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Gc 975.2 B69b 1744302
M. E.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Gc
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02256 2539
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BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES
OF
DISTINGUISHED MARYLANDERS.
BY ESMERALDA BOYLE,
Author of Thistle-Down, Felice, and Songs of the Land and Sea.
840
BALTIMORE: KELLY, PIET & COMPANY, 174 W. BALTIMORE STREET. 1877.
1744302
TO THE
S TATE OF ARYLAND
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED,
CONTENTS.
Preface.
Pank.
An Introductory Chapter 0
Daniel Dulany
20
Thomas Johnson.
43
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
The Most Reverend John Carroll
103
123
Charles Wiison Peaie.
Margaret Jane Ramsay 140
General Mordecai Gist.
Otho Ilolland Williams 158 William Pinkney 179
Edward Coote Pinkney
Francis Scott Key
Amelia D. Welby.
203
Frederick Pinkney
George H. Miles. 300 General Arnold Elzey. 209
Address of Captain Thomas. .11!
:: 74
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
William Henry Rinehart. 329
Anne Moncure Crane. 353
POEMS.
The Raven.
Fair Maryland 76
Evening Hymn 102 When Soft Stars 129
'Tis Absence Proves. 139
. The American Sword. 146 My Own Native Land. 157
Oh! Would I Were with Thee Forever! 178
The Pirate's Song
226
A Health
234
Bird-Song
282
The Watch
291
To S .....
999
Coming at Last
307
A Prayer for Peace 926
The Dying Girl to her Lover 352
Poems Selected from the Manuscript of the late Frederick Pinkney. 261
PREFACE.
N these sketches are embraced only a few of the many Marylanders whose acts have gone far towards establishing the greatness of our country. Yet through this small volume the author hopes that the soldiers, statesmen, and singers of " The Old Land" may become familiar as household friends to the children of their native State. Let us never be so ungrateful as to forget those whom we should first remember-the men and women whose illustrious names glorify the pages of our history.
In the material furnished to the present writer, only the true worth of great actions was considered. It is not incumbent upon an author to make laborious search for the petty weaknesses or greater faults com- mon to all humanity. The better work is to discover, as clearly as possible, those nobler traits of soul that elevate men and women to a standard that inspires rev- erence towards our heroes and heroines of History. When in daily life we are familiar with sorrow wrought through the words or acts of evil-intentioned " mischief makers," how earnestly should we guard from slander the names of those whose fame we love.
We should rejoice that in this century the story of
6
PREFACE.
the great Dulany has again been found and rescued from the dust. The two letters from George Washing- ton to Governor Johnson, contained in these pages, have never before been published. This work, done for old Maryland's sake, has brought its own reward and com- fort to the writer. If, while referring with proud satis- faction to the deeds of our acknowledged great ones, we would sometimes remember the unnamed valor of untitled lords, it would be well. Not far need we seek, perhaps, an "inglorious Milton :".
Some silent, uncrowned poet Upon whose unknown grave, No fame-bestowing laurels Their gracious homage wave.
Where no unsullied marble Doth mark the hallowed ground, Within whose heart unuttered Is grief the most profound.
Where Spring's first roses scatter Their perfume, sweet and wild, About the earthly temple Of Nature's cherished child.
-
June 24th, 1876.
E. B.
THE Thanks of the Author
ARE DUE FOR ASSISTANCE IN THIS WORK TO
George Delany, Chevalier de St. Maurice and St. Ligmas, d'Italia, Dublin, Ireland ; The Hon. Judge Pinkney, Baltimore; The Hon. Montgomery Blair, of Montgomery County; General Benjamin Alvord, Paymaster-General of the United States Army; The late Reverdy Johnson, LL. D .; Samuel Tyler, LL. D., Georgetown, D. C .; Otho Holland Williams, Esq., Baltimore; H. M. Fitzhugh, Esq., Bay City, Mich .; James M. Garnet, President of Saint John's College, Annapolis, AND OTHERS.
9
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
-
R. BANCROFT, the historian, says: "The mild forbearance of a Proprietary adopted religious freedom as the basis of the State." McMahon says, in his "History of Mary- land:" "The Freemen of Maryland, as they were called, were emphatically so from their origin. They never permitted the Proprietary to entrench upon what they considered to be their rights; and the records of this period furnish many instances in which they op- posed and defeated the designs of the Proprietaries."
The first of every land in all the world Where love of God, in peace, each creed defined, And freedom of the heart was certified By freedom of the mind !
Where Christian, each, might worship as he willed, Where temples throning different faiths arose, Where bigot and where martyr, side by side, Were shielded from their foes !
From the Charter of Maryland, granted by King Charles the First, of England, it is evident how Mary- land and her children were esteemed by that monarch, though he was a Protestant, and the recipients of his bounty Catholics : "Whereas, our right trusty, and well
10
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
beloved subject, Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, in our Kingdom of Ireland, son and heir of Sir George Calvert, Kt., late Baron of Baltimore, in the same King- dom of Ireland, pursuing his father's intentions, being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propaga- tion of the Christian faith, and the enlargement of our empire and dominion, hath humbly besought leave of us, by his industry and charge to transport an a mple colony of the English nation unto a certain country hereafter described, in the parts of America, not yet cultivated and planted, though in some parts thereof inhabited by certain barbarous people having no knowl- edge of Almighty God."
And again, in reference to the "remote country " among "barbarous nations :" "Therefore, we have given, and for us, our heirs and successors, do give power by these presents, unto the now Lord Baltimore, his heirs or assigns, by themselves or their captains, or others, their officers, to levy, muster and train, all sorts of men, of what condition, or wheresoever born, in the said province of Maryland for the time being, and to make war and to pursue the enemies and robbers afore- said, as well by sea as by land, yea, even without the limits of the said province, and (by God's assistance) to vanquish and take them, and being taken, to put them to death by the law of war, or to save them at their pleasure; and to do all and everything which unto the charge and office of a captain-general of an army be- longeth, or hath accustomed to belong, as fully and freely as any captain-general of an army hath ever had the same."
And again: " Furthermore, that the way to honors and dignities may not seem to be altogether precluded and shut up to men well born, and to such as shall prepare themselves unto this present plantation and
11
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
desire to deserve well of us, and our kingdoms, both in peace and war, in so far distant and remote a country ; Therefore we. for us, our heirs and successors, do give free and absolute power unto the said now Lord Balti- timore, his heirs and assigns, to confer favors, rewards and honours, upon such inhabitants within the prov- ince aforesaid, as shall deserve the same; and to invest them with what titles and dignities soever as he shall think fit, (so as they be not such as are now used in England.") And further on occurs the following :- "we give and grant license unto the said now Lord Baltimore and his heirs to erect any parcels of land within the province aforesaid into manors, and in every of the said manors to have and to hold a Court Baron with all things whatsoever which to a Court Baron do belong, and to have and to hold view of Frank-Pledge (for the conservation of the peace and the better gov- ernment of those parts) by themselves or their stewards, or by the lords for the time being of other manors to be deputed, when they shall be erected : And in the same, to use all things belonging to View of Frank-Pledge, and further, our pleasure is, and by these presents for us, our heirs and successors, we do covenant and grant to and with the said now Lord Baltimore, his heirs and assigns; that we, our heirs and successors, shall at no time hereafter, set or make, or cause to be set, any impo- sition, custom or other taxation, rate or contribution whatsoever in or upon the dwellers and inhabitants of the aforesaid province, for their lands, tenements, goods or chattels, or in or upon any goods or merchandizes within the said province, or to be laden or unladen within any of the ports or harbours of the said province; and our pleasure is, and for us, our heirs and success- ors, we charge and command, that this our declaration shall be henceforward from time to time received and
12
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
allowed in all our courts, and before all the judges of us, our heirs and successors, for a sufficient and lawful discharge, payment and acquittance ; commanding all, and singular, our officers and ministers of us, our heirs and successors, and enjoining them upon pain of our high displeasure, that they do not presume at any time to attempt anything to the contrary of the premises, or that they do in any sort withstand the same, but that they be at all times aiding and assisting, as is fitting, unto the said, now Lord Baltimore, and his heirs, and to the inhabitants and merchants of Mary- land aforesaid, their servants, ministers, factors, and assigns, in the full use and fruition of the benefit of this our Charter."
That all doubts and restrictions interfering with the future prosperity of Maryland should be rendered im- practicable barriers, the Charter concludes in this wise : " If perchance hereafter it should happen that any doubts or questions should arise concerning the true sense and understanding of any word, clause or sen- tence contained in this our present Charter, we will ordain and command, that at all times, and in all things, such interpretation be made thereof, and al- lowed in any of our courts whatsoever, as shall be judged most advantageous and favourable unto the said now Lord Baltimore, his heirs and assigns. Pro- vided always, that no interpretation be admitted thereof, by which God's holy and truly Christian religion, or the allegiance due unto us, our heirs and successors may in any thing suffer any prejudice or diminution."
This grant witnessed and signed at Westminster, the 20th day of June, 1632, was executed for the benefit of Cecilins Calvert, first Lord Proprietary and Governor of the State of Maryland, and the second Lord Baltimore, son of Sir George Calvert, who was created Lord Balti-
13
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
more by James I of England, on the 20th day of February, 1624.
Lord Baltimore, George Calvert, was born in York- shire in 1582. When quite young he became the Sec- retary of Sir Robert Cecil, through whose influence and recommendation he afterward obtained the position of Clerk to the Privy Council. He finally rose to the office of Secretary of State to King James I. In 1624, he became a convert to the Roman Catholic faith. *" Moved by conscientious scruples he determined no longer to hold the office of Secretary of State, which would make him, in a manner, the instrument of perse- cution against those whose faith he had adopted, and tendered his resignation to the King, informing him that he was now become a Roman Catholic, so that he must be wanting to his trust or violate his conscience in discharging his office." Not long after his resigna- tion he was created Lord Baltimore of Baltimore in Ireland. The persecution of the Catholics in England at this time was so cruel that they longed for a refuge from the storm. This Lord Baltimore sought and obtained for them through his gracious intercession with the King. A grant was made, and the form pre- pared by Lord Baltimore only awaited the great seal as its mark of verity when he died. George Calvert pos- sessed that true greatness of mind and soul which can only be the inheritance of the good. So profound was his wisdom that he sought by the means of peace and justice alone to forward and accomplish the happiness of those intrusted to his care, and subject to his rule. So broad was his liberality that he looked above that miserable bigotry which is the breeder and disseminator of distrust, tyranny, and persecution. So pure were his principles that he desired the elevation and mainte-
*McSherry.
1*
-
-
14
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
nance of truth in all high offices of trust and dignity within his control.
His son and successor, Cecilius, the Second Lord Baltimore, fitted out two vessels bearing the suggestive names of the " Ark " and " The Dove," and under the command of his brother, the Honorable Leonard Cal- vert, a party of emigrants departed for the shores of America. They set sail from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, England, on the 22nd day of November, in the year 1633. It was Saint Cecilia's day, and Father An- drew White says: "After committing the principal parts of the ship to the protection of God especially, and of His most Holy Mother, and St. Ignatius, and all the guardian angels of Maryland, we sailed on a little way between the two shores, and the wind failing us, we stopped opposite Yarmouth Castle, which is near the southern end of the same island (Isle of Wight). Here we were received with a cheerful salute of artillery." * The ship spoken of is supposed to have been the Ark, as the Pinnace was the Dove. Father White tells of a storm that overtook the Ark on the broad bosom of the deep, and of the consternation of the sailors. In the midst of the angry waves and winds he remembered the One of whom it is written : ; " Rising up, He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace; be still. And the wind ceased ; and there was made a great calm." He sought refuge and assistance in prayer, and relating this in the simple language of his faith, he says: "I had scarcely finished when they observed that the storm was abating. That, indeed, brought me to a new frame of mind, and filled me at the same time with great joy and admiration, since I understood much more clearly the greatness of God's love toward the people of Mary-
* Bancroft. 1 St. Mark, Chap. IV., 39 verse.
.
15
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
land, to whom your Reverence has sent us. Eternal praises to the most sweet graciousness of the Re- deemer ! ! "
As the principal portion of the crew was Roman Catholic, they consecrated their landing by the sacra- fice of the Mass. On page 33, of the journal of the missionary Priest above quoted, is the following beau- tiful passage: "After we had completed the sacrafice, we took upon our shoulders a great cross, which we had hewn out of a tree, and advancing in order to the appointed place, with the assistance of the Governor and his associates, and the other Catholics, we erected a trophy to Christ the Saviour, humbly reciting, on our bended knees, the Litanies of the Sacred Cross, with great emotion." In this narration of events, which is evidently intended as a record of the Catholic Missions in Maryland, the general reader will perhaps find little of interest. The Indians were reported as gentle and tractable, easily won by the friendship of the white man, and keeping an unbroken faith while the pledge was honored by the Christian. The early settlers of Maryland were unchanging in their gentle treatment of the Indians, those untutored children of nature, who awaited the guidance of teachers "more wise in their day and generation." From the records left to us it is evident that these teachers endeavored by all mild and lawful means to elevate the hearts of the Indians to a knowledge of the true God. The Indian of the present day, dwelling on the border-lands of civilization, deems the white man a traitor to his word, an enemy to the Indian race, and a breaker of compacts, whose perfidy, must be retaliated upon the innocent by fire and toma- hawks. This is rather a sad commentary upon the Savage, or the Christian, of our times Which is it ?
From the " Annals of Annapolis," by Daniel Ridgely.
-
16
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
of Maryland, is the following : " For several years pre- vious to 1675, the inhabitants of the province of Mary- land, and the Indians within and upon her border county, lived upon terms of peace and amity. Indeed, it could not well be otherwise, such being the nature and benevolent character of the laws and resolutions of the province for the protection of the friendly Indians. From the proceedings of the assembly, the strongest disposition was manifested to cherish and protect them ; and in no instance did the government take from the abo- rigines one acre of land without a remuneration perfectly satisfactory to them.
John G. Morris, Esquire, in his pamphlet entitled " The Lords Baltimore," says: "In his views of es- tablishing foreign plantations, he thought that the original inhabitants, instead of being exterminated, should be civilized and converted; that the Governors should not be interested merchants, but gentlemen not concerned in trade, and that every one should be left to provide for himself by his own industry, without de- pendence on a common interest."
Although Cecilius was the first Proprietary Governor who ruled over Maryland, the colony was indebted to George Calvert for its polity.
Hughes, in his "Brief Sketch of Maryland," has quoted the following :
" The mild, liberal, and moral spirit of the father was characteristically impressed upon the charter thus granted to the son, which strongly corroborates the opinion that he himself was its author. Although, very naturally, imbued to a considerable extent with the aristocratic and loyal spirit of an English subject, still he made ample provision for the rights and liberties of the colonists. Although, too, he had felt the sting of religious intolerance, and had been numbered amongst
17
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
the ' Proscribed ' on his conversion to the faith of the Catholic religion, still he insured to all Christian men the most perfect exercise of the rights of conscience. Nor was it a mere parchment guarantee. Never, from the first settlement of Maryland, down to the period when her Proprietary was suspended, could she blush for the commission of one act of authorized intolerance against any denomination of Christians. To be sure christianity was made the law of the land; and was, in some measure, the boundary line of political franchise. The unhappy child of the Synagogue was still doomed to bear the mark of an outcast, and was unjustly de- barred the privileges of a freeman. * Even so, Calvert and his colonists made giant strides in advance of the age. Maryland established the principle, and, above all, the practice of Christian toleration in the new hemisphere, and laid the ground-work for the complete superstructure, which was afterward reared by the hands of Jefferson and his illustrious co-laborers in the cause of truth. She was the first to give 'religious liberty a home, its only home in the wide world,' where ' the disfranchised friends of prelacy from Massachu- setts, and the Puritans from Virginia, were welcome to equal liberty of conscience and political rights.' Such is a sample only of the honorable and impartial testi- mony of Bancroft, who is more than sustained by the eloquent historian of Maryland. I say it not in triumph. It is a recorded truth. Indeed, the contrast is too mournful for triumph. It was truly most lamentable to see men who had fled from the old world to secure a peaceful enjoyment of civil and religious freedom, them- selves, and their children after them, persecuting their fellow-men for a difference in creed. Maryland did not,
* Bancroft's History, U. S., Vol. I, p. 247.
18
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
and could not rejoice in the contrast. She only en- deavored to teach a better lesson and to exemplify her teaching by her practice."
The best and most forcible pens of the day have been employed in giving honor to George Calvert, who " de- serves to be ranked among the most wise and benevolent lawgivers of all ages."* And from his name, which was kept bright by just deeds, falls the lustre illuminat- ing the record of the Lords Baltimore who followed.
The wise rule of the Proprietary Government diffus- ing the happiness of peace throughout the Colony of Maryland is due to him; to his great example also is due much of the justice of Cecilius, the moderation and endurance of Leonard, and all that was most ad- mirable in the rule of the Proprietary Domain until its overthrow, and from its resumption till the Revolution. The Honorable Charles Browning, grandson of Charles VI, Lord Baltimore, gives a few items in his records of the . Baltimore family, and in reference to the emi- grants " between two and three hundred gentlemen, their wives, families and attendants."
On page 87, among the "Brief Explanations," we are told that " Cecilius Lord Baltimore was particularly ยท attentive in the selection of those whom he first engaged with, and who came over with his brother, that they should be sober, virtuous men, his lordship not looking so much for present profit as reasonable expectation."
From these men, and in appreciation of Lord Balti- more's generosity, the following vote was offered and confirmed, and placed among the perpetual laws of the State of Maryland in the year 1671 :
" Great and manifold are the benefits wherewith Al- mighty God hath blessed the colony, first brought and
* Bancroft.
19
AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
.
planted within this province of Maryland at your Lord- ship's charge, and continued by your care and industry in the happy restitution of a blessed peace unto us, being lately wasted with a miserable dissension and an unhappy war. But more inestimable are the blessings thereby poured on this province in planting Christianity among a people that knew not God, nor had heard of Christ."
"No ceremony that to great ones belongs, Not the King's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, Become them with one-half so good a grace As mercy does."
DANIEL DULANY.
" Where are the heroes of the ages past ? Where the brave chieftains, where the mighty ones Who flourished in the infancy of days ? All to the grave gone down."-KIRKE WHITE.
OHN V. L. McMAHON, the distinguished lawyer and historian, says in a note to his Maryland history: "If lessons upon the vanity of human hopes would avail, here is an individual over whose history we might pause to learn how insufficient are all the brightest qualities of the mind to rescue the memory of their possessor from the common doom of mortality. But half a century has gone by, and the very name of Daniel Dulany is almost forgotten in his native State, where the unques- tioned supremacy of his talents was once the theme of every tongue, and the boast of every citizen.
"In the colonial history of Maryland, the name of Dulany is associated with virtue and ability of the highest order. Daniel Dulany the elder, the father of the distinguished person alluded to in the text, was as conspicuous amongst his contemporaries as his more accomplished son, and enjoyed a reputation in the province, surpassed only by that of the latter. Of his origin and early history I have been unable to collect
21
DANIEL DULANY.
any accurate information. He was admitted to the bar of the Provincial Court in 1710, and from that period his career was one of uninterrupted honor and useful- ness. For nearly forty years he held the first place in the confidence of the proprietary, and the affections of the people. During that period he filled the various offices of Attorney General, Judge of the Admiralty, Commissary General, Agent and Receiver General, and Counciller, the latter of which he held under the suc- cessive administration of Governors Bladen, Ogle, and Sharpe. He was also, for several years, a member of the Lower House, in which capacity he was distin- guished as the leader of the country party, in the con- troversy about the extension of the English Statutes.
" His son Daniel, the greater (if we may use such a term), is said to have been educated in England, and was admitted to the bar of the Provincial Court in 1747. In 1757, he was appointed one of the Council, and in 1761, the Secretary of the Province, which offices he held in conjunction from the latter period until the American Revolution. For many years be- fore the fall of the proprietary government, he stood confessedly without a rival in this colony as a lawyer, a scholar, and an orator, and we may safely hazard the assertion that in high and varied accomplishments which constitute these, he has had amongst the sons of Maryland but one equal, and no superior. We may admit that tradition is a magnifier, and that men seen through its medium and the obscurity of half a century, like objects in a misty morning, loom largely in the distance; yet with regard to Mr. Dulany, there is no room for such illusion. " You may tell Hercules by his foot," says the proverb, and this truth is as just, when applied to the proportions of the mind as to those of the body. The legal arguments and opinions of Mr. 2
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