The History of New Nithsdale
On a bluff overlooking the Wicomico River, about four miles downstream from Salisbury with Rockawalkin Creek on the right, sits a small brick houser known as New Nithsdale. One of the most remarkable features of New Nithsdale is the glaze on the bricks. The purple headers blaze in the sun like deep amethysts, and the pale salmon of the bricks provides a background which makes this house gleam like a Byzantine mosaic.
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In 1730 Captain Levin Gale, whose house this was, sailed into Bermuda for food and water. He found the natives in revolt and a family engaged him to carry them away from the island. That night their baggage went aboard accompanied by a boy of four and a girl of six. The children knew their names only as John and Frances, but the name of North appeared on a trunk and in some books. The parents failed to board and Captain Gale was finally forced by a threatened attack to sail without them. He brought the children home to his new house.
At the first opportunity he returned to Bermuda but could find no trace of anybody belonging to the children. So John and Frances North grew up in their foster father's house. John was lost at sea as a young man and Frances married Captain William Murray, a Scottish seaman who named this house after his native Nithsdale. From them descended William Murray Stone, who became the third Episcopal Bishop of India in 1830.
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In 1886 John Oscar Freeney inherited the farm. It is said that Mr. Freeney married a lady from Baltimore who was so homesick that she spent all her time looking out the windows toward her native city. Mr. Freeney stood this as long as he could, and then had the windows removed in order to stop her moping. In proof of this, all the windows on the western side of the house have been bricked up.
The New Nithsdale Manor House in 2018
The front door of New Nithsdale is shaded by a large branch maple tree planted by one of the first families. A hall bisecting the house has an entrance to one room on the right at the front of the stairs, and a door opposite opens into another large room on the first floor. The room on the right has an unusual and large fireplace; the other has a smaller one.
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The original oyster shell and horse hair plaster is in the guest bedroom. Hand-worked and hand-pegged pine paneled doors still hang. The panelling and flooring in the small blue bedroom on the second floor and the stairway needed little restoration. The steps, railing and spindles of the stairway are original. The addition and the restoration were done in 1957 by Otis and Elizabeth Esham.
Pemberton Park
Pemberton Hall-an 18th century neighbor- In 1726 Isaac Handy purchased 960 acres of undeveloped land from Joseph Pemberton. Isaac was a planter and a ships’ Master and became one of Salisbury founding fathers. He built Pemberton Hall in 1741 a few years after Captain Levin Gale built New Nithsdale circa 1735.
To learn more about this history and Pemberton Park go to www.pembertonpark.org
