USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 42
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In truth, political science was only then advancing to that position, and political art was only then receiving that development it has since attained, in which justice is regarded as the only sure basis of public policy, and equality of rights the best security for social order. The doctrine of a higher law of morals, as dominating statutory provisions or customary regulations, had not received such confirmatory arguments as the events of the last fifty years have afforded. Nor had the suffused eye of benevolence perceived, nor does it yet seem to see, that the best assistance it can give to the weak is to afford a fair opportunity for the free exercise of their own unaided efforts. Slavery has been abolished without being followed by the evils prognosticated by Mr. Bozman, and colonization has failed, though suggested by the purest morality, advocated by the best intelligence, and sustained the most liberal beneficence. If anything can excuse him for his retrogradation from the position assumed by the first men of the nation in the latter part of the past century and the first part of the present, it would be that he wrote when the public mind was inflamed by the great contest, which termin- ated with the adoption of the Missouri Compromise, and he could not but feel the heats that were engendered in that fiery debate. Yet, after all, it must be said the eye of a philosopher, such as his, should not have been dazzled by the glare of great reputations, nor affected by the glam- our of a psuedo-philanthropy.
The literary reputation, however, of Mr. Bozman must depend not upon his fugitive contributions to the press nor upon such libelli, as have just been noticed, but upon his History of Maryland-a work which will prove a monument to his memory, and is a most precious legacy to his fellow citizens. It remains incomplete, but it must be regarded as a torso-a finished fragment-of a greater work which he had projected. As early as 1805 a purpose had been framed in his mind to attempt the giving form and order to the chaos of our State records. After proceeding so far in the execution of this purpose as the writing of an Introduction to the History of Maryland and a single chapter embracing the events of three years only from its settlement in 1634, he learned that Mr. Kilty, the compiler of the Land Holder's Assistant, was en- gaged in a similar work, and knowing Mr. Kilty's superior facilities, as clerk of the Land Office, for its execution, he abandoned his scheme, and contented himself with the publication in 1811, of this Introduction, and a short sketch of the early settlement of the province. Mr. Kilty dying, while this Introduction was passing through the press, Mr. Bozman resumed his interrupted labors. He soon found however that
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in order that he should perform his self allotted task satisfactorily, it would be necessary for him to visit England, and to examine the records in the Colonial and State paper offices. This journey was accordingly undertaken, and he industriously applied himself to ferreting out the long hidden records relating to Lord Baltimore's province. The fruits of these researches he brought home with him, and with the results of similar researches among the archives of the State, at Annapolis, he incorporated them into a history of inestimable value to every citizen of Maryland. It was the intention of Mr. Bozman to write the history of the Province from its earliest settlement until 1776, when it became an independent State, and one of the Confederation, but declining health prevented the full accomplishment of this purpose, and he was compelled to limit his task, by continuing his account no later than 1660, the date of the restoration of the royal authority in England and the Colonies; so that we have from him the history of Maryland from its settlement, for only twenty-six to thirty years. After the death of the historian in 1823, his manuscript was found in such a state of perfectness that his executor, and nephew, Hon. John Leeds Kerr was enabled to offer it without revision or emendation to the Gen- eral Assembly of the State, for publication, which generous act was performed by him in 1834, coupled with the conditions that the work should be printed in a style worthy of its merit, creditable to the State, and with due regard to correctness. It was accepted upon these terms, and the Governor and council were authorized and empowered to contract for its printing. It was published in 1837, with such cor- rections and additions as Mr. Bozman had made to the original Intro- duction since its first publication in 1811. There is no purpose here to enter into any criticism of this the most important contribution to the history of the province. Its value is recognized by every student, on account of the extent of its researches, the accuracy of its statements, and the acuteness of its philosophical reflections. It is appealed to as authority, unimpeached, upon all matters relating to the settlement of the province, during the time of which it gives an account, and it is a mine from which annalists draw their most valued materials. The style is lucid, full of dignity, and without inflation or undue ornamen- tation. Whatever may be the labors of subsequent historians in the same fields, it must be confessed that Bozman has not simply gathered the sheaf, but gleaned the scattered straws of the provincial annals so closely as to leave but little to be collected of the early years of our State.
Though Mr. Bozman may be said to have been wedded to History,
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it is to be confessed that he occasionally dall'ed with Poetry. He was fond in his moments of relaxation of exercising the gentle art of versify- ing, and there are still extant some of his effusions that evince more than a skill in making verse-a sensibility of feeling, if not the possession of the divine afflatus. But these poetical efforts, were only an amusement, never a part of his serious work. As associated with these inclinations or propensities to rhythmical expression of thought, it may be mentioned that he was possessed of musical tastes, which he cultivated in hours of relaxation when he would recreate himself from his labors with per- formances upon the violin and possibly other instruments. His well- worn note books are yet extant.
He was an earnest promoter of education. The Easton Academy which dates from about the year 1796, was an object of his interest and solicitude. One of the most pungent of his articles, contributed to the Eastern Shore Herald, was written in deprecation of the employment by the trustees of that institution of an ignorant pretender to learning and to skill in the pedagogical art, as the principal teacher, to the dis- regard of the merits of so ripe a scholar and so capable a preceptor as the Rev. Doctor Bowie.
Reared up in the faith and practices of the Church of England, Mr. Bozman became a nominal adherent of its successor, the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. It does not appear that he was a man of strong religious convictions or warm religious sentiment. Indeed there are traditions that he had imbibed some of the views of the French deists of the past century. But it is so usual to attribute an impious and defiant scepticism to those who cannot accept the prevalent belief-so common to charge even with atheism those who only reject the supersti- tions of the day, that it is not wonderful Mr. Bozman was accused of the one and the other; for his was of that order of mind that takes its complex- ion not from its immediate environments, but from the light of an always dawning philosophy. Being taught in early life to regard the Church as a part of the organization of the State, he seems never to have dis- sociated religion and politics in his own mind. And yet he was not without a share of that kind of illiberality which is most commonly felt by persons possessing a warm attachment for, and an earnest belief in some religious faith. His antipathies to the Puritans, both in England and America, he takes no pains to conceal, and in his history the conduct of those of them who made Virginia and Maryland their home, and who acted in those provinces so conspicuous a part during the very period of which he writes, received his severe condemnation. His
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injustice to Claiborne, who held a Puritan commission, may possibly be traced as much to his prejudices against this people, as to his convic- tion of the baseless foundation of his claims to priority of settlement. It is likely, therefore, his prejudices against the Puritans were of political rather than religious origin. Towards the Roman Catholics he manifest- ed the utmost liberality, and accords to them freely the credit of estab- lishing religious toleration in the infant province,-a credit to which the more recent researches and investigations of others seem to show they are not justly or at least not wholly entitled.
In politics he was a Federalist of the school of Washington, Hamilton, and Adams. He ably supported with his pen the administrations of the first two Presidents, while the democracy of Jefferson was the object of his alternate vituperation and ridicule. A Government by an aristocracy, that is, by the best, is the dream of the philosophic statesman in every age-a dream he never ceases to believe will at some time be realized. He was essentially an aristocrat in his opinions and feelings, and witnessed with no composure the spread of sentiments which he deemed to be those of agrarianism, and the elevation to power of people whom he thought only fit to be governed by their superiors in character and intelligence; and yet no one could despise more heartily that bastard aristocracy, of which he saw so much in his native country, which
Folded in The ragged purple of its Ancestors,
aped a dignity and a merit to which it could lay no just claim. He is said to have written an essay entitled a "History and Philosophical Sketch of the Prime Causes of the Revolutionary War," in which Wash- ington was lauded and Franklin anything else than praised. This essay was suppressed,-for what reason is not apparent, probably because of the severity of his animadversions upon the essential democ- racy of the Quaker, and his too warm commendations of the essential aristocracy of the Virginia planter. Those who have seen this produc- tion say that Bozman even denied to Franklin the credit which has been accorded to him for his scientific discoveries. It is not believed that Mr. Bozman ever aspired to any political place.
Of the personal habits of Mr. Bozman it may be said in general they were those of the student rather than those of a man of society or of affairs. He was 'reserved in his manners, except when in intercourse with intimate friends, when he loved to unbend from his dignity and relax from his silence. He had an air of hauteur which is common with
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those whose communion is with the best minds of all ages through their books, and who, as a consequence, cannot tolerate the ignorance, the frivolity and vulgarity of ordinary men. If he had felt a desire for society he would have been debarred from it by the seclusion and re- moteness of his home as "Belleville." Never having married he was deprived of the pleasing companionship of wife and children, to none more necessary than to the man of letters. In his library and with his pen he found the best compensation, if anything can compensate, for freedom of intercourse with his fellow men and for the endearments of wedded life. He is represented by those who remember him as melan- choly in his disposition, but not morose; very sensitive, but not mis- anthropical. His treatment of his dependents was kind and indulgent. Indeed such was his leniency towards his slaves that at one time he was suspected, by those of his neighbors who were unable or unwilling to imitate his mildness and kindness, of favoring the views of the emancipationists, and this suspicion was not effaced until after the pub- lication of his essay upon the colonization scheme. In personal appear- ance he was large and well proportioned, with light hair and prominent eyes, which last was the expressive and characteristic feature of his face.
For some years previous to his death his health was but poor, which interrupted his literary labors. He died on Sunday evening the 20th April, 1823, and was buried at "Belleville," where his remains still lie in an undistinguished grave, unmarked by epitaph or monumental stone; and yet he is more secure of lasting memory than if over his dust there arose a stately obelisk, or than if in some grand cathedral there were erected a sculptured cenotaph that should couple his name with praise.
HON. JOHN LEEDS KERR
1780-1844
Si quareretur, quisnam juriscultus vere nominaretur, eum dicersm, qui legum et consuetudinis ejus, qua privati in civitate uterentur, et ad respondendum, et ad agendum et ad cavendum peritus est.
Jan'y 27, 1880. -CICERO, De Oratore.
The family to which the subject of this memoir belongs traces its origin to a Scottish ancestry. Mr. David Kerr, the founder of this family in America, and the father of Mr. John Leeds Kerr, emigrated from Gallaway, Scotland, at a very early age and settled in the year 1768 as a merchant at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Here he remained
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until 1773 when he removed to Anne Arundel county, Maryland, and established himself as a tobacco planter at Greenbury's Point, on the Chesapeake bay, at the mouth of Annapolis roads. He continued to reside upon this estate until a few years after the Revolutionary war, and then removed to Talbot county, upon the Eastern Shore, where he had married his second wife. In 1789 he embarked in a successful mercantile business in the town of Easton, having for his copartners Messrs. Robert Lloyd Nicols and Thomas Chamberlaine. His Scottish thrift and diligence were attended by the usual reward of competence and wealth, so that he was enabled not only to live in great comfort, but to settle his children respectably in life, after having given them the advantages of a liberal education and refined associations. Soon after coming to Talbot he enlisted actively in politics. His intelligence and integrity of life won for him the esteem and confidence of his fellow citi- zens, so that he was elected a delegate to the General Assembly of Maryland for seven successive years, namely, from 1788 to 1794, and again in 1797. After the parties had assumed form, he became identified with the Federalists. In 1789 he was commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace for Talbot county, and after the change in the judiciary, by the law of 1790, he was appointed by the Governor, in 1801, one of the associate or puisne judges for the county, an office which by reason of a political change in the State administration he held for one year only. In 1802 he was appointed a Judge of the Orphan's Court, a place which he held for an equally short term. He was a member of the Church of England, and after its organization of the Protestant Epis- copal Church. He was for years a vestryman of St. Peter's Parish, and a lay delegate to the Convention. Mr. David Kerr was twice married; first, to a Mrs. Hamutel Bishop, née Hammond, daughter of Charles Hammond, Esq., for some years Treasurer of the Western Shore, of Annapolis, who died early, leaving no children; and secondly, to Miss Rachel Leeds Bozman, of Talbot county, the mother of his children. This lady was the daughter of John Bozman, Esq., of Belleville, Oxford Neck, and sister of John Leeds Bozman, Esq., the historian of the earlier years of the Province of Maryland. She was also the grand- daughter of John Leeds, Esq., of Wade's Point, Bay Side, the "astrono- mer and mathematician.' He was one of the Commissioners of the Lord Proprietary to supervise the work of the survey of Mason and Dixon upon the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Gov. Sharpe, under whose administration the line of Mason and Dixon was run, said of him:
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There is no person in all the colonies who could be found Mr. Leed's superior in the higher branches of the mathematics.
He occupied many civil positions under the provincial government, and was the clerk of Talbot county court from 1738 until the outbreak of the Revolution, an office he was constrained to resign on account of his adherence to the crown, being a loyalist. He was born in this county in 1705 and here he died in 1790. By his second wife several children were born to Mr. David Kerr, of whom John Leeds, the subject of this memoir, was the eldest son, and David the younger. The last named appears from tributes that were paid to his memory, to have possessed many amiable traits of character, and to have given promise of distinction and usefulness; but he died early in life only a few months before his father who passed away November 2nd, 1814, at a very ad- vanced age, universally esteemed for his eminent good sense and sterling integrity.1
John Leeds, the eldest son of David Kerr and Rachel Leeds Bozman, was born at Greenbury's Point, Anne Arundel county, Maryland, January 15th, 1780. A party of gentlemen walked across the Chesa- peake bay on the ice from Annapolis to Wade's Point plantation on ' Eastern bay in Talbot County to inform the Hon. John Leeds of the birth of his great grandson and namesake. His earliest years were, therefore, spent in that county, but the remainder of his life belonged to Talbot. Of his primary education, until he was ten years of age nothing is known, but in 1790 he was placed under the care of the Rev. John Bowie, who at that date had become rector of Saint Michaels Parish, and had established a school of a high order at Oak Hill, near Easton, but which was subsequently removed to Fausby Wood,2 not remote from the same town. There is yet in existence a letter from the Rev. Dr. Bowie to the father of young Leeds Kerr, in which he speaks of him as "the most promising of his pupils." The school of Dr. Bowie fell under the care of Mr. Chandler, of the University of Cambridge, England, and then under that of the Rev. Owen Fitzgerald McGrath,
1 A portrait of Mr. David Kerr, Sr., is in the possession of Ex. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas, who married his grand-daughter.
2 Dr. Bowie was rector of St. Peter's parish, in 1780, and then he had a school near Easton. He removed from the county in 1785, but returned in 1790 as Rector of St. Michaels Parish, succeeding the Rev. John Gordon, deceased. He re-estab- lished his school. The authority for the statement that the school was at Oak Hill and then at Fausby Wood, is the MS. history of the Parishes by Dr. Ethan Allen, recently dead.
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of the Dublin University. Young Kerr was removed from the tuition of these capable teachers to matriculate at St. John's College, Annapolis, or perhaps he followed Mr. McGrath to that institution, in which this gentleman was made professor of ancient languages in 1795. This school was then enjoying a high repute in the State, and had for its pupils those who became distinguished in the various departments of civil life. Mr. Kerr was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1797. It does not appear that the higher degree of Master was ever sought.
Returning to his home in Talbot he entered upon the study of that profession for which his education had prepared him, to which his father had destined him, and in which his native talents and his acquirements subsequently distinguished him. His course of law was directed by his uncle, Mr. John Leeds Bozman, under whose immediate care he was placed, and by whom he was virtually adopted. While pursuing his professional studies, he was appointed in 1800, by Mr. James Price, Deputy Register of Wills, and thus he acquired a practical acquaintance, under a most competent master, of testamentary law. In the year 1801 he was admitted to the bar of Talbot county, of which he became an ornament, and to which it may be said without exaggeration, he gave distinction. Possessing the patronage of his eminent relative, enjoying the favor of a large, wealthy and influential circle of friends and con- nections and, finally, aided by the reputation for abilities and acquire- ments, which as usual had far outstripped the evidence of their pos- session but which was ultimately overtaken and surpassed by his actual accomplishments, he speedily acquired legal business, and during the remainder of his life the leadership at the bar of this county was freely, as it was justly, accorded to him. The limited sphere within which he was called to act, prevented his devoting himself to any particular department of the law. He was a general practitioner. He was a safe counsellor, and an earnest advocate. Extensive learning and a sound judgment made him the one; and an impulsive and sympathetic nature made him the other. In the year 1806 he was appointed Deputy State's Attorney for Talbot county by the Hon. John Johnson, Attorney General for the State. In this place he succeeded his kinsman John Leeds Bozman, Esq. In this capacity he served during 1809-10, and was succeeded in 1811 by John Seney, Esq., son of the Hon. Joshua Seney, John Montgomery, Esq., being then Attorney General. Again in 1831 he was appointed to the same place, Josiah Bailey, Esq., being Attorney General. This office he resigned upon taking his seat in Congress,
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to which he was this year elected. It is very safe to say, in the absence of any testimony, that the discharge of the functions of this position was marked by the same traits that distinguished his performance of every official duty, fidelity and ability.
In the year 1813 a military episode interrupted the current of his life. He was called upon to exhibit his patriotism and courage by march- ing at the head of his company of uniformed volunteer militia to St. Michaels, in his own county, to repel an attack of the British upon that town. Capt. Kerr, although a Federalist, and therefore opposed to those measures of the general government that had resulted in war with Great Britain, and although he held at the date the rank of Inspector of the troops, which would have exempted him from active military duty, promptly offered himself and his command to General Perry Benson for immediate service. The result of the affair at St. Michaels need not here be related. It is customary to ridicule it for no other rea- son, apparently, than that it was bloodless upon the part of the Mary- land troops and harmless to the town and people; but before its occur- rence and during its progress it was viewed with solicitude both by the defenders and the defended. The feelings of Capt. Kerr, any other than those of timidity, but equally far from bravado, were expressed in a letter still in existence addressed to his uncle, Mr. John Leeds Bozman, on the eve of his marching to St. Michaels, commending to his care his wife, whom he had but recently married, and her infant child in case of calamity to himself. This conduct of Mr. Kerr, and other Federalists under like circumstances, of promptly marching to the point of danger to meet the enemy, effectually silenced those calumniators who accused men who condemned the war of lacking a proper love of country.
Unlike most young lawyers in the rural districts, Mr. Kerr, in the earlier years of his professional career, gave small attention to politics farther than to study the principles of government and to observe the conduct of parties. He imbibed from his father and his uncle the political opinions of the Federalists, and with them or their lineal successors he continued to act through his life. In the year 1816 Mr. Kerr was for the first time a candidate for political position. He was put forward by his party for a seat in the college of electors whose duty it was to select the State Senators. Talbot being entitled to two electors, Mr. Kerr had Mr. Allen Bowie as his associated candidate: with Mr. Solomon Dickinson and Mr. John Bennett as their opponents upon the Democratic ticket. Mr. Kerr and Mr. Bowie were successful in the
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canvass. It may be well enough to say that among the Senators chosen for the Eastern Shore at this time was Mr. Henry Hollyday, of Ratcliffe, in this county, father of the Hon. Richard C. Hollyday, the present Secretary of State. Mr. Kerr was subsequently reproached during one of his political campaigns, when Federalism had become even more unpopular than then, for having voted for so "high toned" a Federalist as Mr. Hollyday-a reproach which he cared little to remove.
During the late war with Great Britain the State of Maryland had expended very considerable sums of money, which she claimed should be reimbursed by the United States. Difficulties had arisen in the adjustment and settlement of these claims. In the year 1817 it was re- solved by the General Assembly that an agent be appointed "to liquidate and settle with the General Government the necessary expenditures incurred by this State in providing for the common defense during the late war." Mr. Kerr was appointed by the Governor to this respon- sible trust. After negotiations protracted through several years with Mr. John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, he succeeded in adjusting these claims, collecting and promptly paying over to the Treasurer of Maryland large sums of money. In the year 1821 he made his report to the House of Delegates, and asked compensation for his labor in effecting the set- tlement. The committee to whom his memorial was referred in its report thus speaks of the character and value of his services:
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