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Gc 975.2 N31f 1753074
IVI.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02243 6494
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/foundersofmaryla00neil_0
THE
FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND
AS PORTRAYED IN
MANUSCRIPTS, PROVINCIAL RECORDS AND EARLY DOCUMENTS,
BY
REV. EDWARD D. NEILL, A. B.,
AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH COLONIZATION OF AMERICA," "VIRGINIA COMPANY OF LONDON," "TERRA MARLE," "FAIRFAXES OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA," "HISTORY OF MINNESOTA," ETC.
"Nec falsa dicere, nec vera reticere."
ALBANY:
JOEL MUNSELL.
1876.
563
1753074
THE
FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
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PREFACE.
Every year, the citizens of ancient Padua crowd the costly church, dedicated to their townsman, the Italian Saint Anthony, and hang upon its walls, or around the shrine, sketches in oil, or water colors, commemorative of important events in their lives.
One of the many good results of the centennial year of the American Republic, is the taking down from the garrets, the neglected portraits of our forefathers, the removal of the stains and dust, the substitution of new frames, for those battered and worm eaten, and in remembering their labors for posterity.
With the aid of manuscripts, brought to light during the last decade, and access to the papers of the British Record Office, we can now portray more accurately, and hang in a better light, the FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
The object of this little book, is to state facts, which had become obscured or forgotten, concern-
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PREFACE.
ing the first European settlers on the shores of the Potomac River, and Chesapeake Bay.
Bearing in mind, the sentiment of Hieronymus in a letter to Epiphanius : " Malem aliena vere- cunde dicere, quam jura imprudenter ingerere," I have recorded facts, gleaned from the manuscript Provincial Records at the capital of Maryland, and other documents of the Provincial period, rather than obtruded my own opinions.
EDWARD D. NEILL.
Macalester College,
near Falls of Saint Anthony, Minnesota.
E
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
HENRY FLEET, EARLY INDIAN TRADER, -
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9
FLEET'S JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE IN SHIP WARWICK,
19
WILLIAM CLAYBORNE OF KENT ISLAND, -
38
EMBARCATION OF LORD BALTIMORE'S COLONY,
59
LEONARD CALVERT, FIRST GOVERNOR,
65
THOMAS CORNWALLIS, COMMISSIONER, -
69
JEROME HAWLEY, COMMISSIONER,
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83
EARLY RELIGIOUS HISTORY, -
87
CONDITION OF RELIGION DURING THE ASCENDANCY OF
PARLIAMENT,
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108
RELIGIOUS PARTIES FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES
THE SECOND TO A.D. 1700,
ยท141
ADDENDA,
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177
FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
HENRY FLEET.
BEFORE the charter of Maryland was granted, Eng- lish men, engaged in the beaver trade, had settled upon the isles and shores of the Chesapeake Bay and its tri- butaries. As one turns over the pages of the large manuscript volumes in folio, prepared by the Secretary of the London Company, he reads that on July 21st, 1621, a paper was read from Ensign Savage, relating to the great trade of furs, by Frenchmen, in the Great Bay. The letters of John Pory, Secretary of the Vir- ginia Colony, also informed the Company of a disco- very, by him and others, into the Great Bay northward, where he left " settled, very happily, near an hundred Englishmen, with hope of a good trade of furs." Among the first points, occupied by traders, was the island situated at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, near the mouth of the Susquehanna River, which was called Palmer's Island, after Edward Palmer, a nephew of the unfortunate Sir Thomas Overbury, poisoned by the malicious arrangements of the wanton wife of the Earl of Somerset. Camden speaks of Palmer as a
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
curious and diligent antiquary, and the quaint Fuller writes :
" His plenteous estate afforded him opportunity to put forward the ingenuity implanted by nature, for the public good, resolving to erect an academy in Virginia. In order whereunto he purchased an island, called Palmer's Island unto this day, but in pursuance thereof was at many thousand pounds expense, some instruments employed therein, not discharging the trust reposed in them with corresponding fidelity."1
Another point, occupied by the whites was the junc- tion of Potomac Creek with Potomac River, in what is now Strafford County, Virginia. In the fall of 1621 the ship Warwick and pinnace Tiger, sailed from the Thames with supplies, and thirty-eight young women, selected with care, as wives for Virginia planters. On the voyage, the Captain of the Tiger fell in with a vessel of Turks, and was captured, but at length, was rescued by the coming up of another friendly ship, in company of which, he arrived with the maids, at Jamestown. The Tiger was then sent' under Spilman, an experienced trader, with twenty-six men to trade for corn in the upper Potomac, and they
' Palmer's Island, as marked upon Augustine Hermann's Map of Vir- ginia and Maryland, published in 1673, which I have examined in the British Museum, is the island now known as Watson's Island, a few rods above the bridge of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railway.
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FIGHT WITH ANACOSTANS.
erected a stockade at Potomac Creek. On this voyage, with twenty-one men, Spilman landed among the Anacostans, who lived on and near the site of the city of Washington, and five men remained on board, who were attacked by the savages, whom they repulsed, by the discharge of cannon. Those on shore were either killed or made prisoners, and among the latter was Henry Fleet, who became one of the prominent asso- ciates of Governor Calvert, in establishing the Province of Maryland.
After a capitivity of several years he returned to England, and magnified the truth in the manner of Hennepin and La Hontan. One of the letter writers of that day says : " Here is one, whose name is Fleet, newly come from Virginia, who being lately ransomed from the Indians, with whom he hath long lived, till he hath left his own language, reporteth that he hath oftentimes been within sight of the South Seas, that he hath seen Indians besprinkle their paintings with powder of gold, that he had likewise seen rare pre- cious stones among them, and plenty of black fox, which of all others is the richest fur."1
By his rose-colored representations, he induced Lon- don merchants, to engage in the Potomac beaver trade. In September, 1627, William Cloberry a prominent London merchant, placed the Paramour, a vessel of
' Mead, in Streeter's Early Maryland Papers.
...
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
one hundred tons, in charge of Fleet.1 Four years later, Fleet is again in England, and on the 4th day of July, 1631, the ship Warwick with John Dunton as Master, and Henry Fleet factor, sailed for America. After visiting New England, the vessel, on the 21st of October, arrived at the mouth of James River, in Chesapeake Bay. Five days later, he reached the town of Yowaccomoco, where he had lived with the Indians for several years, and found that they, by reason of his absence, had burned the beaver skins, as was their custom. He then entered into an agree- ment that they should preserve the furs during the winter, and promised that he would come in the spring, and give them merchandize in exchange. Receiving eight hundred bushels of Indian corn, he sailed on the 6th of December, but owing to a storm, was obliged to anchor in James River. Fleet writes to his partners in London : " Divers that seemed to be my friends, advised me to visit the Governor .? I showed myself
' Bruce's British State Papers.
Governor John Harvey was, in early life, a captain in the East Indies. Late in the year 1629, he succeeded Pott, as Governor of Virginia. On the 15th of September 1634 Lord Baltimore asked Windebank, Secretary of State, to thank Harvey for assistance rendered the Maryland Colony. Three days after the King's Secretary sent a flattering note to the Governor. On the 16th of December Harvey wrote " Desirous to do Lord Baltimore all the service he is able, but his power is not great, being limited by his commission, to the greater number of voices at the Council table, where almost all are against him, especially when it concerns Maryland."
1 In May 1635 he was deposed as Governor and sent to England by
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FLEET AT ACCOMAC.
willing, yet watched an opportunity that might be convenient for my purpose, being not minded to adventure my fortunes at the disposing of the Gover- nor." On the 10th of January he slipped away from Point Comfort, and on the 7th of February, was trad- ing with the fishermen of the New England coast. On the 6th of March, he stopped at the Isle of Shoals, near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and procured pro- visions, for a return voyage, and from thence, went to Massachusetts Bay.
On the 9th of April, 1632, in company with a pin- nace of twenty tons, Fleet steered for Southern waters. On the 13th of May, he arrived at the Accomac settle- ment, of which Captain William Clayborne was the prominent man. After a visit of three days, Clayborne in a small vessel accompanied him across the Chesa- peake Bay. Eight days after this, he arrived again at Yowaccomoco, and found that one Charles Harman 1
the Council, for the usurpation of power without respect to the vote of the Council,and for upholding the Marylanders in attacking Clayborne's pinnace, and for knocking out some of the teeth of a Capt. Stevens with a cudgel.
The King on the 2d of April 1636 gave Harvey a new commission as Governor, and on the 18th of January 1637 returned to Jamestown and resumed his position. He was succeeded by Sir Francis Wyatt in November 1639, and died after much bodily suffering, leaving many debts.
' Charles Harman was a planter of Accomac and at this time thirty- two years of age. He came to Virginia in 1622, in the Ship Further- ance. In 1625 his servants on his plantation were John Askume aged twenty-two, and Robert Fennell who came in 1624 in the ship Charles,
14 THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
an Indian trader had already secured most of the beaver. Resting here, he immediately sent his brother Edward toward the Falls of the Potomac, to secure furs. On the 26th of May, he reached the town of Potomac, in what is now Strafford County, Va., and on the 1st of June, sent back the pinnace of twenty tons, with a cargo of Indian corn, and proceeded to Piscat- toway the residence of a powerful chief, and from thence, visited the Anacostans, an adjoining band, who traded with the Canada Indians, and by whom he had been captured several years before. On Tuesday, the 26th of June, he anchored two leagues below the Falls of the Potomac, in the vicinity of what is now the city of Washington. He writes, in his journal, which is still preserved, in the library of Lambeth Palace :
" This place without all question is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this country, and most con- venient for habitation, the air temperate in summer, and not violent in winter. The 27th of June, I manned my shallop, and went up with the flood, the tide rising four feet, at this place. We had not rowed above three miles, but we might hear the Falls to roar, about six miles distant."
.
After trading with the Indians in the neighborhood, he returned to Piscattoway, about fifteen miles below
and James Knott aged twenty-three who came in 1617 in the ship George. Harman at one time represented Accomac in the Virginia Assembly.
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VISIT TO GOVERNOR HARVEY. 15
Washington, and on the 28th of August, met a boat, containing John Utie a Virginia councillor, Charles Harmon a trader, and six others who came to bring him before Governor Harvey for illicit trading.
The Governor was grasping and unscrupulous and seems to have winked at Fleet's irregularities. On - the 7th of September, the latter anchored at Jamestown, and writes in his journal : " The Governor, bearing himselflike a noble gentleman, showed me very much favor, and used me with unexpected courtesy. Captain Utie did acquaint the Council with the success of the voyage, and every man scemed to be desirous to be a partner with me. * * The Court was called the 14th of September, where an order was made, which I have here enclosed, and I find that the Governor hath favored me therein."
There is in the Public Record Office, at London, a complaint of Griffith & Co., owners of the ship War- wick, in which they state that three years before, they had sent the ship to Virginia, for trade and discovery, of which Henry Fleet was factor, with commission to return in a year, but, that by authority of Governor Harvey, Fleet had retained the vessel and its profits to their great loss.1
Other London merchants in that day found the Vir- ginians slippery fellows, and were ready to endorse
' Sainsbury's Stato Papers.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
the sentiments of the Dutch captain De Vries, who had been a guest of Governor Harvey, and wrote as follows in his book of voyages : "The English there are very hospitable, but they are not proper persons to trade with. You must look out when you trade with them, Peter is always by Paul or you will be stuck in the tail. If they can deceive any one, they account it among themselves a Roman action. They say in their language, 'He played him an English trick.'"
The next mention of Fleet, is in connection with th settlement of the Calvert colony. Governor Leonard Calvert, before landing his company made a reconnois- sance of the Potomac, as far as Piscattoway. The in- terpreter, Father White says, was Henry Fleet, and " one of the Protestants of Virginia." The journal of the Jesuit continued : "The Governor had taken with him, as a companion on his voyage, Henry Fleet, a Captain from the Virginia colony, a man especially acceptable to the savages, well versed in their language, and acquainted with the country. This man was at first, very intimate with us, afterwards, being misled by the evil counsels of one Clayborne, he became very hostile to us, and excited the natives to anger against us, by all the means in his power.
"In the meantime, however, while he was still on friendly terms with us, he pointed out to the Governor, a spot so charming in its situation, that Europe can scarcely show one to surpass it." Thus Fleet's old
1
FLEET'S TRADING POST. 17
trading post, Yowaccomoco, was transformed into the town of Saint Mary, and Leonard Calvert and his asso- ciates began there to build a rival commonwealth to Virginia.
A few weeks after the Calvert colonists landed, on May 9, 1634, there were assigned to Fleet, two thousand acres on St. George River, St. George's Hundred, which was subsequently known as the Manor of West Saint Mary.
In the legislature of 1638, the first Assembly in Maryland, whose records have been preserved, were Heury Fleet and his brothers Edward, John, and Rey- nold, and on the 21st of the next February another legislature was called by the Governor, to assemble " at the house, where Captain Fleets lately dwelt."
After the civil war in England began, Fleet identi fied himself with Virginia, and by its legislature on April 5th, 1645, Captain Fleet was authorized " as a fit person acquainted with the language of the Indians, and accustomed to intercourse with them, to trade with the Rappahannocks, or any Indians, not in amity with Opechancanough." The'next year, he was appointed to organize an expedition against the Indians, and build a fort, in the valley of the Rappahannocriver. In De- cember, 1652, he sat as a member of the Virginia legislature, from Lancaster County, and with his old rival William Clayborne was authorized " to discover and enjoy such benefits and trades, for fourteen years,.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
as they shall find out in places where no English have ever been and discovered, nor have had particular trade, and to take up such lands, by patents, proving their rights, as they shall think good."
In 1654, he is last mentioned, as an interpreter to a proposed expedition against the Indians. Upon the Coast Survey Map of the Potomac, in the Report of 1860, Fleet's Point appears between the 37th and 38th degrees of latitude, and here perhaps, the old and hardy pioneer may have last lived.
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A BRIEF JOURNAL
OF A VOYAGE MADE IN THE BARK VIRGINIA, TO VIRGINIA AND OTHER PARTS OF THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA.
IN the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a Lambeth, is a manuscript journal with the above title, writen by Capt. Henry Fleet. In 1664 it belonged to William Griffith A.M., who was, probably, the son of Heury Griffith, one of the owners of the Warwick, and may have been the Oxford graduate, who was Chan- cellor of dioceses of St. Asaph and Bangor. In pre- senting the journal to American readers, bad and obsolete spellings have been corrected, with the excep- tion of those of proper names.
JOURNAL.
" The 4th of July 1631, we weighed anchor from the Downs, and sailed for New England, where we arrived in the harbor of Pascattouaie, the 9th of September, making some stay upon the coast of New England. From thence, on Monday the 19th of Sep- tember, we sailed directly for Virginia, where we came to anchor in the bay there, the 21st of October, but made little stay. From thence we set sail for the river of Potomack, where we arrived the 26th of October at
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
an Indian town called Yowaccomoco, being at the mouth of the river, where I found that, by reason of my absence, the Indians had not preserved their beaver, but burned it, as the custom is, whereupon I endea- voured by persuasion to alter that custom, and to pro- serve it for me against the next spring, promising to come there with commodities in exchange by the first of April. Here I was tempted to run up the river to the heads, there to trade with a strange populous nation, called Mowhaks,1 man-eaters, but after good deliberation, I conceived many inconveniences that might fall out. First, I considered that I was engaged to pay a quantity of Indian corn in New England, the neglect whereof might be prejudicial both to them that should have it, and to me that promised payment. And when I observed that winter was very forward, and that if I should proceed and be frozen in, it might be a great hindrance to my proceedings ; therefore I did forbear, and making all the convenient haste I could, I took into the barque her lading of Indian corn as I supposed, being persuaded and overruled by John Dunton, whom I entertained as master. But upon the delivery of our lading found not above 800 bushels to our great hindrance.
" The 6th of December we weighed anchor, shaping our course directly for New England, but the wind
' The Maquas, Mawhawks, Mowhaks, or Mohawks were then a fierce tribe west and south of Albany, N. Y., but Fleet exaggerates in calling them, man-eaters.
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CORN FOR NEW ENGLAND. 21
being contrary, ending with a fearful storm, we were forced into the inhabited river of James Town. There were divers envious people, who would have executed their malice upon us had it not been for a rumour of a commission they supposed I had, which I took great pains to procure, but (time being precious and my charge great) I came away only with the copy. Divers that seemed to be my friends advised me to visit the Governor. I showed myself willing, yet watched an opportunity that might be convenient for my purpose, being not minded to adventure my fortunes at the disposing of the Governor.
" Then we did a little replenish our provisions. But at this time I was much troubled with the seamen, all of them resolving not to stir until the spring, alleg- ing that it was impossible to gain a passage in winter, and that the load being corn, was the more dangerous. But the master and his mate, who were engaged for the delivery of the corn, laboured to persuade and en- courage them to proceed, showing that it would be for their benefit ; so that, with threats and fair persua- sions, at last I prevailed.
" On Tuesday, the 10th of January, we set sail from Point Comfort and arrived at Pascattoway, in New England, on Tuesday the 7th of February, where we delivered our corn, the quantity being 700 bushels.
" On Tuesday, the 16th of March, we weighed anchor and sailed to the Isle of Shoals, where we fur-
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
nished ourselves with provisions of victual. Sunday,' the 11th of March, we sailed for the Massachusetts Bay, and arrived there on the 19th day. I wanted commodities to trade with the Indians, and here I endeavoured to fit myselfif I could. I did obtain some, but it proved of little value, and was the overthrow of my voyage.
"From the Massachusetts, was sent with me a small pinnace of the burthen of twenty tons, the which I was to freight with Indian corn for trucking stuff, which proved to me like that I had before from the Bay, and Pascattoway, from whence I had some likewise. Yet this was not the greatest wrong I received by this barque, as shall hereafter be related.
" On Monday, the 9th of April, 1632, we both weighed anchor, and shaped our course for Virginia, but the sixth day being stormy weather we lost our pinnace. Contrary winds and gusty weather, with the insuffi- ciency of the master, made our return to Virginia tedious, to the overthrow of the voyage. But it so pleased God that we anchored against the English colony the 13th of May, when, for want of wind, being a flat calm, we came to an anchor at Acomack. Hav- ing some English commodities I sold them for tobacco. Wednesday, the 16th of May, we shaped our course for the river of Patomack, with the company of Cap- tain Claybourne, being in a small vessel. By the relation of him and others of the plantation of Aco-
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CHARLES HARMAN, TRADER.
mack, the Governor of Virginia was much displeased with me, unto whom complaints had been made by divers of the country, and it had been discovered by one of my company that was run away, how that I had but the copy of my commission. Friday, the 17th of May, we might discern a sail making toward us about two o'clock in the afternoon. She came up to us, and we found that it was the pinnace that came out with us, which having had a short passage, had been up the river of Patomack, at Yowocomaco, an Indian town, where she had stayed three weeks, and then I was certified, that he who had usually been in those parts with me, after my last departure, came there and went up the river to truck, where he found good store of beaver, and being furnished with commodities such as Virginia affords, did beat about from town to town for beaver, but prevailed not. And in the end, coming where my barque had been, that town having 300 weight of beaver, he then reported that I was dead, they supposing his vessel to be the same that I was to come in, desired them to bring me dead or alive, and this report caused some distraction for the present, who supposed that by reason of my long ab- sence, past my appointed time, some mischance had befallen me. And the Indians there disposed of their beaver to Charles Harman, being 300 weight, who departed but three days before I came there.
" This relation did much trouble me, fearing (having
1
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
contrary winds) that the Indians might be persuaded to dispose of all their beaver before they could have notice of my being in safety, they themselves having no use at all for it, being not accustomed to take pains to dress it and make coats of it. Monday, the 21st of May, we came to an anchor at the mouth of the river, where hastening ashore, I sent two Indians, in company with my brother Edward, to the Emperor, being three days' journey towards the Falls. And so sailing to the other side of the river, I sent two Indians more, giving express order to all of them not to miss an In- dian town and to certify them of my arrival. But it so happened that he (Harman) had cleared both sides of the river, so far as the Emperor's where these In- dians, when they came, certified him of my being well, and of my brother's being there, so that afterwards he could not get a skin, but he made a very hand of it, and an unexpected trade for the time, at a small charge, having gotten 1500 weight of beaver, and cleared fourteen towns. There were yet three that were at the disposing of the Emperor, so the barque and my- self passing by divers towns, came to the town of Pato- mack on Saturday, the 26th of May.1 There I gave the pinnace her lading of Indian corn, and sent her away the 1st of June, with letters from our company to their friends in London, and elsewhere in England, which were safely conveyed from New England. The
1 Potomac town supposed to be at the mouth of Potomac Creek in Virginia.
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MASSOMACK INDIANS.
same day, with a north-west wind (Charles Harman staying no longer), we set sail, and the third we arrived at the Emperor's, but before we could come to the town he was paddled aboard, by a petty king, in a canoe.
When he came he used divers speeches, and alleged many circumstances for the excuse of the beaver which Charles Harman had of his men in that river, and after compliments used, he presented me with one hundred and fourteen beaver skins, which put me into a little comfort after so much ill success. Yet this was noth- ing, in regard to the great change at his town, and at a little town by him called the Nacostines, where I had almost 800 weight of beaver. There is but little friendship between the Emperor, and the Nacostines,1 he being fearful to punish them, because they are pro- tected by the Massomacks or Cannyda Indians, who have used to convey all such English truck as cometh into the river to the Massomacks.
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