Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry

Philadelphia: James Webster, 1818. Second Edition. Hardcover. Good. Corrected by the Author." 9. x 6 inches, old full brown calf, dark red leather spine label, good copy with some rubbing and wear to binding, some loss of leather to top inch of spine, contents good to very good. With early American bookplate of Joseph Wickes IV (1788-1864) of Chestertown MD. xv, 427 (12) pp. with frontispiece. Text clean and unmarked. Signed on the title page by Wickes. Colonel Joseph Wickes was born in Kent County in 1788, the son of Joseph and Mary Piner Wickes. He was a descendant of the Wickes family founded in Maryland by Major Joseph Wickes, who emigrated to America in 1650 when 30 years old. Major Wickes soon became a large landholder, a prominent public figure, and presiding judge of the Kent County Court. Colonel Wickes attended Washington College in Chestertown and after graduation began the study of law in the office of James Houston, who purchased Airy Hill (from Jonathan Harris in 1814) and who later became his brother-in-law. After his admission to the bar in 1810, Colonel Wickes began a successful practice in Chestertown. He served as deputy attorney general of Maryland for
Kent and Cecil counties until about 1850, when he retired from legal practice. During the War of 1812 he fought in the battle of Caulk's Field (1814); he was subsequently commissioned colonel of a regiment of the state militia, a commission he held for many years. At the start of the Civil War, Colonel Wickes was active in the organization
of a federally-sponsored militia for Kent County. The counties of Maryland, including Kent, had begun forming militia units in 1860 for protection against outside interference in their local affairs.