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 17
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The effects of this rebellion were felt to a certain extent in the colony of Maryland, and the property in Maryland of the Irish subjects of the British crown, who participated in it was confiscated, and the sheriff of Cecil County was en- joined to seize it for the use of the crown. So it was no wonder that Father Mansell made no reference to the fact that he was a member of the Society of Jesus.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Part of the said tract of St. Xaverus had been formerly surveyed by virtue of the power contained in a warrant granted for Mary Ann O'Daniel ; and Margaret, her sister, March 18th, 1680, by the name of Morris O'Daniel's Rest, containing three hundred acres, as by the original survey appears.
This survey was never recorded, nor any grant issued thereon to the said sisters. Of the two sisters Margaret died first, and the whole right to the said land was vested in Mary Ann, who dying, bequeathed the same to Messrs. Thomas Mansell and William Douglass, which said William having made over all his right and title thereunto to said Thomas Mansell, he, the said Thomas, petitioned for and obtained a special warrant to resurvey the said traet and take up the same as vacant land, together with what sur- plus or vacant land was thereunto contiguous; which was done accordingly, and patent granted, as before stated.
The Jesuit mission of. Bohemia is a few miles southeast of the junction of the Great and Little Bohemia rivers, and is probably about half a mile west from the State of Delaware and about the same distance from the village of Warwick. At the time, and for a long time subsequent to the founda- tion of the mission, the Head of Bohemia was one of the most important places in the colony. Bohemia Landing, which was at or near the junction of the two branches of that river, was only a few miles from the navigable waters of Appoquinimink Creek, and owing to the short distance between these points, nearly all the trade between the people living along the shores of the two bays was carried on by this route. There were probably at the time several landing places upon each of the branches of the Bohemia River, and probably quite as many upon the Delaware and its tributaries.
The streams at that time were navigable for much greater distances than they are at present, and there is reason to believe that there was once a landing upon one of the tribu-
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taries of the Little Bohemia, not very far from where the mission chapel now stands. The roads between the differ. ent landings, on the tributaries of the Chesapeake and Del- aware bays, were known by the expressive name of "eross paths" and many references are made to them in the land records of Cecil County a century ago, but it is impossible at this time to describe their exact location. The feasibility of connecting the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays by a canal between the Bohemia and Appoquinimink, had been apparent to Augustine Hermen a quarter of a century before the mission was founded. No doubt most if not all the merchandize passing between the settlers on the west side of Delaware River and those living near the shores of Chesapeake Bay was transported along the "cross paths," at the time that Thomas Mansell founded the mis- sion. A few years afterwards, namely, 1715, it was enacted by the colonial legislature, that " all Importers of Rum, Spirits, Wine, and Brandy" (which seem to have been the principal, if not the only, articles of traffic) " from Pennsylvania and the territories thereunto belonging by land, should pay a duty of 9 pence per gallon, and should bring the said li- quors into this province to the place commonly called Bohe- mia Landing, and to no other place or landing, till the duties thereof be paid, under pain of forfeiture to the King's majesty."* The duty was afterwards fixed at three pence per gallon, and continued to be collected for many years at Bohemia Landing. The northern part of Cecil County being at this time a wilderness, with only a few settlers scattered here and there along the Elk River and other streams, it is easy to see the prospective advantages that induced Mansell to locate where he did.
Father Mansell appears to have remained in charge of the mission till 1721, for in that year the records of the Society
* See Bacon's Laws of Maryland, Session 1715, chapter 36.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
show that he purchased of Mr. James Heath* a parcel of land bounding upon St. Xaverus and containing three hun- dred and thirty-five acres. This purchase comprised the whole of a tract called St. Inigo, which had been taken up and patented by James Heath, under the name of St. Igna- tius, in 1711. How or why the name had been changed does not appear. The aforesaid additional purchase of 335 acres embraced a part of Worsell Manor, which had been taken up and patented by one Colonel Saver (when, we have no means of ascertaining) and also a part of a tract called Woodbridge, which was originally taken up by David Mac- Kenzie, by him sold to Darby Nowland, and by his son Dennis sold to James Heath, (that is to say) his part thereof, containing 75 acres, adjoining St. Inigo, and by Mr. Heath sold, as above stated, to Mr. Mansell. Some of the names of these tracts of land, as well as the names of the persons who owned them, indicate the nationality as well as the religion of the proprietors, and warrant the conclusion that the first Jesuit Father that settled at Bohemia was induced to do so from
*James Heath was the father of John Paul Heath, the founder of Warwick. He was a member of the old Catholic family of that name, and the owner of " Heath's Range," and other large tracts of land near Warwick. His grave is about two miles from Warwick, in Appoquini- mink Hundred, New Castle County, and is covered by a stone slab con- taining the following inscription : "Here lyes the body of James Heath, who was born att Warwick, on the 27th day of July, 1658, and died the 10th day of November, 1731, in the seventy-fourth year of His age." The Warwick mentioned in his epitaph is no doubt the name of his native town in England.
His son, John Paul Heath, probably died in 1746. Ilis will was proved in that year, and shows that Warwick had been laid out by him some time before. He refers to a brew-house and tavern which were in the town. He was a large landowner, and was engaged in merchandis- ing at Warwick ; and at the time of his death owned one-half of a vessel, engaged in trading between the Sassafras River and the West Indies. Daniel Delaney and Charles Carroll were two of the executors of his will. Ile was a zealous Catholic, and directed that his sons, James and Daniel, should be educated at St. Omers, and that his children should be brought up in the " Roman Catholic religion."
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the fact that it was a settlement of Irish Catholics who were no doubt zealous members of that church. The Jesuits at this time, and for many years previous had a mission in St. Mary's County, on the Western Shore, and as the mission at Bohemia was the first one established on the Eastern Shore, there can be little doubt that Father Mansell came there from the former place. It is highly probable that he brought with him the ancient cross, which has been at Bo- hemia ever since. This cross is about five feet high and is said to have been brought to St. Mary's by the first settlers who came there from England. It is made of wrought iron and certainly looks ancient enough to have been brought over by the Pilgrims who came in the Ark and Dove. It has been at Bohemia from time immemorial, and save this tradition, nothing more is known of its history.
Little if anything is known of the history of Rev. Thomas Mansell. The rules, or, at least the customs of the Society prohibited the erection of any monuments over the graves of its members and if he died and was buried at Bohemia, this custom precluded the erection of anything to distinguish the place of his sepulcher. A few of the early fathers that labored there, were buried in the garden, but not even a grassy mound has been raised over their moldering remains, and their last resting-place would no doubt long since have been forgotten, had not some pious person en- closed it, many years ago, with an edging of boxwood that has now attained the height of five or six feet. Father Thomas Hudson lived at the mission in 1713. Whether he had charge of it during the temporary absence of Father Mansell or sojourned with him for a time doth not appear. The records of the Society only show that he was at Bohe- mia in that year. He seems to have been succeeded by Father Peter Atwood, for the records of the Society show that in 1731 he (Atwood) was involved in a dispute with Joseph George, who was then the proprietor of Middle Neck, which he had purchased from Ephraim Augustine Hermen, the grandson of the founder of Bohemia Manor.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
After Joseph George purchased Middle Neck he obtained an order from the provincial court to have it surveyed. This survey took in all of St. Xaverus and part of several other tracts adjacent to it, and George had already ejected one Reynolds from the land by him claimed, it being included inside the limits of the new survey, when Atwood and George compromised the matter by the former paying him " 35 pounds for a deed of release to all the right or claim he might have to any or all the lands I hold between the two branches of the St. Augustine's creek." This quotation is taken from an old memorandum book in the possession of the Society and was kindly copied for the author by Father Lancaster, the Proctor of the Society in Maryland. This dispute grew out of the fact that Augustine Hermen had taken up a tract of land including the site of what was afterwards called "The Priests' Mill," the site of which may yet be seen in the meadow in front of the chapel. In all the broad domain of Augustine Hermen there were very few locations where it was practical to obtain sufficient fall for the purpose of erecting water-mills. So he very wisely took up this tract for the purpose of erecting a water-mill thereon, as he states in his first will, though there is no reason to believe he ever obtained a patent for it.
In 1732 Peter Atwood, who is then said to be of St. Mary's County, purchased another tract of land called " Askmore," from Vachel Denton. This tract was supposed to contain 550 acres, and had been granted to John Browning and Henry Denton in 16SS. Denton claimed it by right of sur- vivorship, and from him it descended to his son Vachel Denton, who, as before stated, sold it to Atwood. The Jesuit Fathers now had quite an extensive tract of land, comprising nearly thirteen hundred and fifty acres.
Father Thomas Pulton was at Bohemia in 1742. He probably remained there most of the time till 1748. Rev. John Kingdom was also there in 1748. From a few de- tached entries in the old memorandum book before men-
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
tioned, there is reason to believe the school, which was kept at the mission for some years, was started in 1745 or 1746. John Carroll, a distinguished member of the Society, after- wards Archbishop of Baltimore, and founder of Georgetown College, attended this school in 1745-6, and also in 1748. There is some reason to believe that his cousin, Charles Car- roll, of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a pupil there at the same time; but the records now in the possession of the Society contain no proof of it. This school was the only one in the colony under the control of the Jesuits or any other order of the Catholic Church, consequently it was patronized by many of the leading Catholic families in the colony, who sent their sons there to receive the rudiments of, their education, after which they were sent to St. Omers, in French Flanders, to finish it. This was the case with John and Charles Carroll, both of whom afterwards took such a prominent part in the history of the State.
It is impossible, owing to the loss of a portion of the records of the mission, to ascertain how long the school continued to exist. Though it is considered to have been the germ from which Georgetown College grew, it seems probable that it was discontinued before the college was organized. Every vestige of the school-house has long since disappeared, but it is well known that it stood in the lawn, a few feet south of the manse, and that the bricks of which its walls were composed were used in the walls of the dwelling-house, which was built about 1825. The chapel, which is in a good state of preservation, was partly finished in 1795. Tradition says that Rev. Ambrose Marechal, third Arch- bishop of Baltimore, then resident at Bohemia, during his hours of recreation turned the banisters used in inelosing the sanctuary in the chapel.
It is probable that the school was in a flourishing condi- tion in 1754; so much so, indeed, as to have excited the cupidity of the members of the Established Church. Rev.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Hugh Jones, who was a zealous churchman, was then rector of St. Stephen's Parish, and his correspondence as early as 1739 shows that he was bitterly hostile to the Jesuit Fathers. The records of the colonial legislature for the year 1754 show that a bill passed the lower house in that year creat- ing a commission to inquire into the affairs of the Jesuits in the colony, and also to ascertain by what tenure they held their land. Nicholas Hyland, a zealous churchman and resident of North Elk Parish, and six other delegates, were designated as members of the commission. They were also enjoined to tender the oaths of "allegiance, abhorrence and abjuration " to the members of the Society. The bill did not pass the upper house. A bill was introduced in the lower house at the session of 1755 intended to prevent the "importation of German and French papists and Popish priests and Jesuits and Irish papists ria Pennsylvania or the government of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, on the Delaware." The bill did not become a law.
There is reason to believe that the Protestants of Sassafras Neck, Middle Neck and Bohemia Manor petitioned the legislature at the session of 1756, praying that stringent measures might be taken against the Jesuits. At all events the lower house at this session was about to pass a very stringent bill prohibiting the importation of Irish Papists via Delaware, under a penalty of £20 each, and denouncing any Jesuit or Popish priest as a traitor who tampered with any of his Majesty's subjects in the colony ; but the bill did not pass, the governor having prorogued the legislature shortly after it was introduced.
These measures may now seem harsh and unjust, but it must not be forgotten that at the time of which we write the excitement produced by the French and Indian war was at its height, and the Jesuits of Maryland, probably very unjustly, were accused of being in league with the French and of inciting the Indians to massacre the Protes- tants.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
The few meagre records of the mission for the period be- tween 1756 and 1764 contain little of interest to the general reader. They show, however, that Rev. Joseph Greaton died there in 1749. He was probably succeeded by Rev. John Lewis, who is known to have been there in 1753.
Rev. John Lewis was probably succeeded by Rev. Joseph Mosley, who came there in 1760, and probably remained continuously till 1787. Rev. Mathias Manners was also there in 1771, and died and was buried there in 1775. During the long period that Mr. Mosley was in charge of the mission he traveled all over the eastern and southern part of the Western Shore, and baptized about six hundred persons, many of whom were negro slaves. His journal contains some entries which warrant the opinion that some of the old Quaker families of the Eastern Shore embraced the Catholic religion, as he speaks of baptizing Thomas Browning, who was probably a descendant of John Brow- ning, whom Augustine Hermen accused of trying to fraud- ulently obtain part of Middle Neck after he (Hermen) had obtained a patent for it .* The Hollands, one of whom was accused by Hermen of aiding Browning in his design on Middle Neck, seem also to have embraced Catholicism, for the successor of Mosley speaks of baptizing one of them. During the period between the years 1766 and 1787 the journal kept by Rev. Mr. Mosley shows that the accessions to the Catholic churches to which he ministered numbered one hundred and eighty-five. During this period he per- formed the marriage ceremony for members of the several congregations in his charge one hundred and seventy times and officiated at about one hundred and seventy-five funerals. In 1764 he organized a church at St. Joseph's, in Talbot County, and probably with a view of founding another mission similar to the one at Bohemia, purchased about three hundred and fifty acres of land in that county.
* See page 101, ante.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
The next year he placed eight negroes, which he brought from Prince George's County at a cost of £10, on the farm. These negroes are supposed to have been in charge of an overseer.
Mr. Mosley's journal contains many curious entries illus- trative of the manners and customs of society at the time they were made. Among them are the following: "4th November, 1770, I married Jerry, a negro of ours, to Jenney, a negro belonging to Mr. Charles Blake, but afterwards bought by us. Test,-many negroes, both ours and others, at St. Joseph's, Talbot. 23d July, 1777, I married Davy, a negro of ours, to Hannah, a negro of John Lockerman, by his consent; many negroes of his and our family being present. September, 1795, married at home a wench of John Connell (Senior) named Hannah, to a fellow of Tullies Neck, by note."
There are many entries in Mr. Mosley's journal of mar- riages of negroes by note, which meant that the sable couples had notes from their owners requesting or author- izing him to perform the marriage ceremony.
CHAPTER XIV.
First Friends' meeting-house-First Episcopal minister-North and South Sassafras parishes-First vestrymen-Population-Curious lot of church property-First Episcopal Church-Chapel of Ease in Elk Neck -Shrewsbury parish-Rev. Hugh Jones-Chapel on Bohemia Manor- Sketch of Rev. Hugh Jones-North Elk parish-First vestrymen- Richard Dobson-John Hamm-Rev. Walter Ross-Chapel near Battle Swamp-Rev. William Wye-St. Mary Ann's Church, North East-Taring the Church-Death of Rev. Mr. Wye-Rev. Jolin Bradford-Rev. John Hamilton-Clayfall.
AUGUSTINE HERMEN, and probably many of his cotempo- raries who settled on Bohemia Manor, were members of the Reformed Dutch Church. George Talbot, George Oldfield, and many of the first settlers along the Elk and Susque- hanna rivers were Catholics ; and the Labadists, as we have seen, had a faith peculiar to themselves. These various sects lived in harmony and peace together, under the mild gov- ernment of the province as administered by the first pro- prietor and his successors. Even the then persecuted and despised Quakers found an asylum in the province, and were permitted to enjoy their peculiar belief in peace and quiet- ness. They are believed to have been the first denomination that erected a house of worship in the county. As early as 1698 George Warner and seven other Quakers prayed the court that their meeting-house at the head of a branch of Still Pond Creek might be registered according to the act of Parliament, and promised " ever to pray for the eternal hap- piness of the court." This is the first reference to a meeting- house that has been found in the records of the county.
The first clergyman of the Church of England, of whom there is any account in the history of the carly settlements
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
in our county, is the Rev. John Yeo. He came from Mary- land to New Castle in 1677, and exhibited his credentials as a licensed minister of the Church of England, and was well received by the court .* In 1676 he had written a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, from Pautuxent, Maryland, in which he gives a sad account of the religious condition of the province. At this time there were only three ministers of the Established Church of England in the province of Maryland. Mr. Yeo seems to have exercised the duties of his calling at New Castle for a year or two, for in 1679 he presented a petition to the court, in which he prayed to be remunerated for preaching the gospel and for baptizing children, marrying people, and burying the dead. The court refused his request, and nothing more is heard of him till 1681, when he was tried at New Castle "for mutinous expressions against the Duke of York, the town, the court," etc., for which he was tried before a jury and acquitted. He had, no doubt, been attracted to Bohemia Manor by the prosperous condition of the people residing thereon, and by its close proximity to New Castle, near which he afterwards settled, which was at that early day a town of much im- portance. He was the first clergyman of the Established Church that visited Cecil County.
In 1692 the legislature of the province, which was thoroughly Protestant, passed "an act for the Service of Almighty God and the establishment of the Protestant religion in the Province." This act was passed previous to the 9th of June, 1692, and on the 22d of the November fol- lowing the commissioners of this county, who were Captain Charles James, Colonel Casparus Hermen, Mr. Humphrey Tilton, Mr. William Ward, Mr. Henry Rigg, Mr. John James and Mr. William Elms, with some of the principal frecholders of the county, in pursuance and compliance with the act of Assembly, laid out and divided the county into
* See Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, page 448.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
two districts or parishes, that is to say, one parish for Wor- ton and South Sassafras Hundred and the other for North Sassafrax, Bohemia and Elk Hundreds. These parishes were called North and South Sassafras. The Rev. Lawrence Vanderbush was then officiating in North Sassafras, and had probably been there for some time, for it is a matter of record that he administered a baptism on the 2d of July previous, and during the year he baptized eighteen others. But little more is known of his history, only that he died in 1696, at which time he was also in charge of South Sassa- fras parish.
About this time Peter Sluyter seemed to think that the scepter he wielded as "Grand Mogul" of the Labadists was about to depart from his hand, and so he petitioned the governor for license or authority to perform the rite of mar- riage. No doubt he feared that the organization of these parishes and the settlement of other ministers near him would lessen his authority, which was already beginning to wane, and deprive him of influence over his followers. His petition was granted with the proviso that he was only to marry people of his own denomination.
The first vestrymen of North Sassafras parish were Cas- parus Hermen, William Ward, John Thompson, Edward Jones, Henry Rigg and Matthias Vanderhuyden. The tax- ables in 1693 were 321, which was the number of persons then assessed within the present limits of the county, and are supposed to have been equal to one-fourth of all the inhabi- tants in the county, which, by this estimate then contained a population of 1284. At a meeting of the vestry, the next year, it was ordered that the 12,440 pounds of tobacco collected that year should be disposed of as follows: To the minister, 8000 pounds; to the sheriff for receiving it, 620 pounds; to Thomas Pearce, clerk, 800 pounds ; the residue, 3018 pounds, to be lodged in the hands of Edward Jones for the defraying of some necessary charges in fitting and repairing the present meeting-house "which we have procured for the present till God shall enable us to build a church."
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
In 1694 the Bishop of London sent over some books by Governor Nicholson for distribution in the colony, and the records of this parish contained a list of things which Cas- parus Hermen then had, a part or all of which are supposed to have been the distributive share assigned to this parish. The list was as follows: Two Bibles, two books called the Duties of Man, two books of Common Prayer, two books of Church Catechism, two books of Christian religion; also, two books of martial discipline, two books of thearticles of war ; one dark lantern, one prospective glass and one pocket com- pass. The five last-mentioned articles in the list were curious articles to be mixed up with the former; but the warlike Susquehannocks still infested the north western part of the county and the dark lantern and spy-glass were no doubt intended to be used in repelling their attacks.
The next minister mentioned in the records of the parish was the Rev. James Crawford, of whose history but little is known, only that he stopped for six weeks with Edward Larramore and that the vestry allowed Larramore 400 pounds of tobacco for boarding him. In 1712 he was in- cumbent of South Sassafras Parish, where he died in 1713.
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