 400. Colonel Watkins served under General William Smallwood at Long Island and at the Battle of Cowpens, among other engagements. Colonel Watkins was married three times: first to Sarah Jones, who died within a year without issue from the marriage; then, to Ruth Dorsey, with whom he had Gassaway, Bonaparte, Thomas, Turenne, Charlotte and Ann Watkins; and, following Ruth's death, he married Elenora Bowie Clagett on April 26, 1803, with whom he had Caroline Lyles Watkins (1804-1896), Camsadel Bowie Watkins (1805-1842), Eleanor Clagett Watkins (1807-1868), Amanda Watkins (1809 - ), Elizabeth Louise Watkins (1815 - ), Priscilla Agnes Watkins (1817-1893), Margaret Gassaway Watkins (1819-1896), Albina Charlotte Watkins (1822-1899), William Washington Watkins (1810-1880) and John Sebastian Watkins (1813-1893).
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