BCPL History and Genealogy - Perry Hall - Harry Dorsey Gough: The Founder of Perry Hall.
Skip Navigation
Graphics Version

The navigation path to this page is: Home > Web Resources > History and Genealogy > Baltimore County History > Perry Hall Area History > Harry Dorsey Gough: The Founder of Perry Hall.

Harry Dorsey Gough: The Founder of Perry Hall
by David Marks
Historian, Perry Hall Improvement Association

More than any other person, Harry Dorsey Gough dominated life in Perry Hall during the early history of the community. He owned most of the land, controlled local commerce, and built the mansion, high atop one of the town's steepest hills, which would give the community its identity. By almost any measure, Harry Dorsey Gough must be thought of as the founder of Perry Hall.

Harry Dorsey Gough (pronounced like "rough") was born on January 28th, 1745 in Annapolis. His family was steeped in aristocracy, social status, and wealth. Thomas Gough, his father, was from a wealthy English family, had immigrated to Maryland by 1745, and built a house a mile from Patapsco Ferry. His mother was Sophia Gough, daughter of the wealthy Caleb Dorsey of Hockley, on the Severn River. Harry Dorsey Gough was their only child.

In 1771, at the age of twenty-six, Gough married Prudence, the daughter of John Carnan and the sister of Charles Ridgely, a future governor. Prudence Carnan was eighteen years old. Between them, the Gough and Ridgely families would dominate county politics and commerce for a half-century.

In 1770, Gough began acquiring thousands of acres of land extending for three miles on both sides of present-day Belair Road. By 1775, shortly after the death of Corbin Lee, Gough had purchased "the Adventure," including the mansion which Lee was constructing before his death. Gough renamed his estate "Perry Hall," after his family's castle in Staffordshire, England. He was living in Perry Hall Mansion in 1774 when his horse, Garrick, won thirty pounds for Gough at a race in Joppa. A record of that race identifies the winner as "Harry Dorsey Gough of Perry Hall."

In March of 1776, Gough met Francis Asbury, an early leader of the Methodist Church in America. They became good friends, and later that year, the young minister converted Gough and his wife to Methodism. It was a defining moment in Gough's life. The sportsman and gentleman-farmer, who loved entertainment and his country estate, became a devout Methodist, more contemplative and deliberative in his actions. Gough actively supported the young Methodist movement, generously donating his wealth and property for the cause. In 1808, Asbury would write that "Mr. Gough had inherited a large estate from a relation in England, and having the means, he indulged his taste for gardening and the expensive embellishment of his country seat, Perry Hall, which was always open to visitors, especially those who feared God."

As the American Revolution approached, Methodists joined with Quakers and Dunkers to oppose the conflict on moral grounds. By this time, Harry Dorsey Gough's allegiance to the faith was unyielding. He refused to sign the Association of Freemen of Maryland, which asserted American independence from Great Britain. By refusing to declare allegiance to the United States of America, Gough became a "nonassociator," joining British loyalists and other pacifists who opposed the war. Although he objected to the American Revolution mainly on religious principles, Gough's family holdings in Great Britain would have compelled him to side with those opposing separation from England.

Gough was less consistent on the issue of slavery. Although methodists were active in the abolitionist movement, Gough was one of the largest slave holders in Baltimore County, owning 51 slaves in 1798. Through slavery, Gough was able to establish a business empire virtually unequalled in Baltimore County. According to tax records, his 1783 estate was valued at over 3,000 pounds, making him the wealthiest nonassociator surveyed in Baltimore County. In 1786, he was elected president of the Association of Tradesmen and Manufactures in Baltimore, which was charged with improving Maryland's rural economy.

While Gough opposed separation from England, he obviously had a stake in what form of government would take shape after the United States won independence from Great Britain in 1783. For that reason, Gough became active in the Federalist cause, which supported the proposed United States Constitution. The Constitution promised a strong federal government capable of protecting American trade from foreign competition. For merchants like Gough, the Constitution seemed absolutely necessary to guarantee the continued dominance of the upper class.

Gough ran as an unsuccessful Federalist candidate to the Constitutional convention in 1788. Years later, when the Antifederalist vote was splintered among several factions, Gough was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, serving from 1790 to 1793.

During his later life, Harry Dorsey Gough became active in numerous philanthropic causes. By 1806, he was serving on the board of trustees for St. Peter's School, a home for orphans in Baltimore. Gough had previously served on a commission, chartered by the Maryland General Assembly in 1773, to provide the state with its first Alms House, where poor families could receive shelter and food. Gough's humanitarian efforts were well-known throughout northeastern Baltimore County, where he regularly attended Methodist services and donated the funds to construct Camp Chapel church.

Harry Dorsey Gough's early life was marked by privilege and aristocratic embellishment. His later life was dedicated to public service, philanthropy, and the flourishing Methodist church. It seems only appropriate that Francis Asbury, who had converted Gough (and was the first bishop of the American Methodist Church), was at his side as he lay dying at the Perry Hall Mansion in 1808. His wife survived him by fourteen years. The Gough estate was inherited by Harry Dorsey Gough Carroll, their grandson, and remained in the family until 1875.

This page is provided by the Baltimore County Public Library, Towson, Maryland USA.
The text version of this page was last revised on 26 August 2008.
The graphics version of this page was last revised on 26 August 2008.
You are welcome to provide feedback.