John Davis, travelling from England, worked for a few months as a tutor to Nathaniel Ellicott's (1763–1841) children at his home Rockledge and two mills. Davis wrote that he "was nearly stunned by the noise of two huge mills, whose roar, without any hyperbolical aggravation, is scarcely inferior to that of the great falls of the Potomac, or the cataract of Niagara."
Nathaniel was the son of Andrew Ellicott (1733-1809), one of the founders of Ellicott City, and brother of George Ellicott (1760-1832) whose house is opposite the old EC mill on the Patapsco River. All three are buried in the Ellicott family cemetery in Ellicott City.
Gov. George Howard (1789-1846) of "Waverly" was selected to chair the group of residents including Nath’l. H. Ellicott, Andrew Ellicott, Edward Gray, Thomas B. Dorsey, Chas. D. Warfield and Gustavus Warfield to "partition off the upper section" of Anne-Arundel county into a separate county. The meeting was held at Deborah Disney's Hotel in Ellicott's mills. Howard District was created in 1839, but not made a county until 1851. The current court house was built in 1841. The name Howard was to honor Gov. George Howard's father, Revolutionary War hero Col. John Eager Howard (1752-1827, also a governor when George was born) and landowner in Baltimore and Howard County.