USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 53
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government could regard as treasonable; but, on the other hand, he never uttered a word or performed an act during the war that could be inter- preted as significant of a wish that the unity and integrity of the country should be maintained, except with a perpetuation of the cause that was then threatening its division. It is proper to say that during the con- tinuance of hostilities he was rendered virtually impotent by the mili- tary power which allowed no political activity in Maryland in antago- nism to the existing government, and any other kind he was unwilling to exercise. It is hardly necessary to say that he opposed those measures of the loyal men of the State to destroy in Maryland the prime cause of the existing troubles by an extirpation of slavery through a constitutional change, and those other measures of the loyal men of the North that were directed towards a reconstruction of the Union upon the broadest bases of universal liberty and equality of rights.
After an interval of more than twenty years Col. Hambleton was again nominated for a public position. Such political honors as he had hither- to received were from the party into which he was born, and they were of that minor order whose distinction is limited by the boundaries of the State. He now secured elevation from the party of his adoption into a place that gave him opportunity at least for national reputation. In the year 1868 he was elected to Congress from the First District of Maryland by a very large majority, having Mr. Henry R. Torbert as his competitor. With no purpose of detracting from his just merits, it may be said that his success was not wholly or principally owing to his superior fitness for the place, for any other reputable member of his party would have been elected if nominated in a district so largely Democratic; but having been elected it was universally acknowledged that the Eastern Shore was again as creditably represented in Congress as in former years, when closer competition secured a higher standard of competency. Col. Hambleton was again nominated and elected to Congress in the year 1870, but not by so heavy a majority as before, for the election of this year being the first at which colored people had been allowed to vote for more than sixty years, the whole body of the newly enfranchised race cast their first ballots against the candidate of a party that had opposed the bestowal of this right upon them. The period of his service in Congress was that which was embraced within the first term of General Grant in the Presidency. All the States had not re- sumed the places they had forfeited by their attempted secession. The prominent measures before Congress and the country were those that related to the reconstruction of the Union upon a basis of loyalty to the
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government and the concession by the States lately in rebellion of equality of rights, political and civil, to the lately enslaved race. Of the measures that had been adopted by Congress and which it now sought to enforce; or of those other measures which were debated during Mr. Hambleton's terms of service and passed, this is not the place to discuss the wisdom. Suffice it for present purposes to say that he as one of the Democratic minority opposed all those measures by which the Republican majority sought to secure to the colored people the peaceful exercise of those rights of citizenship which had already been bestowed and those other personal rights to which it was thought they were en- titled. His Congressional career was not marked by anything that distinguished him from that large body of respectable and useful, though little conspicuous members of the national legislature, who occupy their seats regularly and constantly; who listen to the debates attentively and intelligently; who follow the proceedings closely and vigilantly, and who vote at last mechanically and obediently. He showed himself in his new position what he had always been-a strict and trusty partisan; neither rebellious nor perverse, but following faithfully the leaders upon all important questions. It is believed that he took no part in the debates; for that he is perhaps to be commended: that he had small part in framing public policy; for this he is not much to be blamed, for he was of the minority. But he was of unquestionable integrity; he was watchful of the interests of his constituents, and though having no "patronage" to dispense under a Republican administration he was obliging in the discharge of such personal services as lay within his power to perform to those who made a demand upon him.3 One thing especially should be mentioned to his credit-that in his elevation to his honorable position he never forgot nor failed to show, if there were occasion, that he was a thorough Eastern Shoreman. Strongly developed in him was that minor or local patriotism which is but an expanded love of home and friends, not at all compatible with, but rather adminicular of the grandeur and broader sentiment that includes one's whole country.
After the completion of his second term in Congress, in March 1872, Col. Hambleton held no public office under either the State or the federal government, and he gradually withdrew from active participation in
3 His course in receiving the extra salary which the House of Representatives bestowed upon its own members was severely criticised at the time; but by what- soever names this act was stigmatized, and surely they were harsh and severe enough to satisfy those who are most ready to believe in the depravity of public servants, it was tainted with no secret dishonesty.
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politics, or was thrust aside by younger men, more adroit in the use of the modern methods of party management. But he never lost his interest in politics, and continued to be one of the recognized councillors of the Democrats of this county, though his leadership was lost. He renewed the practice of his profession which had been interrupted by his absence at the federal capital, and he busied himself with the increase and superintendence of a considerable estate. Belonging to a family of farmers, through an inherited proclivity, the pursuits of agriculture always possessed attractions for him, and yet he never engaged in the serious work of the husbandman. Though owning and managing con- siderable landed estates, he nevertheless cultivated but a few lots of ground near the town, more for amusement than the profit; and never having endured the toil nor suffered the annoyances of rural life, he loved to indulge himself, amidst the comforts of his own office and home, in idylic fancies that beguiled him into the belief that he was more than half a countryman; and seeking the society of those whose talk was of crops and cattle, of phosphates and farm implements he deluded himself with the thought that he, too, was an Arcadian. He was for very many years a member of the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Agricultural Society for the Eastern Shore, and if to its monthly meet- ings, which he seldom missed, he could bring no fresh information of fields made richer, of horses made faster, of beeves made heavier and of fleeces made thicker, he contributed to their festive enjoyment by a hearty appreciation of the farmer's products.
He took an active and responsible part in almost all the economic enterprises within the country requiring cooperation. He was for many years one of the directors of the Farmer's Bank of Maryland for the Eastern Shore, afterwards the Easton National Bank; and surrendered his place at the board only when he felt his dissolution was near. He was one of the directors of the Maryland and Delaware, now the Chesapeake and Delaware Railroad sustaining the president of that useful work, Genl. Tench Tilghman, in his contests with those who sought his dis- placement. Other and many enterprises of less moment received his assistance, pecuniary and advisory.
Col. Hambleton's ecclesiastical connections were with the Protestant Episcopal church. For many years he was a member of the vestry of the parish in which he resided and as such he was most careful of its temporalities and watchful that its material interests should not be in- fringed or impaired. It is not known that he ever subscribed to any confession of faith or that he gave any more than a customary or con-
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ventional assent to the doctrines of any Christian communion. But he attended the services of his church with a punctilious regularity that might have been taken as an evidence of a sense of religious obligation or pious satisfaction; but this was probably only an evidence of obedi- ence to social requirements. His abstention from conformity to those observances that are regarded as at once a test and a type of communion with the believers may have been owing to that infusion of Quaker blood which he received from the Needles, or to that natural reserve felt by some, which shrinks from an exhibition of those most intimate and sacred relations that are supposed to subsist between a devout soul and its creator. It is known that in his last illness he repulsed, with sternness, all sacredotal intermediation as meddlesome.
Coming into public life at a time when popular education in this State and county, by means of free schools, was receiving more and more attentions, he from the first and always professed to be the friend of such schools; and though he may have differed from others as to the methods of promoting them he never opposed the principle of State education. He was for many years one of the trustees of the Easton Academy, and for much of that time president of the board. To him as much as to anyone else or more than to anyone, it is owing that this school was maintained in tolerable efficiency and kept alive in our midst a love of good letters. He was of this board when the academy was merged into the Easton High School, and then he became one of the visitors of that institution, which is still in effective operation.
Col. Hambleton, physically, was a large well developed man-tall muscular, full fleshed, but with no tendency to obesity, even in old age.4 His carriage was slow and deliberate, with his head slightly bowed, as if in deliberation. His air was not one of presumption, or self as- sertion, but that of modest diffidence, as though not assured of his own merits and others' esteem. His features were massive, but not un- refined-strong rather than handsome. His complexion was ruddy and healthy and indicative of full and rich blood. His hair, brown and sandy in youth, whitened with age. His eyes were of a light grey color, and were shaded by heavy eyebrows, under which they rolled when he
4 The features, bodily and mental, of all the Hambletons described in these contributions were so similar that repetition is unavoidable. Their appearance was derived from the Sherwoods and possibly some of their habits. The grey eyes, heavy brows, light hair, ruddy complexion, are easily traceable to that fam- ily; the diffident and retiring manners may have had the same origin. The Hambletons and Sherwoods intermarried in several generations.
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was speaking, with an expression of mental introversion. In his dress he was simple and neat, with an inclination to retain old styles, when fashion changed. Not without certain companionable qualities, his exceeding gravity of manners and his reserve rather quenched sociable- ness, as it forbade familiarity. He enjoyed the society of a few, when he could be disembarrassed, but he admitted to his intimacy more, even in his hours of least restraint. His prejudices were exceedingly strong, owing perhaps to this low development in him of the social instincts, for the harsh and unfavorable opinions we are prone to form and entertain of men are founded upon that imperfect knowledge of them which a better acquaintance with them most generally corrects. If he was not given to hospitality the casual guest was always sure of that which is the best substitute for cordiality, perfect courtesy. He will be remembered for his sturdy rather than his amiable qualities.
Mr. Hambleton married Elizabeth, his cousin, daughter of Mr. James Parrott, long the clerk of Talbot county court, and of Susan, daughter of William Hambleton of Martingham, on the 19th of January, 1837. This lady, who has outlived him, bore to him a numerous family of children, but of them only two survive, Mr. James Parrott and Miss Elizabeth Hambleton. The loss of so many of their children cast a cloud over an otherwise happy domestic life; but the death of a son, Alexander, who promised to realize all a parent's hopes and the predic- tions of many others not so partial as his, soon after reaching his majority, inflicted a wound which had hardly ceased to bleed when it was reopened by the removal, under most painful circumstances, of Frederick a youth of singularly amiable qualities and superior capabilities. But not- withstanding these deductions from the sum of his happiness, what with his vigorous health, his sufficient fortune, his honoring friends and his lengthened years to enjoy them all, he had slight reason to complain that his portion of life's feast was either scant or poor.
In conclusion it is proper to say this view of the career and character of Mr. Hambleton has been taken through no medium that exaggerates either his faults or his excellencies. If frankness has sometimes assumed the role of censor, it has more frequently filled that of encomiast, for it has found more to praise than blame. For what he was in reality, without detraction or panegyric, he may be justly ranked among the worthies of Talbot, whom we shall do well to memorize.
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CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLAIBORNE OF KENT ISLAND
CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLAIBORNE OF KENT ISLAND
It would be almost impossible to compile a biography of this worthy which should be altogether satisfactory. I have collected, however, some information of the man who made the first European settlement within the bounds of what is now Maryland-of the first white man of whom we have any knowledge who set his foot in this our own county of Talbot. From it you will find that you are fully justified in your declaration that William Claiborne has been hardly dealt with, not only by the early provincial authorities, but by the annalists and his- torians of Virginia and Maryland. Those authorities deprived him of his rights and property; these annalists and historians have attempted to deprive him of his good name. Mr. McMahon, who seems to have been at a loss what estimate to put upon him, and to have wavered between those opinions he himself had formed from his researches, and those which he derived from his predecessors, says:
Of the character and temper of this man, it is difficult for us at this day to form any just conceptions. The accounts which we have of him, have been transmitted to us by writers, who seem to have no end in view but to lavish upon him the most opprobrious epithets. The name of Machiavel has never been more shocking to moralists and politicians of affected purity, than was that of William Claiborne to the first colonists of Maryland. Even historians call him the evil genius of the colony, and he unquestionably was if his unceasing efforts by courage and address to maintain the territory which his enterprise had discovered and planted, entitle him to the name.
Bacon, who may be called one of the historians of the colony, on account of his compilation of its laws, has perpetuated unworthy im- putations. Mr. Bozman, ordinarily so judicial in his opinions, justifies the conduct of Lord Baltimore and his governors. Mr. McSherry, of course, servilely follows Mr. Bozman. But Claiborne has not been without his defenders. Mr. Kilty in his "Landholder's Assistant," says of him:
I consider him as a man trifled with by the crown, for the traffic under his license being that of furs, &c., with the natives, could not well be carried on without settlements. Being turned over and subjected to Lord Baltimore, without compensation for his disappointment; he had all the excuse that can arise from high provocation for his subse- quent procedures.
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His defense has been taken up more seriously by recent writers, of whom I may mention the Rev. Dr. Ethan Allen and the late Sebastian F. Streeter. These authors have attempted, and I believe success- fully, to relieve the memory of Claiborne of the aspersions cast upon it. Our respected friend, the Hon. John Bozman Kerr, from independent research, very early called in question the historical verdict, although in doing so he placed himself in antagonism to the opinions of his great uncle, Mr. John Leeds Bozman. By way of emphasizing his dissent from the received notions concerning this worthy, he gave to one of his children the name of Claiborne. The people of Bayside have named a new town for him. They have done well. It must be men- tioned, to our shame, that no district of country, no island, point of land, stream or expanse of water, nor until now, no village nor town within all our bounds bears the name of this, the first settler of Mary- land; of the man who earliest planted the seed of civilization in our savage soil, or awoke the sounds of industry in our stagnant air. And it would appear that those who came after him, as well as those who lived in his own time, were vindictively determined his name should utterly perish from the minds of men, for they ceased to call that Island in the mouth of Choptank, which he is thought to have settled, and which certainly received its earliest designation from him, Claiborne Island. I am glad Talbot is disposed to do some justice, though tardy, to this the first of a long line of distinguished citizens.
The first settlement of Virginia was made as is well known in 1607. In the following year Capt. John Smith, set out from Jamestown upon a voyage of exploration, and for the discovery of a passage to the South sea, by way of the Chesapeake bay. First sailing up the Eastern, he crossed over to the Western Shore, and examined the coast as high as Smith's falls, in the Susquehannah, and then descended along the Eastern Shore to the mouth of Chester river. He again made for the Western Shore, catching glimpses of Kent Island and the Bayside of Talbot. These explorations were made under the original charter to the London company. In the year 1609 another charter was granted and in 1611 still another. By these last the limits of the colony were defined to be,
from the point of land called Cape or Point Comfort all along the sea- coast northward two hundred miles; and from said Point or Cape Comfort, all the seacoast southward two hundred miles. And all that space or circuit of land, lying from the sea coast of the precinct aforesaid, up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and north west.
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CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLAIBORNE OF KENT ISLAND
It will be perceived that within these boundaries the territory of what is now Maryland was embraced. In 1623, under the decision of a court, the colony was made to surrender its charters, and the rights derived from them were reinvested in the crown, but no private right was in any particular impaired, when Virginia became a royal govern- ment. The important matter to be noticed in this connection is, the King was empowered to change the boundaries of the colony at his sovereign pleasure.
Before this alteration of the government had been made, and before any change of the limits of the colony had been decreed, William Clai- borne came out from England and settled at Jamestown. The date of his emigration is stated to have been 1621, and his profession that of a land surveyor-or to use his own words, he came out "to survey the planters' lands, and to make a map of the country." It is not improbable that he was in the employ of the Virginia or London com- pany, which was then inviting immigration by all those means which are now so familiar. When, however, the old charter was annulled, the King, on 20th August, 1624, appointed twelve persons as a Colonial Council, and of these William Claiborne was one. When in the fol- lowing year King Charles I came to the throne, though there were changes in the council Claiborne was retained and in the commission that was issued it was said:
Forasmuch as the affairs of state in said colony and plantation, may necessarily require some person of quality and trust to be employed as Secretary, for the writing and answering such letters, as shall be from time to time directed to or sent from the said Governor (Yeardley) and Council of the colony aforesaid, our will and pleasure is and we do by these presents, nominate and assign you, the said William Clai- borne, to be our Secretary of State, of and for the colony and plantation of Virginia.
From these items of information we learn that Claiborne was a gen- tleman by birth and a man of education. He is spoken of as a man of quality, that is as belonging to the gentry of the old country, and his posts of surveyor and secretary of state indicate that his mathematical knowledge was not insignificant, and his literary or clerical qualifications of no mean order. He was again commissioned as one of the council, and as Secretary of State in 1627, when Sir John Harvey became gov- ernor, after Yeardley's death. In this same year, and the two years next succeeding, in pursuance of particular instructions from the King, the Governor of Virginia gave authority to Claiborne, who is again
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mentioned as being the Secretary of State, to discover the source of the Chesapeake bay, or any part of "that government" from the 34th to the 41st degree of north latitude. The purpose of the King appears to have been to extend a knowledge of the geography of the country. In accepting the duty of exploration Claiborne seems to have been ac- tuated by the additional motive of improving his private fortune by trading with the Indians; and for this he procured the requisite license from the government. This license was given under the Scotch signet of the King, and was subsequently called in question as convey- ing no privileges in an English colony. He also obtained a commission or license for the same purpose from the Governor, Sir John Harvey. The validity of this license was also questioned on the ground that it was a license to trade with the Dutch plantations only. These cir- cumstances are mentioned as bearing upon the controversy which subsequently arose between the Virginia authorities and Claiborne on the one hand and the Maryland authorities and Lord Baltimore on the other. Under the command of the King, therefore, and with the authority of the Governor of Virginia, Claiborne set out upon his voy- age of discovery and his expedition for trading. The precise year is nowhere mentioned, but it is tolerably well established that it must have been in 1628 or 1629 when he set sail from Jamestown; and after a voyage of which no account is given, he established himself upon an island upon the eastern side of the Chesapeake bay which he purchased from the Indian inhabitants, and to which he gave the name of Kent in honor, it is suggested by one annalist, of the Governor of Virginia, who was a native of the county of that name in England. This island he claims to have discovered, for Smith in his voyages did not touch upon it, nor has he indicated upon his maps that he was aware that a portion of that land which he designates as Brooke's Forest, compris- ing what is now Queen Anne's and Talbot, was insular in its geographi- cal character. As well here as elsewhere, it may be mentioned that Claiborne, besides the post on Kent Island, established another upon an island at the mouth of the Susquehannah, then called Palmer's, but now Taylor's Island. There is no doubt that he took formal pos- session, if he did not settle the island in the mouth of Choptank, which for many years bore his name but has at various times been called Bateman's, Viner's and finally Sharpe's Island. Upon Poplar Island he unquestionably landed, and there he placed his friend and relative Richard Thompson and his family, to whom a sad calamity came in after years, all of them, himself alone excepted, having been murdered
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by the bloodthirsty Nanticokes, from the lower part of the peninsula. At one period in the history of Maryland, Kent Island made a part of Talbot county. It thus appears that William Claiborne was the first and original settler of this county, and it is every way way proper that here his memory should be held in honor, as well for his merits as a man, as for his character as explorer, discoverer and pioneer.
In another paper will be given an account of the long dispute between Lord Baltimore and his government, and Col. Claiborne, with reference to priority and right of settlement.
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