Bill of Sale:  In 1994, Architectural Conservators examined the main block attic space of the Hammond-Harwood House like it had never been scrutinized before.  In the course of the investigation, a few significant paper documents were found both in a rat's nest and stuffed between attic timbers.  Given the fact that very little 19th century material relating to the house still survives, the discovery of these partially deteriorated papers was a true coup.  This example is a sales receipt from Claude & Hammond of Annapolis.  It is addressed to Miss Hester Loockerman and records her purchase of eight text books:  "Abbot's Young Christ ---- [illegible], ----- Of a Good Man, Britain's Apology, Pilgrims Progress, Summer on the Locke, ----- Richmond, ----Hymns, and Improvement of Society."  The most expensive of these volumes was the "Summer on the Locke"  priced at .94.  Miss Loockerman's total bill came to $5.25.  Unfortunately, the most germane details including the date of sale, had been gnawed away by mice--their tiny teeth marks still visible on the edges of the paper.  

Hester Ann's father, Richard Loockerman (1780-1834)Hester Ann Loockerman (Harwood):  On October 1, 1803,  Richard Loockerman and Frances Townley Chase, daughter of distinguished Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase, were married.  Born in 1807, Hester Loockerman was the young couple's third child.  In 1811, grandfather Chase purchased the house now referred to as  the Hammond-Harwood House from Ninian Pinkney Sr..  Chase put the house in trust for his daughter, so that she might live there with her ever-growing family--ultimately having the sole ownership rights to the lot and surrounding buildings.   Fannie would eventually have seven other children, but Hester seemed to be her favorite.  Today, a selection of the correspondence between Hester and her mother survives at the Maryland Historical Society.  Mother and daughter were separated sometime after Hester's marriage to William Harwood in 1834.  Married on November 20, 1834, William and Hester moved to Alabama to take charge of a Public School there.  The separation was clearly very difficult for both mother and daughter, especially during times of sickness.  In one letter dated July 16, 1837, Hester agonizes over the loss of her new babe from the measles:  

I never saw or could imagine so patient a little angel;  she would raise her little dear hands in such an imploring way and say 'make little Sally well Ma' and this she would repeat all the time I would be dressing her blister[s].  She soon became so much weakened as not to be able to walk and from that time when she was not on the bed she was either in her father's or my arms . . .She was the most affectionate and sensible child of her age I ever saw . . . I [would] gaze upon my child and wonder how I ever came to be blessed with such an one as she was but oh! my Mother my Heavenly Father has claimed her as his own . . . And how criminal does it not seem to wish her back in this world of sin and sorrow. . .when she expired her father and myself had been sitting one on each side of her holding her little hands and I shall never forget the look she gave him, she turned from me to him and appeared frightened and expecting help from him and expired with her little eyes fixed upon him." 

Mrs. Loockerman and her daughter remained miles apart until at least 1845.  Eventually, Hester and William returned to Annapolis and moved into the family mansion with Frances Townley Chase Loockerman.   William and Hester would soon give birth to the last surviving member of that lineage--Hester Ann Harwood. 

          BE SURE TO EXAMINE THE RAT'S NEST AND ITS CONTENTS IN DRAWER #3