• young visitor petting horse

    Oxon Cove Park & Oxon Hill Farm

    Maryland

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  • Changes to Visitor Service due to Sequestration

    Due to mandatory, across-the-board budget cuts, some visitor services in this park have changed. Please check the Plan Your Visit section for more information.

Dr. & Mrs. Debutts

the debutts
Dr. Samuel DeButts, his wife, Mary Welby owned the Mount welby property from 1805 to 1843.
Artist: St. Memin. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.
 

Samuel DeButts was born in Ireland in 1756. He began his career as a doctor in England and there he met and married his wife, Mary Welby, in 1785. Samuel's practice was difficult, unprofitable, and kept the couple apart for weeks. Like hundreds of thousands of other European families, Samuel and Mary decided to immigrate to the United States to make a better life for their family.

Twenty years after the DeButts family arrived in America, Samuel signed a deed for a 206 acre land that is known today as Oxon Hill Farm. Samuel, however, named the new family home Mount Welby, in honor of his wife's family, and spent the rest of his days there. Samuel's grandchildren sold the property in 1843.

Did You Know?

white farm house

The white farm house at Oxon Hill Farm was known as Mount Welby in the early 1800s.  In 1891, Saint Elizabeths Hospital acquired Mount Welby and renamed it Godding Croft. The white farm house is the oldest structure in the park.