USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 19
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33 McMahon's Hist. of Md., Vol. I, p. 45. Mr. George Johnson, of Cecil county, who has published a full account of Mason & Dixon's line, thus refers in a private letter, dated Nov. 30th, 1878, to the compiler of this memoir, of the part taken by Col. Lloyd in the supervision of the work of the surveyors: "You will find by reference to the first chapter of my article on the History of that line that after the surveyors had traced it, the due north one, for a few miles north from the middle point in the peninsula line, they found by observations that they made as directed, that they failed to trace a true meridian, and that they returned copies of their journal or field notes to the Governors of the respective provinces, and afterwards received instructions to retrace the line. The names of the com- missioners on the part of Maryland who revised their work and who detected some errors in it which had led to the deflection from the true meridian were Horatio Sharpe, J. Ridout, Richard Peters, Lynford Landner, Edward Lloyd, John Leeds, and Rives Holt, of whom Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Leeds were of Talbot county."
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has dropped the sympathetic tear and humanity uttered its indignant groans. Even sober narrative has not been able to escape falling into romance when attempting to tell the tale, until these recent days, when broader and brighter light has dispelled so many historic illusions.34 After many ineffectual attempts to secure the faithful obedience of the French of Acadia to English authority and rule, the Government resolved to remove this disaffected and really dangerous people from their homes, and to scatter them through the British provinces where they could do no harm. It is well known that five ship loads of them were sent to Maryland, and of these one discharged its living cargo at Oxford, in this county, Dec. 8th, 1755, consigned to Mr. Henry Callister, the factor or agent of the Messrs. Cunliffe of Liverpool. There was great reluctance on the part of the people of this county to receive these people, who were utterly destitute and dependent upon public and private charity. Nor was there entire willingness upon the part of the provincial authorities to admit them, Col. Lloyd, one of the council protesting, as will appear from his letter presently to be quoted. It would be out of place to give here an account of the "Acadians" brought to Talbot, but is suf- ficient to say Mr. Callister and the Rev. Thomas Bacon, Rector of St. Peter's Parish, particularly interested themselves in their behalf, though they met much opposition from the people at large.35 It would seem that a large share of the burden of their support fell upon Col. Lloyd, and that he complained of and protested against the imposition, and that he encountered the reprobation of Mr. Callister, who in a letter to Gov. Sharpe of Jan. 17th, 1756, said: "Your Excellency's sensibility of the sufferings of the wretched exiles among us, emboldens your peti- tioner, on behalf of them and myself to make a direct application to the fountain head, having met with great obstacles, though I have not spared pains to touch the souls of those whose immediate care it ought to be (especially in your Excellency's absence) at least to have assisted me. I have been shocked in a particular manner by the opposition of the Honorable Col. Lloyd. I shall stop here, lest I should say anything that might be disagreeable to you or seem injurious to him.36 As indic- ative of the grounds of the opposition of Col. Edward Lloyd may be
34 See the account of Parkman in his "Montcalm & Wolf."
35 The address of the electors and freeholders of Talbot county to their Dele- gates in Assembly, praying "to have the pest removed" was painted in the Easton Star, of Dec. 2nd, 1879, as part of the paper upon the "Poor House" of Talbot county.
36 Callister letters as quoted by Scharf in Hist. Md. Vol. 1, p. 476.
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quoted his letter written soon after the arrival of these involuntary immigrants at Oxford, to his half-brother, Mr. James Hollyday, then pursuing his legal studies in England. It will be recollected this was after the defeat of Braddock, when there was great alarm in the Prov- inces, out of which grew the conference of the Governors which was then attended by Gov. Sharpe of Maryland. The letter, all of it except what was of a purely private character, was as follows:
We are in a most unhappy situation here, being often alarmed and under apprehension that the French and Indians will penetrate far into our country. The horid cruelties that they have acted on some of ours as well as the Virginia and Pennsylvania black inhabitants, is most shocking and arousing. They impale men and women and even chil- dren, and set them ypon high by way of scare-crows, and mangle the bodies in a most frightful manner as a terror to others. The act of scalping has introduced this. 'Tis amazing that any civilized nation should countenance this practice. It ought to be held as against the laws of the nations.37 Our armies are all gone into winter quarters, although within this month we have been threatened with an attack on our army at Lake George. The report was that 9,000 French and Canadians were on their march to attack Gov. Johnson; but this gas- conade or boast presently went off in a mere puff. From Nova Scotia Gov. Lawrence has sent home into Maryland 903 of the people, who call themselves neutral French. A copy of his letter I here enclose you. They have been here this month.
The Governor being in New York, Mr. Tasker called a Council. The resolution, if it may be called a resolution or advice, you have also here enclosed. As no doubt much will be talked in London of this transaction, you'll from that and the knowledge you have of the law of nations, form an adequate judgment of the fitness of the measures taken not only by us, but the Council of Nova Scotia. These inhabitants before the treaty of Utrecht were said to be the subjects of the King. As such, no allegiance or obedience could be required of them by the King of England; therefore as soon as this place was ceded to the Crown of England, rather than distress or deprive them of the property they had gained on that part of the Continent, his Majesty was most graciously pleased to offer them the most advantageous terms that could be, consistent with the British Constitution, i.e., that they should remain in possession of all they had on condition that they would become subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, and manifest their allegiance and willingness to the said King, by taking the oath or oaths prescribed to that end.
37 And yet at the very next meeting of the General Assembly a provision was made for the payment of ten pounds for every scalp of "Indian enemies, or for every Indian prisoner brought in." See Bacon's Laws, Act of Assembly of Feb. 1756, Chap. v. Query: Was there not a like provision in some previous Act, and did not Col. Lloyd refer to this?
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These were the terms by which these people were to be distinguished as subjects of the King of England. This, however, it is said and well- known to be true, they would not condescend or subscribe to. Then in the first place, it may well enough be made a question whether that act which they are charged with, as being in arms in the French fort at Bodusejour,38 when it surrendered amounts to rebellion, it being said that they never had consented to become subjects of the King of Eng- land. If the conclusion may be that they cannot be deemed rebels, then they are taken and held as prisoners of war; and this to me seems the proper state to set them in, for it seems that the subjects of the King of England, and I suppose by his command, for breach of treaty com- mitted by these French, invaded and overcame with armed power and took them as prisoners of war, and retaining them sent them as such into this province to the care of the government. This government received them in that state from the Captain that brought them here, and after- wards sent them in several counties not under the restraint or confine- ment of any person, but let them at large and to their own liberty. It may be here made a question whether this conduct be prudent or consistent with good policy, for as enemies they came here and as such they must certainly remain, because they are all rigid Roman Catholics and so attached to the French King, that sooner than deny his power over them, they have quitted all that they had in the world. Now then, if it should be asked of us how came these enemies to go at large, what can be said in our justification? I fear our, or rather I should say, the President's (Tasker) conduct in this will not bear a legal scrutiny. I was against this, I assure you. However, I shall be obliged if you'll give me your opinion candidly and as explicitly as your time will permit; and if you should be able to collect Mr. Calvert's opinion of this transac- tion, pray favor me with it, which you may easily do by means of Mr. Anderson or Mr. Hanbury. He sometimes dines at each of their houses where I say you may see him. That they were taken and sent here as prisoners of war, there can be no doubt I think, as we cannot devise any other honorable way of depriving those people, who are all free born, of their liberty. Now it has been made a question whether they could be justly deemed prisoners of war, as no declaratin of war has been made since the last treaty of peace.39 To this mayn't it well be said that as the people have violated the treaties entered into with the crown of England, either by committing open hostilities or assisting and abetting those that did, I say that they did thereby put themselves against the King, whence the King of England was impliedly acquitted from performing his part of the treaty with them and might renew the
38 This was fort Beausejour, situated upon an arm of the Bay of Fundy, cap- tured by General Moncton in 1755, in which were a number of refugee Acadians. It was by Monkton that the first announcement was made of the purpose of the British Government to remove these people.
39 The anomalous condition existed of war between the English and French colonies, while the parent governments were nominally at peace.
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war without any proclamation, since by that acquaintance he became in the same state to them as he was in before the treaty was concluded. If this be the case, then they were brought here as prisoners of war and are liable to be called for on a cartel. What will our government say or do, having released them from that just duress or imprisonment which the government of Novia Scotia put upon them? They are restored or are again in a state of freedom. Query then: can this or any other Government restrain them after such liberty granted, or without some new violation or breach of the laws as to put them under confinement, or can they oblige them into servitude? I say my opinion on the President's question was, that these people should be suffered to land but should be restrained of their liberty. This advice I think consistent and most proper, and the measure that ought to have been pursued, for it may well be apprehensive of them as enemies, as they at Halifax had. But suppose this was not the case, they ought not to have been released or suffered to be at large by us, as they were the King's prison- ers, and he alone is to order their releasement.
The resolution of Mr. Tasker, it is said, has taken, is I think, impolitic. He has ordered two of the four vessels to this shore, one at Oxford with 200, the other to Wicomico with, they tell me, 260 additional, another at Patuxent and the 4th stays at Annapolis,40 without any comemit- ment to the sheriff, so that they were at large for some time till Callister got many of them on board some vessels, one of which with sixty odd, was ordered by him into this river, Wye, and the Captain instructed to land them on my plantation for me to do what I pleased with them, and this not only against my consent, but in manifest opposition to me, although I had in order to prevent their starving or being too heavy a burden on the town of Oxford, ordered my store-keeper to pay Mr. Callister five pounds a week for their subsistance at Oxford, where I ex- pected they all would be kept under some rule. But he is so far from grate- ful for this benefaction, that he has sent the above said number, all to 8 or 9 that were left with Matthew Tilghman and Phil. Hambleton, and ordered them to be quartered on me, which will subject me to the expense of at least £12 a week, besides making liable to a great deal of danger by their corrupting mine and other negro slaves on this river, of which there is at least the number of 300 that may be called Roman Catholics, who being by some very late practices and declarations dangerous in them- selves, become much more so by the addition of these people. I say dangerous, because some of my slaves have lately said they expected that the French would soon set them free, and Nic. Griffin, that was Fitshugh's overseer, was taken up the other day on information and affidavits that he had said the negros would soon be all free men.
If you think my sentiments just in respect to the conduct of our great man, then the greatest, and that these French, from the intention of Gov. Lawrence, in sending them here, ought not to have been suffered at large, be pleased to do me justice, and set me in a true light by saying
40 A fifth was sent to Baltimore county.
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that I was against this procedure. For this end it is that I have said so much on this head and you may also say that through necessity and to save them from starving for the weather is very sharp and the sloop froze up in the river, I pay £5 per week towards the maintenance of 30 odd at Oxford, and expect every hour to be put to an additional expense of £12 a week for the support of them that are here and can't get away, should the river be all froze up, which is likely. The Governor, had he been here when they were brought, would have prevented all this uneasiness and expense to private individuals. He, I dare say, would have had them, the men at least, committed or taken into safe custody, but he was at New York, attending a grand meeting or Congress of the Governors and is but just come home. With great good will and sincere regard your affectionate brother,
EDWARD LLOYD.
I am to attend the Gov. as soon as weather permits.41
The fact that this long letter, so out of proportion with the brevity of this memoir of the writer, is almost the only paper in existence from his hand, would excuse its insertion here; but the interesting character of its contents would afford ample apology, if every other was wanting. It reviews with the eye of a statesman the action of the British author- ities, it discusses intelligently the status of the deported Acadians, it throws light upon an obscure subject in Maryland history, and gives unexpected insight into the religious, political and social condition of the people of this county,42 but what is of importance in this connection, it vindicates Col. Lloyd from the imputations, dangerous to his memory, from their very obscurity, thrown upon him by Mr. Callister in his letter already quoted. It shows that his objections to the introduction of the Acadians were not of a selfish character, but based upon apprehensions of danger to the commonwealth at large; for while he was protesting against their introduction he was rendering liberal assistance to these ex- iles, and affording some of them protection from suffering and starvation.
Col. Lloyd was far from disdaining offices of emolument, though ambitious of provincial honors and blessed with ample fortune. He had been appointed Receiver General of the Province for the Lord Proprie-
41 For this letter the writer is indebted, to Mr. George Tilghman Hollyday, of Baltimore, a descendant of the gentleman to whom it was addressed. It has also been printed in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, for Dec. 1883.
42 The reference in this letter to the apprehended influence of these Neutral French upon the negro slaves of the county, is a curious illustration of the sus- ceptibility of the minds of our people of fears of servile insurrection, which com- mencing thus early, and perhaps earlier, continued down to most recent times.
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tor, which office, the fees of which were very considerable, he resigned in March or April, 1768, to be succeeded by the Rev'd Bennett Allen, somewhat notorious as the "fighting parson."43 Col. Lloyd held his seat in the Council until some time in the year 1769, when, apparently on account of impaired health, he resigned to be succeeded in his place by Col. William Fitzhugh, of Calvert county, who was sworn in on the 16th of November of that year. It may be well enough to note that the Hon. Samuel Chamberlaine, the first of the name, of this county, long his associate in the government of the Province, and his kinsman, resigned his seat at the Board at or about the same date.
The Lloyds of Wye, after Edward (I) the Puritan, seem to have taken little interest in religion, with the exception of the subject of this memoir, and his interest seems to have been slight. Since his time they have had no part in the administration of the church temporalities, and religion with them has been a matter of purely personal concern.44 Perhaps this is attributable to the survival of an ancestral prejudice against popery and prelacy, of which they themselves are hardly conscious. We know that Col. Lloyd (III) was not well affected towards Roman Catholics, but this feeling, if it had not a political origin, was strength- ened by a suspicion of disloyalty in the people of this faith. However this may be, no Lloyd of Wye was vestryman, or other church officer, no Lloyd of Wye contributed for church building or other uses, aside from the legal assessment, until the year 1734, when for the first time the name of Edward Lloyd (III) appears in the list of vestrymen of St. Michaels parish, where it remained during the two following years. Then for thirty years no mention is made of him in the church records either as church officer or even as contributor to church funds; but in 1766 he was again elected vestryman and was continued in this office the following year. It is not meant to be intimated that the Lloyds of Wye have been irreligious or illiberal men. In truth they have been neither. They have never been dreamy, sentimental and imaginative, qualities one or the other of which is necessary to make devotees. On the contrary they have been eminently practical, but never so much as to make their religion a device for their personal advancement, here or hereafter, without the labor of right living.
Col. Lloyd (III) married, March 26th, 1739, Miss Ann Rousby, of Patuxent, by whom he had these children: Elizabeth, who became the
43 Maryland Gazette, April 7th, 1768.
44 Some branches of the family have furnished exceptions.
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wife of General Cadwallader, of Philadelphia; Henrietta Maria, who merely perpetuated the name of that excellent lady, her grandmother, and died unmarried; Edward, (IIII) who became master of Wye House, and married Miss Elizabeth Taylor, of Virginia, the mother of Edward Lloyd, the Revolutionary patriot; and Richard Bennett, who, going to England became a Captain in the Coldstream Guards, and married a celebrated beauty, Joanna Leigh of North Court, Isle of Wight, England. A full length portrait of Capt. Richard Bennett Lloyd by Charles Willson Peale, painted 1775, hangs in the drawing room at Wye House.
Col. Lloyd died Jan. 27th, 1770, and was interred at Wye House, where a tomb is erected to his memory bearing this inscription:
Here lie interred the remains of the Hon. Col. Edward Lloyd, who departed this life the 27th of January 177045 aged 59 years.
EDWARD LLOYD (IV)
THE PATRIOT
1744-1796
The eldest son of Edward (III) and Ann (Rousby) Lloyd was Edward the fourth of the name in the family succession. He might be distin- guished from those who preceded and succeeded him similarly called, by ascribing to him the significant agnomen of the Revolutionist, because of his most eminent public services rendered to the state pre- vious to and during the war of independence, but as something of disre- pute attaches to this term, he may be designated as the Patriot, although it must be confessed this is not unequivocal in its significance. He was born Dec. 15th, 1744, at Wye House, which he lived to see destroyed, and which it it believed he rebuilt pretty much as it now stands. As has been said of several of his ancestors, nothing whatever is known of his education. The conjecture that it was received from private tutors from the preceptors of King William's school at Annapolis, and finally from instructors in England is plausible and altogether conjectural. Either his education was of a liberal character and much superior to that
45 Another record of his death, apparently authentic, gives the date of his de- mise as Feb. 8th, 1770. The change from the old to the new style may account for this discrepancy of eleven days.
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of country gentlemen of his class in America, or he was endowed by nature with a love of intellectual pleasures; for he collected for his own delight and not for ostentation a library of more than a thousand vol- umes, still remaining at Wye House which displays a bibliopholist's taste and fondness for beautiful and luxurious editions and the dis- crimination of a judicious reader of what is most valuable in English and French literature. The heir to a great fortune, great for the time, he probably soon after the completion of his studies, academic and pro- fessional-if indeed, he received professional training in the law, undertook the management of his vast landed estates, but, as was customary with gentlemen of fortune he soon embarked in politics, which, from the time of the French and Indian war, and partic- ularly from the date of the Stamp Act, when he had just come of age, were assuming a breadth and scope they did not possess when they were confined to a consideration of mere provincial interests. In 1770 the General Assembly had been dissolved by Gov. Eden, Dec. 20th, and a new election was ordered, the writs to be returned Feb. 4th, 1771. This election was held under the excitement caused by the Proclamation of the Governor, establishing the fees of certain civil officers by execu- tive act after the refusal of the Legislature to renew the Act of Assembly made for that purpose, which had just expired. Connected with this was the revival of the old Vestry Act of 1702.46 As opponents of the action of the Governor these gentlemen were chosen delegates from Tal- bot: Mr. Matthew Tilghman, Mr. James Lloyd Chamberlaine, Mr. Nicholas Thomas and Mr. Edward Lloyd-men known for either their large pecuniary interests or their acknowledged abilities. When the Assembly met, the "Proclamation" was the subject which first engaged its attention, and a remonstrance was sent to Gov. Eden. In the pass- ing of this protest against the usurpation of a right belonging to the Legislature, the delegates from Talbot participated. Mr. Lloyd held his seat in the Assembly until 1773, when a new election was held. He was again chosen by the people, and had for his coadjutors the same gen- tlemen that had already served with him in 1771. This was the last election ever held under the Proprietary Government, and the Assem- bly then chosen, was by frequent prorogations continued down to the time of the meeting of the Provincial Convention in June, 1776,47 when
46 For an account of this celebrated controversy, respecting the Proclamation Vestry Act, the reader is referred to books of Maryland History.
47 On the 13th of June, 1776, Gov. Eden, by his proclamation dissolved the General Assembly and ordered writs for the election of a new House to be issued,
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it expired by proclamation of the Governor and the act of the people in convention assembled. Mr. Lloyd's position in the Vestry Act contro- versy, is not of record, but that he united with other moderate men in the passage of the Act of Assembly restoring the stipends of the clergy as they had existed before the expiration in 1770 of the late law of 1763, and not as they were established by the law of 1702, thus settling the controversy to the satisfaction of the clergy, if not the people at large, is to be presumed, for the objections to the operancy of the law of 1702 seem to have been technical, frivolous or factious, having their founda- tion, however, in a great grievance, the excessive compensation of the ministers through the large increase of population in the several parishes. At a meeting of the Assembly in Oct. 1773, the question of the legality of the tax upon tea coming up and communications from the Assemblies of other provinces being laid before the Legislature, a committee of cor- respondence was appointed "to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such Acts and Resolutions of the British Parliament or Proceedings of Administration as may relate to, or affect the British Colonies in America and keep up and maintain a correspondence with our sister colonies." Of this committee Col. Lloyd was a member, and upon it were two other gentlemen from Talbot, Mr. Matthew Tilghman and Mr. James Lloyd Chamberlaine. The passage of what was known as the Boston Port Bill caused the assemblage of the people in the several counties for the purpose of expressing their disapprobation of the bill and their sympathy with the people of the city of Boston. At this meeting held at Talbot Court House, May 24th, 1774, a commit- tee of correspondence was appointed to attend a meeting of similar · committees of other counties of the Province at Annapolis to be held June 22d, of which Mr. Lloyd was a member, having for his associates Mr. Matthew Tilghman, Mr. Nicholas Thomas, and Mr. Robert Golds- borough 4th. The proceedings of this meeting of the committees- the first of the Revolutionary conventions-and of the subsequent meetings of the same, are matters of published record.48 One or two measures may be referred to, in as much as Col. Lloyd was connected
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