USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 8
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He devised "Readbourne" to his nephew, James Hollyday (the eldest son of his brother Henry), who married Susan Stewart Tilghman, and dying in 1807 left many descendants.
In concluding this sketch of so eminent a man, it becomes not one so closely related as the author to dilate on the merits that justly entitle him to a lengthy tribute, but it may not be amiss to express a wish that many of the name among the rising generation may be found "to emulate his virtues."
FRANCIS BUTLER, GENT
A GRAVESTONE ON THE WYE WHICH MARKS THE GRAVE OF ONE WHO CAME TO SEEK HIS FORTUNE IN 1688
On the Talbot shore of Wye, about half a mile above where it pours its waters into Miles river, may be found, if the search is pursued dili- gently, mid tangled vines, weeds and marsh grass, a gravestone, now nearly submerged in the oozy soil in which it lies, bearing this inscription:
"Here lyeth immured ye bodye of Francis Butler, Gent. son of Rhoderick Butler, Gent. who was unfortunately drowned in St. Michael's River, the 3rd Mar. 1689, aged 42 years or thereabout .- Memento Mori .- "
There is a common tradition among those in the immediate vicinity and among the oystermen who ply their trade on Miles and Wye rivers that "He was an English sailor washed ashore," which fails to explain how his name was ascertained, or who was good enough to mark his grave with a slab-a rather costly article in those days.
It is not surprising that all knowledge of him was lost, with none of his blood here to perpetuate his memory, coupled with the fact that his
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sojourn in Maryland was a bare two years. Yet few of our early settlers came into the province with brighter prospects of contributing a name to history. Having the advantage of powerful friends, the weight of whose influence was felt promptly on his arrival here, and their continued interest practically assured. It is to be regretted that his untimely end did not permit him to reap the benefit.
Earliest knowledge of him locates him in London in September, 1687, at which time he was favored with a letter from Lord Baltimore, then in London, directed to the members of his Lordship's council in Maryland. He doubtless left for Maryland on receipt of the letter, as he, "Mr. - Butler," was present at a council meeting held at St. Mary's on the 5th of April following and "presented the foll: Lre from his Lop in his favour, viz .- "
Gentl .:
The Bearer is so powerfully recommended to me that I cannot refuse giving you these Lines, which are to assure you that the Countess of Tyrconnell had laid her comands on me by the hands of Sr Wm Talbot to desire you to afford him all the favor and civility you can in Mary- land where he is resolved to trye his fortune you must therefore receive him very kindly and in anything that may be for his advantage there, assist him what you can that soe he may find some good effects from these commands sent by Sr Wm Talbot from my Lady Tyrconnell to Gentl.
Your Lo: Friend
C. BALTEMORE.
London 7 bar the 5th 1687. To the Honble Coll. Vincent Lowe Coll. Henry Darnall, Coll. Wm. Digges and the rest of the Deptyes of the Province of Maryland.
To this letter the Council "expressed their readiness and willingness to give all due obedience, according to the purport thereof," and on the 10th April, five days later, they appointed "Mr. Butler" sheriff of Talbot county, as the following will show:
Majr. Peter Sayer, present Sheriff of Talbot County, being intended for England as he himself gives it out, whereby there will be a vacancy in the Sher: Place of that County their honors in consideration of the great favour his Lop has signified in behalf of Mr. - Butler recom- mended to his Lop by the Countess of Tyrconnell were pleased to offer the Sheriff's Place of said County to the said Mr. Butler, which he ac- cepted, and thereupon ordered that he have Commo for said Place accordingly giveing good security, as in such Case is usuall.
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Taking the statement on the gravestone that he was drowned in St. Michaels river, with that of the Admin. acc't that Kent County's Coro- ner viewed the body, it is safe to say the body floated out of the river, and across Eastern Bay to Kent Island, which then belonged to Kent Co. The question naturally arises, why was he brought to this lonely spot on the Wye for burial.
A glance at the old county maps of Talbot will show it to be the locality of the "Ancient town of Doncaster," and here lived Major Peter Sayer, whom Francis Butler succeeded as Sheriff; it is fairly reasonable to suppose he took up quarters with him, his predecessor in office, thereby gaining benefit of his knowledge of the office, as well as the comforts of a home. If we accept this explanation, it is more than probable that the grave marked the garden or yard of Major Sayer's habitation, it being well known that in early colonial days the burial place was seldom farther from the dwelling.
What prompted the Countess of Tyrconnell to engage in Francis Butler's behalf, does not appear. She it was, who was the "Belle Jenyns" of the Court of Charles II, and sister of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Sir William Talbot's interest was probably nothing more than a willingness to oblige his aunt, the Countess being his uncle's wife; and in this instance he was in position to be particularly useful, as Lord Baltimore was his cousin.
ROBERT MORRIS
THE OXFORD MERCHANT
1711-1750
It is difficult at this day to discover the causes of the concentration of trade at the pretty town of Oxford, which in the first half of the XVIII century gave to this port an importance second only to that of the provin- cial capital at Annapolis. The most rational of these are the excellence of its harbor, its proximity to and ready approach from the great bay, its accessibility by water by means of boats from all the regions bordering upon the Chesapeake, at a time when roads were either wanting or were mere bridle paths, and lastly the remarkable salubrity of its atmosphere, then as now unpoisoned by malaria. And the causes of decline after the middle of the century are almost as obscure; for if those of its pros- perity, which have been assigned, were the true causes, in as much as they were permanent in their influence, they should have secured permanence
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of commercial prominence. But there was really another cause for the decadence of Oxford as a centre of trade, and this was the absence of a back country dependent upon this place for an outlet of its products and an inlet for its supplies. The growth of the vast west demanded a port of entry and departure upon the opposite shore, and this port was furnished by the town of Baltimore which grew proportionately with the growth of the country north and west, and finally absorbed the foreign and the greater part of the domestic trade of the Province. But in considering the prominence of Oxford at one period and its declension at another just succeeding, regard must not be paid to natural or physical causes wholly: something must be attributed to human agencies-to the energy and capacity, or to the inertness or weakness of men. Examples are familiar of natural advantages being lost by ignorance or apathy, and natural impediments being overcome by intel- ligence and enterprise. While St. Louis, relying upon her splendid site, sat secure of her supremacy in the Mississippi valley, Chicago was build- ing in a swamp the Western metropolis, one of the largest and most beautiful cities of the world. While the favorable environments of Oxford drew to her harbor and strand men of strength, resolution and foresight, with their ships, their capital and their wares, they, in return, gave impetus, steadiness and scope to her business interests and all that accompanies commercial prosperity, material and moral. Among these active and able merchants of Oxford, was the subject of this brief sketch, Mr. Robert Morris, whose name is familiar to the ears of the citizens of this county because of his lamentable fate, and to the country at large because it was borne by a distinguished son whose end was hardly less tragic than the father's, while it was far more reproachful to those who if they did not accomplish it, stood by consenting.
Of the English commercial firms trading with Maryland, one of the most substantial and prosperous was that of Messrs. Foster Cunliffe & Sons, of Liverpool, which had its ships plying between the Chesa- peake and the Mersey, with detours to Madeira, the coast of Africa and the West Indies; and had its factories as their warehouses and stores were called, seated along the shores of our great bay and its tributaries. One, and a principal one of these factories, was at Oxford, and in charge of this somewhere about the year 1738, they placed the most capable of their employees, from their Liverpool house, who had acquired their confidence by services that had tested his probity and his capacities in business. This was Mr. Robert Morris of whom it is now proposed to speak. Of his parentage, birth and education but little is certainly
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known. In his will he calls himself the "son of Andrew Morris, mari- ner, and Maudlin his wife, both deceased, late of the town of Liverpoole in Great Britaine," and upon his tombstone it is inscribed that he was born in that city. But whatever was his genesis this may be said of him that he overcame all impediments of birth and breeding by his own inherent forces, and vindicated his title to be called a gentleman through a display of those traits which distinguish that character from the vulgar, whether they be high or low born. The precise date of his birth cannot be discovered, but as his epitaph states that at time of his death in 1750 he was in the fortieth year of his age, his natal day must have been in 1710 or 1711. The humble station of his family renders it highly probable that his early scholastic training was very imperfect and limited: but either there was emplanted in his mind in his youthful years a love of good letters or he had a natural avidity for good learning at least in its popular and elementary form and a natural capacity for its reception. It is known that he was neither ignorant nor weak; that he was fond of books and the converse of cultivated men. Of his train- ing for practical life we know as little as of his education. In the Journal of Col. Jeremiah Banning, who as a youth had a personal acquaintance with Mr. Morris, it is stated that
This gentleman was one of those instances of many to evince that it is not always necessary to be high born and educated to become a conspicuous character. This was quite the reverse with Mr. Morris, being brought up in the mean business of a nail maker with a school education similar thereto. His great natural abilities overleaped every other deficiency.
Doubt is thrown upon this statement of Col. Banning by a descendant of Mr. Morris, as it must have been given upon mere heresay, he having been very young at the date of Mr. Morris' death. But assuming that it is true, as nail making was the work of women and children before the introduction of machinery, he may have followed his calling in his least mature years, and abandoned it as he grew older and more capable of higher employment. Keeping in mind the liability to fall into errors . when, in the absence of testimony, conjecture, even the most plausible, is taken as a guide, it may be surmised that at an early period of his life he was received into the employment of Messrs. Foster Cunliffe & Sons, in some capacity or other. He may have been taken into the warehouses of this great commercial firm, to perform the humblest services, and been advanced to positions of confidence and responsibil- ity. Or what is more probable still, in view of the facts that as sons
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used to follow from generation to generation the avocations of their fathers and that as Mr. Morris was certainly the son of a sailor, and possibly the grandson of another, that Captain Robert Morris, of 1669, herein before mentioned, and finally in view of the fact that in his day, it was common for the sea-faring man to develop into the merchant, he served in some capacity on board one of the ships of the Messrs. Cunliffe, whose trade was largely with Virginia and Maryland. But whatever may have been his early position, there can be no doubt his abilities as a man of affairs displayed themselves in such a way as to obtain the recognition of the Messrs. Cunliffe, who were thus persuaded that in him they had found a suitable person to whom to intrust the management and control of one of their chief trading posts in America. He was accordingly sent out by them to Maryland and placed in charge of their business at Oxford, then one of the most important stations in the Province and the leading one upon the Eastern Shore. It will be seen in the sequel that their judgment of his capacity was not at fault and their confidence in his integrity not misplaced. At what date Mr. Morris arrived at Oxford it has been found impossible to determine. A communication to the Maryland Gazette, herein after quoted, says that at the time of his death in July, 1750, he had been in charge of the factory of the Messrs. Cunliffe at Oxford twelve years. This would indicate that he was in Talbot as early as 1738. His name first appears in the records of this county in or about the year 1741, then, however, in such connection as to lead to the inference that he had been here some years, the recognized agent of the firm of Foster Cunliffe & Sons of Liverpool.
Here, and in this capacity, Mr. Morris spent the remaining portion of his life, and there is no evidence that during this time he was permitted to visit the old country. He seems to have enjoyed the confidence of his employers, and to have justified their confidence by the manage- ment of their affairs in such a way as to render the station at Oxford unequalled by any in Maryland. Besides this factory there were others in his care and under his supervision, conducted by under-factors who accounted to him, and drew their supplies from his store. One at Cambridge was conducted by a Mr. Hanmer who seems to have had greater latitude allowed to him than to others, if he was not independent of Mr. Morris.
The success which was won for the Messrs. Cunliffe was not with- out much active competition. There were several establishments of London and Liverpool merchants at Oxford and its vicinity and else-
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THE WORTHIES OF TALBOT
where in the county quite as extensive as those of Mr. Morris' principals, that contested for trade upon a footing which was rendered unequal only by his superior address. Among these competitors were Mr. Anthony Bacon who had a large store at Dover on Choptank, and Mr. Gildart, who had a store at Oxford, and Mr. John and Mr. William Anderson, who had stores on Wye and Chester rivers, and Mr. John Hanbury who had a store at Cambridge and probably one at Dover. There were others of equal extent. Mr. Morris pretended to compete not only with these but with merchants of long standing upon the Western Shore, and from the single fact that after the breaking out of the war in 1744 between England and France, commonly called King George's war, he was able to secure the contract for clothing the Maryland troops, with Manx cloth from his store at Oxford, it is evident he was capable of successfully contesting the commercial field with the largest merchants of the Prov- ince. In a letter of Henry Callister, his under-factor, to the Messrs. Cunliffe, dated Oct. 2, 1750, written after Mr. Morris' death it was said of the factory at Oxford, "for its present state and circumstances it cannot be equalled by any in Maryland, owing to the good management of your late factor there." Col. Jeremiah Banning, in his journal says of Mr. Morris, of whom he had personal knowledge:
Oxford was at the time of his death and during his agency, for he was its principal supporter, one of the most commercial ports of Maryland. The storekeepers and other retailers both on the Western and Eastern sides of the Chesapeake repaired there to lay in their supplies. . Ox- ford's streets and Strand were once covered by busy crowds ushering in commerce from almost every quarter of the globe. After the death of Mr. Morris commerce, splendor and all that animating and agreeable hurry of business at Oxford declined to the commencement of the civil war, which broke out in April 1775, when it became totally de- serted as to trade.1
No better evidence could be given of the estimate that was placed upon his business capacity by the Messrs. Cunliffe, than the opportuni- ties they gave him for bettering his fortunes by commercial adventures upon his own account while he was acting as agent for them. It was customary where young men were sent out from England, as under- factors, or clerks, and of course the same or greater favors were granted to their chiefs, to grant them in addition to a stipulated salary for a certain time certain privileges of trade, by which they were better quali-
1 See extracts from his Journal in the Memoir of Col. Jeremiah Banning, one of this series of papers.
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fied for independent action, their diligence stimulated and their small income increased. To Mr. Morris these privileges were unusually favorable because of his extraordinary abilities as a merchant. He was not taken into partnership by the Messrs. Cunliffe, but according to Mr. Callister, they winked at or gave their assent to a business arrange- ment by which a firm was formed of a Mr. William Anderson of London, Mr. Morris and Mr. Hanmer, to conduct a store in the upper part of the county. Mr. Callister said also that Mr. Morris, whether with or without the consent of his principals, was a member of the firm of Messrs. Anthony Bacon & Company whose factory was at Dover, or to use his words kept "a great store at Dover on Choptank." Contin- uing Mr. Callister said of him:
Mr. Morris died possessed of a good estate which I think became him well. I thought I could see by what means he acquired it, viz., by your particular indulgence in allowing him to ship tobacco and trade as much as he thought fit (which he did to some purpose); and you lately gave him a very remarkable proof of that indulgence by admitting him a partner in the Oxford snow for the Guinea trade, So far, without. doubt, was agreeable to you, but as I questioned whether you were privy to the other partnerships, I thought it my duty to make you acquainted.
As tobacco was the staple commodity of the country at the time it was the principal object of trade; and as it was the medium by which values were estimated, and debts paid it was the common currency. Of course scarcely any thing could have been worse for this latter purpose, for it varied in quantity and quality year by year. As an object of com- merce it was greatly unsatisfactory for the same reasons, with this one in addition, that there were no standards of excellence by which it could be measured but the arbitrary or partial judgments of buyers and sellers; and its bulkiness was so great that the difficulty in ascertaining its condi- tion when in its packages was almost insuperable with those who had not the opportunities and appliances of inspection. Inspection laws, had not then been passed, nor were there public warehouses for the reception and critical examination of the staple established throughout the coun- ty as there were subsequently. The evils enumerated had been long felt in the community, but the legislation necessary for their ameliora- tion had not been secured. The difficulty of securing the reform of any mischievous system which has grown up in any society, and pene- trated the whole body by its roots, is one of familiar facts of practical politics. When innovations, acknowledgedly demanded, are attempted
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to be initiated in a community where customs or laws are estab- lished, the interests of so many persons are injured or imperiled; the interests of so many more are undeservedly and improperly pro- moted at the expense of the innocent and helpless, there are so many established rights invaded, and so many private wrongs inflicted; the natural conservatism or inertia of men to whom ancient order, with all its inconveniences and detriments, is acceptable, is so violently assailed; and the new order of things, with all its advantages, is so repellent by reason of its difficult applicability to cases originating under old condi- tions, that there is always a pervading objection to reforms however clearly their beneficent results are perceived and however severely the evils they promise to remedy are experienced. While laboring to secure legislation for the removal of the evils to commerce and society of an unsettled standard of valuation of the staple product upon which all business transactions were based, the active mind of Mr. Morris devised a remedy which though of voluntary application was so just and wise that it was accepted by all the dealers in tobacco and most of the producers. This consisted essentially in the appoint- ment by the merchants of private receivers, who were expert and honest, and went from plantation to plantation examining the crops, and giving certificates of quality to the owners, which were generally accepted by the buyers as proof of the grade. When the tobacco was brought in to the warehouses, as fraud was sometimes attempted by the planters, a second inspection was sometimes requested by the mer- chant. When a planter shipped his own product, a fear of rejection abroad rendered him wary of including anything of an inferior quality.2 The benefits resulting from the system of private inspection were so marked that in 1747 an Act for the legal inspection of Tobacco was passed, but it was imperfect and after several amendments in years following, it seems to have lapsed. No good law was secured until that of 1763, which was most comprehensive and efficient. The incon- veniences resulting from the employment of tobacco as a currency or medium of exchange, Mr. Morris attempted to remove by the adoption in his private business of a system of accounts kept in denominations of sterling money. He is said to have been the first to make this attempt in Maryland. In this he succeeded but imperfectly, his premature
2 See memoir of Henry Callister and also that of Col. Jeremiah Banning in each of which are references to the part taken by Mr. Morris in improving the staple of tobacco by the employment of receivers; and also in securing the passage of an Inspection law.
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death probably interrupting his endeavors to give generally to what he found useful in his own transactions.3 If this statement be true, and it was made by one who should have known, it justified the remark of that person, that Mr. Morris, "As a mercantile genius was thought to have no equal in the land."
In Mr. Morris' time, besides the export of tobacco, a very consider- able trade in wheat had grown up, the Talbot lands having shown that remarkable adaptability for the production of this grain which they have continued to manifest to the present day, and their unfitness for the growth of the finer qualities of tobacco, which has caused the entire abandonment of that crop. There were other articles of export, such as peltries, pork and the products of the forest. One of the most profit- able parts of the business of the Messrs. Cunliffe was that of supplying the shipwrights at Oxford and its vicinity with these articles which were requisite in the construction and equipment of vessels. Ship building was carried on extensively, and this firm was a purchaser of the products of the shipyards of the neighborhood. Besides the materials for the building of vessels which could not be supplied from domestic sources, the families of the workmen had to be furnished with many of the neces- saries of life from the stores under Mr. Morris' care, and this was a source of great gain. It has been noted that the Liverpool house was engaged in the African slave trade, and that its factor at Oxford had been admitted to share the bloody emoluments earned by one of its vessels. The standards of morals are not absolute, but vary with time and place: so it is not proper to judge the Messrs. Cunliffe and Mr. Morris by that one which is accepted at the present day as a measure of the character of this traffic in negro slaves. Although, at the time, there may have been some few whose moral sensibilities were more acute than those of the great majority (and such sensibility was by that majority thought to be morbid or eccentric) most people were either indifferent to the question of the right or the wrong of the trade, or they pronounced upon it in the manner their interests dictated. There is no evidence that the Messrs. Cunliffe or Mr. Morris were men of low moral development,
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