National Register Listing

Brecknock

a.k.a. Howell's Mill Seat

0.5 mi. N of Camden off U.S. 13, Camden, DE

Brecknock is a well-preserved eighteenth century house, which has remained in the same family for more than two centuries. On the property is a mill seat of considerable local importance. The history of Brecknock can be traced from an unfulfilled economic venture during the seventeenth century to a successful milling enterprise which remained in one family for more than one hundred and sixty years.

The six-hundred-acre tract called Brecknock was granted to Alexander Humphrey in 1680. It lay along Isaac's Branch between the Dover River and Betty Smith's Branch, a distance of about two miles. The land changed hands in 1682 and again in 1685. Daniel Toaes, who purchased the tract, called himself a mariner and cited England as his home. In payment for the land, he gave one white servant and 4000 pounds of tobacco in casks. At the time he purchased Brecknock, he also took up the tract Reserve, to the east, making a total holding of one thousand acres.

He already owned twelve hundred acres on Tidbury Branch and Toaes continued to buy contiguous land in the area, including the Smyrna, Geneva, Shoemaker Hall and Dundee tracts. Whatever his plans may have been, he succeeded only in establishing a dam and water mill near the present Moore's Lake. The original house at Brecknock apparently was crudely built and perhaps served as temporary shelter, or for an overseer. After assembling such a large holding, Toaes did not settle on the property. He settled instead in Maryland, where he died in 1696 while still in possession of three tracts in the Dover area.

The Brecknock tract was sold in 1724 by Toaes' administrator to Andrew Caldwell, a land speculator. It is not known who lived on the property from 1697 until 1740. John Hill, a millwright, bought part of the property, including a mill seat and the house site for 10 pounds. In 1746, the house site was sold to John Clayton, Jr. In this deed, a residence was mentioned. From this evidence, it appears that Hill built some part of the house.
John Clayton, Jr. and later James Clayton, who reunited the tract, were responsible for the development of the mill-seat. John Clayton, Jr. owned another mill nearby; in 1750 he sold the Brecknock property to his brother James. During his ten-year tenure there, James may have constructed the first frame addition to the house.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.