A set of photographs of the estate, made in the 1930s and 1940s, is part of the Historic American Buildings Survey administered by the Library of Congress and National Park Service.

During the War of 1812, a fort consisting of a six–gun artillery battery was constructed on Ratcliffe Manor property to protect the town of Easton from a river approach by British soldiers.

Today, the privately owned plantation house still stands, separated by a wooded area from a planned community called Easton Village.

[1][Note 1] Henry Hollyday began accumulating materials for the construction of the Ratcliffe Manor house in 1755, and expected to start building in 1757.

[3] Although the exact construction start and finish dates are not available, Hollyday appears to have occupied Ratcliffe Manor by 1762 based on a letter written to his brother.

[1][Note 3] Ratcliffe Manor is described as "one of the most elaborate and distinctive mid-eighteenth century plantation dwellings erected on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

"[1] The trust also notes that the manor house "...has had only minor alterations since its original construction and retains the majority of its historic building fabric.

[14][Note 4] The two–and–a–half-story home was made from Flemish bond red brick, and is the highlight of a plantation that at one time consisted of over 1,000 acres (400 ha).

[1] Like the front, the rear (southwest) facade of the main building is a balanced five-bay elevation with center entrance, sash windows, and dormers.

The parlor's walls consist of raised panel woodwork, and are among the best in Georgian style craftsmanship still found in Talbot County.

In colonial Maryland, there were 62 true manors (using the property definition) granted to private citizens between August 1634 and April 1684.

[25][Note 6] The Mannour of Ratcliffe was granted by Lord Baltimore (Cecilius Calvert) to Captain Robert Morris of London.

[27][Note 7] Captain Morris and his wife Martha sold the Ratcliffe property to London physician James Wasse on August 12, 1674.

[7][Note 10] In the early 1730s, James and Sarah Hollyday built a new home they called Readbourne, which is located in Queen Anne's County on the Chester River.

[7] Of the original Ratcliffe Manor estate owned by Captain Robert Morris, Hollyday had pieced together 629 acres (255 ha).

[42] Upon his death, eldest son James III officially inherited most of the Readbourne property, including the manor house.

Henry's second son, Thomas, received in trust 300 acres (120 ha) at the southern end of the Readbourne property, which was known as Brimmington.

[42] Henry's will originally left the Ratcliffe plantation to his wife Anna, with son Thomas inheriting the property after his mother's death.

[51][52] Fort Stoakes was located on Ratcliffe Manor property on the Tred Avon River and housed a six-gun (a.k.a.

[54][Note 15] Henry Hollyday II, owner of Ratcliffe Manor, was one of the concerned citizens and had been involved with the Eastern Shore Militia as early as 1799.

[58] However, a Fort Stoakes marker provided by the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail is located across the river at a marina on Easton Point.

[59] Henry II's eldest son Richard Carmichael Hollyday returned to Talbot County when his father died in 1850.

His brother, Thomas Robins Hollyday, took a portion of land west of the manor house and named it "Lee Haven".

The third brother, William Murray Hollyday, took land on the east side of the manor house and named it "Glenwood".

[60] Their son Richard Carmichael Hollyday II joined the United States Navy and rose to the rank of rear admiral.

[1] She married United States Senator Charles Hopper Gibson in 1889, and the couple lived in Ratcliffe Manor.

[1] Hathaway's two sons, Malcom and Stephen, built two landing strips in a cow pasture near their home in 1928—the county's first airstrip.

[77] The town of Easton began public hearings in 1999 concerning the annexation and zoning of more than 386 acres (156 ha) of Ratcliffe Manor land and Glenwood farm.

The development is along portions of the Ratcliffe Manor estate waterfront, located on the peninsula formed by the Tred Avon River and Dixon Creek.

[79] Sources do not agree on the exact location, but somewhere beneath either Easton Village or Ratcliffe Manor Farm lies the remnants of the old airstrip constructed by the Hathaway brothers in the 1920s.