Bel Alton, Maryland (MD), United States

Facts & Statistics
Place Name	Bel Alton
Pronunciation	BELL AWL-ton
Place Status (Type)	village
Location	Charles County, Maryland (MD), United States, North America
Latitude	unknown
Longitude	unknown

Bel Alton (BELL AWL-ton), village, Charles co., S Md., 30 mi/48 km S of Wash., D.C. St. Ignatius Church (c.1790; open to public) and St. Thomas Manor (closed) are bldgs. of a Jesuit mission established on the Port Tobacco River to “Christianize” Indians. Lord Baltimore, anxious to avoid the appearance of establishing an R.C. state, used the old (c.1279) Statute of Mortmain to keep the Jesuits from buying land as a religious order. The society circumvented the law by registering the land as individuals. The manor house “palace” was begun in 1741, burned by the British in 1781, and rebuilt. The view here of the Tobacco and Potomac rivers was described in 1784 as “the most majestic, grand and elegant in the whole world.” When the Jesuit order was suppressed by the Catholic Church in 1773, a “Corporation of Roman Catholic Gentlemen” took possession of the property. The Jesuits obtained title again in 1805. After assassinating Lincoln in 1865, John Wilkes Booth hid in the woods here before fleeing to Virginia. Experienced growth in 1890s after Pope Creek RR was built. Nearby are Zekiah Swamp and Charles County Fairgrounds.