USA > Maryland > Anne Arundel County > A history of Anne Arundel County in Maryland : adapted for use in the schools of the county > Part 3
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A HISTORY OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
chivalry of Lord Baltimore's government of Maryland, that, so long as he and his heirs were in power in the Province, there is not known or recorded one case of religions persecution of any character, not only of professed Christians, but neither of Greek or Gentile, Jew or Barbarian. The only place in all the wide, wide world, where religions freedom was encouraged and religious liberty established, Maryland became "The Land of the Sanctuary," and her splendid toleration rose on the horizon of a bigoted age, as "The Day-Star of American Freedom."
8. In the year 1639, there were symptons of trouble with the Indians of the Eastern Shore and the Susquehannas. The colonists made preparation, by both a land and sea force, to protect themselves, but, the rupture of friendly relations did not result in open warfare. In the year 1640, William Clayborne, by his attorney, George Scovell, of Virginia, requested power and liberty, to recover his property in Maryland. The answer to this request was that such property had been forfeited to the Lord Proprietary for certain crimes of piracy and murder, and "if the petitioner can find out any of the said estate, not possessed or held by that right, he shall do well to inform his lordship's attorney of it, that it may be recovered to his Lordship's use," but that if Clayborne had acquired any estate in Maryland, since his attaint in 1637, the law of the Province, without any further grant, gives the petitioner or his attorney full power to recover it. The Indians, in the year 1641, supposed to be the Ozinies, numbering abont sixty warriors, had become so threatening in their demeanor towards the people of Kent Island, that Governor Calvert issued a proclamation, prohibiting any one from harboring or entertaining any Indian, and authorizing "any inhabitant whatsoever of the Isle of Kent to shoot, wound or kill, any Indian whatsoever coming upon said island, until further order be given herein." The Free Men of Kent, from the poll of voters, did not then number above twenty-five in number. There was still, in the face of such a tension, in the relations existing between the colonist and the aboriginees, no open hostilities between them.
9. Again the hydra-religious dissension-lifted its head in Maryland, to be as promptly suppressed. Thomas Gerrard, given to strong drink and hot words, on March 22d, 1642, was charged, in a petition to the House of Burgesses, signed by David Wiekliff, in the name of the "Protestant Catholics" of Maryland, with taking away the key of the chapel, and carrying away the books of the chapel. Mr. Gerrard was summoned to answer, and, after hearing the evidence of the prose- cution and the defence of . Mr. Gerrard, the House found him guilty of a mis- demeanor, and adjudged that he return the key and the books, and relinquish all title to them or the house, and to pay a fine of 500 pounds of tobacco, "towards
further exemplified ? (b) So long as Lord Baltimore and his heirs held the government, were there any religious persecutions in Maryland ? (() What name was given Maryland ?
PARAGRAPH 8. («) What symptoms of trouble were there in 1639? (b) What request did Clay- borne make in 1640? (c) What answer was made to this request? (d) How had the Indians become in 1641 ? (e) What was the poll of the free men of Kent about this time ?
PARAGRAPH 9. (a) What charge was made against Thomas Gerard in 1642 ? (b) What was the judgment of . the Court upon the charge ?
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maintaining the first minister as should arrive." Mr. Gerrard was a leading man in the colony, and, from the records, must have been a zealons Catholic. The peti- tioners were, probably, members of the Church of England.
IO. The colonists, having planted the preceding season but a small quantity of tobacco, the Governor issued a proclamation in 1643, prohibiting all export of it to England. The uneasiness in the colony, from this condition of their staple product, was further increased by the plots and machinations of Richard Ingle, a late arrival in the Province. Giles Brent, then acting Governor, in the absence of Gov. Calvert, issued a proclamation calling upon Richard Ingle, mariner, "to yield his body to Robert Eilyson, sheriff of this (St. Mary's) county, before the first day of February next, to answer such crimes of treason, as, on his Majesty's behalf, shall be objected against him." The proclamation required all persons to disclose any matter of treason against the said Richard Ingle. Measures were immediately taken for seizing his ship. Ingle was apprehended, but subsequently escaped from custody.
11. Dissensions in "the mother-country" enabled William Clayborne to re-assert his claims to Kent Island, and, intimations, evidently, from the proclama- tion that Gov. Calvert issued, having reached St. Mary's of Clayborne's attempt to retake the Island, the Governor gave commissions to Mark Pheypo and John Genalles, to take command of a shallop, and press eight men, and go to Kent Island, and "to inquire whether Captain Clayborne, or any other, have made any disturbance of the peace, or committed any outrage upon the island, and to learn what force he did it with, and what strength he is of there, at sea or shore, and what his intents further be, and how long he means to stay." The loss of precious records of the Province through these proceedings of Ingle and Clayborne has destroyed all information as of the result of this expedition, and of Ingle and Clay- borne attempts upon the Province. There is, at this point, a lapse of eighteen months between the official records of the Province. Beginning with the renewal of the provincial archives, in 1646. Gov. Calvert is found in Virginia, with Captain Edward Hill acting as Governor of Maryland, under a commission purporting to have been given by Gov. Calvert ; but, it appears, that this commission to Captain Hill was "acted by another person," as the record states, that is, by the Council at St. Mary's. Gov. Calvert who had fled to Virginia, during the troubles occassioned by Ingle and Clayborne, towards the close of the year 1646, returned to Maryland with a body of armed men.
12. With this little army, he seems to have taken .the insurgents by surprise, and, after a skirmish, and some bloodshed, most of the rebels submitted, some were arrested and imprisoned, while others fled to Virginia. Captain Hill was obliged
PARAGRAPH IO. (a) What did the Governor forbid to be exported from the Province in 1643? by What proclamation was issued about Richard Ingle ?
PARAGRAPH 11. (a) What enabled William Clayborne to re-assert his claims to Kent Island ? (b) What destroyed all record of the result of expeditions to resist this claim and Clayborne's attempt to retake the Isle of Kent ? (c) Who fled to Virginia about this time ? (d) With what did Governor Calvert return in 1646 ?
PARAGRAPH 12. (4) What did Governor Calvert accomplish with his little army ? (b) When
THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION, ANNAPOLIS.
COURT OF APPEALS BUILDING, ANNAPOLIS.
THE NEW YOR! PUBLIC LIBRARY
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A HISTORY OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
to give up his office of Governor upon conditions mutually subscribed by Gov. Calvert and himself-one of the conditions being that there should be a payment, or compensation, made to Gov. Calvert of all the perquisites that Gov. Hill had received while in office. After the winter had ended, Gov. Calvert proceeded to Kent Island and reduced it to the authority of the Lord Proprietary, and, once more, all Maryland was under the government of Lord Baltimore. It is probable that the estates of the rebels on the island were confiscated, because, in a commis- sion to Capt. Vanghan, he is particularly called upon to take all the estate of John Abbott, of Kent Island.
13. The reduction of Kent Island and the orders given in relation to the late insurrection were the last official acts of Gov. Calvert. On the 9th, of June, 1647, he died. In his death the Province lost an executive whose public character was without reproach. Little or nothing is known of his private life, but his adminis- tration was marked by a performance of the trust reposed in him with honesty and integrity towards his brother-the Proprietary-and with fairness and justice towards the people of the Province. During his term of office not one single case of wrong or injustice occurred at his hand upon any of the inhabitants of the Province-Indian or Englishman.
CHAPTER FIFTH.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF MARGARET BRENT.
1. The death of Governor Calvert brought into the scenes of Maryland history that remarkable character-Mistress Margaret Brent-Mistress by the courteous chivalry of the period-her age and maidenhood uniting to give her this title of honor. Relative of the expiring Governor, about six hours before his death, Governor Calvert, directing his speech to Mrs. Margaret Brent, said in the presence of Thomas Greene and other witnesses : "I make yon my sole Executrix. Take all, and pay all." After these words, he desired every one to depart the room, and was, for some time, in private conference with Mrs. Brent. Making her claim under this oral will, for administration, Mrs. Brent was duly appointed the administratrix, and sought, at the same time. the probate of the Governor's testamentary wishes.
did Governor Calvert proceed to Kent ? (c) Under whose Government now was all Maryland ?
PARAGRAPH 13. (a) What were the last official acts of Governor Calvert ? (b) How was Gov- ernor Calvert's administration marked ?
PARAGRAPH 1. (a) What remarkable character came upon the scenes after the death of Governor Calvert ? (b) What will had the Governor made ?
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2. The question arising before the Provincial Court, whether or not, Mrs. Brent might not, under the conditions existing, act as the attorney in fact of Lord Balti- more, it was decided, the matter resting, in the decision, upon the opinion of Giles Brent, her brother, that she could act as his lordship's attorney. This illustrious woman was of strong intellect and heroic courage in the management of both her public and private affairs, and set about her new business with great energy. The Legislature having met in the year 1648, Margaret Brent appeared before that body in person, and demanded "to have a vote in the house for herself, and another as his lordship's attorney." This was refused by Governor Greene, who acted as the President or Speaker of the body, wherenpon, Mrs. Brent protested against all the proceedings of that Assembly.
3. At the close of this Session of Assembly Governor Greene issued a procla- mation declaring pardon to every inhabitant, residing within the province, for any offence whatsoever committed by any of them from the fourteenth of February, 1644, nnto the 16th of April, 1648, and, also, to every other person, ont of the province, who acknowledged sorrow for his fault, and who would ask pardon before the feast of St. Michael, the archangel, next, excepting Richard Ingle, mariner.
4. Lord Baltimore was greatly displeased with Margaret Brent for taking charge of his estates in the province, which being brought to the attention of the assembly, that body, in an address to the Lord Baltimore, declared : "We do verily believe, and, in Conscience report that it was better for the Colony's safety, at that time, in her hands, than in any man's else, in the whole Province, after your brother's death, for the soldiers never would have treated any other with that civility and respect ; and though they were, even ready at several times, to run into mutiny, yet she pacified them till, at the last, things were brought to that strait, that she must be admitted and declared your Lordship's Attorney, by an order of Court (the Copy whereof is herewith enclosed) or else all must go to ruin again, and then the second mischief had been, doubtless, far greater than the former; so that, if there hath not been any sinister use made of your Lordship's estate, by her from what it was intended and engaged for by Mr. Calvert before his death, as we verily believe, she hath not, then, we conceive, from that time, she rather deserved favor and thanks from your honor for her so much concurring to the public safety, than to be justly liable to all those bitter invectives you have been pleased to express against her."
5. In the year 1648, the Lord Proprietary removed from the office of Governor Thomas Greene, who had been named as his successor by Leonard Calvert, and appointed William Stone, Esq., of Northampton County, Virginia, a zealous Prot-
PARAGRAPH 2. (a) How did the Court deeide Mrs. Brent should aet? (b) How did she manage her public and private affairs? (c) What claim did she make to the Legislature, and with what result?
PARAGRAPH 3. (a) What did the Proelamation of Governor Greene, made at the close of the session, declare?
PARAGRAPH 4. (a) How was Lord Baltimore affected by Mrs. Brent taking charge of his estates? (b) Who defended Mrs. Brent? (c) What did the Legislature say in her defence?
PARAGRAPH 5. (a) Whom did the Proprietary remove from the office of Governor? (b) Whom
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estant, and, generally known to have been always zealously affected to the Parlia- ment, Governor in Greene's stead. The oath of office which the new Governor was required to take, bound him not to disturb any person whatsoever in the Province professing to believe in Jesus Christ, and, in particular no Roman Catholic, on account of his religion, and he was to have no partiality on account of religions belief in the distribution of offices, rewards and favors. The new councillors who were named to act with Governor Stone, were also required to take a similar oath, so that Maryland began anew her career of religious toleration. Margaret Brent ceased to be a public official, but continued to hold a high place in the annals of the colony, and frequently appeared in the Courts of the Province as a practicing lawyer.
CHAPTER SIXTH.
MARYLAND A PROTOTYPE OF ENGLAND.
1. Lord Baltimore having assented to the right of the Free Men of Maryland to originate laws, and having given his Governor, subject to his dissent, the authority to approve the laws which the people made, a session of the Legislature, under the new conditions, was held at the Fort of St. Mary's, and then the same day removed to St. John, on the 25th of March, 1638. The first act of this Assembly was to establish the House of Assembly. This act styled the several persons returned elected, as Burgesses, and to all the same intents and purposes as the Burgesses in any borough in England, in the Parliament of England. In the House were inchided those "Gentlemen summoned by his Lordship's special writ." These, when assem- bled, or any twelve of them, provided the twelve included the Lieutenant-General, or Governor, and the Secretary, shall be "called the House of Assembly." At that time the Legislature still met as one House. The laws, passed by the House and assented to by the Governor, were to be the laws of the Province, " as if his Lordship and all the Free Men of this Province were personally present, and did assent."
2. The next act was to ordain certain laws for the further Goverment of the Province. By this general act, the Holy Church, within the Province, was to have all her rights and liberties. This act did not, however, establish any form of
did he appoint in Governor Greene's place? (() To what did the oath of office bind the new Governor?
PARAGRAPH I. (a) Lord Baltimore, after assenting to the right of the Free Men to propose laws, what was the first act of the session of 1638? (b) What was the title of the members of the House of Assembly? («) Who else were included in the Assembly beside those elected as Burgesses?
PARAGRAPH 2. (a) What was the next act? (b) What was the Holy Church to have in the
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religion, but preserved the Church in its universality, it would seem, in all its abstract rights. This statute acknowledged all the rights and prerogatives of the Lord Proprietary and preserved to the people their rights and liberties according to the great Charter of England. The Lieutenant-General, within the Province, and the Commander of the Isle of Kent, were directed to try all civil cases according to the laws or landable usages of the Province, or, otherwise, according to the laws or landable usages of England. Another Assembly was held in 1640, and an act prohibiting the exportation of corn, another for the planting of corn, one touching marriages, one rating artificers' wages, and others relating to servants' clothes and touching tobacco, were passed. Subsequent Assemblies were held annually for several years, the Free Men providing, by appropriate legislation, for the good and government of the Province. All the acts exhibited the spirit of English law and jurisprudence.
3. No branch of the history of Maryland, more than the records of the Courts, displays so distinctly the life and character of the people who settled Maryland. Here are seen the motives that animated the fathers who planted the Cross on the shores of the Chesapeake, and reclaimed the wilderness to civilization. Their cares, their pleasures, their aims, their possessions, their provisions for their families, their deeds of valor, their petty disputes, their great endeavors-all stand out in the records of the courts, as the true and faithful indices of character and conditions ; for here the report and tradition were sifted by the rules of critical proof and legal evidence, and the record was made by unbiased seribes, before a scrutinizing Court, in the presence of adverse interests, zealous and watchful, to have the truth stated, and the truth only.
4. The helpful, busy, worthy life of the settlers of Maryland, as seen through the telescope of judicial records, displays the colony as the energetic young proto- type of the " Mother Country " from which it sprang. Here was the court Pepowdry of the great cities of London and Liverpool ; here, the courts meet and baron that reflected the picturesque tribunals of the lordly barons of the Isle of Liberty ; here was the county court mirroring the busy courts nisi of York and Devonshire ; here, the Provincial Court-the reflection of the high court of Chan- cery of England ; and, finally, the appeal to the Legislature, as the English suitor came, as the Court of last resort, to the House of Lords.
5. Throughout every avenue of trade and custom this likeness to England is found. Here was my lord, Thomas Gerrard, of St. Clements Mano) ; " my lady of the manor ;" the steward of the manor ; the seizin by rod ; the stocks ; the dueking-
Province? (c) What was the Lieutenant General and the Commander of the Isle of Kent to try? (d) According to what usages and laws were these cases to be tried? (e) Name some of the Acts passed by the Assembly of 1640?
PARAGRAPH 3. What do the records of the Court display?
PARAGRAPH 4. (a) Of what was the life of the settlers the prototype? (b) In what way did this likeness consist? (() Name these Courts?
PARAGRAPH 5. (a) Where else is this likeness to England found? (b) Name some of these customs?
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A HISTORY OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
stool ; the whipping-post ; the Governor of the Province acting as the chief law- giver of the Commonwealth ; the sovereign Lord Proprietary ; " his highness the lord protector " in his day, and our sovereign lord the king when he reigned ; the trial by jury ; the writs of right and arrest ; the Bible of the Englishiman-found returned in almost every inventory ; the right to have and hold arms ; the untram- melled voice of the Free Man in assembly ; his right to levy his own taxes and to take part in making his own laws ; his duty to quiet his estate before death ; his jealousy of his reputation ; his fearlessness in battle ; his superiority over trials and environments ; his ability to adapt himself to every condition ; his respect for woman ; his love of the chase; his desire to acquire property ; his love of God ; his veneration for law and love of order; his penchant for trade and adventure ; his merrymakings ; his love of strong drink and hatred of drunkenness ; here, the efforts of Lord Baltimore to establish, in his lords of manors, a hereditary aristocracy ; here, the military spirit of the freemen ; here, their oaths, pardons, acts of oblivion, seditions, rebellions, and insurrections ; and the very names of the people, towns, rivers, counties, and the provinces itself, all reflect the land from which these sturdy settlers came.
6. In one feature alone the Province of Maryland failed to follow the example of the mother-land. The pilgrim fathers left behind them, on its shores, all spirit of intolerance and bigotry in religion, and, going to a new world, began a new era of citizenship in which was to be allowed the free worship of God, and which proved in time that the Catholic and the Churchman were, when tested, equally loyal to their country, however great was their difference in religious faith, and here Maryland gave invitation to the world to rear their altars in a land where unyielding law guaranteed to every one the unfettered right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, none daring to molest or make him afraid.
7. The records of the Courts have a distinguishing fact that shows a remarkable absence of crimes of violence. Leaving out the sea-fight, which was not a domestic crime, but rather a defence of the rights of the colony against intrusion, the offences against the person in the early days of the colony, from the year 1634 to 1647, were two homicides and one unprovoked battery. Both of the parties who were killed were Indians, and so jealous was the Court to allow no partiality to interfere with justice, a jury which doubted whether Pagans had the same standing in a Court as Christians, was promptly dismissed and a new trial ordered.
8. The Courts were insistent in securing the same protection to the persons of Indians as they were to preserve the rights of the whites and in supporting the dignity of their tribunal. . On February 13th, 1643, it is recorded that, while the
PARAGRAPH 6. (@) In what feature alone did the Province fail to follow the example of the mother-land? (b) What was guaranteed to every one?
PARAGRAPH 7. (a) What distinguishing fact do the records of the Court show? (b) What were the offenees against the person from 1634 to 1647? (c) What proof did the Court give that it would allow no partiality to interfere with justice?
PARAGRAPH 8. (a) What were they insistent in seeuring? (b) Give an instance of their purpose to protect the Indians?
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Court was "importunately pressing and charging the jury that were npon the trial of John Elkin, to proceed according to their evidence and conscience, and arguing and pleading the crime against the prisoner at the bar," " George Pye, in an insolent manner, upbraided and reproached the whole court, in these, or the like words, viz .: ' that if an Englishman had been killed by the Indians there would not have been half so much words made of it,' or to that effect, to the great contempt and scandal of the Court. and the ill example of others." On being arraigned on his trial for this contempt of Court. Pye alleged that he did not speak the words charged, but Thomas Greene testifying that Pye did use the language alleged, Pye was fined one thousand pounds of tobacco.
CHAPTER SEVENTH.
THE SETTLEMENT OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
1. The settlement of Anne Arundel County was due to events as novel as a romancer's creations. The Protestant governor ruled in Virginia, a Catholic pro- prietary reigned in Maryland. The liberality, which professors of a similar faith might be reasonably expected to exhibit to each other, was sadly wanting in the Churchmen of Virginia towards their Puritan brethren, and, in the year 1648, the authorities of Virginia, discovering that the Congregational or Independent Church, formed in 1642, had, by the aid of secret meetings, notwithstanding the laws against it, increased to one hundred and eighteen members, began a rigorous execution of their penal statutes against the Puritans. Their conventicle was broken up, and the members of it were scattered in different directions.
2. Near the close of the year 1648, the elder of the Independents, Mr. Durand, took refuge in Maryland. Negotiations for a settlement of the Independents very soon began, and the persecuted Puritans were offered an asylum in Maryland, provided they who would hold land, would take the oath of allegiance to Lord Baltimore.
3. This oath the Puritans agreed to take. In 1649, a small company from Richard Bennett's plantation, at Nansemond, Va., in all. about ten families arrived, and settled at Greenberry's Point. A tract of 250 acres was surveyed, and divided into ten acre lots, each settler receiving one, the balance being given to Bennett.
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