I've viewed the original document and (as an amateur graphologist and calligrapher) have compared the strokes of the handwriting to try to figure out our mystery word. In this 28-page document, this word appears only once, written by Justice of the Peace Thomas (?) Holland.
In looking at the Justice's handwriting, his capital M's begin with an arcade - a stroke that starts on the baseline, then curves up to make an arch. However, the first letter of the mystery word does the opposite. The stroke starts higher than the baseline, dips down to touch it, then swings back up and crests like a wave.
That dip is called a garland. Not many people nowadays start their capital N's that way, but it was common in 19th century writing.
The two uprights following the first letter are clearly crossed by a long, thin crossbar ...so these are two t's. There are several other examples on this document that are exactly the same.
All things considered, I think the mystery word could easily be Nottingham, even though there's not much evidence of a letter o. May I also say, this confusion could have been avoided if Mr William A Quynn had done his job correctly in 1840! He didn't fill in the blank for "District" on any of the pages. Previous Message
I'm no expert, but on this web site: http://catorfamily.com/genealogy/earlycators.html George Cator is said to have lived in Milingham, PGC, Maryland in 1840. In my 1878 atlas, George Cator is listed on page 22 in the Spaldings District (& in my 1861 map he's in the same location, though it appears on page 14). It looks like he lived between the Suitland and Silver Hill post offices (Silver Hill no longer has a post office). It looks like he lived off Silver Hill Rd. west of Suitland Rd. This area would probably be called Suitland today.
There is nothing about Milingham on this map or an 1861 map I have. It's possible that it was a small neighborhood with no post office, so it wasn't named on the map. It does appear to be fairly well populated for tose times and it's not far from the DC border.
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