USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 18
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The meeting being over, Philemon quietly took horse and made his way to the fair maiden's home on Somerset county. On reaching Miss Covington's door, to his distress and dismay he saw the well known 'turn out' of his brother Edward with accoutrements for special gala days. The two brothers, thus rivals and far from home, had to
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adjust the difficulty as best they could. Philemon proposed that whoever saw her first should be the first to offer his heart and hand;
and by comparison of their accounts it was found that Edward had seen the young lady upon the road, before her arrival at the meeting house, where Philemon had first seen her. He said:
my purpose was then fixed to make her my wife, if her mind and char- acter were like her face. Philemon yielded the prize and Sarah Coving- ton became Mrs. Edward Lloyd, the mistress of Wye House.27
A portrait of this lady is in the possession of descendants. She was the mother of several children, among them Edward (III) the Secre- tary, but her husband dying she married Mr. James Hollyday, and be- came the mother of the very distinguished lawyer and statesman of the same name. She died in London in 1755 at an advanced age, at the home of her daughter Mrs. Anderson, the wife of a merchant long en- gaged in trade with Maryland, surviving her second husband.
Gen. Edward Lloyd (II), the President, died March 20th, 1718, and was buried at Wye House, where a monument is erected to his memory, with this inscription:
Here lieth ye body of ye Honorable Coll. Edward Lloyd, son of Philemon Lloyd and Henrietta Maria his wife. Was born ye 7th of Feb. 1670 and died March ye 20th 1718. He had by his wife Sarah 5 sons and one daughter, all living except one son. He served his country in several honorable stations both civil and military and was one of ye Council many years.
27 Genealogical Notes of the Chamberlaine family.
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PHILEMON LLOYD (II)
THE SECRETARY
1672-1732
.
The second son of Philemon (I) and Henrietta Maria (Neale, Bennett) Lloyd was Philemon (II) who may be distinguished from his father, the Indian Commissioner by the agnomen, the Secretary, for the reason that for many years he held the office of Secretary or Deputy Secretary of the Province of Maryland. He is thought to have been born at Wye House in the year 1672, the precise date being unrecorded. What was said of his elder brother Edward must be said of this more dis- tinguished personage, with reference to his early education and those surrounding influences which tend to mould the character namely, that he had for a mother a woman of strong as well as amiable qualities, and that the large wealth of his parents was such as justified the belief that he enjoyed the best tuition from competent masters. Like his brother he was probably sent to England, where under the care of his grand- father, Edward Lloyd (I) the Puritan, he was trained in the best schools of letters and law. It need not be said that this statement is based upon pure conjecture, for no record exists nor family tradition of his academic or professional education; yet his many positions of civil trust is suffi- cient to indicate that he enjoyed advantages of instruction superior to those possessed by a majority of young men growing up in a wild, uncultivated country, such as Maryland was during his youth.
In the absence of honors which only the favor of royalty could bestow, employments in the public service of the province were those which were sought by the ambitious of distinction; nor were the emoluments that accompanied these honors despised, as insignificant as they seemed when measured by the standards accepted in the old country, or even by the standards now established in our own. A seat in the General Assembly was then sought after with as much eagerness as a seat in the Commons of England or in the Congress of America is now; while the commission of a Councillor was regarded as a sort of patent to nobility. It may be mentioned incidentally that many of these provincial honors acquired a kind of hereditability; for certain it is that succeeding genera- tions enjoyed many of them, as we find in the case of the family whose history is now reviewed. The first authentic information we possess of Philemon Lloyd, the second of the name, after his arrival at manhood, is of his having been elected, June 29th, 1699, one of the Burgesses or
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Delegates from Talbot county to the General Assembly, in the place of Mr. William Hemsley, who had then recently died. His colleagues from Talbot in the Lower House at this period were Major Thomas Smithson, who was Speaker, a gentleman then of much prominence, but subsequently much distinguished in Maryland history; Col. Edward Lloyd his brother, and Mr. Richard Tilghman, of the Hermitage. We see in this how nearly at this date in Maryland, honors and political control were hereditary. Major Smithson was not of the provincial patriciate, but was elevated by his conspicuous ability and high personal character. Mr. Lloyd continued to hold his seat until 1702, at least, and probably longer. It is to be noted that the period of his service in the Legislature was that of the final settlement of the controversy respecting the church establishment,-a controversy of much warmth and not a little bitter feeling, in which the Quakers, who were numerous in the county, and Roman Catholics, united against the adherents of the Church of England. The parties to this dispute were not ranged upon political lines, for the Friends were probably all Whigs, the Romanists were mainly, if not wholly, Jacobites.
At a Court held at the town of York, Nov. 13th, 1701, Mr. Vincent Hemsley, the High Sheriff, read a "new commission for the Peace," dated Nov. 7th, which constituted these gentlemen the Justices for Talbot County: Mr. Robert Goldsborough, Mr. William Coursey, Mr. Richard Tilghman, Mr. Philemon Lloyd, Mr. Thomas Robins, Mr. John Coppidge, Mr. Robert Ungle, Mr. Thomas Emerson, Mr. Phile- mon Hemsley, Mr. Robert Grundy, Mr. Matthew Tilghman Ward, Mr. John Needles. The seven first named were of the Quorum without the presence of one of whom no court could be held. It may be well to note here that the county records state that these gentlemen were re- quired to subscribe oaths of the most rigid character, called the "Test" and the "Association "-such was the jealousy of Jacobitism and Roman Catholicism, which were thought to be politically synonymous. In Aug. 1705, a Court of Oyer and Terminer was held in the county of which Mr. Lloyd was one of the Justices designated for this purpose. He seems to have kept his seat upon the bench until the year 1707. The causes for the changes in the constitution of the Court are not evident from any record.
In the year 1709 as has been related in the sketch of his life, Gen. Edward Lloyd (II) became by virtue of his position as President of the Council the acting Governor of Maryland, Gov. Seymour having just died. He soon after appointed his brother, Mr. Philemon Lloyd,
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Secretary of the Province. This office he held during the continuance of the royal rule, yielding it up when Gov. Hart was appointed and the Proprietary restored to the Government of his Palatinate in 1714; yet in 1715 we find him mentioned in the records as being Deputy Secretary, he performing the duties of the office while another enjoyed the chief emoluments. In 1717 he was appointed to the office of Judge of the Land Court. In 1721 we find that he was elevated to a seat in the Gov- ernor's Council. How long he continued in this position the means of determining are not at hand, but probably for the remainder of his life. In 1728 his name appears in the records as the Secretary of the Province, in 1731 as Deputy Secretary, and in 1732 as again Secretary, thus hold- ing this office at the date of his death.28
The regret that has often been expressed and more frequently felt, that so little pains have been taken to preserve the memories of con- spicuous citizens of Maryland during the colonial period may again be repeated, as it is again experienced when an attempt is made to re- cover the incidents of the life and the traits of character of Mr. Phile- mon Lloyd-a person who held many of the most eminent stations in the province, in which there is, at least, no reason to doubt he bore him- self with a befitting dignity and of which he conducted the affairs with honor and ability. Those lines of his mental portrait which are dis- coverable, through the dust and smoke of years, are so faint that we receive from them no clear impression of his character. An attempt to fill in those lines with the lights and shades that are necessary to give a true representation of the subject, would probably result in a picture largely illusory and deceptive. At least the artist could give but a fam- ily likeness in which the traits of the Lloyds of the past and present should be portrayed; but some of these traits are among the best of those that dignify men.
Mr. Secretary Lloyd married a Mrs. Freeman of Annapolis, and though he was not so fortunate as to havea son, one daughter, Henrietta Maria, was born to him, who marrying Samuel Chew has transmitted his blood, though not his name to some of the most prominent families of Mary- land, such as the Dorseys, the Bordleys, the Tilghmans, the Pacas and the Dulaneys, with members of which her children intermarried. Dying in 1732 he was buried at Wye House where a stone is erected to his memory bearing this inscription :
28 An examination of the records of the council now in the possession of Md. Hist. Society, discovers his name among the members as late as 1729 at least.
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Here lieth interred the body of Philemon Lloyd son of Col. Philemon Lloyd. and Henrietta his wife who de- parted this life 19th March 1732 in the 60th year of his age. He was one of the coun- cil and Secretary of this pro- vince.
EDWARD LLOYD (III)
THE COUNCILLOR
1711-1770
The third son of Edward Lloyd (II) the President, and of Sarah Covington the Quakeress, was Edward Lloyd (III) who may be dis- tinguished by the agnomen, the Councillor, because of his having held a seat in the Governor's Council for a great number of years. He was born May 8th, 1711, probably at Wye House, the plantation of his father. Of his education, academic and professional, nothing whatever is known. He may have been a pupil at King William's School at Annapolis, in flourishing condition during his minority, and then sent to England, in conformity with the custom of wealthy planters, for the completion of his studies. As his father died when he was in early youth, and as his mother soon married Mr. James Hollyday, an accomplished gentleman and distinguished lawyer, his education was doubtless directed by him; and it is very probable, under the same capable man, he acquired that knowledge of the law which qualified him for the efficient discharge of those duties to which he was called at an early period of his life and in which he was engaged almost to the day of his death.
Upon reaching his majority and coming into possession of his estate he engaged actively in planting, and from a letter of Henry Callister, still extant, dated Aug. 5th, 1747, it is probable he made ventures in trade or commerce,29 as was not unusual with large proprietors. It is to be
29 Callister, who at this date was sub-factor under Robt. Morris, the chief- factor of the Cunliffes of Liverpool has a store at the Head-of-Wye. He says "Bennett will have a store at Wye-town, another at home, R. Lloyd and Ed. Lloyd have only goods for their own families." In a letter of a much later date, Nov. 28th, 1764, addressed to Col. Lloyd, recommending his nephew, just from
.
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inferred that as the wealth of the family continued to augment that the agricultural as well as the commercial enterprises of Colonel Lloyd, for he too was the recipient of such provincial titles as the Proprietary was justified in bestowing, and such as he might claim by a kind of hered- itary privilege, were prosecuted with success. From whatsoever source derived his pecuniary means were such as enabled him to main- tain a style of living suitable to the dignified position which he held in the colony, for the maintenance of which his official compensation was inadequate.
At an election held Dec. 15th, 1737, Mr. Edward Lloyd (III) was cho- sen one of the Delegates from Talbot County to the General Assembly having as his coadjutors elected at the same time, Mr. Nicholas Golds- borough, Mr. William Thomas, Jr. and Mr. Robert Lloyd.30 He held his seat in the Lower House until 1740, when he was called by Governor
the Isle of Man, as a person fitted to perform the duties of a second mate on ship- board, he refers to the fact of Col. Lloyd's having ships, engaged in commerce with England and the West India islands. From the records of the Court of Queen Anne's county, it is known that in 1756, if not earlier, Mr. Lloyd was one of a house of London transacting a commercial business under the style of Richard Lloyd & Company, of which Richard Lloyd, Edward Lloyd and William Anderson were partners.
30 Mr. Robert Lloyd was the son of James Lloyd, of "Hope," who was the son of Philemon Lloyd (I) the Indian Commissioner.
Though hardly relevant, the following extract from the records of Talbot County Court may be interesting as showing the manner of conducting elections. "At a Court of the Right Honorable Charles, Absolute Lord Proprietary of the Provinces of Maryland, and Avalon, Lord Baron of Baltimore, &c., held for Talbot County at the Court House, near Pitts his Bridge in the county aforesaid the first day of December, Anno Domini, one thousand seven hundred and thirty- seven, by the virtue of a writ of the same Lord Proprietary, to John Goldsborough, Esquire, High Sheriff Talbot County aforesaid, to elect four Deputies and Dele- gates to serve for the said county at a General Assembly of this Province, before the same Lord Proprietary his Justices of the Peace for the county aforesaid, of whom were present
The Worshipful
Mr. Thomas Bozman, Mr. Perry Benson and Mr. William Thomas, Jr. Thomas Bullen, Clerk.
Thereupon the same sheriff maketh public proclamation, thereby giving notice to all freemen of the said county, who have within the same county a freehold of fifty acres of land, or who are residents and have a visible estate of forty pounds sterling, at the least, thereby requiring them to appear at the said County Court House the 15th day of this instant December to elect and choose four Deputies and Delegates to serve for the said county in the General Assembly of this Province.
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Samuel Ogle to be one of the Honorable Council of Maryland, of which body Col. Matthew Tilghman Ward was President and Hon. Samuel Chamberlaine was a member, both of Talbot county and kinsman of Mr. Lloyd. Mr. James Hollyday, the husband of Mr. Lloyd's mother, and formerly of the same county, was also a member. This statement will serve to show how nearly certain families monopolized the offices and gave to the government of the Province something of the character of an oligarchy. Mr. Lloyd, who now was made Colonel, held his seat at the Council Board for a great number of years, resigning on account of ill health Nov. 16th, 1769, to be succeeded by Col. William Fitzhugh, of Calvert county. To recite the part taken by Colonel and Honor- able (for thus it is written) Lloyd, in the public affairs of the colony from the time when he entered the House of Delegates until his resigna- tion of his seat as Councillor would be to relate the history of Maryland for thirty-two years. This period may be characterized as one of peace- ful growth and prosperity, notwithstanding the Spanish war in progress when Col. Edward Lloyd (III), surnamed the Councillor, went into office, the French and Indian War which was begun and completed during his incumbency, and the premonitory thunders of the war of the Revolution which were heard before his resignation; and notwith- standing, too, the distractions which were the result of the continued conflicts of the Governor and his Council, as representatives of the Lord Proprietary with the Lower House of Assembly as representatives of the people. It is not to be presumed that this peace was that of torpor and this prosperity that of mere material development; for con-
Whereupon the Court adjourns to the same fifteenth day of December, at which said fifteenth day of December, the Justices of Talbot County, to wit:
Mr. Thomas Bozman Mr. Risdon Bozman
The Worshipful
Mr. Perry Benson Mr. John Robins Mr. John Leeds Thomas Bullen, Clerk.
Again here come, and as a Court for the cause assigned sit; and the Freeholders and Residents of the said county do elect and choose Nicholas Goldsborough, Wm. Thomas Jr., Edward Lloyd and Robert Lloyd of Talbot county, gentlemen, to serve as Deputies and Delegates for the county aforesaid at the said General Assembly, according to Act of Assembly, in such case, made and provided." The voting was viva voce and at a single place. Under this system, slightly modi- fied after the War of the Revolution, the elections were held until the year 1801, when for the first time Judges of Election were appointed for each of the election districts into which the county had just been divided.
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sidering the limited field, and the unimportant objects, there was much political activity; and the principals of civil liberty were receiving intelligent investigation by the best of all means, practical experience, and were acquiring increased influence and stability in the minds of the people. It is not believed that Col. Lloyd was in antag- onism to these principles, though it is to be presumed that hold- ing a commission as councillor from the Lord Proprietary, and as it were representing him he defended his rights and prerogatives, which as they were not clearly defined were constantly subject to dispute and contention, and his interests which not being identical with those of his colonists, were frequently assailed. He probably shared in the just indignation of Governor Sharpe that so much reluc- tance and hesitancy should be shown by the House of Delegates to vote supplies of men and money for the defence of the frontiers against the French and their Indian allies, even when the people were anxious and willing to bear the burdens, personal and pecuniary, of such supplies. When the violent political excitement was aroused by the imposition by the British ministry of the Stamp tax upon all legal documents and newspapers, it was necessary for the Governor and his council to exercise the most prudent reserve lest they should jeopard the interest of the Proprietary, by bringing the Provincial in conflict with the Im- perial government, but from the well-known fact that the Governor, personally condemned the action of the British cabinet, we may pre- sume that Col. Lloyd was in sentiment accordant with the people at large, though he was not so open in his hostility to the offensive measure.31 He was probably not one of the crowd that hung in effigy Zachariah Hood, the stamp officer before the Court House door in Talbot county; but he was probably in sympathy with the sentiment this act of some of our citizens in a very rude manner symbolized. When, later, duties upon the importations into the colonies were imposed by the British
31 It would be out of place to enter here into an examination of the causes of the dissidence of the Governor and the House of Delegates. It may suffice to say they had their origin in the old Propriatary and popular antagonism-not in a lack of patriotic devotion. In a letter of Robt. Lloyd, Esq., to the Hon. Jos. Hollyday, in London, under date of Oct. 20th, 1755, he says: "The French and Indians are nibbling at our frontiers and no one seems to have resolution enough to set the dogs at them. *
* * Your assistance will be wanting for the relief of a distressed country, the good of which you know we have, all, much at heart, would our grand lords and masters permit us to furnish the necessary means for our defence. We have offered to give and they have refused, till now they won't ask or even give us a public opportunity of either giving or refusing."
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ministry, and the circular letter of the General Court of Massachusetts issued to the sister colonies, advising that petitions should be addressed to the King for the rescinding the obnoxious tax, was presented to the General Assembly of Maryland, notwithstanding the protest of Governor Sharpe against such measures as being "dangerous and factious," the Lower House drafted a petition which was presented by Robt. Lloyd, Esq., of this county, speaker, followed by all the members in procession, whereupon the General Assembly was prorogued by the Governor. This is not evidence that Col. Lloyd, as member of the Council, approved or disapproved of the course of Governor Sharpe, but if he did, he con- travened the opinions and desire of the great body of the people of this county, he separated himself politically from many of his own kins- men, and he violated the traditions of his family which had constantly run in the direction of popular freedom and in opposition to arbitrary authority. Though not living to share in that heated controversy, to which the clergy of the Province added intensity, originating in the attempt of Governor Eden to establish fees by proclamation. Col. Lloyd, as councillor, participated in the framing of the comprehensive act of 1763, the expiration of which in 1770 was the occasion of the impolitic course of the Governor that was so acceptable to the ministers, but so offensive to the people, and that of the debates it provoked, was so influential in preparing the minds of Marylanders for the great Revolution that soon followed.32
From the year 1681 there had been a controversy between the Pro- prietaries of Maryland and of Pennsylvania respecting the boundaries of the two provinces. This vexatious, and at times exasperating con- flict of title had been prolonged by negotiations, conferences, futile settlements, appeals to royal councils and to judicial tribunals. Finally on the 4th of July, 1760, an agreement was signed between Lord Balti- more and the joint Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, Thomas and Richard Penn, according to which the bounds of their respective provinces were to be those defined in a previous agreement made in 1732 and affirmed by a decree of the High Court of Chancery, in England, of the year 1750. In conformity with this agreement Commissioners were appointed by the Council of Maryland, to meet Commissioners of Pennsylvania to carry into effect its provisions. This commission on the part of Lord
32 Strictly speaking there were two controversies, namely, that relating to the "Proclamation" and that relating to the "Vestry Act." But they had the same origin. The reader is referred to books of general State history, for elucida- tion of these interesting subjects of ante-revolutionary history.
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Baltimore consisted of his Excellency, Horatio Sharpe, Benjamin Tasker, Jr., Edward Lloyd, Robert Jenkins Henry, Daniel Dulaney, Stephen Bordly, Esqs., and the Rev. Alexander Malcom. As the work of the commission was tedious and protracted, several of the original commissioners resigned and others were appointed in their stead. Among these were the Rev. John Barclay, at one time Rector of St. Peter's Parish, Talbot county, and John Leeds, Esq., at one period Clerk of Talbot county court.33 Both of these gentlemen were men of most respectable attainments in geodesy, and upon the last Gov. Sharpe relied upon more than upon any other person for protection of the interests of Lord Baltimore. Messrs. Mason and Dixon were subse- quently employed (1763) as surveyors, and from them, as is well known the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which has acquired a political significance, derived its name. The final report of the com- missioners was made Nov. 9th, 1768, of which it has been said that "it is worthy of preservation as a model of accuracy and fidelity in the record of public transactions." Thus it came to pass that Talbot was participant actively and prominently, through two of her most con- spicuous sons, born and bred upon her soil, and a third adopted son, in tracing that famous line, in theory imaginary, but in fact intensely real, being felt and seen in the differing social institutions and in the antagonistic opinions that prevailed on either side in years that followed its original projection.
Citizens of this county, among whom was the subject of this biographi- cal sketch, was connected with that most interesting episode in colonial history, the expulsion of the Acadians, or French Neutrals, from Nova Scotia. Over this, adopted as the theme of song and story, sentiment
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