USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 54
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The precise location selected by Capt. Claiborne for his post and set- tlement upon the Isle of Kent, was the most southern extremity of the Island, upon what is now known as Kent Point. Just within the point, and upon the first navigable creek, being on the left hand in ascending the Eastern Bay, he proceeded at once to erect a stockade or fort as a protection from the Indians. Although he had secured the friendship of those immediately around him, the Matapeakes, by the purchase of their lands, and indeed their enmity was hardly to be dreaded for their power and spirit had been broken before the arrival of Capt. Claiborne, or even of Capt. Smith, by the terrible Susquehannocks, whose homes were to the north, around the head and upon the western shore of the bay; yet he had ground for apprehension from the savage and adven- turous Naticokes who lived upon the southern part of the peninsula, and Wicomes of the west, who made piratical excursions in their canoes and ravaged both sides of the Chesapeake. He made his arrangements not only for the protection but for the shelter and subsistence of the settlers, by erecting dwelling houses and a mill upon the point. This last was doubtless of that kind which was so common only a few years ago through all this region, before the introduction of steam mills, and which were driven by wind. There were no streams upon the island to furnish water for a watermill. The private means of Capt. Claiborne not being sufficient to defray the whole expense of this un- dertaking, and the successful prosecution of a trading adventure re- quiring the experience of a merchant, as well as the presence of an agent in London, a copartnership was formed between Capt. Clai- borne and two persons in England named William Cloberry and David Morehead, trading under the style of Cloberry & Company. It will be seen in the sequel how hardly he fared at the hands of these shrewd London merchants. With the pecuniary assistance derived from this copartnership in trade, Claiborne set himself diligently to work to build up his colony upon the island. He sent out settlers from Virginia,
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where he continued to hold official position, and with them live stock, farming implements, household conveniences and necessaries, indeed everything required by persons who meant to make a permanent home in the wilderness. Plantations were cleared and permanent homes were made, and under his auspices the colony prospered, acknowledging his proprietorship, but owning fealty to the Virginia government. Grants of land were issued under the Virginia charter, and in the year 1632 the colonists were represented in the Virginia house of burgesses by their own delegate, elected by the freemen of the island, Mr. Nich- olas Martin, a name familiar to the people of Talbot. One annalist says that as early as 1629, either the same year of the planting of the little colony upon the island or the year succeeding the population was as many as one hundred persons. In making this settlement Claiborne affected no high and disinterested motive, as some leaders of similar adventures had done. His sole object seems to have been to better his fortune by legitimate trade. He was not negligent of any means which in his opinion would promote this purpose. So while he was care- ful to provide everything requisite for the personal well being of the settlers, he was not unmindful that there are spiritual needs which must be satisfied, in order that men should be contented in the new and trying circumstances of a frontier life. He knew that those who had passed from under the control and had lost the comforts of settled society for a home in the wilderness, more than others required the restraints and consolations of religion. Very soon therefore, after his settlement had been made, we find that he had persuaded the Rev. Richard James, a minister of the Reformed church of England, to settle as pastor among his people upon Kent Island. This gentleman was a man of learning and of piety. The Rev. Dr. Allen says of him:
He had been librarian to Sir Robert Cotton, the famous antiqua- rian, and either before or after that, had been the minister at Avalon, Lord Baltimore's colony in Newfoundland, before his Lordship avowed himself a Romanist.
The precise date of the commencement of Mr. James' pastorate has not been definitely determined; but it is certain that as early as 1631 "allowances for ministers" upon the island were made, and it is not at all improbable that this clergyman was performing priestly functions in this year, at least two years before the landing of Father White at Clements. If this inference be accepted as historic fact, thenit was under Claiborne, and not under Calvert; at Kent Point, and not in St. Mary's; by a Pro-
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testant minister, and not by a Jesuit priest; that Christianity was first preached in Maryland. Those who annually go down to the bay side to worship in the woods, may look from their camp ground across the beautiful Eastern Bay and have their piety quickened, if aught is needed on such occasions to give to greater vitality, by the sight of the very spot upon which Richard James, perhaps the true apostle of Maryland, first preached the gospel within our boundary.
In the year 1729 Lord Baltimore, discouraged by the inhospitable skies and sterile soil of Newfoundland where he had been attempting the settlement of a colony, visited Jamestown, Virginia. His purposes were easily divined, and as a consequence he met any other than a cordial reception. He is said to have explored the Chesapeake and then returned to England, where he immediately made application to the King for a new charter for a colony, to be seated farther to the south than his colony at Avalon. The King and his council acceded to his wishes, and a patent was ordered to be issued. Before it could be properly engrossed and sealed Lord Baltimore died, and his son Cecil fell heir to his fortunes and his projects. The charter promised to the father was issued to the son. By this the King granted a district of territory extending from a line drawn from Watkins' Point to the ocean and northward, along Delaware bay and river, to the line of the fortieth degree of latitude, and from this line to the Potomac on the west and south. This grant involved the Lord Proprietary in several dis- putes as regards the boundaries of his province. One of these was first with the Dutch, then with the Duke of York's people, who had driven out the Dutch, and then with Wm. Penn, who had succeeded to the Duke of York's title. Another dispute was with the Virginia authori- ties as to the southern boundary, starting at Watkins Point, a dispute which has not been settled up to this day; and finally the dispute with Claiborne, supported by the Virginia authorities, the only one with which we have any concern in this connection. This was not with reference to boundaries, but with regard to priority of settlement, and the rights of jurisdiction founded thereon. From what has been pre- viously said, it will be perceived that Claiborne's plantations upon Kent Island fell within the limits of Lord Baltimore's colony, as pre- scribed by his charter; but the validity of this charter, as will presently be shown, was questioned. The colonists of Lord Baltimore, under the leadership of Leonard Calvert, arrived at St. Mary's in 1634. On their way up the Chesapeake they had stopped at Jamestown, Va., where Gov. Calvert signified to Claiborne that he (Claiborne) was now a
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member of the Maryland plantation, and that he should relinquish all re- lation and dependence on the Virginia colony. It should be remem- bered that at this moment Claiborne was Secretary of State and a mem- ber of the colonial council as he had been for ten years. The demand therefore was not one likely to be complied with, where interest and pride were to be sacrificed. Claiborne asked of the council "how he should demean himself in respect of Lord Baltimore's patent and his deputies in the Bay." The reply he received was that
they knew of no reason they should render up the rights of the place in the Isle of Kent more than any other given formerly to the colony by his majesty's patent,
and that
the right of my Lord's (Baltimore's) grant, being yet undetermined, we are bound by our oaths, to maintain the rights and privileges of this colony.
In fact the house of Burgesses of Virginia as soon as it had information of the granting of a charter to Lord Baltimore, had sent a petition to the king remonstrating against it. The rights of the two parties to the dis- pute were under consideration by the courts and not then adjudicated. Claiborne conceived that if the claim of the Calverts should be admitted he might be required to abandon his plantation, or repurchase the soil from Lord Baltimore, upon his own terms, and his colonists would be subjected to the annual payment, not of two capons, as stipulated in the Virginia grants, but of such quit-rents as might be exacted by the Maryland authorities.
The origin of this dispute which raged with varying degrees of in- tensity, and with varying results to the contestants for a number of years, has now been given. To follow it through all its course, and give in detail all the incidents that marked its progress until the final expulsion of Claiborne in 1658 would be to extend this article beyond all proper length. Petitions and counter petitions of the parties were presented to the King; judicial decisions and orders of council were issued settling and unsettling the case; proclamations by governors and bills of attainder by legislative assemblies were published; and not content with the war of words the contestants came to actual blows-battles were fought, blood was shed in the conflict, and upon the scaffold. In July of 1634 the committee of the King's counsel decided that no man who had settled within the limits assigned to
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Lord Baltimore's colony should be disturbed in his estates, and the gov- ernor and council of Virginia were "authorized to dispose of such por- tions of lands to all planters, being freemen, as you had power to do before the year of 1625." But Lord Baltimore notwithstanding in September of the same year, 1634, issued orders to his brother the Governor of Maryland, "that if Claiborne would not submit to his government, he should be seized and punished. This was equiva- lent to a declaration of war and soon brought on a collison of the immediate origin of which there are two accounts; one by Claiborne himself and the other by his opponents. The following is that pre- sented by Bozman in his History of Maryland.
Claiborne sought all means in his power to defeat the success and prosperity of the colony at St. Mary's. * * * He, however, was not content with his secret mode of annoying the enemy. He re- sorted to open military force in opposition to Lord Baltimore's govern- ment. Early in the year 1635, he granted his special warrant or com- mission under his hand to a certain Ratcliffe Warren, then commonly known as Lieutenant Warren, to seize and capture any of the pinnaces or other vessels belonging to the government or colonists of St. Mary's; and in pursuance thereof an armed pinnace or boat belonging to Clai- borne, was fitted out for that purpose, manned with about fourteen men, among whom was a certain Thomas Smith, "gentleman" who appears to have been second in command next to Warren on this ex- pedition. The government at St. Mary's, probably apprised of these measures of Claiborne, immediately equipped also two armed pinnaces or boats, which sailed under the command of Thos. Cornwallis, Esq. These two armaments met, it seems, sometime in April or May of this year 1635 in either Pomoke or Wigcomoco river,1 on the eastern shore of the province, where a battle commenced between them, by Clai- borne's men firing first on Cornwallis' boats. Cornwallis immediately returned the fire; and the result was, that Lieutenant Warren and two of his men were killed, and one of Cornwallis' men. Claiborne's boat and men it would seem were taken; and as Thomas Smith "gentleman" was probably the next in command, or principal person, after the death of Warren, he was afterwards tried for the offense by the as- sembly.
This account of Mr. Bozman is founded upon the provincial records, which of course would represent the side adverse to Claiborne; and also
1 From the fact that in the records two different places are mentioned as the scenes of naval engagements, some historians have thought there may have been two battles between the boats of Lord Baltimore and those of Claiborne. The indictment against Claiborne stated the fight took place in the Pocomoque, while that found against Thomas Smith stated that it occurred in the harbor of Great Wiggomoco.
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upon the relations of the early annalists who were defenders of the Maryland authorities. But Claiborne himself in his petition to the King, presented in 1637, when he was in England, gives a very differ- ent narration of this affair. After reciting that although by a royal letter the governors of Virginia and Maryland had been commanded to offer no violence to the petitioners, and not to disturb them in their plantations and trade upon Kent island, yet his command had been in a most wilful and contemptuous manner displayed by Lord Balti- more and his agents who had
violently set upon your petitioner's pinnaces and boats having goods to trade, and seized them, and still do detain the same; by the loss of which pinnaces and goods the inhabitants within the said isle were in so great famine and misery as they became utterly destitute of any corn wherewith to sustain themselves; which enforced them to send a small boat to inquire why they obeyed not your majesty's royal letters and commands, and demanding the said pinnace and goods to enable them to trade for corn. But the said boat approaching near unto some vessel of the said Lord Baltimore or his agents, they shot among the petitioner's men, slew three of them and carried away many more.2
It must be confessed that while the first account has the weight of au- thority, the last is the more plausible. It is not likely Claiborne would have been so reckless as to attack two armed vessels of the St. Mary's colony; while it is probable Gov. Calvert was anxious to execute his brother's orders for the seizure of Claiborne and the subjugation of his people to the Maryland government. A discussion of the question, who was the aggressor in this case, cannot here be entered upon. This however is evident: Claiborne and his people were prepared to de- fend their rights and property by arms. It is related by some annal- ists that after this unfortunate fight, he fled to Virginia; others say he was there when it occurred. He was, however, demanded of the Virginian authorities as a criminal against the laws of Maryland; but Gov. Harvey instead of surrendering him, thought it best to send Claiborne and the witnesses of the affair to England. In commenting upon this transaction Dr. Allen who has written an unpublished account of the settlement at Kent Point says.
This demand indeed showed wanton assumption. It had not yet been decided by the courts of England that Claiborne or his colonists
2 As perhaps some of the St. Michaels boatmen may desire to perpetuate the name of Capt. Claiborne's pinnace that was captured in the Pocomoke, it may be well to say that history relates she bore the name of Longtail.
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were at all amenable to the Lord Baltimore's jurisdiction. They had not yet decided upon the validity of his claim; while, as we have seen, the King, the privy council, the Lords of the Plantations and the council in Virginia, for all the time being, sustained Claiborne. And it was in the face of all this that war had been made on the Kent Islanders, three of their number killed, eleven captured and carried away, their goods taken, and the proprietor himself reclaimed, or attempted to be reclaimed, as a criminal.
The sequel to this armed collision between the rival colonies in Mary- land may as well be given here as hereafter, though the chronological succession of events must be disregarded. The firmness of Virginia authorities in refusing to comply with the requisition of Governor Calvert, for the surrender of Captain Claiborne enabled him to es- cape the fate of one of his trusted followers, Thomas Smith, who had been captured, but he was not able to avoid injury to his pecuniary in- terests and his proprietary rights upon the island. In the year 1635 indictments had been found against him and against Smith for piracy and murder. As Claiborne was beyond the jurisdiction of Maryland he could not be brought to the bar; and the trial of Smith was long de- layed because there was no provincial law under which a man might be tried for his life in the courts then established. The Assembly of 1638, nearly three years after the occurrence, passed an act of attainder against Claiborne, by which all his property upon Kent Island was for- feited to the Lord Proprietary, and he himself placed under civil disa- bilities. This was the utmost this body could do. After its adjourn- ment it resolved itself into a high court, to try Thomas Smith for the alleged offenses of the indictment, there being no court in the province legally authorized to try him. He was placed upon trial, and was with wonderful promptness convicted, there being but one dissenting voice in the assembly. He was sentenced to be hung, and though there is no mention of the fact, there is every reason to believe the sentence was carried into execution. He was not even allowed the benefit of clergy, a privilege than held in high esteem. The strangest part of the whole procedure is, that as there was no law for the trial, conviction and exe- cution of this man, those who had a hand in these transactions, on the day following his conviction at the very next session of the assembly, passed an act legalizing what had been done. It is proper to say that the accusation made against Capt. Claiborne of having incited the savages against the English settled at St. Mary's was never proven,
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and circumstances render it improbable if they do not entirely prove its falsity.
It is proposed to continue, in another paper, the narrative of Clai- borne's dispute with Lord Baltimore and his representatives.
It would seem that the naval affair in the Pocomoke in which Cla- borne's forces were worsted, was not decisive of the question which should have the supremacy upon Kent Island, Lord Baltimore or Capt. Claiborne. The latter continued to hold command and visited his colony during the year 1636 and 1637. But he was now compelled to encounter another obstacle, and find opposition of another character; from those too, upon whom he had relied for assistance and cooperation. "In the month of Dec. 1636, appeared on Kent Island," says Streeter in a tract published after his death, entitled, the First Commander of Kent Island, "a person whose arrival occasioned no little stir among the members of Claiborne's settlement, and who was destined to exercise an important influence over those with whom he became associated." This man was George Evelin, who came out as the agent, apparently, of Cloberry & Company, the London partners of Claiborne. After the armed conflict with the Marylanders the firm seems to have lost all confidence in the ability of Claiborne to maintain his position of antago- nism to and independence of the colony of Lord Baltimore, and they de- termined to conciliate the Maryland authorities by withdrawing all pecu- niary assistance to, and all personal countenance of their partner on Kent Island. The negligence of the London firm to send supplies involved Claiborne in much expense, as the wants of his colony had to be met from other sources, and the failure even to correspond with him gave additional embarrassment. He was still entertaining expectations when Evelin arrived that his partners would comply with the conditions of their business agreement, and send out such articles as were necessary for the sustenance of the colonists and the prosecution of their traffic with the Indians. This new comer warmly espoused the cause of the colonists as against the Marylanders; and the more thoroughly to win the confi- dence of the Islanders he not only denied openly and positively the right of Lord Baltimore to jurisdiction over the settlement on Kent Point, but he went so far as to speak in disparaging terms of Lord Baltimore and his family, and particularly his brother Governor Leonard Calvert.
"Who was his grandfather," he asked, "but a grazier? What was his father? What was Leonard Calvert himself at school, but a dunce and a blockhead; and now, has it come to this, that such a fellow should be governor of a province, and assume such lordly airs?"
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It was by such means that he won the entire confidence of Claiborne and his people, and came to be regarded as the most strenuous oppo- nent of the claims of the Maryland Proprietary and his Governor.
The true character of the man soon made itself apparent. A vessel ar- rived at Hampton Roads having on board supplies of goods and a num- ber of bound servants, belonging to Cloberry & Company, and destined to Kent Island. Instead of being consigned to Capt. Claiborne, as he had every reason to believe they would be, to his amazement he learned that Evelin was the consignee. Although much surprised by such a proce- dure on the part of his partners he gave to Evelin every facility for the dis- position of the goods and of the servants, still believing that the London firm was acting in good faith, and had made this a special consignment to Evelin, or had made it under a misapprehension of the condition of af- fairs on the Island. Nor was this illusion dispelled by the production by Evelin of a letter of instructions and power of attorney from Cloberry & Company, requesting Claiborne to assign to Evelin the control of the set- tlement, to give him possession of all the property, and to come to Eng- land for the purpose of explaining his proceedings and adjusting his ac- counts. Claiborne complied with the wishes of his partners and made immediate arrangement to go to England, where he might in person vindicate his conduct to the King in resisting the demands of Lord Balti- more and disabuse the minds of his business partners of any suspicions of his integrity or capacity. His eyes, however, were opened before his departure, and he found that Evelin was already negotiating with the Maryland authorities for a surrender of the Island to their jurisdiction. He now endeavored to obtain a bond or obligation from Evelin, that he would not alienate nor sell the Island or any part of it to the Mary- anders. This demand was made at a public meeting of all the inhabi- tants of Kent, freemen and servants. Evelin, secure in his position, having authority from the capitalists of London and the assurance from the colony at St. Mary's, refused to give any pledge whatever, and defied Claiborne who, finding all his efforts ineffectual, soon after left the Island and sailed for England.
By the production of the power of attorney of Cloberry & Co., and by false representations, the Virginia authorities were induced to withdraw their support from Claiborne and ordered all the property of the com- pany, of which Claiborne was a member, to be transferred to Evelin, who thereupon assumed full control upon the Island, and commenced open ne- gotiations for the transfer of the settlement to Maryland. Mr. Streeter says: "Whether any reward was offered to him in prospective, cannot be
.
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ascertained; but all that we know is, that in the course of his proceedings he became proprietor of a lordly manor, and was the means of accomplish- ing the reduction of Kent of which, even before it was actually accom- plished, he was made commander by commission from the Governor of Maryland." But the Kent Islanders were not disposed to transfer their allegiance. They still adhered to Claiborne. They still acknowledged no duty except to Virginia and the King. After Evelin had received his new dignity he repaired to Kent Island armed with his commission as commander and with his power of attorney as agent of Cloberry & Co., and backed by a deputy of the Governor of Maryland bearing the charter of the province with the great seal of the realm attached, to which talis- manic virtues seem to have been attributed. At first he made use of his arts of persuasion, but finding the islanders obdurate and suspicious, he then resorted to threats to overawe them. They seem to have been as courageous as they were obstinate. They manifested no disposition to submit to his authority, though they showed no purpose of interfering with Mr. Evelin in the pursuit of his private business and that of his principals in London. Mr. Boteler, or Butler, acted as spokesman for the colonists, and said, when Mr. Evelin ordered his power of attorney to be read:
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