USA > Maryland > Cecil County > History of Cecil County, Maryland, and the early settlements around the head of Chesapeake Bay and on the Delaware River, with sketches of some of the old families of Cecil County > Part 11
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Just after the record of Oldfield's commission the follow- ing petition appears upon the record: "To the worshipful,
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the commissioners of Cecil Co. The humble Petition of Thomas Joce humbly sheweth that your Petitioner humbly prays and craves the favor of this worshipful court that you would be pleased to admit your petitioner to practice as an Attorney of this court and your petitioner shall ever pray." " Admitted and sworn this 10th of June, 1684."
Then follows this order of the court: " Whereas there is not as yet any seal for this county for writs & processes which do issue out of this court we do therefore for the ease of the inhabitants of the same order John Thompson, clerk, for the time being to sign all processes and writs which do issue from this court with his own hand."
After noting that seven accounts upon the docket were agreed the court adjourned till ye 12th day of August, 1684, on which day it again met, George Talbot and the seven justices before named being present. This court, after being in session two days, during which time fifteen civil cases of no interest to the general reader were disposed of, adjourned till the 9th day of September, 1684.
These brief extracts from the dilapitated old book contain all the record of the civil administration of George Talbot in Cecil County.
After the departure of Charles Calvert for England, Tal- bot seems to have assumed almost dictatorial powers in the northeastern part of the province. In the early part of AApril, 1684, he made a raid upon the plantation of one Joseph Bowle, who lived somewhere east of Iron Hill, about eight miles from New Castle. Bowle's testimony may be found in the proceedings of the council of Pennsylvania; it was taken on the 12th of the Ith month, 168-4, and is as follows: " About ten days since, Colonel Talbot ridd up to my house and was ready to ride over me and said d-n you, you dog whom do you seat under here, you dog? You seat under nobody : you have no warrant from Penn no my lord ; therefore get you gone or else I'll send you to Saint Marie's; and I being frightend. says he you brazen-faced,
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impudent, confident, dog, I'll shorten Penn's territories bye- and-bye." It is added in the record, that, "the neighbors said they saw Bowle's land surveyed away."
About this time Talbot built a fort, which is described as being near Christiana bridge. on a spot of land belonging to the widow Ogle, which indicates that it may have been near Ogletown, which he garrisoned with a few of his re- tainers, not so much for any warlike purpose, as to establish and maintain possession of the country west of it. This fort was built of logs, and was described by those who had seen it, as "about thirteen or fourteen feet long, ten feet wide, and covered with slip wood." The garrison consisted "of six or seven men," (Irishmen no doubt) "who were esteemed Catholics, and behaved peaceably towards the inhabitants, among whom they frequently went." The garrison was commanded by one Murray, and was supplied with provis- ions pressed from the people living on Bohemia Manor, by one Thomas Mansfield, who at that time was press master, an officer whose duties seem to have been similiar to those of the captains of press-gangs of England in more modern times. The garrison continued to hold this fort for about two years, and till after Talbot went out of power, when they got drunk and layed out in the cold, from the effect of which they were so badly frost-bitten that some of them died, and others lost their limbs .* Shortly after the occu- pation of this fort the sheriff of New Castle County sum- moned a posse of the citizens, and accompanied by divers magistrates and other dignitaries, repaired to the fort and demanded of Talbot, who seems to have been in command at that time, by what authority he appeared in that posture? Whereupon "Talbot, with divers of his company, bid them stand off, presenting their guns and muskets against their breasts, and he, pulling a paper, commander-like, out of his bosom, said. 'here is my Lord Baltimore's commission for
#Seo testimony in Penn's Breviit.
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what I do.'" Proclamation was then made in the king's name for them to depart according to law, "but in the same war like posture they stood, and in the Lord Baltimore's name refused to obey in the king's name."*
During the palmy days of Talbot's administration in this county he had a company of mounted rangers whose duty it was to scour the country and repel the attacks of hostile Indians, a few of whom still lingered in the country north of New Ireland. A line of block-houses at convenient dis- tances extended from one end of it to the other, and signals were established for the purpose of calling his clan together. Beacon fires on the hills, the blowing of horns, and the firing of three musket shots in succession, either in the day- time or at night, gave notice of approaching danger and called this border chieftain's followers around him, who, with strong arms and stronger hearts, were ready to do his bidding. There is no doubt that Bacon Hill, which was originally called Beacon Hill, was so called, from being the site of one of these signal fires. Talbot had much trouble with the affairs appertaining to the extreme northeastern part of the province in the years 1683 and 1684; but there were other troubles that grew out of the unfortunate con- dition of affairs in England. The weak and vacillating Charles the Second, then king of England, was near the end of his inglorious reign, and for a long time had viewed with jealous eyes the powers and franchises with which the charter of Maryland invested the lord proprietary. So jealous indeed was Charles, that, in the last year of his reign, he threatened to institute proceedings in the court of chancery, with a view of wresting the charter from Balti- more. No doubt his cupidity was increased and his jeal- ousy aggravated by the fact that that instrument shielded the people of Maryland to some extent from his rapacity. Parliament, which for a long time was excessively loyal to
* Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. I., page 88.
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the House of Stewart, had passed an act in his reign for the collection of a tax or duty upon the products that were ex- ported from the southern colonies; and Maryland being much interested in the culture of tobacco at this time, this tax was considered by the inhabitants as being onerous and oppressive.
The collectors of this tax were appointed by the king, and were in no wise amenable to the government of the colo- nies. The office of tax collector has always been a thank- less one, and these collectors, representing as they did the royal authority, were no doubt as tyrannous and arbitrary as they dared to be. Years after this time the records of this county show that they were in the habit of farming out the offices they held. They were each supplied with a vessel, in which they cruised upon the navigable waters in their districts while in the prosecution of the business apper- taining to their offices. At this time, and for some time before, one Christopher Rousby was one of the collectors of the king's customs in Maryland, and there is the record of a letter sent by Lord Baltimore to the president of the king's council, in which he speaks of Rousby as " having been a great knave and a disturber of the trade and peace of the province."
In 1684, a few months after the departure of Lord Balti- more for England, an armed ketch or brig, commanded by Captain Thomas Allen, of his Majesty's royal navy, arrived from England and cruised for some time in the lower parts of the Chesapeake Bay contiguous to St. Mary's, which, at that time, was the capital of the province. This Captain Allen, while he was upon good terms with the collectors of the king's revenue and quite willing to carouse and riot with them, treated the representatives of the proprietary with a haughtiness and contempt that soon produced a dis- astrous result. He went on shore and visited Mr. Blackiston, who at that time appears to have been chief collector of Maryland, and who resided at St. Mary's. His marines also
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went ashore and probably got drunk : at all events they acted in a boisterous and swaggering manner, and did not hesitate to appropriate some of the property of the citizens of the town, which they carried away with them.
After spending a few days in this manner the swaggering captain went on board of his ketch, weighed anchor and set sail towards the Potomac, and thence sailed down the bay along the coast of Virginia. Not content with the mani- festation of his authority upon land "he annoyed the cap- tains of many of the bay craft and other peaceful traders that he met with, by compelling them to heave to and submit to be searched. He also overhauled their papers and offended them with coarse vituperation of themselves and of the lord proprietary and his council." Virginia was at this time governed by a royal favorite, Lord Howard of Effingham, who no doubt was ready upon every occasion to play the sycophant to his royal master, or to entertain any of his underlings who, no matter how remotely, represented his authority. There is no doubt, judging from what sub- sequently happened, that Allen went to Virginia and spent the intervening time between his first and second visit with Lord Howard, the governor, and that they discussed the governmental affairs of Maryland and the prospects of the ultimate success or failure of Baltimore's efforts to sustain his authority and maintain his rights.
In about a month after his first visit Allen returned to Maryland. This time he anchored near Rousby's house, which was on or near to Drum Point. As yet Captain Allen had not condescended to make any report of his arrival in the province to any officer of the proprietary, or in any way to recognize or acknowledge his authority. Upon the occasion of this second visit of Allen, Talbot it seems was at St. Mary's, or in the vicinity, whether by acci- dent or design has not been ascertained. He doubtless heard of the contemptuous conduct of Allen and Rousby. No doubt the knowledge of their conduct, aggravated by
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the treatment that his illustrious kinsman had received from his royal master, caused his indignation to overcome his judgment, and he went on board the ketch, which was called the Quaker, for the purpose of enforcing some little show of respect to, or obtaining some acknowledgment of, his own authority. Be this as it may, he and the two royal officers pretty soon got into a quarrel, which waxed hot and continued for some time; and when he wished to go on shore he was prevented from doing so, whereupon he drew his dagger and stabbed Rousby to the heart. This sad and unfortunate event took place on the 31st of October, 1684, less than three months after the last time that Talbot presided over the court of Cecil County, and fully accounts for the absence of his name from the records of our court subsequent to that date. Talbot's fellow-members of the council made a fruitless effort to get Allen to surrender him to the authorities of Maryland, ostensibly that he might be punished for murdering Rousby, but really no doubt in order to shield him from the vengeance of Allen and his crony, the sycophantic Howard.
After parleying for a short time Allen set sail for Virginia, and carried Talbot, whom he detained in irons on board his warlike vessel with the peaceful name, with him and handed him over to the governor of that province, who incarcerated him in Gloucester prison. Then began a cor- respondence between the remaining members of the council of Maryland and the governor of Virginia, in which the weakness and humiliation of the former and the strength and vindictiveness of the latter are strikingly exemplified. Considering the treatment that the lord proprietary had re- ceived from the crown of Great Britain, and the fact that the prestige and power of the House of Baltimore had for some time before this been waning. it is much to the credit of the council that they made the feeble efforts they did to effect the release of their fellow-member. Having no means by which to enforce their legitimate demands, they were
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disregarded, and Talbot remained a prisoner in Virginia, whose arrogant governor treated the demands of the Mary- landers with contempt and set their authority at defiance. But Talbot had a wife, who all this time was at home, where good wives and mothers are always found, in the house of her lord, on Susquehanna Manor, which there is every reason to believe was at the falls of Back Creek, now Principio Creek, just above where the railroad crosses that stream. She, good woman, no doubt was sadly grieved by the unfortunate occurrence that deprived her of the com- panionship and protection of her husband. Talbot also had a few faithful friends, who did not desert his cause in this time of extremity, as the sequel will show. Among these faithful retainers of Talbot were Phelim Murray, a cornet of cavalry under the command of Talbot, and Hugh Riley. The latter has descendants that bear his name living in the Eighth district of this county; and the Mc Veys and others in the Ninth district are also remotely connected with him. These men and Mrs. Talbot now planned and put in execution a scheme for the rescue of this brother chieftain, in which English arrogance and vin- dictiveness were defeated by Irish friendship and ingenuity. To Murray has generally been accorded the credit of this scheme, but there is little doubt that it was suggested by the love and affection of the wife of the prisoner. Mrs. Talbot, accompanied by her youngest child, a boy of two or three years of age, and attended by two Irish men servants, repaired to St. Mary's, while Murray and Riley followed her in the shallop of Talbot, which was navigated by one Roger Skreen, a celebrated seafaring man of that day, who took the shallop to the Patuxent River and anchored it at a point about fifteen miles from St. Mary's, whither Mrs. Talbot repaired, and the party set sail for the Rappahan- nock River and landed at a place about twenty miles dis- tant from Gloucester prison, in which Talbot was confined. This was about the last of January, 1685. If the winters
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at that time were as severe as they generally are now, it must have required an amount of courage and fortitude which few of the women living at this time possess to have enabled this woman to endure the cold, anxiety and priva- tion incident to this perilous expedition. Immediately after the arrival of the shallop, Murray and Riley each mounted a swift horse that was furnished them by a confederate in Virginia, and started for the prison at Gloucester, where, by some means, of which Irish wit and suavity doubtless com- posed a part, they effected the release of the captive Talbot, and returned with him safe and sound to the shallop early the next morning. It is to be presumed that with as little delay as possible they sailed toward the eastern shore of the bay and continued to hug it closely, while, like many other fugitives of a later period, they made the best speed they could toward the north.
Without any mishap Talbot and his friends reached Sus- quehanna Manor in safety. This happened in the early part of February, 1685, and a few days afterwards Lord Howard made a demand upon the authorities of Maryland for the surrender of the fugitive, and the council of Mary- land made a great show of trying to arrest him ; and as stated in the chronicles of the times, the air resounded from one side of New Ireland to the other with the " hue and cry" that was raised. Proclamations were made and every means were exhausted to effect the arrest of the fugitive, but with- out success. Why the council were now so anxious to se- cure the arrest of their former president, when they a few months before had protested so energetically against his re- tention in Virginia, is one of the many strange things met with in history ; but no doubt they acted wisely and as cir- cumspectly as circumstances permitted them, and under all this show of obedience and submission to the representative of royalty in Virginia, there was probably concealed a de- termination to shield rather than capture the fugitive. Tal- bot was provided with a flaxen wig and other means of dis-
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guise and kept himself well informed of the whereabouts of the officers of the law, any one of whom would probably have given him timely warning of their approach and aided him in effecting his escape, if they could have done so with- out jeopardizing themselves.
It was at this critical time in his life that Talbot took refuge in the cave that, while it was in existence, was called by his name. This cave was a short distance below Port Deposit, on the east side of the Susquehanna River, close by the water's edge and immediately above the mouth of Her- ring Run. One hundred and ninety-two years ago the place and its surroundings were quite different from what they are to-day ; then the waters of the river were seldom dis- turbed save by the fragile canoes of the savages as they came from the regions of the great lakes and pine-covered moun- tains of the far north to exchange their peltries for the trink- ets that the white man kept for that purpose at Palmer's Island, a few miles further down the river.
Mount Ararat, whose base on the northern side is washed by the limpid waters of the boisterous little stream, then, as now, stood silent and alone in the magnificence of its gran- deur and beauty ; but the busy, bustling town, whose com- merce and industry now wakes the echoes among its granite hills, was not dreamed of by the anxious fugitive as he stretched his weary body on his lonely couch to seek in the sweet oblivion of sleep the rest that a troubled mind pre- vented him from obtaining while awake. Talbot's cave was a natural formation in the granite bluff, and was about twelve feet wide and extended back from the river into the rock about eighteen feet ; it was about ten feet high, and was in a good state of preservation sixty years ago, and traces of it remained distinctly visible till a much later period; but about thirty years ago the modern march of improvement in this utilitarian age destroyed all trace of it, and the granite rocks that sheltered the lord of Susque- hanna Manor now lie submerged in Chesapeake Bay, where
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they were placed to effect an improvement upon its naviga- tion in the vicinity of the "Rip Raps " many years ago.
Tradition, with its usual inaccuracy, says that Talbot . dwelt in this cave for a long time, and that he had a pair of falcons or hawks with him, by means of which he ob- tained his subsistence, his falcons catching the wild fowl on the river. This is not at all probable, for there is evidence extant to prove that he was seen and recognized by Robert Kemble while at the house of George Oldfield, in Elk Neck, whither he had gone in his shallop, which was beating about in Elk River during the brief period he was sojourning at the house of his friend. This Robert Kemble is one of the witnesses of Augustine Hermen's will; he probably resided in Elk Neck or on Bohemia Manor. We know but little more of him ; but he probably was a man of some distinc- tion, though nearly every trace of him has been lost and the tide of oblivion has nearly covered and concealed his memory.
After fleeing from place to place, now hiding for a while in the cave, and anon lying concealed in the houses of his friends, the courageous Irishman, probably to save his friends further trouble and anxiety on his behalf, voluntarily surrendered himself to the authorities of Maryland and was committed for trial in the provincial court ; whereupon the arrogant Howard renewed his demand that the culprit be sent to Virginia in order to he tried there. The council of Maryland were in no haste to,reply to this demand, and it was not till after the lapse of several weeks that they made any reply to it. The news of the accession of James the Second had reached their ears a short time before, and he being of the same faith as Lord Baltimore, they had reason to hope that his influence with the king might mitigate or neutralize the displeasure of their new sovereign, which they feared he might otherwise visit upon them. They probably never would have surrendered Talbot had not the lord proprietary written to them, under date of July 30,
I
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1685, "that it formerly was, and still is, the king's pleasure that Talbot shall be brought over in the Quaker ketch to England to receive his trial there; and that, in order there- to, his Majesty had sent his commands to the governor of Virginia to deliver him to Captain Allen, commander of said ketch, who is to bring him over."
This letter was received on the 7th of October, 1685, nearly a year after the unfortunate occurence upon the Quaker ketch. Talbot was thereupon sent under guard to the governor of Viriginia, where he was tried for the mur- der of Rousby on the 22d of April, 1686. He was con- vieted, but his kinsman, the lord proprietary, no doubt seconded in his efforts to that end by Dick Talbot, who probably was a still nearer kinsman of the culprit than he, was prepared for the emergency and had obtained a pardon for him, which he had transmitted to Virginia before the conclusion of the trial.
Of Talbot's history subsequent to his trial very little is known, but he is believed to have returned to this county, for in June, 1687, he executed the only deed given by him for land in this county, that is upon record.
The deeds that were written two hundred years ago are very curious documents. The conveyancers of that time never left any thing out of a deed that there was any prac- tical method of putting in it, hence they contain many strange covenants and provisions. This deed from George Talbot to Jacob Young, for the tract of land called Clayfall, contains much valuable historical information in regard to the manners and customs of the early settlers upon Susque- hanna Manor. The consideration named in it is the "Iron work of a Swedes mill, 200 young apple trees now growing near the present dwelling house of the said Young & lastly for and in consideration of a bargain and sale which the said Young promiced to make to me and my heirs forever for 5s. sterling of ye seat of a mill that he formerly caused to be built at the head of Piny creek vulgarily called Mill
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creek in ve county & manor aforesaid & fifteen acres of land contiguous to ye said mill seat, &c." This mill was on the creek that is vet called Mill Creek and probably Jacob Young had settled at the head of that creek before Talbot obtained his grant. However this may have been, this is the first mill we find mentioned in the early history of the county. No doubt it was a water-mill. The Swede's mill, the iron work of which is mentioned in the deed as part of the consideration, was probably a hand mill.
In the grant of Clayfall, " all mines of metals, waifs, estrays, wild unmarked horses, mares, colts, neat cattle & hogs of all sorts are excepted, and a yearly rent of 10s. ster- ling was to be paid by Young and his heirs at ye Rock of Essenewee alias Kannegrenda at ye falls of Back creek (now Principio creek) in ye manor aforesaid, on 1st day of Octo- ber yearly & every year forever." Then came the proviso, that "Jacob Young & all his heirs and assigns living upon Clayfall shall send from time to time forever to ye mill or mills of me ye said George Talbot my heirs & assigns upon or near adjacent to ye said manor to be there ground all ye malt & bread, corn that shall be spent by the families in- habiting or resident upon any part of Clayfall aforesaid, ex- cept such times as they shall not be in good running condi- tion." Young also covenants not to erect any mill upon Clayfall, and Talbot reserves the right to demolish any mill that Young might erect there. And Young agrees to attend court whan required and to do such "suit & service to and at ye said court as is costomary & usual on manors in Eng- land."
This instrument of writing is of great length and covers six pages of the book in which it is recorded, and concludes with a proviso which indicates, as do several other things mentioned in it, that the parties had but little faith in each other's honesty, for the whole thing was to be void if Young dug up and carried away the two hundred young apple trees. It is very hard to conceive how any-
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thing else could have been incorporated in this deed, or how a stronger or better one could have been made, but Talbot covenants to make Young another one, such as his counsel, learned in the law, might suggest, but he was not to becom- pelled to go more than twenty miles from the manor to exe- cute it. This curious document is dated June 10th, 1687, and is signed by George Talbot and witnessed hy Henry Brent, James Lynch and Thomas Grunwin. The rock of Essenewee or Kannegrenda, there is no doubt, was at or near where the iron works of George P. Whitaker are now located, and no doubt that is where Talbot's house or castle then stood.
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