Autre - St. Mary’s Plantation

Autre - St. Mary’s Plantation. Home of Caleb Polleckefield Litton: 1720-1763. , Caleb Litton’s “Plantation” , , The Headstones in this cemetery are what remain of a family graveyard begun by Caleb Litton and his descendants on a 472-acre farm. Litton was one of the very first settlers of what today is Rockville. For his service in the Royal Dragoons, he was rewarded with two land patents for his service. A patent was awarded in 1720 for 405 acres, which he named “Autra” or “Autry” after his family ancestral home in Devon, (which was called “Autre St. Marie,” or “Ottery.”) The other was for 67 acres in 1727, called “St. Mary’s,” which today includes the site of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The property was bounded by Rock Creek on the east, what is today Veirs Mill Road on the south, by Baltimore Road on the north and extended to what is now Rockville Pike. , , The Caleb Litton home was a two story frame house with log planks, standing between the sites of Meadow Hall Elementary School and the former Broome Junior High building. Caleb Litton was a founder, warden and vestryman of St. Paul’s Church, Rock Creek Parish in the District of Columbia. He was a founder of the Chapel of Ease across Baltimore Road in what is today Rockville Cemetery. He married Grace Burton in 1723 and they had nine children. He died in 1763 and is believed to have been buried in this graveyard. , , The cemetery and park, now called Tweed Park, are owned by the City of Rockville. Earlier, the cemetery had other names: Litton Family Cemetery, Summers’ Cemetery and Willow Tree Graveyard. While none of the remaining stones had legible names, a report on tombstones dated in 1917 showed these names: Mary and Charles Crabb, Thomas Linstid, John L. Summers, J. N. Summers and Ann Marie Wilson. Mrs. Crabb, the Summers and Mrs. Wilson were part of the Litton family. The family name is spelled variously in records and wills as Litton, Liton, Lytton, Lutton, and Letton. , , Placed here by the City of Rockville with the assistance of Blair Ewing, a Litton descendant, 2004.