USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 12
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 12
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finally proved a good investment, however, and it is said to have been a gratifying circumstance to Judge Bordley that the cattle raised on this island contributed essentially to the large supplies of the American armies. In 1783, he was elected a member of the " American Philosophical Society," the meetings of which he derived great pleasure in attending, on his removal to Philadelphia in later years. He founded the " Agricultural Society of Philadelphia," of which he declined being President, but filled the posi- tion of Vice-President from its organization until the close of his life. Ile was an earnest advocate of the decimal division of money. In 1789, he published an article on Mongys, Coins, Weights and Measures ; in 1790, an essay on National Credit and Character ; and frequently published articles on agriculture. In 1799 he wrote his largest work on husbandry, entitled Essays and Notes.
Having resigned the Wye estate to his son, in 1791, Phila- delphia became his home. That city was then the seat of Government, and the centre of the most refined society. Judge Bordley's home became the resort of the nobility and the most distinguished Americans of that time. Among his visitors and intimate friends were Washington, Jeffer- son, Hamilton, the Carrolls, the Dulanys, the Johnsons, Wolcott, Cabot, Liston, Pickering, Montmorenzi, and others. In personal appearance, Judge Bordley was tall and well proportioned; his countenance very expressive, and his manners graceful, refined, and unobtrusive. He was remarkable for extreme modesty, independence of mind, and benevolence. IIe was a leading and devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and while he was firm in adhering to his religious views, he was free from prejudice, always having due regard for the opinions of others. His first wife died November 11, 1773. Ile was married again October 3, 1776, to the widow Mif- flin, of Philadelphia. He died January 26, 1804, leaving several children, His remains were interred in St. Peter's Churchyard, Philadelphia.
LAIBORNE, WILLIAM, the first settler of Mary- land, and the discoverer of the Isle of Kent, was born about the year 1587. He was the second son of Edmond Claeborne, Esq., of Claeborne IIall, county of Westmoreland, England, of a Norman family, descended from Bardolph, of Askew, a brother of Alan, Earl of Richmond, A. D. 1076. Ilis mother was Grace, daughter of Sir Alan Billingham, of the same county. She survived her first husband, and died at the age of thirty-six years, and is described, in her epitaph, as " a most excellent woman, of the greatest piety, of un- conquerable energy and patience, sparing of her words, yet full of the greatest charity for the poor." Deprived at an early age of a father's care, William Claiborne grew up with no greater constraint than the advice and counsel of his elder brother, Thomas Claeborne, the inheritor of Claeborne Manor, which was held by military service, the proprietor being obliged to keep ready for daily emergen- cies, a certain number of armed men, horse and foot, to repel the Scots. Amid the stirring scenes on the border, Claiborne passed his youth, and learned those practical lessons in irregular warfare that prepared him for his con- tests with the aborigines of America, and developed, those qualities of indomitable will, courage, and self-reliance, which, in after years, were characteristic of the man. It is supposed that a part of his youth was spent at Kitterby, his reputed birth-place, a favorite hunting-seat of his family, in York County. Ile received a liberal and scien- tific education, and in that respect, as well as in fortune, family and breeding was superior to most of the adven-
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turers who came to America. He was appointed, July 25, 1621, Surveyor of the Virginia Company of London, and arrived in the ship George, at Jamestown, Virginia, in the month of October following. The company's letter said : " It is our express will that the Tenants belonging to every office, be fixed to his certaine place uppon the lands sett ont for itt, for which Mr. Cleyburne is chosen to be our Surveyor, who at the Companies very great charge is sett out, as by his condition of agreement you may per- ceive." By the agreement referred to, he received free transportation for three persons, a house and two hundred acres of land in fee simple, a salary of thirty pounds per annum; twenty pounds for books and instruments, and was authorized to charge six shillings per diem for all pri- vate surveys. Claiborne devoted himself with ardent and laborious zeal to the duties of his office, and notwithstand- ing many difficulties and dangers, in the short space of two years, succeeded in collecting materials for the first reliable map of the Dominion, and was also able to pay much attention to his private affairs, to engage in trade, and to make voyages of discovery in the interest of the Company. In June, 1622, he, with Captain Francis West and others, petitioned the King, "praying to be protected against undue freights, customs, and duties on tobacco," which petition was duly granted. The Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, patented to him, June 3, 1624, seventeen thou- sand five hundred acres of land, for valuable services to the Dominion of Virginia. On June 16, 1624, the Charter of the Virginia Company of London was pro- nounced by Chief Justice Ley, to be " thenceforth null and void," and Virginia became a Royal Colony, On August 26, 1624, Claiborne was appointed, by King James I, one of the Council of Virginia, with Sir Francis Wyatt and others. On March 4, 1625, King Charles I con- tinued him of the Council, with Sir George Yardley and others, and appointed him Secretary of State in Virginia for the following royal reasons: " Forasmuch as the af- fairs of state of the said colony and plantation may nec- essarily require some person of quality and trust to be em- ployed as Secretary, for the writing and answering of such letters as shall be from time to time directed to or sent from the said Governor and Council of the Colony afore- said, our will and pleasure is, and we do by these presents nominate and assign the said William Clayborne, to be our said Secretary of State." Claiborne was, now, one of the wealthiest, ablest, most enterprising, influential and trusted members of the Colony. He made himself familiar with the policy of the Indian chiefs; with whom he cultivated a lasting friendship, and over whom he exercised a benefi- cent influence by his courage and honorable dealing. To them his word was as good as his bond, and they al- ways regarded him with respect and affectionate rever- ence. Again, on March '26, 1627, he was continued with John Harvey find others, one of the Council, and in the same words as formerly, was re-appointed Secretary of
State. The Governor of Virginia was required by King Charles to encourage and promote the exploration of the Dominion of Virginia, and the discovery of the sources and waters of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1627, Claiborne connuanded an expedition against the Indians, and cap- tured the town called Candayack, at the junction of the York and Pamunkey rivers, where he afterwards resided. On March 13, 1628, Governor John Pott authorized him to explore the Chesapeake, and to make discover- ies between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees of north latitude. Under this commission, he discovered Palmer's Island, near the mouth of the Susquehanna, and Kent Island at the mouth of Chester River, and established trading-posts at both. In accordance with the customs of the times and the laws of Virginia, he purchased Kent Island " from the Kings of that country," with the ap- proval of the Royal Governor; but, unfortunately, he neither asked for nor received a patent for the Isle of Kent. It was the intention of Claiborne to establish a university' of learning on Palmer's Island. Upon Kent Island he planted a vigorous and flourishing settlement of more than one hundred sturdy Protestant colonists, members of the Church of England, under the spiritual charge of Rev. Richard James, whose diocesan was the Bishop of London. Here, on the beautiful Isle of Kent, and by the Rev. Mr. James, the Gospel of Christ was first preached to the aborigines of Maryland. This settlement was thoroughly organized as a component part of the Dominion of Vir- ginia, and was represented by Captain Nicholas Martin in the House of Burgesses of Virginia. Up to this period, the career of William Claiborne had been one of unbroken prosperity. He stood high in England at the Court of his King; in Virginia, he was regarded with merited respect and treated with honor; and in his infant colony, on the Isle of Kent, the abode of peace, plenty and happiness, he was loved with filial affection by the contented inhabitants. The first cloud that cast a shadow across his path was the unwelcome visit of Sir George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore, to Jamestown. In October, 1629, Sir George Calvert, disgusted with the failure of his colony in New- foundland, and looking for fresh pastures, visited Virginia, sailed up the Chesapeake, " taking notice " of the flourish- ing settlement on the Isle of Kent, His arrival produced much commotion when it was known that he coveted a settlement within the bounds of Virginia. Virginia was a Protestant colony, and the inhabitants regarded with natural suspicion and alarm the coming of a man who had been three times converted to the Romish faith, and who had recently broken up the Protestant church at Ferryland, and imposed Roman Catholic priests upon the unwilling people. Claiborne, at the earnest solicitation of the in- habitants of Kent Island, went to England to endeavor to protect their rights and his own vested interests. On May 16, 1631, he obtained from King Charles a license to continue his trade in all " parts of America for
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which there is not already a patent granted to others for sole trade," and also " power to direct and govern, correct and punish such of our subjects as may or shall be under his command in his voyages and discoveries." This license was indorsed by Secretary Coke, at Greenwich, . "Letters written by His Majesty to settle the possessors." Having fully explained the exact condition of his colony to the King, whose knowledge of American geography was confused, and strengthened with the license, he re- turned to Virginia and projected new voyages. On June 20, 1632, Charles I, the Protestant King of En- gland, granted to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, the Charter of Maryland, embracing a tract of land therein described, as " hitherto uncultivated in the parts of America, and partly occupied by savages, having no knowledge of the Divine Being." As soon as it was known that Lord Baltimore had received a grant of lands lying within the bounds of the Old Do- minion, Claiborne, and other influential planters of Vir- ginia, petitioned the King to revoke it and protect them in their vested rights. What those rights were the King was fully aware of, and Lord Baltimore could not plead ignor- ance. The plain meaning of the words of the Charter excluded the Isle of Kent, and moreover, the intent of the King when he signed it, was nndisguised and unmistak- able. Lord Baltimore, backed by the Roman Catholic Quecn, determined to take advantage of every legal tech- nieality. With him, it was a question of power, acres of land, dollars and cents; the religious bearing of the sub- ject was adroitly kept in the background and not made apparent in England. On July 3, 1633, it was decided in the Star-chamber, "to leave Lord Baltimore to his patent, and the other parties to the Courts. of Law, according to their desire. But for the preventing of further questions and differences, their lordships did also think fit, and order that things stand as they do, the planters on either side shall have free traffic and com- merce each with the other." This decision did not fairly meet the case, was unsatisfactory to both parties, and had the effect of relegating the issue to the arbitrament of events. The Maryland colonists, consisting mostly of Protestants, arrived at Point Comfort, in Virginia, Febru- ary 27, 1634, and the Governor, Leonard Calvert, in- formed Claiborne that Lord Baltimore claimed jurisdiction over Kent Island. Claiborne appealed to the Governor and Council of Virginia, who instructed him, that "they wondered why such question was made, that they knew no reason why they should render up the right of the Isle of Kent, more than other formerly given to this colony by Ilis Majesty's patent ; and that the right of my Lord's grant being yet undetermined in England, we are bound in duty and by our oaths to maintain the rights and privileges of the colony." Though enjoying the full confidence and sympathy of the people and council of Virginia, Claiborne's position was difficult, and rendered doubly embarrassing
by the insincerity of Governor Harvey, a man of limited understanding, puffed up with arrogant vanity, and inflated with self-importance, who upheld the pretensions of Balti- more, until he was arrested, April 28, 1635, in his own house, deposed from office and sent to England, " with an assured hope that Sir John Harvey's return to England will be acceptable to God, not displeasing to His Majesty, and an assured happiness unto this colony." As soon as Governor Calvert purchased from the Indians the site of St. Mary's, and was firmly domesticated in Maryland, every engine of petty annoyance and slander was turned against Claiborne to provoke a pretext for dispossessing him of the Isle of Kent and breaking up the Protestant colony. He was accused of exciting the hostility of the natives against the settlement at St. Mary's, through the instrumentality of Captain Henry Fleet. Claiborne instantly demanded an investigation. On June 20, 1634, a conference was held with the King of the Patuxents and other chiefs, in the presence of George Calvert, a brother of the Governor, Frederick Winters and others of the Maryland colony, and of Captain Samuel Matthews and John Utie, of Virginia. The testimony was carefully written out and attested by both Marylander, and Virginians. The chief positively denied that Claiborne had ever spoken against the Mary- landers or attempted to induce them to attack or injure them. He said that " Fleet was a liar, an I that if he were present he would tell him so to his face." All the Indians present corroborated this statement. Lord Baltimore, on September 4, 1634, instructed Leonard Calvert, that, if Claiborne would not acknowledge his patent, to seize and hold him close prisoner at St. Mary's, and " take possession of his plantation on the Isle of Kent." The King, how- ever, on October 8, 1634, issued an order, requiring the Council of Virginia and all the Licutenants of Provinces in America to assist the planters on Kent Island, "that they may peacefully enjoy the fruits of their labors, and forbids Lord Baltimore or his agents to do them any vio- lence." Governor Calvert chose to follow the instructions of his brother and disobey the comman Is of the King. In the spring of 1635, his commissioner, Thomas Cornwallis, forcibly seized the goods of a trader and captured a pinnace, the Long Tail, belonging to Claiborne. On April 23, 1635, while Claiborne's men were attempting to recover the property, Cornwallis fired into them, killing three of them, and in the conflict losing one of his own men. Another fight occurred on May 10, in which Thomas Smith, gentle- man, was captured by Baltimore's men. He was afterwards tried for piracy and sentenced to death by the General As- sembly of Maryland, in 1637. At the same [Assembly a bill was passed, act of 1637, chapter 30, for the attainder of William Claiborne, and the confiscation of his property on Kent and Palmer's Islands, to the Lord Proprietary. The King was deeply incensed at the highhanded outrage of the Maryland officials, and on July 14, 1638, wrote to Lord Baltimore steruly reminding him of his former com-
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maudment, that the planters of Kent Island, " should in no soft be interrupted in their trade or plantation by you, or any other on your right, but rather be encouraged to pro- used in so good a work, we do now nukerstand that, though your agents had notice of our said pleasure, signified by our letters, yet contrary thereto, they have slain three of our subjects there, and by force possessed themselves of that island and carried away both the estates of said planters," In conclusion, the King wrote, " By these par- ticular letters to yourself, we strictly require and command you to perform what our general letter did enjoin, and that the above-named planters and their agents may enjoy in the meantime their possessions and be safe in their per- sous and goods there, without disturbance or further trouble by you or any of yours, until that case be decided." The historian Chalmers records that, on April 4, 1639, it was decided, by the Lords Commissioners, " that no grant from his Majesty should pass to the said Clayborne or any others, of the Isle of Kent or other places within the said patent ; whereof his Majesty's attorney and solicitor-general are hereby prayed to take notice. And, concerning the violences and wrongs, by the said Clayborne and the rest complained of, in the said petition to his Majesty, their lordships did now also declare, that they found no cause at all to relieve them, but do leave both sides therein to the ordinary course of justice." The decision relieved Kent Island of its allegiance to Virginia and settled the ques- tion of sovereignty in favor of Lord Baltimore, but left the rights of Claiborne's property to be ascertained according " to the ordinary course of justice." However expedient it appeared, in the high court of state policy, that one man should suffer rather than the unity and prosperity of the Colony of Maryland be imperilled, it was a severe blow to Claiborne. At one fell swoop, he saw the fruits of his arduous labors swept into the lap of the enemies of his person and religion ; his infant colony, represented in the halls of the Legislature of Virginia, forcibly wrested from its fostering mother; his beloved pastor, Rev. Richard James, driven with brutal scoffs, from his flock, houseless and homeless, into the wilderness; the books for his uni- versity polluted by an ignorant soldiery; his beautiful mansion, adorned with rare shrubbery and ornamented with a cultivated taste and the refinements of a beloved home, descerated by vandal hands; and he himself, the discoverer, founder and owner, a fugitive, and denounced at his own hearth as a traitor and alien. Knowing that the bill of attainder was never enacted into a law and that the forfeiture of his property, according to the laws of Maryland, was invalid and its appropriation illegal, Clai- borne, on August 8, 1640, appointed George Scovell, of Nancimon, Virginia, his attorney, and through him, re- spectfully petitioned the Governor and Council of Mary- land to be allowed to recover his estate according to the ordinary course of justice. His application was rejected in insulting terms. It is but justice to Lord Baltimore's
memory to say, that he never assented to the bill of attain- der against Claiborne or directed the seizure of his property ; but it is a matter of record that he shared in the profits of the spoil of Claiborne's effects and received his portion of the cattle belonging to the widow of the Res. Richard James. Afterwards, at the time that Lord Balti. more was suspected by the public and in disgrace at court, summoned by the House of Lords, and put under bonds not to leave the kingdom, William Claiborne stood high in favor, among the people and at court, and was appointed, April 6, 1642, the " King's Treasurer within the Dominion of Virginia during his life." When the monarchy declined Claiborne became a partisan of the Parliament. In 1643, the Deputy Governor of Maryland, Giles Brent, seized a ship commissioned by Parliament, commanded by Richard Ingle, and imprudently tampered with the crew, and pro- claimed Ingle a traitor. Captain Ingle escaped to Eng- land and obtained a letter of marque, and as captain of the ship Reformation, returned in 1645 to Maryland, and "did venture his life and fortune in landing his men and assist- ing the said well-affected Protestants against the said tyrannical government and the Papists and malignants. It pleased God to enable him to take divers places from them, and to make him a support to the said well affected." Finding " that all things were favorable for the recovery of his ancient possessions," Claiborne boldly seized upon Kent Island and drove Governor Calvert out of Maryland. It is not recorded that he offered any violence to the tres- passers upon his property. On June 3, 1650, he was ap- pointed one of the Council of Virginia, and on January 29, 1651, received a patent for 50,000 acres of land for trans- porting one hundred persons into the colony. On Septem- ber 26, 1651, he was appointed one of the Commissioners for reducing Virginia and the inhabitants thereof to their due obedience to the Commonwealth of England, and per- formed that duty with singular tact and moderation. The Commissioners then came to Maryland, deposed Governor Stone, and overthrew the power of Lord Baltimore, for the time being. In December, 1651, he received patents, in- cluding 1450 to his daughter, which amounted to 44,000 acres of land. On April 20, 1652, he was unanimously appointed Secretary of Virginia. On July 15, 1654, Clai- borne again appeared in Maryland, in company with Richard Bennett, and by virtue of the former commission reduced Maryland a second time. Commissioners under Parliament retained control of Maryland until March 24, 1657, when the claim to Kent Island was finally surren- dered to Lord Baltimore, after a heroic struggle of twenty- five years, Claiborne returned to Virginia, and at the res- toration of Charles I, in his old age was again appointed Secretary of State, and was one of the leading members of the Virginia Legislature, in 1663 to 1666. He held a military command at the breaking out of the Bacon Rebel- lion, and in January, 1676, was one of the court-martial on John Martin's ship. That was his last service and ap.
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. pearance in public life. He died soon after in New Kent County, Virginia, respected and beloved, after having, in the most eventful and trying times, enjoyed the full trust and honors of three Kings and the confidence of the Com- monwealth of England. The ingenuity of his most per- sistent enemies have not found anything to blemish his character or personal knightly honor, and he deserves the gratitude of posterity as the man who first planted civiliza- tion and Christianity within the borders of Maryland. He left three children, William, Thomas, and Jane. His son, Thomas Claiborne, married Ann Fox and had a son, Nathaniel Claiborne, who married Martha Cole and had a son, Colonel William Claiborne, who married Mary Leigh, daughter of Fernando Leigh, and sister of the celebrated Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Virginia. Colonel William Claiborne had four sons, General Ferdinand Leigh Clai- borne, U. S. A., Hon. William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Louisiana, from 1812 to 1816. Dr. Thomas A. Claiborne, U. S. A., and IIon. Nathaniel Herbert Claiborne, member of Congress from Virginia, from 1835 to 1837. General Ferdi- nand Leigh Claiborne married Madelina Hutchins, daughter of Colonel Anthony Hutchins, of Adams County, Mississippi, and had four children, Hon. John F. H. Claiborne, mem- ber of Congress from Mississippi, from 1835 to 1838, Leigh Claiborne, Osman Claiborne (deceased), and Charlotte Vir- ginia Claiborne, who married Ilon. John H. B. Latrobe, of Baltimore, and had the following children: General Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe, Osman Latrobe, Richard Stewart Latrobe, John H. B. Latrobe, Jr., Virginia Latrobe, and Lydia Latrobe. General Ferdinand Claiborne La- trobe, the present Mayor of Baltimore, who has been twice elected to that office, distinguished himself as a gal- lant officer of the Confederate Army ; he married Louisa Sherlock Swann, daughter of llon. Thomas and Elizabeth (Glenn) Swann, of Baltimore, and has a son, Thomas Swann Latrobe.
ELLMAN, CAPTAIN JOHN RUDOLPH, Union Officer, was the eldest child of Abraham and Elizabeth (Schlatter) Fellman, and was born in Staffelbach, a small town in Switzerland, October 7, 1825. His father was a farmer; he died in 1869, and his wife in 1866. They had only two other children, Hein- rich and Elizabeth, who, with their families, are living in Switzerland, the brother on the old homestead. Captain John R. Fellman received his primary education at the public school in his native town, and at the age of thirteen entered Schoeftland College, a state institution, from which he graduated in 1842. lle then commenced to teach school, and followed the vocation for eight years, though it was very uncongenial to his tastes. In 1850, he came to the United States, and engaged as clerk and bookkeeper in the city of Rochester, New York, until the
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