WILLIAM TILGHMAN. 13 



he, of course, lost, when the old government ceased 

 to exist. He was now sixty years old, at the head 

 of a numerous family : he had a valuable estate la 

 Maryland, to which he was obliged to look for sup- 

 port. He therefore, determined to remove again to 

 that colony, now become an independent state, and 

 struggling with the rest for its political existence. 



In consequence of this new arrangement, William 

 Tilghman left Mr. Chew's office in December 1776, 

 and proceeded to Maryland, where some of his bro- 

 thers and sisters had preceded him. From that time 

 until the summer of 1799, he lived in great retirement 

 on an estate of his father's, in Queen Anne's county, 

 called the Forest, which estate, after his father's 

 death came to his share, and continued in his pos- 

 session until he died. During that period of two 

 years and a half, he pursued with ardour his favour- 

 ite studies. Jurisprudence, History, and the Belles 

 Letters. In the summer of 1779 he removed to 

 Chester Town, where his father had fixed his resi- 

 dence. And there, until the close of the revolutionary 

 war, in the year 1788, he continued his studies with 

 the same zeal and perseverance as he had done in his 

 former retreat ; and during those six years that he 

 spent at the Forest and at Chester Town, he became 

 intimately acquainted with the great writers of Greece 

 and Rome, and acquired that taste for ancient litera- 

 ture, which adhered to him to his last day. 



The family of Tilghman, it appears, entertained 

 different opinions on tlie great queytiou which at that 



