John, Mike:  Thank you for clarifying this.  I imagine most of Crisfield didn't know this data. I sure do appreciate your research! va-roots@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 7:51:25 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: Re: [LDR] Apes Hole mike hilton <jmh963@hotmail.com> wrote: >My notes say Ape's Hole contained 250 Acres, on the South Side of the Annemesix River and on the North Side of Pocomoke Bay, originally patented by John White and assigned to Edward Furlong. July 7, 1679. ook and the original records rather than online images or abstracts. Emphatha2@comcast.net> To: lower-delmarva-roots@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [LDR] Wedgemussel Ridge? Apes Hole> > > > Mike, what was the date on patenting Apes Hole? Truthfully,as a child, I loved going there because of the sense of > > peacefulness, wondered once in a while why it was named that...then lately, I've really been curious. _______ This odd name for a well-known place is worth a discussion. In this case, the name Apes Hole is more likely figurative, or rather a use of the words “ape” and “hole” as a 17th century citizen would do.  A “hole” - as in fishing hole - was a term apparently novel to the early American colonies, applied to a quiet cove or an inlet.  The Oxford English Dictionary records it as early as the 1620s, and it came into common use from New England to the Carolinas.  In that same period (and from the time of Chaucer) “ape” was a common term for a fool.   So this simply looks like an amusing and gently self-deprecating title John White gave to his survey.  “FOOLS COVE” is essentially what White was calling it.  No animals involved, except in the sense that “ape” in this meaning ultimately hailed back to the primates.  Still, this is just my informed guess made some years ago as a fairly reasonable explanation, when mulling such things as fanciful tract names. The name also belongs to the creek which runs north from there toward Crisfield, and does apply roughly to the neighborhood.  The tract is on the west side of the inlet forming the mouth of the creek into Pocomoke Bay. Finally, the tract is described in MD Patents (21:050 and 21:051) as having been surveyed for White on 17 Jul 1679 for 250 ac.  He soon assigned it to Edward Furlong, who was granted patent on 02 Dec 1679.   There is no further mention of Furlong in association with it.  It is not among Francis Jenkins’ (partial) list of properties taxed in 1685.  On 20 Sep 1698 a special warrant of resurvey for Edward Furlong’s escheat APES HOLE was granted to Thomas Jones, the tract seemingly having been long- abandoned.  It was resurveyed as 200 acres for Jones on 08 Oct 1698, and patented for him on 01 Nov 1698 (Patents CC #4:145, 146).   By Jones’ will (MD Wills 11:164, made in 1700 and proved in 1701, it fell to his son John (a minor).  John (who became a shipwright) eventually moved to Dorchester and sold it to John Sterling in 1734 (So Deeds AZ:158). John *************************************** QUESTIONS about POSTING GUIDELINES, SUBSCRIBING or UNSUBSCRIBING? Visit The Lower DelMarVa Roots Mailing List FAQ: http://www.tyaskin.com/handley/ldrfaq.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message