FEDERAL TIME PERIOD

Loyalist to Patriot, Two Wars with the British 1776-1822

George Plater III did decide to join the Patriot cause shortly before the Declaration of Independence was signed and was a member of the 2nd Continental Congress from 1778-1780. He helped to draft the first Maryland Constitution and became the sixth governor of the State of Maryland only serving the last three months of his life.

By the 1790’s, Sotterley had an enslaved population of at least 93 persons. Sotterley passed to George Plater IV.  With his death in 1802 it fell under the oversight and management of his brother, John Rousby Plater, as guardian to young George Plater V. During the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Sotterley lost much of its labor force as a result of enslaved running to and fighting alongside the British. With this loss of labor combined with economic depression and generations of accumulated debt, George Plater V sold Sotterley in 1822 to William Clarke Somerville.]