Can anyone identify a place named Skipton in Washington Co., MD?

Question

Leonard Wiest's earliest record of which I am certain is the 1793 baptism of a daughter in Washington County, MD, but he might be the same person as Leonard Weazer in Maryland's 1783 tax assessment for the county.  One thing that puzzles me (aside from the LNAB) is the local place name, listed in the State's tax assessment extract as Skipton.  The only Skipton I've found on MD maps is 150 miles away and on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay.

I've already searched vol. 2 of Thomas Williams's "History of Washington County Maryland".  I haven't found vol. 1, and I think someone named Scharf also wrote a Washington County history.  Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi Loretta.  Here's a 1783 vintage tax record from the area that says there was a district called Skipton or Shipton that was in the portion of the county that later split off and became Allegany County:

https://digital.whilbr.org/digital/collection/p16715coll50

Comments

And there's another document in Google books about history of the Leitersburg District that referes to a tract called Skipton-on-Craven (a new one on me!):

https://books.google.com/books?id=0vnvwvIicacC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Skipton+Washington+County+MD&source=bl&ots=ek7UGvizmb&sig=ACfU3U1R2OHjCiRjJIHDgG_iA_6am5O8mA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYycOS0oXvAhWMwFkKHbtdANEQ6AEwCHoECAcQAw#v=onepage&q=Skipton%20Washington%20County%20MD&f=false

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Thanks very much Dennis.  The links you shared led me eventually to a page belonging to The Cresap Society, which says that Shipton was sometimes written Skipton but has been renamed Oldtown.  Oldtown is about 15 miles east of Cumberland in Allegany Co., MD - in fact, almost as far east as you can go in the county, which means it's near the border with Washington Co.  However, it's still about 78 miles from where Leonhart Wiest/Leonard Weast lived in 1793.  Leonard "Weazer" disappears after 1783, which in fact is the one and only record of that name that I've been able to find anywhere in the U.S.  All that makes me think it more likely that he is the same person as the Washington Co. Leonard Weast.

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Thanks for the star Loretta.  FYI, I stumbled onto that Western Maryland Historical Library site accidentally while looking for land ownership records, and it seems to have quite a lot of obscure data buried in it.  You might want to make a note of it in a tickler file somewhere.

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You're welcome.  The site is a real find.  My husband and I both have lots of ancestors from western Maryland.  I've bookmarked it.