USA > Maryland > Maryland : the history of a palatinate > Part 5
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Charles II., in 1650, being then a fugitive in the island of Jersey, was pleased to consider Bal- timore a rebel, and granted the government of Maryland to Sir William Davenant, the poet. Davenant, it is said, actually set sail for the Province, but was seized in the British Chan- nol by a Parliament cruiser, and his plans and ambitions brought to un untimely end.
In 1650 the Assembly was organized in two Ilonses, the Governor, Secretary, and one or more of the Council forming the Upper House, and the Burgesses the Lower ; and the assent of both Houses was necessary to the passage of any bill. The members of the Upper House,
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being appointees of the Proprietary, might be trusted to guard his rights and interests, and, being men of experience and substance, might be expected to check over-busty legislation ; while the Burgesses gave expression to the pop- ular will. Though this severance of the Houses gave greater freedom to the Burgesses, the Proprietary not only confirmed it, but forbade that it should be changed.
The temper of the Assembly scomed good ; a dispute that had arisen the previous session on the old question of originating laws had been settled ; an Act of Oblivion for those concerned in the late rebellion was passed; and an Act fully recognizing the Proprietary's rights and the benefits the colony enjoyed under his rule, was placed on record by the Burgesses " as a memorial to all posterity of their thankfulness, fidelity, and obedience." Compliance with Claiborne was prohibited. In all these acts the burgesses from Providence concurred ; and that settlement was erected into the county of Ann Arundel, so named from the Proprietary's wife.
Now this settlement at Providence was a Puritan settlement, and its origin was this : In 1643 the Virginia Assembly passed a law that all Nonconformists should be expelled the colony ; and in the following years many of
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them asked and obtained leave to settle in Ma- ryland. ' Freedom of conscience was assured them, and nothing demanded of them but obe- dience to the laws, fidelity to the Proprietary, and the usnal quit-rents ; conditions which they gladly accepted. They settled in groups, ap- pointed their own officers, managed their affairs, religious and secular, in their own way, sent burgesses to the Assembly, and seemed for a while content. Their largest settlement was on the Severn, and to this they gave the name of Providence, in acknowledgment of the Hand that had guided thom to a haven of safety and rost.
In November, 1650, Governor Stone being in Virginia, Groene, his temporary deputy, com- mitted the strange folly of proclaiming Charles II. as heir to his father's dominions. Stone quickly returned and displaced Greene, and no harm seemed to have been done ; but the act was treasured in tenacious memories.
Virginia, however, had declared by the voice of her Assembly that Charles II. was King, and had denounced the penalty of death against all who questioned his right. This act of defiance could not be overlooked by Parliament, which, in 1650, decided to send a fleet to reduce that plantation and Barbadoes to submission. Mary- land was threatened at the same time, Ingie,
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now in England, being a leading spirit in the attack ; but Baltimore went before the commit- teo and produced such evidence that there was no revolt in Maryland against the authority of the Commonwealth, that his charter was con- firmed, and the name of that Province was stricken out of the instructions. He had vigi- lant enemies, however, and by some underhand means, not " Maryland," but "the plantations within the Chesapeake Bay " was inserted in the commission, dated September 26, 1651. We have not far to seek for the inspiration of this device, when we find Captain William Clai- borne named as one of the commissioners, and with him Richard Bennett, one of the perse- cuted Puritans who had sought and found an asylum in Maryland, and taken an obligation of fidelity to the Proprietary. Two years be- fore they had sent a declaration to l'arliament that Maryland was nothing but a nursery of Jesuits, and that the " poor Protestants " were everywhere " suppressed." To this Baltimore answered by showing that the Nonconformists, when drivon from Virginia, had found a safe refuge in Maryland.
Virginia being redaced to submission, the Commissioners, after nppointing Bennett Gov- ernor and Claiborne Secretary of State, turned their attention to Maryland. They began by
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displacing Stone, but presently reinstated him to govern with a council of their own selection. For the future the inhabitants were to take the engagement to Parliament, and all legal proc- esses were to run in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England, thus effacing the Proprietary's rights. Baltimore took legal steps for redress, but nothing was done at the time.
The desirableness of uniting Virginia and Maryland had been strongly urged upon the authorities in England, and to counteract these intrigues Baltimore, in 1652, laid before the Commissioners of Plantations a paper entitled, " Reasons of State concerning Maryland." He shows that each plantation can be made a check upon the other, and if there should be a revolt in either, the well-affected could find a refuge in the other ; that the Proprietary, living in England, was a hostage for the good behavior of his colony ; that Maryland had remained faithful to the Commonwealth when other plan- tations foll off, and that to strip him now of his rights would be a discouragement to other ad- ventures.
These arguments were really sound, and probably had weight, as we hear uo more of the union of tho colonies. When Cromwell, in 1653, dimolved the Parliament, and caused bienwolf to be declared Protector, with the au.
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thority, if not the title, of King, the Protec- torate was publicly proclaimed by Stone in Maryhund.
This act of Cromwell's changed the whole situation. At one blow Parliament and Keep- ers had gone, and with them the authority of every official who derived his power from them. Cromwell and the army were all the govern- ment of England. And Cromwell was as anx- ious now to consolidate his power, as he had been eager to attain it. To put an end to all civil dissensions, to "heal and settle," as he phrased it, was now his first wish. The dis- putes between Maryland and Virginia were brought before him, and he wrote a highly characteristic letter to Bennett and Claiborne, promising to consider the matters in question, and exhorting them in the mean time to keep the peace, and above all to give their minds earnestly to religion.
Baltimore now thoughit it time to take a de- cisive move. Ilis patent stood firm. There was no reason why he should not hold the same rights under the I'rotectorate that he bad for- merly held under the Crown ; and this theory, that the Protectorate, as legitimate heir or as- signee of the Crown, had succeeded to all its rights and obligations, was Cromwell's own view. With the authority of Parliament, that
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. delegated to the Commissioners had expired, and Stono in his proclamation hnd expressly stated that the Proprietary government existed by virtue of the charter, and was held under the Protectorate. Strong in this position, Bal- timore directed Stone to exact the customary oath of fidelity from all taking up lands, and to see that legal process ran in his name as here- tofore.
There was nothing in this offensive to Crom- well or England. But it was not England's game that Bennett and Claiborne wero play- ing, but their own. They mustered a force, partly from Virginin, and partly from Mary- land, compelled Stone to resign, and placed Captain William Fuller, a Puritan of Provi- dence, with a body of commissioners, in pos- session of the government.
The commissioners now went to work and is- qued writs of election to a General Assembly, writs of a tenor hitherto unknown in Maryland. No man of the Roman Catholic faith could be elected as a burgess, or even cast a vote. The Assembly obtained by this process of selection justified its choice. It at once repealed the Toleration Act of 1649, and enacted a new one moro to its mind, which also bore the title, " An Act concerning Religion ; " but it was toleration with a difference. It provided that
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none who professed the popish religion could be protected in the Province, but were to be restrained from the exercise thereof. For l'rot- estants it provided that no one professing faith in Christ was to be restrained from the exer- cise of his religion, "provided that this liberty be not extended to popery nor prelacy, nor to such as under the profession of Christ hold forth and practice licentiousness." That is, with the exception of the Roman Catholics and the Churchmen, together with the Brown- ists, Quakers, Anabaptists, and other miscel- laneous Protestant sects aimed at by the third exclusion, all others' might profess their faith without molestation_ Surely this toleration might have been expressed in briefer phrase.
Nor were they satisfied with overthrowing the Proprietary's authority and persecuting his fellow-believers ; they attacked his territorial rights, declaring that all persons who had transportod themselves into the l'rovince were entitled to land by virtue of such transporta- tion, and might take it up at pleasure, without any reference to Baltimore or his officers.
Baltimore remonstrated with the Protector, who wrote to Bennett, not, as before, to give his mind earnestly to religion, but to cease, and to make all under his authority, cense from disturbing the Marylanders, and to leave all
THE HISTORY OF A PALATINATE. 81 things as they had been before these altera- tions.
But before this order was sent, Baltimore, perhaps apprised of Cromwell's intentions, wrote to Stone robuking him for his too ready surrender, and directing him to resume his of- fice. Stone thereupon bestirred himself, and gathered a force for an advance upon Provi- denco, the headquarters of the Puritans. Part of his men marched by land, and part went by wator, until they reached the Severn River, when all were embarked and entered the har- bor on the evening of Maroli 24, 1655. Fuller assomblod his party and advanced to meet the Marylanders, who came up in spirited fashion, with the gold and black flag of Maryland fly- ing. Fuller's force was about 175, and Stone's about 180. But Fuller's party had been strengthened by two merchant ships in the river, the Golden Lyon of London, and a small trading-craft from New England. The captains of these vessels, being Puritans, readily agreed to help Fuller, and opened a severe fire upon the Marylanders from the water side, while the land forces attacked in front. Stone's party, thus canght between two fires, was defeated with severe loss, and surrendered upon promise of quarter.
Fuller now held a court - martial upon his
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prisoners, and condemned Stone and nine others to death, despite his promise of quarter. Even an appeal to the Protector was disallowed, and four wero executed in cold blood; but at the intercession of the soldiers and of some humane women, the lives of Stone and the survivors were spared. Stone, who was wounded, was kept for some time in rigorous confinement, not even his wifo being allowed to visit him.
The victors now went to work to reap the fruit of their labors. They seized the records and great seal, and proceeded to confiscato the property of the opposite party and to behave as in a conquered land. . The missions among the Indians were broken up, and the missionaries arrested or forced to fly. From the letter of 1656 we catch a glimpse of their trials : -
" The English who inhabit Virginia had made an attack on the colonists [of Maryland], and the Governor and others surrendered on the assurance of their lives ; but these conditions were treacherously violated, and four of the. prisoners were shot. They rushed into our houses and demanded that the impostors, as they called them, should be given up to slaugh- ter. By God's mercy the fathers escaped, but their books and other property were seized With the utmost hazard they escaped into Vir- ginia, where they still are, sorely straitened,
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and barely able to sustain life ; living in a lit- tle low hut, like a cistern or a tomb."
About this time we note the first appearance of the witchcraft delusion in Maryland. But, to the credit of the Province, that cruel super- stition took no hold, and the few charges that were brought were dismissed as false and mali- cious, thongh still, in 1669, wo find the county commissioners charged to inquire into " witch- craft, enchantments, sorceries, and magick arts," as well as into "forestallings, engrossings, and extortions." One conviction is found in 1674, of a certain Coman, but on the petition of the Lower House he was reprieved by the Govern- or, and no instance of an execution for this cause has been discovered in the records.1
There were, however, at least two trials of parties accused of hanging witches on the high sens, and the report of one, as it is associated with an illustrious name, wo give in exact tran- script from the original record of the Provincial Court. The complainant was the great-grand- father of George Washington : -
" Whereas John Washington of Westmoreland county in Virginia hath made Complaynt agst. Ed-
1 With perhaps a solitary exception. In Kilty's English Statutes there is a reference to an execution for witchcraft in 1645, but as the records of that year are lost, we are unable to verify it.
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ward Prescott, merch', Accusin the sa Prescott of ffelony unto the Gouerm' of this Province. Alleng- ing how that heo the sª Prescott hanged a Witch ou his ship as hoe was outwards bownd from England hither the last yeare. Vppon web complaynt of the ad Washington, the Gou' caused the sª Edward Prescott to bee arrested : Taking Bond for his appearance att this Prouinciall Court of 400001 of Tob. Gyuing . moreover notice to the sª Washington by letter of his proceedings therein. a Copio of weh I' with the sª Wash- ingtons answere thereto are as followeth
"' M' Washington
"' Vppon yo' Complaynt to moo th' M' Prescott did on his voyage from England hither cause a woman to bee Executed for a. Witch. 'I have caused him to bee apprehended uppon suspition of ffelony, & doo intend to bind him over to the Prouinciall Court to answere it where I doe allso exspect yo" to bee, to make good yo' Charge. Ilee will beo called uppon his Tryall the 4th or 5th of Octob' next att the Court to bee held then att Patux' noore M' ffenwicks howse. Where I suppose yo" will not fayle to beo. Wittnesses examined in Virginia will bee of noe ualew here in this Case, for they must bee face to face wth the party accused, or they stand for nothing. I thought good to acquaynt yo" wth this, that yo" may not come unprouided. This att present S' is all from yo' ffreind "' JOSIAS FFENDALL
"' 29th Septembr'
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" ' Hon ble S'
"' Yo" of this 29th instant this day I receaued. I am sorry th' my extraordinary occasions will not permitt mco to bee att the next Prouinciall Court, to bee held in Maryland the 4th of this next Month. Because then god willing I intend to geet my yowng sonne baptized. All the Company & Gossips being all- ready inuited. Besides in this short time Wittnossos cannott be gott to come ouer. But if M' Prescott be bownd to answere at the next Prouinciall Court after this, I shall doe what lyeth in my power to gott them oucr. S' I shall desyre yo" for to acquaynt mee whither M' Proscott be bound ouer to the next Court, & where the Court is that I may have some time for to prouido onidenco, & soo I rest.
""yo' ffreind & Serut "'JOHN WASHINGTON. "'30th of Soptomb" 1659'
" To weh complaynt of John Washington the su Edward Prescott (submitting himselfe to his try- all) denyeth not but that there was one Elizabeth Richardson hanged on his ship as he was outward Bownd the last yeare from England, & comming for this prouince, neore unto the Westerne Islands, by his Master & Company (Hee hauing appoyuted one John Greene for the Voyage, Mastor, though himselfe was both Merch' & owner of the ship) But further sayth, Th' he wth stood the proceedings of his sd Master & Company, & protested aget them in that business. And that therouppon both the Master & Company were ready to mutiny.
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" And it appearing to the Court by the Printed Custome howse Discharge & Light-howse Bills or acquittances produced & shewen by the sª Edw. Prescott taken or gyuen in John Greene's name, that the s" Greene was master for the voyage, & not Fal- ward Prescott. And noe one comming to prosequnte, The s4 Prescott therefore prays that hoe may boe ac- quittod.
" Whereuppon (standing uppon his Justificaon) Proclamaon was made by the Sheriffe in these uery words.
"O yes &c. Edward Prescott Prisoner att the Bar uppon suspition of ffelony stand uppon his ao- quittall. If any person can giue evidence against him, lett him come 'in, for the Prisoner otherwise will bee acquitt.
" And noe one appearing, the Prisoner is acquitted by the Board."
The Virginians were again vociferous for the destruction of Maryland, now reduced to ex- tremity, and the old clamor of Claiborne and hactenus inculta, the cuckoo-cry of "papists, Jesuits, oppressors of the poor Protestants," were again dinned into the Protector's weary cars. Once more the question was referred to the Commissioners for Plantations, and with it, "under particular reference from his High- ness," Baltimore's complaint against Bennett and Claiborne for the massacre at Providence,
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and once more Baltimore's rights were con- firmed.
Baltimore, before the decision was rendered, had appointed Captain Josias Fendall, gov- ernor, with a body of Councillors ; an unfortu- nate choice as it proved. But before Fendall could assume the government, he was arrested by Fuller, and only released on his pledge not to attempt anything against the Commission- ers.
In 1656 the Commissioners of Plantations, after a thorough investigation of the question, decided, as has been said, in Baltimore's favor ; and the Proprietary now' renewed his instruc- tions to Fendall, and sent out his brother, Philip Calvort, as Secretary of the Province. It would seem as if Cromwell, getting to under- stand the rights of the case, brought some pres- sure to bear on Bennett and Mathews, another of the Virginia Commissioners ; at all events, their policy toward Maryland changed, and Claiborne, it seems, had no voice in the matter. On November 30, 1657, Mathews, being then in England, made an agreement in Bennett's name with the Proprietary by which they sur- rendered all that had been gained, and balked the hopes of the Virginians when they seemed just within their grasp. Baltimore's rights, both sovereign and territorial, were fully con-
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ceded, and his authority was reestablishcd throughout the Province. A general amnesty was declared, and for the oath of fidelity, so much scrupled nt by those who disliked oathis and who disliked fidelity, was substituted a sim- ple obligation to submit to and sustain the Pro- prietary's government. Those who had been in arms against him had the option of taking this obligation, or quitting the Province within a year. All disputes urising from the lato dis- turbances were to be referred to the Lord Pro- tector and Council ; and no one was to be dis- franchised, disabled from holding office, or disarmed for any part he had taken in the late troubles. The legislation of the interregnum of course fell to the ground ; but the Commis- sioners even took pains to annul the most char- acteristic of their laws, by inserting in the agreement a clause that the Toleration Act of 1640 was to be made perpetual. No mention was innde of Claiborne, who has now finally disappeared from Maryland history, though we shall hear of him once more in a new character.
This agreement was signed and sealed on March 23, 1657-58, and thus Baltimore's strug- gle with Virginia and the Puritans ended in his complete triumph and reinstatement in all his rights. Every engine had been brought to bear against him : fraud, misrepresentation,
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religious animosities, and force; and each, for a time, had succeeded. IIe owed his triumph to neither violence, fraud, nor intrigue, but to the justice of his cause, and his wisdom, con- stancy, and patience.
CHAPTER VI. THE DUTCHI ON THE DELAWARE.
WHAT precious properties Baltimore had dis- covered in Fendall that he should select him to be governor, we cannot now sce; but his choice may have been guided by the zeal and devotion which he had displayed in the late troubles. Baltimore also gave substantial rewards to others who had proved their fidelity and suf- fered for it; and he sent particular directions for provision to be made out of his own rents for the widows of those who fell at Providence. They were charged to "let him know wherein he can do them any good, in recompense of their sufferings, of which he is very sensible ;" and he promises to do his best to obtain them further redress from the Protector and Council. To remove all discontents, those who had taken up lands under the Commissioners might have them confirmed under the usual conditions. So complete was the pacification that in the Assembly of 1659-60 we find Captain Fuller and others of the Commissioners taking seats as burgesses.
And now, for the first time, provision was
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made for admitting foreigners to naturalisa- tion, and placing them on the same footing as British subjects ; a privilege of which French- men, Dutch, Swedes, Germans, and others be- gan to avail themselves not long after.
Fendall opened liis administration witlı active measures. As the Indians seemed to threaten trouble, the dissensions in the Province having made them bold, the whole militia system was reorganised. All males capable of bearing arms, between sixteen and sixty, were mustered; and of these the ublest were enrolled in trained bands, and drilled regularly by their respective officers. The whole force was organised in two regiments, of which the Governor commanded the first, the district extending from the Poto- mac to the Patuxent; and Colonel Nathaniel Utie, the second, from the Coves of Patuxent to the Seven Mountains, and the Isle of Kent. These regiments were divided into companies, each company having its allotted district; thus Major Ewen had the company south of South River, Captain Howell that between South River and the Severn, Utie, as his special com- pany, that from the Severn to the Seven Moun- tains,1 and Captain Bradnox, an old Claiborne
! The Seven Mountains are a group of rather conspicuous hills on Gibson's Island, at the mouth of Magothy River, in Ann Arundel County.
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man, Kent Island. Although, by an agreement with the Indians, in 1652, the English were to possess, without molestation, the land between the Choptank and the Elk, yet there seems to have been as yet but one settlement on the Eastern Shore, near the Pocomoke.
This reorganisation of the militia 8001 brought the government into conflict with the Quakers, of whom a number had taken refuge in the Province from the persecutions in New England and Virginia. These pacific people not only refused to bear arms for their own defence, but did all they conld to dissuade others from doing so. They would not take the juror's oath, nor give testimony in court ; and, with exaggerated scrupulosity, refused the engagement (no longer an oath) of fidelity, and persuaded some who had taken it to renounce and disown it, on the ground that " they were to be governed by God's law and the light within them, und not by man's law." Two particularly active missionaries of the sect, Thurston and Cole, not residents of the Prov- ince, were arrested on these charges. Fendall, though far from possessing the liberal spirit of Baltimore, seemed not disposed to press the matter too harshly ; though it was evident that men who not only openly defied the laws, but exhorted others to defy them, could not be
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allowed to remain in Maryland.Thurston voluntarily offered to leave the Province, and he was permitted to do so. An order was passed that all Quaker " vagabonds and idlers" should leave Maryland, and if they ventured to return should be whipped from constable to constable out of the Province.
On this order Thurston was rearrested the next month ; but pleading that he was not liable to the penalty, as the order applied to such ouly as returned to the Province, whereas he had not yet left it, his plea was allowed. As the zealons Thurston was treated so leni- ently, it is not likely that more inoffensive per- sons met with more severity ; and, as matter of fact, there is no evidence that any Quaker was whipped during Fendall's brief rule, the only time that the order remained in force.
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