Tobias Rudulph, III

(1787-1828)
Maryland

Tobias Rudulph, III was born at Elkton, Maryland "in the old brick mansion two doors east of the court house, on December 8, 1787. . . ." Rudlph "studied law with his mother's brother, James Milner, who resided in Philadelphia, where he practiced law,--but who subsequently became a distinguished Presbyterian minister and Doctor of Divinity--and was admitted to the Elkton Bar and practiced his profession successfully until the time of his death which occurred in the Fall of 1828. He was a man of fine ability and amused himself when he had leisure in courting the Muses, but owing to his excessive modesty published nothing now extant except 'Tancred, or The Siege of Antioch,' a drama in three acts, which was printed in Philadelphia, in 1827. Owing to the fact that
simultaneously with its publication, a drama of the same name by another
author appeared as a candidate for literary favor, Mr. Rudulph--though
his work was highly commended by Joseph Jefferson the elder, then in
the height of his dramatic career, through the foolish fear that he
might he accused of plagiarism--suppressed his drama and never allowed
it to be introduced upon the stage." [George Johnston, The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland (Elkton, Maryland: The editor, 1887)]