SUSSEX COUNTY DELAWARE
TOWER HILL OF LEWES
From an abstract of
Wilmington News Journal
by Lynn Parks
&
A book “History of Tower
Hill” by Ralph Prettyman
Tower Hill, a tract of
land north and a wee bit west of downtown Lewes, 475 acres, pert
wooded and part farm land,
in Rehoboth- Lewes Hundred.
The Duke of York granted it
to Daniel Browne in 1676.
Tower Hill lies southwest
of Canary Creek, is bisected by Black Oak Gut run which
flows from Old Mill, aka,
Coolspring Creek, right smack in the middle of “Hells Neck”
John Prettyman moved to
Sussex county in 1696 from Accomack county, Virginia,
on the Eastern Shore of
the Delmarva Peninsula, and bought 200 acres at Tower Hill.
The book by Prettyman is
from his concern over the future of this tract and he has hope
that development will not
disrupt the integrity of Tower Hill. Historian Hazel D.
Brittingham
of Lewes encouraged
Prettyman because of the lands history. Hazel is a member of
Groome
United Methodist Church of
Lewes that owns a big part of the Tower Hill tract.
Dr. John S. Prettyman
figures in the book as the owner and publisher of the first
Republican
Delaware newspaper, “
Peninsula News and Advertiser” . The doctor Prettyman and Ralph
are
third cousins four times
removed.
The doctor publisher,
was unpopular because of his position against slavery.
President Lincoln named Dr.
Prettyman U. S. Consul to Glasgow Scotland for his support
of anti slavery causes.
Others mentioned are
Harbeson Hickman, wealthy hardware-man, Sussex land owner,
Joel Hickman, well to do
farmer, and his wife, plump, sweet and gentle, wife Sarah.
Ralph Prettyman who was 36
in 1999, graduate of Sussex Central High School of
Georgetown and Eastern
College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, has wife Andrea, a son Zachary
and
daughter Alyssa.
Source: Wilmington News
Journal, Wednesday , 10 February, 1999. Abstracr by
Harrison H. Nassau.
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