USA > Maryland > Anne Arundel County > A history of Anne Arundel County in Maryland : adapted for use in the schools of the county > Part 7
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PARAGRAPH 3. (a) What was Captain Hill further charged with? (b) What second charge was made against Captain Hill? (c) What petition did Captain Hill, with other leading citizens, in 1690, present to the King? (i) What answer did Coode and Cheseldyne make to this petition? (e) What report was made by the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plantations upon this matter? (f) What action did the King take? (g) What proof of confidence did the people give to Captain Hill?
PARAGRAPH 4. (a) Did the chief actors look lightly on differences of opinion? (b) What peti- tion did Thomas Bland make?
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whereof we are not only freed from the Tears and dangers of Popish tyranny and oppression, but from other calamities and miseries the people groaned under, which being now changed into repose, quiet and lawful liberty, there is nothing further wanting to the composing the minds of men in agreement, peace and plenty, save only the dutiful return of veneration and obedience from the people of this, their Majesties Province, in acknowledging their fatherly tenderness and indulgence in placing your Excellency to be ruler over us. Your Petitioner, in contemplation of so ample goodness and that he may, in some measure, be serviceable to this their Majesties Province, under the lawful government of your Excellency, humbly prays that he may be admitted to be sworn one of their Majesties Attorneys of the Pro- vincial Court, where your petitioner has been a practitioner above twenty years, in which employment your petitioner desires to spend the remainder of his life, not only in defending their Majesties rights by Law, but shall always be ready to lay down his life and fortunes at their Majesties feet, and at the feet of your Excellency as Governor against all opposition whatsoever. And your petitioner shall ever pray for your Excellency's long life and prosperity."
5. A facetious answer, crnel in its effect, was the reply to this unctious petition. In the Council Proceedings it is recorded, that "it being informed his Excellency and this Board that the Petitioner had, upon the late Revolution, approved himself a person disaffected to their Majesties and the present government, as per several depositions taken against him, especially one by Mr. William Hopkins, of the same connty, may appear, which being produced and read, it was ordered that, for answer to the within written petition, the petitioner is referred to the following copy of a deposition taken by Mr. William Hopkins, as the reason why they have thought fit to reject the same."
6. The deposition of Hopkins was : "Saith that, as the deponent was going to the County Court, in September, 1689, Thomas Bland asked the deponent what made him so rebellions against the Lord Baltimore, and asked, if he had not sufferred enough in the Province already for his being so obstinate against the Papists, and yet, for all your sufferings, you will assist in the oversetting of the government, and think to be relieved by one, as you pretend, is now King of England ; but you are deceived for the Prince of Orange is not King of England, nor ever is like to be, and this is treason in the highest degree to act so against the Lord Baltimore, and, therefore, you will lose both your life and livings from your heirs forever, if you desist not from your rebellion, and, besides, you know if you had, at any time, any suit at law in the Court, yon could never have justice done von because you were always looked upon as the greatest rebel against the Papists in all Maryland, and now you think to be relieved by this King William, (as you call him,) for it is not in his power to relieve you, for the Lord Baltimore is no ways subordinate or dependent to the Crown of England; but is absolute here of himself in this Province. And, if King William that usurped, should take by force
PARAGRAPH 5. (a) What answer was made to this petition?
PARAGRAPH 6. What did Hopkins say in his deposition?
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PROF. HENRY R. WALLACE, Elected Examiner of the Public Schools of Anne Arundel County, November 10th, 1905.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTUA LEADX AND
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this Province from my Lord, he could not be King of it, but, must be but a Pro- prietor of the same, for it was freely given to my Lord for an absolute place of refuge for the Papists, and von are all but intruders into their privileges, and my Loid is not bound by his charter to maintain the Protestant Religion though you say he is, and, therefore, for your rebellion against the Lord Baltimore, you will all be hanged, and your King William, as you call him, neither can nor hath any power to relieve you in this Province, and you know you have suffered enough already in your last suit in chancery, and when I came to Court Captain Hill, and this deponent had some words, and Bland said : . See what Captain Hill says to you before these gentlemen, and yet you will not be quiet.' "
7. In due course of time Mr. Bland was fully restored to his rights, of citizenship, if not sworn as an attorney of the Provincial Court, for, in 1696, he appears in the list of military officers in Anne Arundel County who signed the Maryland Associa- tion's address, presented to his Sacred Majesty, upon the news arriving in the Province " of the horrible intended conspiracy against his royal person."
CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH.
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN ANNE ARUNDEL FROM THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION-1689-1776.
1. With the passage of the Act of 1692, chapter 2, which established the Protestant Religion in Maryland, the ascendancy of the Puritan and Quaker element began to wane.
2. Annapolis, with all its fashionable dissipations, had in it a strong religions element, and many notable clergymen ministered to its spiritual needs. Amongst these were the great George Whitfield, who in 1746, visited Annapolis, and preached on November 5th, a day of thanksgiving. His sermon was from the text, " Righte- onsness exalteth a nation." Proverbs, 14:28. As the service ended, it was concluded by the untoward incident, the ornament at the back of the Speaker's pew, struck by a heavy gust of wind, gave way, and struck several gentlemen. When the Methodists began their preaching in Maryland, one of their ministers visited the city and preached.
PARAGRAPH 7. To what was Bland restored in the course of time?
PARAGRAPH 1. (a) What was established by Act of 1692, chapter 2?
PARAGRAPH 2. (a) What strong element had Annapolis in it? (b) Who preached in Annapolis in 1746? («) Name an incident during his preaching? (d) Who besides preached in Annapolis?
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A HISTORY OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
3. In 1773, a fierce controversy occurred between the friends of the clergy and the opponents of Gov. Eden. He had issned a proclamation giving the clergy forty pounds of tobacco per poll, instead of thirty, that some claimed was the law. The proclamation had an ill-timed birth, for it was issued about the same time that another was proclaimed, that fixing the fees of public officers, which the Legislature claimed alone the right to ascertain. At that period the Reverend Jonathan Boucher was the rector of St. Anne's. His learning was broad and his piety was exalted. In the discussion that followed the proclamation, he proved himself an able expounder of the law and a brilliant essayist.
4. The Established Church of England, when not supported by law, in the Province of Maryland, had made no progress at all in Anne Arundel county, a section composed almost entirely of members of the dissenting denominations. The earliest information of the condition of the Church of England, in Maryland, is given in a letter written in 1675, by the Rev. Mr. Yeo, of Patuxent, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He wrote, that " the Province of Maryland is in a deplorable condi- tion for want of an established ministry. Here are ten or twelve counties, and in them at least twenty thousand souls; and but three Protestant ministers of the Church of England. The priests are provided for, and the Quakers take care of those that are speakers ; but no care is taken to build up churches of the Protestant religion. The Lord's day is profaned ; religion is despised, and all notorious vices are committed ; so that it is become a Sodom of uncleanness and a pest house of iniquity. As the Lord Baltimore is lately gone for England, I have made bold to address this to your grace, to beg that your grace would be pleased to solicit him for some established support for the Protestant ministry."
5. The support given the priests was not by law, for none was on the statute books ; besides, at the period in which this letter was written, that of the Protestant Revolution, there were in the Province of Maryland thirty Protestants to one Catholic, and there was perfect peace between them. The Act of 1692, Chapter 2, establishing the Protestant Religion in Maryland, gave the commissioners of the County, that is, the judges of the County Courts, the power to divide the'several connties into parishes. Four were established in Anne Arundel, one embracing the Herring Creek section, called Herring Creek ; one on the South River, called South River ; one between South and Severn Rivers, called Middle Neck, at present St. Anne's, and one between Severn and Magothy Rivers, called Broad Neck. On the arrival of Governor Francis Nicholson, in the Province in 1694, he commenced immediately the erection of the only brick church in all Maryland. This was St. Anne's, which
PARAGRAPH 3. (@) What occurred in 1773 between the clergy and friends of the opponents of Gov. Eden? (b) What was the occasion of this controversy? (c) Who was rector of St. Anne's at this time? (d) What did he prove himself to be?
PARAGRAPH 4. (#) What did Rev. Mr. Yeo say of the condition of the Province at this period? PARAGRAPH 5. (a) What were the number of Protestants to Catholics in Maryland at this time? (b) What was the state of feeling between them? (e) What authority was given by chapter 2. 1692. to the Commissioners of the county? (d) How many parishes were established in Anne Arundel. and what were their names? (o) When was the first brick church erected in Maryland? When? and by whom? (f) How many churches have there been on this site?
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remained until 1774, when a new brick church was erected, which was burned down in 1858. The present edifice was then built upon the site of the two former ones. Under the law of the Province every taxable person in the Province had to pay forty pounds of tobacco a year for himself and for each member of his family to support the established clergy.
6. In 1700, that earnest friend of religion and education, Dr. Bray, of England, arrived in Maryland to aid the cause of establishing the Church of England in the Province and of diffusing education amongst the people. He made his headquarters at Annapolis, and received the thanks of the Assembly for his labors. On May 23, 1700, all the Established Clergy of Maryland met at Annapolis. Out of the seven- teen that composed the body, three were from Anne Arundel.
7. The members of the Legislature who voted the means to sustain the clergy and the manner of collecting their tithes, elected on political grounds, were not always earnest in their support of the regular ministry, and did not make provision for the prompt payment of their poll of tobacco, and were even accused of endeavor- ing to starve the clergy ont. The right, under the charter, for the Proprietary to nominate the ministers to the parishes, led, in later times, especially under the pro- prietaryship of the last Lord Baltimore, a dissolute and profligate character, to many abuses, which the great body of the ministers, who were men of acceptable character, could not prevent. The power to dismiss was not vested in the clergy, and they could not purge themselves of improper persons. A number of immoral men were thus appointed to vacancies, and amongst these was the notorious Bennett Allen, who came to Maryland, under the special care of Frederick, Lord Baltimore. He came for the prize of a good rich living, and was most grasping in his efforts in obtaining it.
8. Arriving in Maryland, in 1766, and bringing with him the " great, personal regard and friendship " of Lord Baltimore who. proposed, in his Lordship's letter to Governor Sharpe, that " he shall have one of the best " livings. A graduate and fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, on April 20th, 1767, Allen presented to the vestry of St. Anne's, in Annapolis, his letters of induction as rector of the parish. For a year all went well, the rector being held in general esteem, and, with a lavish hand, spending his whole year's income to improve the glebe house. On the 24th of October, the Governor gave Mr. Allen a license as the enrate of St. James' Parish in Anne Arundel County. This raised at once the question whether, or
PARAGRAPH G. (a) Who arrived in Maryland in 1700? (b) Where did he make his headquarters? (c) What did he receive? (d) Who met in Annapolis in May, 1700?
PARAGRAPH 7. () Was the support of the clergy an earnest one? Why not? (b) What did the right of the proprietary to nominate the ministers lead to? (c) Of what was the great body of the ministers composed? (d) What prevented them from purging themselves of improper persons? (c) What notorious character came to Maryland under the care of Lord Baltimore?
PARAGRAPH 8. (a) When did Allen arrive? (b) What did he bring with him? (c) What did Lord Baltimore propose that Allen should have? (d) To what parish was he inducted? (e) How long did matters go on well? (f) What was given Allen in Ortober, 1767? (g) What question did this raise? (4) To what did the dispute lead?
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not, a clergyman could hold two parishes at the same time, and to a most serious altercation between Mr. Samuel Chew, one of the vestry of St. James, and the pro- posed incumbent of the Parish.
9. On the 6th of January, 1768, Mr. Allen, having gone down to St. James to take possession, stopped at Mr. Chew's house, who asked him in, and was about to make a bowl of punch to refresh the minister, when Mr. Allen told Mr. Chew that he intended to rent ont the Glebes. Mr. Chew told Allen that he had no right to do it, and, pointing to the acts of Assembly, said " there's the Act of Assembly." After Allen had read it, being asked by Mr. Chew " what he thought of it," the minister replied : " You don't consider the spirit of the law." Mr. Chew replied : " You don't consider your own interest and the spirit of the devil perhaps." The minister replied, that " he was surprised that so many learned men in the law could not construe the spirit of the law," and repeatedly accused the vestryman of his former promise to vote for his holding two parishes, and of his not complying with his word. The vestryman acknowledged that he had made this promise, but that he had changed his opinion of the propriety of it, though he had voted for him, and that Mr. Allen, in mentioning the matter, did not use him as a gentleman.
10. The minister continued to speak of the promise, when Mr. Chew told him he might say what he pleased for that he should not change his mind again about it to be ridiculed and blamed by the people, as they had blamed him for what he had done already. Mr. Allen, laying his hands on Mr. Chew's shoulder, said :- "My friend, you shan't be blamed about it. I'll take the burthen off your shoulders." Mr. Chew, as Mr. Allen continued to talk about the matter, finding himself unable to control his temper, rose to leave the room; but, as the vestryman was going, he heard the minister say something that he did not understand, when he walked across the room, instead of out of it. Mr. Allen too rose from his seat and crossed the room, and again mentioned the promise of the vestryman, and said that " such alterations were surprising ; but he knew whence the change came; wished that he had been a month or two forwarded ; that he expected letters from home which would convince some people. My Lord's authority was greater here than the people expected." Pausing, the minister added : "I know where this sudden change comes from. Ay, Dulany, Dulany !" To this Mr. Chew answered : "Sir, yon have no right to reflect on any Gentleman, for I give you my word and honor, I have had no conversation with Mr. Dulany, nor know his sentiments on it." Allen repeated several times that he doubted it. A Bible lying on a desk near the vestryman, he laid his hands on it, and said : "Sir, I can here solemnly swear that I have had no conversation with Mr. Dulany, nor know anything of his being your enemy in it, than you have told me yourself." The minister replied, "Notwithstanding that, Sir, I should much doubt or question your word." The vestryman asked : "What's that you say, Sir. There's the door." The minister was then seized by the collar by the vestryman,
PARAGRAPH 9. (@) Can you state the altercation between Mr. Chew and Mr. Allen?
PARAGRAPH 10. (a) What occurred when Mr. Chew told Mr. Allen that he should not change his mind?
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dragged to the door, and before the sight of his brother minister, the Rev. Mr. Edmondson, was put out, the vestry man telling him, "To go and learn better manners, before he came to a gentleman's house again." The minister attempted to return to the house, when, pushing the door partly open, the host struck his visitor with a stick.
11. This encounter led to a challege from the minister to fight a duel, which the vestryman accepted on the terms of meeting each other alone. This was accepted by the minister, but the meeting never took place, each charging bad faith upon the other, Mr. Chew declaring Mr. Allen carried a sword to the field, and Allen accusing the vestryman of bringing his servant to the place of meeting. A street fight with Daniel Dulany in Annapolis was another of Allen's escapades. Fortified with instructions to Gov. Sharp from the Proprietary to give Allen one of the best livings in the Province, when the Rev. Thomas Bacon, the talented rector of All Saints, a parish worth $5,000 a year, died in 1768, Allen was presented with this by the Governor and proceeded at once to take possession of his lucrative parish. He arrived in June in Frederick, and found the vestry opposed to his having the parish. Allen was not deterred. Obtaining the keys of the building by stealth, on Saturday he went into the church and read prayers and the thirty-nine articles, and his induction. What followed, Allen tells Gov. Sharpe in a letter : "On Sunday, having heard that the locks were taken off, and the door bolted within, I got up at four o'clock, and, by the assistance of a ladder, unbolted them, getting in at a window, and left them on the jar. The vestry came up to me and spoke to me of breach of privilege. I said : 'I am not acquainted with enstoms. I act by the letter of the law. The moment the Governor signs an induction, your power . ceases. I am sorry that any dissensions, and so forth.' I saw they drew to the doors of the Church. I got a little advantage, leap't into the desk, and made my apology and began the service. The congregation was called out. I proceeded as if nothing had happened till the Second Lesson. I heard some commotions from withont which gave me a little alarm, and I provided luckily against it, or I must have been maimed, if not murdered. They called a number of their bravest, that is to say, their largest men, to pull me out of the desk. I let the captain come within two paces of me, and clapt my pistol to his head. What consternation ! They accuse me of swearing by God, I would shoot him, and, I believe I did swear, which was better than praying just then. They retired and I proceeded, but the doors and windows flying open, and stones beginning to rattle, my aid de camp, Mr. Dakein advised me to retreat-the fort being no longer tenable. We walk't through the midst of them facing about from time to time till we got to some distance when stones began to fly. I luckily escaped any hurt, and Dakein had but one blow." Allen held on to the parish one year, when he resigned.
PARAGRAPH 11. (@) To what did encounter lead? (b) Did this dnel take place? Why not? (c) With whom did Allen have a street fight? (d) To what other parish was Allen inducted? (e) Give an account of Allen's conduct in Frederick?
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12. After the State of Maryland adopted the Constitution of 1776, the regular support of the established clergy ceased to be a matter of law, and Allen returned to England, where, in a duel provoked by his wanton attack on the Dulany family of Maryland, he was challenged by Lloyd Dulany whom Allen killed. Allen was a type of character that of whom the Churchmen of that day could not rid them- selves, for while most of the ministers were men of character and piety, who made effort after effort to obtain the means within themselves to rid the ministry of its unworthy members, Lord Baltimore would not let go a tithe of his authority to appoint the clergy, nor of having absolute control over them.
13. While the Constitution forbade forced contributions to any particular place of worship or ministry, yet organie law of that day reserved to the general Assembly the discretion to lay a general and equal tax for the support of the Christian religion, leaving to each individual the power of appointing the payment over of the money collected from him to the support of any particular place of worship or minister ; or for the benefit of the poor of his own denomination, or the poor in general of any particular county. In the year 1785, an effort was made in the House of Delegates to formulate a law to give effect to this provision, but the motion for leave to bring in a bill for that purpose was defeated by a vote of two to one.
14. After the Revolutionary war the Catholics slowly increased in number in Anne Arundel, but for a long period the Church at Annapolis was the only one in the county. A few private chapels existed before the Revolution. No Catholic Churches were allowed by law, yet some few existed. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, had a chapel and a chaplain in his honse at Annapolis ; a private chapel, tradition says, was located on Gibson's Island, in the Magothy River. It stood there a few years since, occupied as a stable. Tradition also says that a Catholic Church stood near the site of the old Graveyard on the Priests' Farm, near South River Bridge. This buikling evidently gave the name to Church Creek that borders the Farm. The Episcopalians have more than held their own in Anne Arundel ; retaining by law their churches held at the Revolution by the established church, they have increased their parishes and churches in every part of the county. The Methodists, of both the old and Southern branch, are very largely represented in the county. There are Presbyterians and Baptists in the county, but not in large numbers. The Quakers and Puritans have ceased to exist as congregations. The Millennial Dawn believers have one congregation at West Annapolis.
PARAGRAPH 12. (a) What ceased upon the adoption of the Constitution of Maryland of 1776? (b) Whom did Bennet Allen kill in a duel?
PARAGRAPH 13. () What did the organic law reserve to the General Assembly? (b) What was the result of the effort to lormulate a law to give effect to this provision?
PARAGRAPH 14. (a) Who increased in numbers after the Revolutionary War? (b) What existed before the Revolution? (c) Were Catholic churches allowed before the Revolution? (d) Where were these private Catholic chapels? (e) Who have more than held their own in Anne Arundel? (f) Who are largely represented in the County? (g) What other denominations exist in the County?
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CHAPTER NINETEENTH.
PATRIOTISM IN ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.
1. The military and patriotie spirit was always prominent in Anne Arundel county. Following the defeat of Braddock, Col. Henry Ridgely, with thirty vol- unteers from Anne Arundel, proceeded immediately to the frontier. Throughout the French and Indian war the delegates from Annapolis and Anne Arundel readily voted supplies to the King, although differences, as to the mode of laying the taxes to purchase the supplies, prevented most of the bills for troops and provisions from becoming effective.
2. Maryland was in the very forefront in the initial opposition of the Colonies to British encroachments upon American rights as the period of the Revolution approached. No county in Maryland equaled Anne Arundel in fervid and imme- diate resistance to England's efforts against the privileges of America. When Zachariah Hood, himself a native of Annapolis, who happened to be in England at the time of the passage of the Stamp Act, and who obtained the appointment of Stamp Officer for Maryland, arrived on, or about, the 20th of August, 1765, in Annapolis, with his stamps, his vessel was met at the City Dock, by a number of citizens who forcibly resisted his landing, and drove away the King's otheer with bis stamps. The conflict was so sharp between the vessel's crew and the citizens that Thomas MeNeir, one of the Annapolis patriots engaged in the mob, had his thigh broken by an iron belaying pin in the hands of one of the crew. The names of two other patriots who were in this first successful forcible resistance to British anthority in America, have come down to us. They are Abraham Claude and Charles Ferris.
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