USA > Maryland > Leading events of Maryland history; with topical analyses, references, and questions for original thought and research > Part 5
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35. Charles Calvert Appointed Governor ; Death of Cecilius, and Character of His Successor. - Late in the year 1661 the
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proprietary sent out his son and heir, Charles Calvert, as governor. During this period CIT there were contests be- tween the two Houses of Assembly, which will be mentioned later. Proprietary Coins On the whole the col- From photographs of the originals in the library of the Maryland Historical Society ony prospered greatly during his administra- tion. One source of much trouble was the production of too much tobacco, which occasioned great distress, as the tobacco (which, remember, was nearly the sole money of the province)
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was naturally cheapened. The proprietary had some coins made and sent out to the province, but the plan seems not to have been very successful, as tobacco continued to be the chief currency.
On the thirtieth day of November, 1675, Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore and first proprietary of Maryland, died. He was preëminently the founder of Maryland, and a man of noble ideals, wise, just, patient, and unselfish, of whom Mary- land may justly be proud. The second proprietary possessed far less of greatness than his father. He seems to have been less tolerant, possessed of less tact and judgment, and perhaps not always so strictly just; his intentions may have been good, but he did not possess his father's extraordinary force of char- acter, nor was he so liberal and public-spirited.
36. Loss of Territory. - We must here interrupt the narrative of political events to notice serious losses of territory which Maryland suffered during the period now under consideration. In 1655, a settlement of the Swedes on the west bank of the Delaware river was seized by the Dutch, who had planted a colony on the present site of New York City. The captured territory was divided into two parts, called Altona and New Amstel. The land over which the Dutch and Swedes were quarrelling did not belong to either, if English claims were good, for it was within the bounds of the province granted by the king of England to the proprietary of Maryland. Colonel Utie was sent out to notify the Dutch that they must either acknowl- edge the jurisdiction of Maryland or leave. The Dutch governor then sent out representatives 1 to confer with the governor of Maryland, but no settlement was reached, as neither side would
1 One of these was Augustin Herrman, who later received a large grant of land from the proprietary in return for a map of the province. He and his family were naturalized in 1666.
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give up anything and Maryland was not prepared to take forci- ble possession. In 1664 the Dutch colony was conquered by an English fleet, and the king granted it to his brother James, Duke of York. The duke thereupon seized the settlements to
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Herrman's Map of Maryland
From a copy in the library of the Maryland Historical Society
the west of the Delaware also, which were within the limits of Maryland, and to which he had no right whatever.
Now there was in England at this time a Quaker named William Penn, to whom the king owed a very large sum of
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money, and this debt the king agreed to pay by giving to Penn a large tract of land to the west of the Delaware river. The Maryland charter fixed the parallel of forty degrees as the northern boundary of the province, and it was agreed that the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, as Penn's province was called, should be a line just north of a fort that lay on the for- tieth parallel. When the charter was finally issued, no mention was made of this fort, but Penn's southern boundary was to be run from a point twelve miles north of New Castle northwestward to meet the fortieth parallel, and then westward. Penn then sent a letter to some of the settlers in the north- east of Maryland, telling them that they were now in his colony and must not pay any more taxes to Maryland, and concluded with a strong hint about his "power with his superiors." He refused to locate the fortieth parallel, and did his best to have a measurement made from William Penn Watkin's Point or some other point After the painting owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to the south. This, as he confessed, was for the purpose of gaining several miles to each degree in order to have the head of the Chesapeake within his colony. He was a favorite of the Duke of York, and procured from him a grant on the western bank of the Delaware, not a foot of which the duke owned or had the right to confer on anybody. In 1685 the Duke of York became King James II, and Penn had no difficulty in completing the theft of Maryland's territory. In the end the boundary of Pennsylvania was pushed southward to its present position, while on the east the present state of
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Delaware passed into Penn's hands. The king cared no more for right and justice than did Penn, and there was nothing for Maryland but to submit.
37. Affairs in England. - In Section 22 we stopped with the accession of Charles II. The details of his reign do not concern us ; it lasted until his death, in 1685, when he was succeeded by the Duke of York as James II. James had not learned the les- son which his father's death should have taught him, and tried to destroy the liberties of his subjects. He was dis- liked by most of them also on account of his being a bigoted Catholic, and in 1688 he was driven from his throne. He was succeeded by his daugh- ter, Mary, and her husband, William, Prince of Orange.
King William After the painting by Mierevelt, Amsterdam
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How this change caused the overthrow of the proprie- tary government of Maryland we have now to see.
38. The Difficult Position of the Second Proprietary ; Fear and Hatred of the Catholics. - Charles Calvert became proprietary of Maryland at a time peculiarly trying. He had numerous and industrious enemies both in America and in England. The Protestant inhabitants in Maryland were greatly in the majority, yet it was charged that they were persecuted by the Catholics and in actual danger. A clergyman named Yeo complained that there was no ministry established in Maryland, to which Baltimore responded that all forms of worship were tolerated and each sect supported its own ministers.
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To understand the events of this time you must realize and keep constantly in mind the cruel intolerance of the age and the bitter hatred that existed between the Catholics and the Protestants. Toleration of Catholics seems to have been regarded by the Protestants as very much "like keeping on terms of polite familiarity with the devil." Moreover, the Catholics held certain political notions which were regarded as highly dangerous, and this operated to create a fear and hatred of Catholic rule. It was assumed that if Spain or France or some other Catholic country should engage in a war with Eng- land, that the English Catholics would take part with the ene- mies of their country, and it was a not unusual thing to hear that the Catholics were stirring up the Indians to murder the Protestants. These and other charges equally absurd were entertained by many people, and as the country was not thickly settled and communication was slow and difficult, it was not hard to alarm the people in one part with stories of what was going on in another. Hence no matter how wise and just the rule of a Catholic lord, his Protestant subjects were certain to regard him with distrust, if not with dislike.
39. Other Causes of Discontent. - But there were not wanting other causes of dissatisfaction, for the proprietary's rule was not always strictly just, and certainly it was often unwise. After the arrival of Charles Calvert as governor, the chief offices of the government began to be filled with the relatives or intimate friends of the Calvert family. Persons marrying into the family in Maryland were nearly always appointed to an office, and presently the council seemed to be only a " pleas- ant little family party." This naturally caused discontent among the people, and the further fact that most of these officers were Catholics tended greatly to increase the feeling of dissatisfaction.
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There were frequent conflicts between the two Houses of Assembly. (The Upper House, remember, was composed of the governor and council.) The Quakers asked to be excused from taking oaths when giving testimony; the Lower House granted the request, but the Upper refused to agree. The sheriffs were appointed by the governor and were possessed of dangerous powers, and there was a struggle between the Houses, in which the delegates sought to place some check on these officers. It was charged against the proprietary that taxes were illegally levied, and there was much discontent with changes which he made in the constitution of the Assembly. Many other questions were subjects of dispute between the two Houses. Sometimes the delegates were wrong, but often they were right and firm in urging their claims. Yet in spite of all this dispute we find the Assembly voting the proprietary a gift of one hundred thousand pounds of tobacco, in token of their " gratitude, duty, and affection," which he declined as being too heavy a tax for the people of the province.
40. Murder of the King's Collectors. - The king's collectors of the custom house duties "were apt to behave themselves . . like enemies of the human race." . Much ill feeling existed between them and the Maryland government. They charged the proprietary with interfering with the performance of their duties and thus reducing the amount of their collec- tions ; as a result Lord Baltimore was heavily fined by the king.
One of the collectors engaged in this affair was Christopher Rousby, who was unusually offensive in the performance of his duties, and was accused of being a great rogue as well. In 1684 a vessel belonging to the royal navy lay in the harbor of St. Mary's. George Talbot, a relative of the proprietary, went on board and became engaged in a quarrel with this Rousby, which ended by Talbot's drawing a dagger and plunging it into
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Rousby's heart. The captain of the ship at once had him seized and placed in irons, and refusing to allow him to be tried in Maryland, by a court of his relatives, carried him off to Virginia.
Here he was imprisoned and in imminent danger of losing his life, or having to pay to the greedy governor his whole fortune as a bribe. But his brave and devoted wife, setting out from her home on the Susquehanna river one dark winter's night, sailed down the Chesapeake bay to his rescue in a small skiff, accom- panied only by two faithful followers. The courageous lady managed to free her husband and carry him off safe and sound, and after more difficulties he was finally pardoned by the king.
The affair, however, was decidedly unfavorable to the cause of Lord Baltimore. Another collector was afterward killed in the province, and although this occurred in a private fight and the offenders were punished, the effect was certainly harmful.
41. The Protestant Revolution (1689), by which Maryland Became a Royal Province. - When William and Mary came to the throne of England (see Sec. 37), Calvert sent word at once to have them proclaimed, or publicly named, as lawful sov- ereigns in Maryland. Unfortunately, the messenger died on the way, and before a second could arrive the palati- nate was overthrown. When the other English colonies proclaimed William and Mary, and the Maryland government remained silent, there was much discontent, and presently there was formed an " Association in Arms for the Defense of the Protestant Religion, and for asserting the Right of King William and Queen Mary to the Province of Maryland and all the Eng- lish Dominions." At the head of this Association was John Coode, a man who had already been tried for plotting against the government of Lord Baltimore and who in the future was to rebel against the very government he was now working to establish. He was a thoroughly bad character, and accord-
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ing to Professor Browne "seems to have renounced religion, morality, and even common decency." Owing to the causes already mentioned there were doubtless many persons dissatis- fied with the proprietary government. There were many who desired to escape from Catholic control and many who favored the cause of William and Mary and were offended because the latter were not proclaimed in Maryland. In this way Coode managed to gather a large body of followers, and leading a force against St. Mary's he captured it. He then detained all ships bound for England until he had prepared a letter to the king, in which he claimed to have acted for the purpose of securing King William's right and the protection of the Protes- tants, and urged the king to take the government of Maryland into his own hands.
The king decided to do as he was asked, and in March, 1691, he commissioned Sir Lionel Copley the first royal governor of Maryland, without waiting for a decision against the charter in the courts. Although the proprietary was stripped of his authority as a ruler, his rights as a landowner were respected, and he was allowed to retain his quit-rents and ownership of un- occupied land. Lord Baltimore thus became a mere landlord, instead of a nearly independent monarch; while Maryland lost her position of freedom, and became subject to the control of the English king.
42. The Royal Government; Religious Intolerance and an Es- tablished Church. - "The thongs of their shield, their charter, chafed the arms of the colonists, and they knew not from what blows and wounds it protected them, until they had thrown it away." Having once thrown it away, however, they were not long in discovering from what it had protected them. The first act of the Assembly called by Governor Copley was to thank the king for saving them " from the arbitrary will and pleasure
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of a tyrannical Popish government under which they had long groaned." They then proceeded to see that some other people should have occasion to groan.
The Church of England, the Protestant Episcopal, was estab- lished by law, and everybody was taxed for its support, whether he believed in its form of worship or not. Moreover, the rich and the poor paid the same amount, an unjust plan, which was so bitterly resented that even at the present day the Maryland Declaration of Rights declares that "the levying of taxes by the poll is grievous and oppressive " (Art. 15). Only a few of the people were Episcopalians, and the Puritans who had so earnestly labored to rid themselves of the "tyrannical Popish government " must have felt that they had rid themselves of altogether too much. To make matters as bad as possible, even under these circumstances, many of the Episcopal clergymen were soon noted as very corrupt men, some of whom were shame- less gamblers and drunkards. This was because they were not responsible to the people, and is, of course, no reflection on the Episcopal church. Savage laws were passed against the Catho- lics. No Catholic priest was permitted to perform his service ; no Catholic might take children to educate, under penalty of imprisonment for life; and if a Catholic youth on coming of age was not willing to take certain oaths (which no conscien- tious Catholic could take), his property was to be taken and given to his nearest Protestant relative. Protestant dissenters, or those who did not worship according to the Established Church, were, after a time, allowed to have separate houses of worship, and priests were allowed to conduct service in private houses ; but everybody had to pay the tax for the support of the Episcopal church.
43. Removal of the Capital to Annapolis ; King William's School. - Sir Lionel Copley died shortly after his arrival in
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Maryland, and was succeeded by Francis Nicholson. After the latter's arrival in 1694 he summoned the Assembly to meet at Anne Arundel Town, later called Annapolis, and here the capital was permanently fixed. The people of St. Mary's were grieved and indignant, and sent an humble petition to the Assembly to recon- sider the matter. They received only a coarse and scornful refusal. The situa- tion of Annapolis was much more conven- ient, but it was cer- tainly unnecessary to address insulting lan- guage to the unfor- tunate people of St. Mary's. The removal The Old Treasury Building, Annapolis 1 From a photograph of the capital proved a death-blow to the first city of Maryland; it dwindled away until little more than the name was left.
Governor Nicholson was noted for his zeal in the cause of education, and in the year 1696 he succeeded in founding King William's School at Annapolis, himself contributing liberally for that purpose.
44. The Province Restored to the Calverts. - During all this time Charles Calvert remained in England, secure in the enjoy- ment of his private rights, but deprived entirely of the rights as
1 This old building, probably dating from the seventeenth century, was formerly the meeting place of the General Assembly; it later became the office of the state treasurer and is now the office of the State Board of Education.
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a ruler conferred by his charter. His son and heir, Benedict Leonard, perceiving that the misfortunes of his father had come upon him as a result of his fidelity to his religion, decided in his own case to sacrifice his religion for his province, and publicly renounced the faith of his father and became a member of the Church of England. This must have been a bitter blow to his father, who died soon afterward. The plea that the government of Maryland was not safe in Catholic hands could now no longer be urged, and in 1715, with the death of Charles, the government of Maryland passed again into the hands of the Calverts. Benedict Leonard lived barely six weeks after the death of his father, but his young son, Charles, was ac- knowledged as fourth proprie- tary of Maryland, and the period Charles Calvert, Fifth Lord Baltimore From a painting in the gallery of the Maryland Historical Society of royal government came to an end.
45. State of Society ; Manners, Customs, and Character of the People. - The life of a people is determined to a very great degree by the geography of the country they inhabit, and this fact is remarkably well illustrated in the case of Maryland. The soil was very fertile and invited cultivation, the forests and streams abounded in game and fish, while the magnificent ex- panse of the Chesapeake bay, with its numberless inlets and
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navigable rivers, made communication easy. Thus towns were not needed and none were built. St. Mary's and Annapolis were simply places of meeting for the courts and for the trans- action of public business, and they refused to grow. St. Mary's never contained more than fifty or sixty houses, and even these were somewhat scattered. Maryland was thus wholly agricul- tural. Land was granted in large tracts, seldom less than fifty
A Tobacco Field From a photograph
acres and often embracing several thousands, and the owners, called planters, were engaged chiefly in the cultivation of tobacco. Most of the plantations bordered on the water, and each planter had his own "landing," or wharf, where vessels stopped to load his tobacco. In return for the tobacco the planters received wine, sugar, or salt fish; furniture or tools; or some other necessaries or luxuries which had to be imported, for there were no manufactures in the province. If the planter lived at a distance from the water's edge, he brought down his tobacco
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over a "rolling road " ; that is, an axle was fitted to the tobacco hogshead, thus making it both cart and load, a horse or an ox attached, and the tobacco thus drawn over a rough road to the landing.
Many of the houses were built of logs, but the richer planters built sub- stantial houses of brown or chocolate - colored bricks. These bricks were not Tobacco Hogshead Ready for Rolling From a model in the National Museum at Washington brought from England, as has been supposed by many persons, but were made close at hand. On the Eastern Shore, near the old brick houses, we can still find, sometimes, shallow pits from which clay was taken, and the remains of an old kiln near by. Food was at hand in unlimited quanti- ties : the forests swarmed with deer, turkeys, and other wild creatures, and the rivers and creeks were frequented by millions of ducks and geese, while fish and oysters could be taken by the boat load. Large numbers of hogs were allowed to run wild, each bearing its owner's mark. Little wheat was grown, but there was plenty of corn from which was made an abun- dance of hominy, hoe-cake, and pone. The corn was still pounded, as a rule, in mortars of wood, mills being very rare.
The larger planters had more servants and lived in greater style than their less fortunate neighbors, though it could hardly be said they had more money, for tobacco was practically the only currency. Gifts, fees, and quit-rents were paid to the pro- prietary in tobacco; the governor and other officers received a salary in tobacco ; fines were paid in tobacco; and so were wages of all kinds and the salaries of clergymen. A man's
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wealth was estimated in pounds of tobacco, and whether he bought food and clothing or paid a marriage fee, tobacco was the money used. Servants were of several kinds. Negro slaves had early been introduced into the colony, but up to this time not a great many were held. Many white persons were held to service in the following way. If a person wanted to come out to America but did not have the money necessary to pay his passage, he might agree with the captain of the vessel to give a term of service in- stead. On the ar- rival of the vessel the captain sold the services of
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The Murray House, Anne Arundel County, Maryland Built in 1743 From a photograph
these persons to one of the colonists for a certain time, - two, three, or four years. These persons were called "redemptioners," or indented ser- vants. Their treat- ment was usually good, and at the
end of their term of service they received clothing and pro- visions, with a farm of fifty acres. Of a less desirable character were the convicted criminals, many of whom were sent out to the colonies by the English government. Here they were sold to a master and compelled to work for a term of years, gen- erally seven or fourteen. Some of these were merely political offenders; others were real criminals, against whose coming the colonies entered frequent but vain protests.
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The people seem to have been of a shrewd and thoughtful character, though few were well educated and there were as yet no newspapers in the province. In disposition they were in- clined to be mild rather than hard or cruel. Few crimes of a serious nature are recorded. The laws of England at this time were very severe ; for instance, if a mother stole food for her starving children, and its value exceeded a shilling, she incurred the penalty of death. The pillory and stocks were in con- stant use. These savage English laws were generally in force, but the sentences under them were rarely executed. Our milder people usually modified the more severe ones. It was regarded as a serious crime for a servant to run away from his mas- ter, or to " steal himself," the pen- alty being death or an extra period of servitude. We read of a Susan A Pillory Frizell, who ran away from her From a drawing by Homer Colby based on contemporary sources master and mistress and so got her- self sentenced to an extra term of service; yet when she com- plained bitterly of her hard treatment, the judges pitied her and declared that she should be set free. In justice, however, her master must be paid five hundred pounds of tobacco. Several kind gentlemen who were present then subscribed six hundred pounds of tobacco to prevent poor Susan from serving another master for this amount, so that she found herself "a free woman, with one hundred pounds of tobacco, so to speak, in her pocket."
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The people of Maryland were noted also for their boundless hospitality. Guests were always gladly received and royally entertained. Travel was difficult, for the roads were wretchedly poor and there were few carriages, travelers being compelled to proceed on horseback over mere paths.
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R UN away from the Subfcriber, at Upper Marlorough, in -Prince George's County, Maryland, on Sunday the 14th of this Inftant Tuly, an Englifo Servant-Man named John; Ger, lately imported by Mr. John Latorente from Liverpool; he has been Bied to Hofanddry, is about 35 Years old, middle fiz'd, and well fet: He had on an Ofnabrig's Shirt, black Everlafting Breeches, a German Serge Waultcoat with yellow capp'd But- tons and no Sleeves, an old Coat, a Pair of ribb'd Hole, and a new Felt Hat.He carty'd with him two fpare Shirts, the one finc, the other coarfe; and is fuppofed to be gone in Company with a Servant belonging to Mrs. Citbarsne Playfu 7 . Whoever brings the faid Servant to the Subfcriber, man have Twenty Shillings Reward, befides what the Law allows. JOHN HEPBURN.
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