Hollingsworth family papers

The Hollingsworths were a prominent family of landowners, merchants, and public officials based in Cecil County, Maryland. Henry Hollingsworth (1658-1721) arrived in Philadelphia from Ireland in 1683 and embarked on a career in public service for the colony of Pennsylvania. In 1711, he removed to the “Head of Elk” (now Elkton) in Maryland and the following year he was commissioned surveyor of Cecil County by Lord Baltimore. His son Zebulon (1696-1763) purchased land situated at the confluence of the Little Elk and Big Elk Rivers and established the Hollingsworth family home known as Elk Landing.

Levi Hollingsworth (1765-1822) was born at Elk Landing to Zebulon Jr. (1735-1811) and Mary Evans. He moved to Baltimore to engage in both domestic and foreign shipping with his father and brothers, Robert (1764-1845) and William (1780-1844). Around 1811, Levi established the Gunpowder Copper Works located along the Big Gunpowder Falls in Baltimore County, Maryland. The second oldest copper works in America, the factory operated until 1858 and received national recognition after the War of 1812 when it supplied the copper sheathing to rebuild the dome on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Levi also served as a public official for the state of Maryland. He sat for Cecil County in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1795 to 1799 and also represented the Western Shore in the state Senate from 1811 to 1816. Levi married Ann Sword Dorsey (1787-1861) of Philadelphia in 1812 and they had five children. He died in Baltimore, September 2, 1822.