20 h 46 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 20 h 46 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a county line offers criminals more protection than the law gives their victims?
In The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times, George Alfred Townsend takes you to the Eastern Shore before the Civil War. Among its creeks, pine woods and marshes, Patty Cannon leads a gang that kidnaps Black people, free and enslaved, and sells them into the Deep South.
Around this brutal trade, Townsend weaves local legend and the tensions between rich planters and poor whites. Old Maryland families cling to land and name as their money drains away. In this borderland between Maryland and Delaware, crime and inheritance reveal a society where protection depends on where you stand.
What you’ll discover
- A dangerous borderland Enter a landscape of creeks and marshes where county lines mark the limits of law.
- The woman behind the legend Meet Patty Cannon, the real criminal at the center of Townsend's dark regional novel.
- Freedom under threat Confront a kidnapping trade that targets both free and enslaved Black people.
- Names without wealth Explore families holding tight to inherited status while the money that supports it disappears.
- A reporter's eye Discover Chesapeake country life through a novelist whose fiction keeps the habits of a newspaperman.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like American regional fiction, old courthouse towns, and tangled families with money troubles. It suits readers who love a romance wrapped around real history.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hat hides a wounded man
- The loans become a marriage bargain
- Vesta chooses to save her father
- Nursing opens a path toward understanding
- The household sees different hats
- Kidnapping breaks into the household
- Jimmy risks himself for the captives
- Pride and ownership come under scrutiny
- Two stories question the same society
Who’s who
- Meshach MilburnA miserly Somerset moneylender who wears an ancient steeple-crowned hat and wants the respect, and the love, that the town has always refused him.
- Vesta CustisThe Judge's beautiful, singing daughter, who tries to save her father's name and finds that duty may lead to something like love.
- Judge Daniel CustisA genial, drinking Virginia gentleman whose iron furnace fails and who wants to keep his family's honor and comfort.
- Samson HatMeshach's free Black servant, a champion fighter and brusque friend who cleans the hat and looks after his master.
- Jimmy PhoebusA sturdy bay captain who swears by smoke, loves a widow, and sets out to rescue people stolen by kidnappers.
- Levin DennisA gentle, brandy-weak young boatman whose father vanished at sea and who is drawn into a slave trader's plans.
- Rhoda HollandMeshach's chattering niece from the ocean shore, a shrewd girl who wants to see the world.
- Patty CannonThe tavern keeper at Johnson's Crossroads, a strong, cunning woman who rules a gang of kidnappers.
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The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times
by George Alfred Townsend · 1884
A shunned moneylender in a steeple-crowned hat claims a judge's daughter while Patty Cannon's kidnappers prowl.
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In short
What would you do if a shunned moneylender in a steeple-crowned hat walked into your ruined house and named his price? He wants your daughter, and he holds every note you signed.
The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times at a glance
- Reading time
- About 12 h 10 min9 h 40 min fast, 14 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 174,300 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1884by George Alfred Townsend
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two Men Known by Their Hats
The story opens in Princess Anne, a courthouse town in Somerset County, Maryland, where society takes itself very seriously. Two eccentric men live there, and each is known by his hat. Jack Wonnell, a poor drifter, wears out one bell-crown after another.
The other man is the real mystery. Meshach Milburn wears a tall, wavy-brimmed hat that looks a century old, and the children jeer Steeple-top at him in the street. He is a miser and a moneylender with almost no friends. His helper is Samson, a free Black man who brushes the ancient hat.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1884
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 13 h 30 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Townsend, George Alfred. The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-entailed-hat-or-patty-cannons-times.
Townsend, G. A. (2026). The entailed hat; or, Patty Cannon's times. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-entailed-hat-or-patty-cannons-times (Original work published 1884)
Townsend, George Alfred. The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-entailed-hat-or-patty-cannons-times.
@book{townsend2026entailed,
author = {Townsend, George Alfred},
title = {The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-entailed-hat-or-patty-cannons-times},
note = {First published 1884}
}
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What is The Entailed Hat about?
It follows Meshach Milburn, a shunned moneylender who wears an ancient hat, and Vesta Custis, the judge's daughter he marries to cancel her father's debts. A second plot follows kidnappers who steal free people along the Delaware line.
Who was Patty Cannon?
Patty Cannon was a real woman of the Maryland and Delaware border, remembered in local tradition as the head of a gang that kidnapped free Black people. Townsend uses her legend, and her tavern at Johnson's Crossroads, as the center of the crime story.
What does the entailed hat mean?
The hat is a family heirloom that came down from a Milburn ancestor who left his son nothing else. For Meshach it stands for lost dignity and ancestry, and for the town it is a joke, a charm, and a quarrel.
The author
George Alfred Townsend
1841–1914 · American journalist
George Alfred Townsend (1841–1914) was an American journalist and novelist born in Georgetown, Delaware. He reported on the American Civil War and wrote under the pen name Gath. His novel The Entailed Hat appeared in 1884. He later lived at an estate near Gapland, Maryland.
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