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Coxby's Estates Section III a community in Edgewater, Maryland just south of Annapolis, Maryland midway between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington D.C., is situated in an area rich in history on the shores of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.
Edgewater, Maryland located at latitude 38.956 North and longitude 76.55 West, is in the Eastern Standard Time zone, our mean Elevation is 43 feet above sea level.
Adjacent to our community of Coxby’s Estates Section III to our north and across the South River lays
Annapolis Maryland, our State Capital.
Annapolis, Maryland first established in the early 1700's (and originally named "Providence" by its early puritan settlers) is most widely known as being the the home of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis City Dock, St John’s College, and many historic buildings and homes (Annapolis has more original 18th Century homes and buildings than any other city on the east coast of the United States) many of these homes can be found on the National Register of Historic Places, throughout Annapolis’ cobblestone streets.
Nearby our community of Coxby's Estates Section III on the Mayo Peninsula, are located many other historic homes and communities, including the Gresham House a historic home here in Mayo. The Gresham House a large 2 1/2-story frame dwelling built by John Gresham II in 1686 on land originally owned by "land-grant pioneer" Captain Edward Selby.
Located in Selby on the Mayo peninsula, the "Gresham House" and adjacent plantation was once owned by the Pirate William Cotter as well as assorted members of Colonel Nicholas Gassaway's family (his daughter Jane having married Cotter), including the sons of Captain John Gassaway, Lord High Sheriff of Annapolis. The Gresham family continued to own the house on rented Gassaway land (known as Cotter's Desire).
The Gresham House is most widely associated with Commodore Isaac Mayo, a Naval Hero of the Mexican American war, who received the house from his uncle who had purchased the property and house from the Cotter/Gassaway heirs around 1765.
Commodore Mayo occupied this property from the early 19th century until his controversial death in 1861 at the dawn of the Civil war he openly opposed. The Gresham House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Just south and west of our community can be found the historic town of London Town. London town was founded in 1683 by an act of the Maryland General Assembly to help promote the trading of tobacco and encourage settlement along the Chesapeake Bay.
London Town has become known as one of Maryland’s most notable and rich historical archeological dig’s over the last several years, most notably being the abundant unearthing of clay and ceramic cookware and pipes found buried deep in the rich soils of London Towns gardens.
London Town became important because of trade. Ships full of merchandise from Europe and the Caribbean arrived here in the fall to fill the many stores that had emerged in town. With their ships anchored in the South River, captains and crews would wait for the arrival of the year’s tobacco crop for the voyage home in the spring.
To supply the needs of merchants, planters, sailors, and ships’ captains in the town, tradesmen settled in the London Town area. Rope and coopers, cordwainers, carpenters, and ship builders all practiced their trades in the busy port. London Town which was located on the “main road” from Charleston, South Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts.
With water too deep to cross and too wide to build a bridge, two ferries were established to take travelers across the South River. The ferry that once operated at the bottom of Scott Street was the twelfth and final ferry crossing on the trip from Williamsburg to Annapolis. Many people used these ferries including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, in the late 1730’s, London Town was a thriving and successful seaport.
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