USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 14
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
there, assumed chief command. The British having command of the bay, sent out or authorized marauding parties which kept the people along its shores and those of its tributaries in a state of continual alarm. While a regular invasion was anticipated, a system of petty naval war- fare, no better than piracy, was maintained with the sanction of the British commanders. This was really more distressing to the people than if an organized fleet and army had closed the ports and occupied the towns. Small armed vessels and boats scoured the bay, seizing or burning any craft that came in their way. From time to time the crews, which were generally made up of tories, landed at various points, plundered the plantations of everything of value that could be removed, and sometimes carried their outrages so far as to fire the buildings, and even to hang the owners. Besides other property of the planters many slaves were taken away. Talbot, by reason of her great coast line, was particularly exposed, and suffered much from these marauding expeditions. On the eighth of November, 1780, one of them proceeded up the Choptank river as far as Castle-Haven in Dorchester county, and there took possession of a vessel called the Mayflower. The party engaged then attempted to land at Benoni's point in this county, for the purpose of pillaging the farm house there, but were promptly met by the Talbot militia, under Major Jeremiah Banning, and driven off without their booty. It was thought they lost one man in this attempt.59 It is not unlikely that this party was the same that destroyed the resi- dence of Mr. John Henry, a distinguished citizen of Dorchester county. This or another party took possession of Choptank island, at the mouth of the river of the same name, then belonging to the Hon. Matthew Tilghman, and robbed it of everything of value they could carry off, and doubtless they would have visited his home at Ward's point, or Rich-Neck, if they had not been deceived as to the probable amount of spoil to be obtained from a house of such modest proportions as that which one of the richest men of the county occupied, or if they had known so eminent a patriot's property was so near and so exposed. On Tuesday night, March 13, 1781, a party of these marauders went up Wye river, and after robbing the residence of the Hon. Edward Lloyd at Wye House of a large amount of valuables, set fire to the mansion,
50 From the Journal or Day Book of Col. Jeremiah Banning, extracts from which have been kindly furnished by his granddaughter, Miss Mary E. Banning, now of Baltimore, but late of this county-a lady whose original researches in cryptogamic botany have given her an established reputation among students of that department of natural science.
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which was burned to the ground, with all its valuable contents.60 This same party visited Wye Island, and plundered the plantation of Mr. Boardley. Without doubt others suffered in the loss of property as much in proportion to their wealth as Mr. Tilghman and Mr. Lloyd. The measures ordered by the legislature to be taken for the protection of the tide water counties, by the enlistment of a select body of militia volunteers, and the equipment of a miniature fleet, has already been noted. Before the barges and other vessels of the State navy could be commissioned or made ready, such had been the alarm in Talbot, and such the extent of the plundering, the farmers and planters seated along Wye and St. Michaels Rivers and the southern shore of the Eastern bay determined to equip a barge and a boat at their own expense for their protection. The following subscription paper was circulated, and received the signatures that are appended:
Whereas, the enemy have fitted out a number of small vessels to ravage and plunder our Farms and Plantations which lie on the water and have lately plundered many of our countrymen and burnt and de- stroyed their houses, threatening the like destruction wherever they shall be able to effect it with security; and whereas from the present exhausted state of the Public Treasury Government cannot immediately give that protection to every individual, which is become necessary, from the cruel and savage mode in which the war is now carried on against us; and whereas a water defence is the best and most effectual way of preventing those surprises, depredations and ragaves, and individuals have built and offered boats for such purposes; We the subscribers do agree to support and maintain the barge Experiment and
* boat * for two months, and man the same with twenty men exclusive of necessary officers; the said boat and barge to be stationed in the Eastern Bay and to cruise occasionally between Kent Point and the Hon. Matthew Tilghman's island; and we agree to pay all charges and expenses in proportion to the several assessments of our property lying in the counties where we respectfully reside.
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands, Talbot county, May 2nd, 1781: Thomas Ray, Robert Pickering, Wm. Dawson, Sam'l Benson, Richard Parrott, Joseph Hartley, Wm. (?Woolman) Gibson, J. Gibson, L. R. Skinner, Hugh Rice, William Tilghman, L. (James?) Benson, John Dawson, Eliza Hindman, Ann Maxwell,
60 A memorandum still in existence states that there were taken from Wye House, among other things of value, 336 ounces of plate, £800 in cash gold and sil- ver, £181 of new State money, jewelry, watches, and much personal clothing. At the same time eight negro slaves were carried off. The authority upon which the statement is here made that the Wye House was burned is the Hon. John Bozman Kerr, who was not often at fault in his relation to facts; yet the writer has never been able to verify this, which he states explicitly.
* *
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Harriet Collister, Robert Newcomb, James Darrow, James Earle Denny, James Keitly, Thomas Tibets, Thomas Applegarth, Henry Tibets, Thomas Barrow, John Nesmith, James Tilghman, James Hewes, William Watts, Francis Morling, James Baker, J. S. Gibson, Matthew Tilghman, Edward Lloyd, William Lloyd, William Hems- ley, William Paca, Peregrine Tilghman, Robert Goldsborough, Wil- liam Hindman, James Hindman, Robert Goldsborough, Jr., Eliz. Maxwell, William Goldsborough, Mary Ann Goldsborough, Mary Ann Turbutt Goldsborough, Howes Goldsborough, William Lavelle (or Savelle).61
Unfortunately no record reveals the names of the officers and crews of the volunteer naval force.
At a later date the vessels and barges of the State had been equipped and sent out to intercept the marauders, and drive them from the upper part of the bay at least. The special council of the Eastern Shore by the first of August had succeeded in getting ready for service three barges and had sent them on a cruise. The following extract from a letter to the Hon. Matthew Tilghman dated Aug. 3, 1781, addressed to his daughter, Miss Ann Maria, who subsequently became the wife of Col. Tench Tilghman, and who at the date of its writing was visiting her sister, the wife of the Hon. Charles Carroll, the barrister, at Mount Clare, Baltimore county, on the Western Shore.
I am vexed with myself for missing the opportunity of our Barges to Annapolis, of boasting of the doings of the Eastern Shore, I won't say of the council. Our three barges having been fully manned and well fitted out, and the commodore having in form received his instructions, sealed up and not to be opened until they all met at Sharpe's island, put out on his cruise last Saturday evening. On Monday they fell in with two barges and a whale boat-the barges, one commanded by Robinson that robbed my island, the other by McMullen that hung up Harry Gale, and the whale boat by Whaland.62 McMullen was taken, and the other two put to flight, and on Wednesday morning the commodore with his captured barge and two small boats retaken,
61 The author of this contribution is indebted to the kindness of Col. J. Thos. Scharf for copies of three of these subscription papers, which enable him to give a more complete list of the subscribers than Col. Scharf has inserted in his his- tory. He must have been in possession of a fourth. All the subscribers as far as they are known were of Talbot county except Mr. Paca, who was part owner of Wye Island, belonging to Queen Anne's county.
62 This Whaland was a notorious partisan privateer and after having given much trouble, destroyed a large amount of property and kept the shores of the bay in a state of apprehension of his visits. He was finally killed in 1783, after a desper- ate fight with the Maryland barges.
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which were prizes taken by the barges, came in triumph to the ferry, [probably Haddaway's ferry, on Bayside]. The novelty drew numbers all day. The event has given general joy, and if we cannot flatter our- selves with peace, we begin to think we have a chance of remaining safe from the plunders that have of late infested us. The great barge is also fitted out, and commissions gone down, and by this time I expect Walley, with his 24-pounder is on a cruise. The barge, Mr. Polk says, bears the 24-pounder well, and it has been fired several times. We will not attack the British fleet, but as for any thing else we shall make nothing of 'em. The commodore has taken a recruit of provisions and stores, and is gone off for Annapolis with the prisoners, and then pro- ceeds down the bay to cruise till Wednesday or Thursday next, when we are to have a meeting of the council. The commanders are all to attend, and I expect some grand expedition will be formed. You'll show this to Charles (Carroll). I think it is nearly as pompous as he could write.63
It is barely necessary to say that the barges to which Mr. Tilghman refers fitted out by that special Council of principal men, who as has been noted, were appointed to act upon the Eastern Shore in the very con- tingency that had come to pass, namely, the possession of the Bay by the naval force of the enemy; and these barges were a part of those which had been authorized to be equipped by the legislature. Although the names of some of the commanders of them have been preserved, it is not evident that any belonged to Talbot men, yet it is morally certain that some of the captains were of this county, so many of whose citizens "followed the water," and had been deprived of their vocation by the privateers, British and tory. The activity of the flotilla, taken in con- nection with the arrival, in September, 1781, of the French squadron under De Grasse, in the mouth of the Chesapeake, and the momentous military events that soon after occurred, served in great measure to relieve the people of the tidewater counties, for a time, at least, from the visits of the marauders. But the withdrawal of the French fleet, after the surrender of Cornwallis was the signal for the renewal of their depredations, which were continued through the year 1782 and 1783 down to the time indeed of the declaration of peace, even as late as the 19th of February of the last named year five barges and a sloop were cruising in the Eastern Bay and about Poplar island, bent upon an expedition of plunder and incendiarism. The continuance of these outrages rendered necessary a provision for additional vessels for patrol-
63 The original of this letter is in the possession of Col. Oswald Tilghman, the g-g-g-son of the writer.
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ing the Bay, in which duty the authorities of Virginia, whose State was suffering in the like manner and degree, were requested to co-operate; and after the suspension of hostilities, on the part of the armies, these mauraders continuing their nefarious operations, the attention of Gen. Washington was called to their violations of the preliminaries of peace, that he might learn from the British commanders whether they were committed with their sanction. However, by the rigorous operations of the Maryland captains these expeditions which had all the charac- teristics of piracy, were finally arrested, after the most notorious of the leaders, Whaland, had been killed in a desperate fight, in which sixty- five out of seventy-five of his men were either killed or wounded.64
It is necessary to retrace our steps and return to the operations of the field. In the month of January, 1781, a detachment, from the main army at the north, was quietly marched to the head of Elk, and thence around the head of the Bay to Baltimore, whence these troops, under Gen'l Lafayette, proceeded to Virginia to confront the army of Corn- wallis, whose evident purpose was first the subjugation of that State, and then of Maryland. In September of the same year, the commander in chief, himself, with the allied number of Americans and French passed into Virginia from the north, a part by way of the Elk, and the Bay, and another part marching through Baltimore and Annapolis. Large numbers of recruits were furnished by Maryland, and she was called upon to supply immense quantities of provisions for the forces that were concentrating in Virginia preparatory to an attempt to capture the army of Cornwallis which had occupied a position near Yorktown, on the York river. Each county of the State was required to supply a certain number of beef cattle; Talbot's quota was placed at three hun- dred and fifty head, which, it was ordered, should be collected, at the head of Miles river, where also the quota of Queen Anne's county was to be sent for shipment to the seat of war.65 For the transportation of troops and supplies vessels of all kinds and wagons and horses were impressed. Everything betokened a state of emergency; everyone felt that events of the greatest moment were impending. The troops from the north having safely landed at Williamsburg in the latter part of the month of September, a junction was quickly formed with those under Lafayette, and those from the French fleet of De Grasse under Rochambeau. Yorktown, where the British army had entrenched itself,
64 Scharf's Hist. Md., vol. ii, p. 486.
Col. James Hindman and Mr. Nicholas Goldsborough were deputy com- missioners for purchasers in Talbot.
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was immediately invested by the allied army, while the fleet cut off all hope of retreat. On the eighteenth of October Lord Cornwallis capit- ulated, and on the following day, ever memorable in the history of America, he formally surrendered. This was virtually the end of the war of the Revolution, for although subsequent to this date there were military movements of some importance, no engagements of armies occurred. The glorious news of the capitulation were at once trans- mitted to Congress then sitting in Philadelphia. The person selected to bear this intelligence was that one of Gen'l Washington's military family for whom he had always shown the highest regard, Lieut. Col. Tilghman; that gentleman who has been so often mentioned in this contribution, as an honor to this his native county. Charged with despatches, he took a vessel in York river, sailed up the Bay to Annapolis, thence crossing to Rock Hall in Kent county, rode over land to Phila- delphia, arriving in that city on the 23rd of the month, late at night. This ride of Col. Tilghman's has recently been made the theme of a poet, who, under a patriotic glamour, said in it something romantic or picturesque which was not visible to the rider himself, as the follow- ing letter from him to General Washington, giving a very prosaic account of his journey will sufficiently attest:
PHILADELPHIA, 27th Oct., 1781.
SIR :- I arrived at this place early Wednesday morning, although I lost one whole night's run by the stupidity of the skipper, who got over upon Tangier shoals, and was a whole day crossing, in a calm, from Annapolis to Rock Hall. The wind left us entirely on Sunday evening, thirty miles below Annapolis. I found that a letter from Count De Grasse to Governor Lee, dated the 18th, had gone forward to Congress, in which the Count informed the Governor that Cornwallis had sur- rendered. This made me the more anxious to reach Philadelphia, as I knew both Congress and the public would be uneasy at not receiving dispatches from you. I was not wrong in my conjecture for some really began to doubt the matter. The fatigue of the journey brought back my intermittent fever, with which I have been confined almost ever since I came to town. I shall set out, as soon as I am well enough, for Chestertown. I beg you to be assured that I am with the utmost sincerity, your excellency's &c. TENCH TILGHMAN. 66
The story of Tilghman's arousing President Mckean in the middle of the night in order to deliver the intelligence he was commissioned to bear; of his awakening the slumbering citizens by the vigor of his
66 Spark's correspondence of the Revolution.
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knocks at the President's door; of his threatened arrest by the watch- men, as a disturber of the peace; of their proclaiming through the streets after learning the news, the capture of Cornwallis, as they cried the hour; of the impromptu illumination of the city-all this has been so often told that need not here be repeated. But a reference to it is allowable because through the principal actor in this scene, Talbot is connected with one of the most important events in our national history. It is proper to mention that Maryland troops are not without the honor which is due for a participation in the memorable occurrences at York- town.
It is necessary to interrupt this account of military operations to note certain political events of importance. In September, 1781, the electors, who had been elected to choose the State Senators, met at Annapolis and chose these gentlemen of the Eastern Shore, namely: Messrs. Matthew Tilghman, John Henry, Robert Goldsborough, William Hindman, Josiah Polk and Edward Lloyd. Of these three were from Talbot, Messrs. Tilghman, Lloyd and Hindman, two from Dorchester, Messrs. Goldsborough and Henry, and one from Somerset, Mr. Polk. In October a general election was held, when the following gentlemen were returned as delegates to the General Assembly from Talbot, namely: Messrs. John Gibson, James Hindman, Howes Golds- borough and William Maynadier. The executive council which was elected upon the meeting of the legislature contained no member from Talbot. In 1782 Messrs. Hugh Sherwood, John Roberts, James Hind- man and Woolman Gibson, Jr., were elected delegates, and in 1783 Messrs. James Hindman, 'John Roberts, Woolman Gibson, Jr., and Edward Harris were the chosen delegates. The county was not repre- sented in the executive council in either year. At the first session of the Assembly elected in 1782 the Hon. William Paca was chosen Gover- nor of the State, his competitor being Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer. In 1783 Mr. Edward Lloyd of this county was chosen one of the dele- gates to Congress, and he continued to hold this honorable position in 1784.
Notwithstanding the happy success of the allied armies at Yorktown, peace was by no means assured. Preparations for the continued prose- cution of the war were made both by Congress and the State authorities. While the northern troops went into winter quarters in New York and New Jersey reinforcements were sent to General Greene in the south who still kept the field. The French troops under General Rocham- beau remained in Virginia near Williamsburg. General Greene con-
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tinued his military operations in South Carolina and Georgia during the year 1782, which though no important battles were fought, resulted in causing the enemy to evacuate Savannah on the 11th of July, and Charleston on the 14th of December of that year. But before the last occurrence, namely, on the 30th of November, a preliminary treaty of peace had been signed between England and America.67
This intelligence was received throughout the country with mani- festations of the utmost joy. The only contemporary record of the manner in which peace was hailed in Talbot is that given by Col. Ban- ning in his journal, which is in these words:
March 27th, 1783.
Had information from Mr. Perry Benson that peace was confirmed. Hope it is so, hearing much firing at Annapolis and some small arms at Oxford, between 8 and 9 o'clock at night. My heart is happy with hope.
March 28th, 1783.
Post brought news that on Monday, 24th March the Triumph (a French cutter) Capt. D. Queene, from Cadiz, in 36 days, brought the very agreeable news to Philadelphia of a general peace having taken place.68 The cessation of hostilities was formally announced by the Hon. Robt. R. Livingston, the President of Congress, to the governors of the States, on the 12th of April, and in accordance with a recom- mendation of the same body, Governor Paca issued his official proclam- ation to the same effect, and appointed Thursday the 24th of April as a day for public rejoicings. What form these rejoicings assumed in this county must be left to the imagination to conjecture. Some bon- fires may have been kindled, some discharges of musketry in the absence of cannon may have been heard, some patriotic toasts may have been drunk; but there is little doubt that the profoundest feeling that was awakened was one of devout thankfulness for the return of peace with independence, and this feeling had expression in religious services and patriotic discourses from the pulpits. On the 25th the Governor ad- dressed a letter to the sheriffs of the counties congratulating the good
67 Nothing probably more strikingly marks the changes effected by time than a comparison of the rapidity with which intelligence was transmitted in 1782 and in 1882. Col. Jere. Banning notes in his Journal, under the date January 12, 1783: "First, heard certainly that Charles Town was evacuated by the British;" and under the date of Feb. 11, 1783, "Received first hint, via Baltimore, via West Indies, of a peace between America and England." This last news was not con- firmed, however, until March 27th, according to his record.
68 Col. Banning evidently did not mean "a general peace," a peace between the contending European powers-England, France and Spain-for the treaty of peace between these was not signed until Sept. 3.
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people "upon the glorious event. * * which their virtuous exertions have so greatly contributed to bring about" and desiring those officers to make a public announcement of it by reading on an appointed day his proclamation. The day selected by the sheriff of Talbot, Mr. John Needles, was the 13th of May, when, we have the authority of Col. Banning for saying the "Proclamation of cessation of hostilities was published at Talbot Court House." Later he adds: "Nov. 19th, 1783, news of definitive treaty being signed 3rd Sept. last between America and Great Britain came to hand."
Thus closed this great act, in the drama of our national existence.
SOLOMON BARROTT
DRUMMER BOY AT THE BATTLE OF COWPENS. THE LAST SURVIVING CONTINENTAL SOLDIER OF THE MARYLAND LINE IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION DIED IN EASTON, MD., DEC. 6, 1851, IN HIS 88TH YEAR
1
AN INCIDENT OF THE REVOLUTION IN TALBOT
Any incident which serves to illustrate the times of our Revolution must be exceedingly trivial which does not possess a value with the his- torian and an interest with the patriotic citizen. It is believed that the occurrence now about to be related for the first time in print is not entirely without those qualities to justify its recital.
Among the archives of the State, now deposited with the Maryland Historical Society of Baltimore, may be found a book of "Letters," numbered 13, and entitled "Communications to the Maryland Council." The Council referred to was the "Council of Safety," that revolutionary body with which was lodged the control of the commonwealth after the deposition of the Provincial and before the institution of the State government.
It need scarcely be noted that non-importation acts had been passed by the Provincial Congress which had cut off the supply of those articles of luxury or necessity for which the colonies were dependent upon the mother country-among which was salt. It will be remembered that in 1775 the "Committee of Observation" of this county of Talbot had forbidden the landing of a ship-load of this necessary, which had arrived in Miles river from Liverpool and was consigned to Mr. Braddock a merchant of St. Michaels. It was under the pressure of want caused by these acts of non-importation that the unlawful deed about to be related was committed.
The principal actor in the affair appears to have been Mr. Jeremiah Colston, whose nephews Mr. James and Mr. Henry Colston resided in the vicinity of the place of its occurrence. Mr. Jeremiah Colston was the grandson of James and Elizabeth Colston, who were the foun- ders of the family in Maryland, and the son of James and Alice Colston, of Clay's Hope, Ferry Neck. He was born March 10th, 1750, and died Sept. 12th, 1800. The seat of this family is still owned by a descendant Dr. E. M. Hardcastle, whose mother was the daughter of Henry Colston and sister of that amiable man and useful citizen, the late Mr. Morris Orem Colston, who for many years represented this county in the Legis- lature of the State and held other honorable and responsible positions.
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