Oxford History

The history and the culture of Oxford, Maryland have been shaped by the Chesapeake Bay’s waters that surround it on three sides. The peninsula’s temperate, fertile woodlands and bountiful waters supported Native American tribes, including Choptank and Nanticoke people. For generations, they set up their seasonal camps, fished, grew crops, and even buried their dead on this land. 

The earliest European explorers and settlers came in pursuit of profit. Their first plantations and fledgling communities in the region depended for their survival on the ability to grow crops and to ship them via reliable trade routes to and from Europe.

A place named “Oxford” first appeared on a European map in 1670. The original arrangement of its streets and building sites, preserved in the museum on a parchment plat dated 1707, remain nearly unchanged to this day. Although it would take decades for a fully functioning village to grow, the harbor immediately became the center of Colonial activity. A ferry service across the Tred Avon River, still in operation today, was established in 1683. By 1694, the Maryland legislature selected Oxford as one of only two official ports of entry (the other was Annapolis) for British and European vessels to the Maryland Colony. 

The first half of the 18^th century was an era of remarkable prosperity for Oxford. Trading companies from Great Britain established agents in Oxford to provide for the export of tobacco, lumber, and wheat from the surrounding plantations. According to customs officer Capt. Jeremiah Banning: “Oxford streets and Strands were covered by busy crowds ushering in commerce from almost every quarter of the globe. Seven or eight large ships were frequently seen at the same time.”

The most important of these trading firms was Foster Cunliffe & Co. of Liverpool. Robert Morris, their local “factor” became the town’s most successful and best remembered merchant, but the outbreak of the Revolutionary War brought a swift and devastating end to Oxford’s fortunes. On September 11, 1775, the last British ship departed from the harbor. It would be nearly 100 years before the community’s economy fully recovered. 

It was Chesapeake Bay’s rich bounty of oysters, clams, crabs, and fish that eventually fueled Oxford’s recovery. By the second half of the 19^th century, enormous fleets of tonging and dredging boats were hauling in tons of oysters. Black and White laborers filled packing houses in every cove and harbor, processing the catch for regional consumption and nationwide distribution. Oxford enjoyed an expansion of population, commerce, community services, churches, and schools, and the town became a destination for recreation and tourism, especially as city dwellers from Baltimore and Philadelphia sought to escape to more “salubrious” places. 

By the 1940s, however, marine diseases and rampant overfishing devastated the Bay’s oyster population, bringing a painful end to the industry that had anchored the town’s fortunes. 

Rather than wait for the next economic boom, Oxford’s residents focused on the preservation of their exceptional community. They have preserved the working waterfront, tree-lined streets, brick sidewalks, and fenced-in yards that had always been key to their town’s appeal. The survival of the village’s natural and built environment earned Oxford its designation as a National Historic District in 2005. Today, Oxford remains a highly desirable place to live and an appealing destination for visitors.