USA > Maryland > Anne Arundel County > Annapolis > The Ancient City.: A History of Annapolis, in Maryland, 1649-1887 > Part 12
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An advertisement in October, 1745, announced, "next Spring a caravan will be set up to go from said places, (Charlottetown and Patapsco, ) to York, Lancaster, and Philadelphia, for the conveyency of Passengers, Goods, letters, &c." Six months public notice was thus given of a journey that now can be made from those points to Philadelphia in six or eight hours :
Nostrums were duly advertised in those pastoral times. In the issue of September 13, 1745, one Francis Torres gave out in a flaming advertisement, a page and a quarter in length, that he had possession of certain Chinese stones and powders which had cured "Rheumatism, Gout, Bite of Venemous Snake, Cancers, Swellings, Pleurisy, Tooth- ache, Headache, and numerous other diseases, simply by an outward application of the remedies." The announcement was followed by a long number of certificates of persons, (which practice continues until this day, ) who had seen cures made, or had themselves been healed, by these "chemical compositions." Some certified to seeing six per- sous cured of rattlesnake bites, one of being cured of tooth-ache, one of pain in the feet, one of a cancer being cured, and thus, throughout the list, the marvelous healings ran.
But "Monsienr Torres" was not allowed to sell in peace his Chinese cure-alls at twenty-five shillings per stone and bag. A correspondent, in the Gazette, of November 8, stated that "if any one could not afford the price charged for these articles, they should go to a cutler's shop, there you will find a remnant of buck-horn, cut off probably from a piece that was too long for a knife handle, saw and rasp it into what- ever shape you please, and then burn it in hot embers, and you will have Mons. Torres. Chinese stones which will stick to a wet finger, a fresh sore, &c., &c., &c., and have all the virtues of-a new tobacco pipe."
The powders were disposed of in as summary a manner by this oritic.
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The Gazette paid some attention to local matters ; considerably more to legislative proceedings. Its columns, in 1745, contained the correspondence between the Governor and the Legislature when they were at variance about the imposition of a tax on tobacco, which the Governor and council of State had imposed without the authority of the Legislature. Several sharp messages passed between them, and contro- versy ended in the dissolution of the Legislature by the Executive.
The marvelous pervaded the columns of newspapers then as well as in these times. Thus we hear from Dorchester county, that, in the great snow in December last, a poor man standing upon the limb of a tree, with a broad axe in his hand, cutting off some boughs for fire- wood, his foot slipped, and he tumbled down, and falling upon the edge of the axe, (which was kept uppermost by the snow,) his breast was: cut open quite the whole breadth of the axe, and his lungs came out. A surgeon, being applied to in a few days, made a perfect cure of, him."
In the date of June 3, 1746, the Gazette published this item : "The- following article, having been transmitted with a desire to have it in- serted in this paper, it is therefore, without any alteration, submitted. to the judgment of the people :
" 'On Saturday, May 24, 1746. two men of repute, fishing off Kent Island, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the weather clear and calm, they saw to their surprise, at a small distance, a man, about five feet high, walking by them on the water, as if on dry land. He crossed over from Kent to Talbot county about the distance of four miles .? ""
The attention that was paid to foreign news was very great. Al- most the entire paper, number after number, was filled with news from important places of the old world. These clippings show a de- cidedly Protestant cast of sentiment. The following is an account of a procession observed at Deptford, England, in 1745, honor of the King's birthday :
"I. A Highlander, in his proper dress, carrying on a pole a pair of wooden shoes, with this motto :
THE NEWEST MAKE FROM PARIS.
"II. A Jesuit in his proper dress, carrying on the point of a long flaming sword, a banner with this inscription in large Capital letters :
INQUISITION, FLAMES, AND DAMNATION.
"III. Two Capauchin Friars, properly shaved, habited and ac- coutred with flogging poles, beads, and crucifixes, &c. One or them bore, on a high pole a bell, Massbook, and candles, to curse the Brit- ish nation with ; the other carried a large standard with this inscrip- tion :
INDULGENCES CHEAP AS DIRT.
Murder .Nine-pence.
Adultery. Nine-pence half pence.
Reading the Bible. A thousand pounds.
Fornication Four pence half penny farthing.
Perjury. . . Nothing at all.
Rebellion. A Reward or draw-back of thirteen pence half penny Scots money.
"IV. The pretender with a ribbon, a nosegay, &c., riding upon an
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ass, supported by a Frenchman on the right, and Spaniard on left, each dressed to the height of the newest modes from Paris and Madrid. "V. The Pope riding upon his bull.
"The procession was preceded and closed by all sorts of rough music, and after a march round the town, the Pope and the pretender were committed to the flames according to custom, but not 'til they had been first confessed, absolved, and purged with holy water, by the Jusuit. The several actors played their parts with great drollery, and the only token of affection to popery which the spectators gave was a liberal collection to the money-boxes of the begging friars."
The character of the education, then available in the Province of Maryland, is learned from an advertisement in the "Gazette." Mr. Peter Robinson advertised that at his school in Upper Marlborough, Prince George's county, reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, cos- mography, astronomy, merchants' accounts, "or the art of book-keep- ing after the Italian manner," and algebra, were taught : also the description and use of "sea-charts, maps, quadrants. forestaffs, nocturnal protractor, scales, Coggershalls' rule sector, gauging rod, universal ring dials, globes, and other mathematical instruments."
The hard, persecuting spirit of those times is evidenced by a para- graph taken from the same issue in which Mr. Robinson's advertise- ment appeared :
"ANNAPOLIS :- Last week some persons of the Romish communion were apprehended, and upon examination were obliged to give security."
The same mind was shown in the needless cruelties inflicted upon criminals.
In the issue of Friday, June 14, 1745, was this item : "Last week at Talbot County Court, a Negro man was sentenced to have his right hand cut off ; to be hanged, and then quartered ; for the murder of his overseer, by stabbing him, a few days before with a knife."
Another-"On Friday last Hector Grant, James Horney, and Ether Anderson were executed at Chester in Kent county, pursuant to their sentence for the murder of their late master. The men were hanged, the woman burned. They died penitent, acknowledging their crimes, and the justice of their punishment." The latter sentence commends itself to the sainted murderers of today.
CHAPTER XXVIII. ANNAPOLIS IN 1745.
The members of the House of Delegates for this year from Anne Arundel were Major Henry Hal!, Dr. Charles Carroll, Mr. Philip Hammond, and Mr. Thomas Worthington. For Annapolis City, Capt. Robert Gordon, and Dr. Charles Stewart.
On Wednesday, May 15th, 1745, James Barret was executed at An- napolis for the murder of John Cain in Baltimore county, perpetrated
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under the following circumstances : Cain, Barret, and another man, all three of them convicts, were engaged in petty thieving, and Cain was employed to sell some wool for them. He did it for eighteen pence ; and, on his refusal, after several demands to give his compan- ions their share of it, they drew lots who should kill him. It fell upon Barret, and he inflicted a wound upon him with a knife, from which he died in nine weeks. Barret appeared at his trial about the first of April without remorse, but, at his execution, he "seemed peni- tent for his sins ; implictily confessed the fact for which he suffered ; admonished the spectators to avoid drunkenness and passion, and de- clared he forgave, and died in charity with all mankind.""
Slave catching thrived in the province in these times. The records tell of one John Irwin, who was well known in the province, "particu- larly for his wonderful dispatch and integrity in taking up runaways, and his remarkable good nature in sometimes helping them off. It will be left to a certain class of moralists to determine which of these traits led him to commit a robbery and murder on the public highway in Scotland, which he expatiated by his life at Edinburg, Nov. 1744."
On Tuesday the 16th of July, 1745, there were great demonstrations of joy, such as the "firing of guns and drinkings of healths &c." made at Annapolis over the reduction of Louisburg by the New Eng- land and English troops. The newspaper of the capital gave great space to the account of this capture, showing how keen an interest the people felt in the achievement.
On the 4th of August, 1745, Sunday, a severe storm passed over An- napolis doing great damage to it. A house was struck, and a man and his wife severely injured ; other persons, in and near the town, were also hurt. Several cattle were killed in the country. The storm was particularly severe towards South River. In this section three riders had just left their horses standing under a tree and had retired to the house for shelter, when all of the horses were struck by light- ning and killed.
On the 13th of August, a lad, aged 12 years, William Watson was knocked overboard by the boom of a schooner within Greenbury's Point and drowned. On the 25th of the same month two "servent men," one belonging to Mr. Tootell and one to Mr. Inch were upset in a canoe on Spa Creek, and drowned.
On the 13th of September, James Briscoe, of St. Mary's county, was burnt in the hand at Annapolis pursuant to a sentence of court for manslaughter, to which he pleaded guilty.
Robt. Gordon, Esq., was chosen mayor of the city in October.
In this year the ship William and Anne, of Annapolis, Capt. Stra- chan was captured-it is supposed by the French-then at war with England-on her passage to London, and ransomed for 1,500 guineas.
On Thursday, December, 20th, a fire broke out about midnight in the residence of Mr. Gibson, in Annapolis, which, notwithstanding all possi- "ble assistance, entirely consumed the same, with all the furniture wearing apparel, and out-houses. Two negroes, a man and a woman, perished in the flames ; the rest of the family narrowly escaping with their lives. "It is thought this melancholy accident was occasioned by the negroes carrying coals up stairs to light their pipes with."
Friday, December 7, Robt. Gordon, Esq., and Walter Dulany were Maryland Gazetle.
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unanimously elected delegates to the General Assembly to represent Annapolis.
On Monday, August 5th, 1745, the Maryland Legislature began a called session in Annapolis. A greater number of delegates was never known to be in attendence at the first day of the session. Col. Edward Sprigg was unanimously elected speaker and Major William Tilghman appointed clerk. The Governor, Thomas Bladen, Esq., ap- proved their election. It is thus seen the Governor had an important prerogative in the House-the rejection of its elected officers.
"The session," said the Governor in his speech to the House, "was occasioned by a letter I have received from the Governor of New England, which shall be laid before you. You will find by it, that we are called upon to give our assistance towards securing to the obedience of our Sovereign the late acquisition of Cape Breton." After expressing his belief that the body would not be wanting in patriotism in the matter, Gov. Bladen concluded his speech, with "This service requiring the first place in consultations, and the speediest dispatch, I shall postpone the mention of any other Matters to you, 'til we have discharged our duties upon this point."
The Upper House of the Legislature in a brief address assured Gov. Bladen the were ready to give all assistance in their power to aid in securing Louisburg or Cape Breton to obedience to their common sov- erign ; and were ready to show on all occasions their duty and zeal for his Majesty's cause.
Gov. Bladen briefly replied to the Upper House : "Gentlemen of the Upper House of Assembly, I thank you for your address, which ca :- not but be very agreeable to me, as it confirms me in the good opinion I have of your duty and affection to his Majesty, and zeal for his service."
On Wednesday the 7th, the Lower House, or House of Delegates made their reply. The peculiar phraseology of the first part of the first sentence is noticeable. "MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, We his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Delegates of the Freemen of Maryland, in this present Asseu.bly convened, take leave to acknowledge the favour of your excellency's speech at the opening of this session, and your goodness in communicating to us Gov. Shir- ley's letter, whereby we have the pleasing news of the Reduction of Louisburg or Cape Breton, to his Majesty's obedience." They added although exempted from the call for troops, they would proceed to raise a support, and promised to give this business their first atten- tion.
On Friday, Gov. Bladen returned this brief answer : "Gentlemen of the Lower House of Assembly, It is a real satisfaction to me to find by your address that you are resolved to act like good subjects, faith- ful representatives, and true lovers of your country."
Thus far all was well ; but behind the Governor's anxiety to secure an appropriation for supplies for Louisburg was an executive skeleton. He wanted the supplies voted at once. That was all, it appears, that he desired. then he had the Legislature in his power. He had the right of dissolution in his hand. So, if the Legislature was tur- bulent afterward, he could prorogue them, and not disappoint his wishes, but to send the members home before the supplies were granted would defeat the very object for which they were called together. The
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Lower House, on which its seems devolved the burden and the honor of defending the rights of the "Freemen of Maryland" were as well aware of this pitfall, as was the Governor who set it. They did not intend to step in it.
On the evening of the 7th, probably after the other mild and agree- able address had been presented to Governor Bladen, the following ad- ditional one was passed by the Lower House : "May it please your Excellency, It appearing to this House, that there has been assessed and levied by order of your Excellency and council, the sum of one pound of Tobacco, on every taxable person within this Province ; and to force the collection thereof an execution hath been put into the hands of the respective sheriffs : But in as much as it is not known to this House, by what Power or authority your excellency and their Honors have done the same, we humbly pray your excellency will please to order to be laid before this House, the authority by which the said tax hath been assessed, levied, and execution issued for the same."
On the 12th another address was sent to his excellency. It read : "May it please your Excellency, We beg leave to represent to your ex- cellency, that, as the several Naval Officers of this province do, by vir- tue of sundry acts of Assembly, collect large sums of Money for the use of the public, we pray your Excellency will be pleased to acquaint us whether they give any bond for the due execution of their trusts in their offices, and if any, where lodged. As also to cause the same, or authentic copies thereof, to be laid before the House."
The Governor ignored for a time these two addresses from the Lower House, but sharply rebuked that body on the 13th by the following message :
"Gentlemen of the Lower House of Assembly, You have now sat above a week, and no bill has yet been offered to me, or by what I can find, sent to the Upper House for the purpose, I so earnestly recom- mended at our first meeting, and which brought us together at this season of the year. This Delay is the most extraordinary, as you have, in your address in answer to my speech at the opening of the session, made the greatest professions of loyalty to our gracious sov- erign, and zeal to the common cause, and you cannot but know, that the greatest dispatch is absolutely necessary, to render whatever you shall think fit to contribute, of real use. This is a truth not to be de- nied, and, therefore, it is that I postpone the mentioning any other matter to you 'till we shall have discharged our duties upon this Point ; which might very easily have been done in two or three days. I am sensible that what is passed cannot be remedied, and that all I can do is to remind you of your duty : therefore I earnestly exhort you, as- you regard his Majesty's honor and service, and your own reputation, to discharge it without farther loss of time."
Undismayed by attacks upon their loyalty to their sovereign or in- sinnations against their personal reputation, the members of the Lower House, under date of the 15th, made this manly reply :
"May it please your Excellency, Whatever construction you are pleased to put upon our actions, we assure you, that our unfeigned loyalty to his Majesty will never permit us to give the least delay to anything that relates to his service, and this is apparent by the early and unanimous resolve of our House, to raise a sum of money for the
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support of his garrison at Cape Breton : And accordingly a bill to that end is in as great forwardness as the subject matter would ad- mit, and will, with the utmost expedition, be sent to the Upper House. Were we inclined to think of any other than a fair and upright be- havior in your excellency, we conceive there is equal room to suspect a delay on your part ; as you have had before you our address relating to the authority by which your excellency and his lordship's council have levied upon the people one pound of tobacco per poll, near as long as the affair for support of Cape Breton hath been under our considera- tion, and we should think it less difficult for your excellency to say by what authority that tobacco was levied, than it is for us to find out ways and means effectually to answer the service of his majesty with the greatest ease to the people.
"As what we are about to do for the service of our most gracious sovereign is the result of our own free will, we are determined not to be diverted from that method of proceeding, whereby we hope to render it most useful and agreeable."'
The quarrel was now fully inaugurated and the irate Governor was not long in making a reply to this independent address. The next day, the 16th, Gov. Bladen sent this message to the Lower House : "Were I to judge of your address by the reasoning, language, and style of it, I should put no other construction upon it, but that you were at a loss how to defeat the service you are met upon, and that you were resolved to treat me with the utmost indecency and ill man- ners, merely to furnish yourself with a pretence, that you were di- verted from the method of proceeding that would have rendered your services most useful and agreeable to his majesty.
"But, as you say, you are determined not to be so diverted, let your proceedings give evidence of the sincerity of your words, and I shall rejoice at it, and shall willingly lose the remembrance of your extraordinary behavior towards myself in the pleasure I shall receive, when I shall see your actions correspond with the profession you make of duty to his Majesty and affection for his service : This is the great point you are met upon, and I must say, you have already let so much time go by, that you have no more to lose, if you really mean to act like good subjects and avoid an odious distinction that must inevita- bly be made between the behavior of a Maryland Lower House of As- sembly and that of all the other colonies, who have been applied to on this important business.
"As for not giving you an answer to your address in relation to the levy of one pound of tobacco per poll, I have deferred i; purely in respect to his Majesty's service which ought to have engrossed our whole attention, and which, if it had, would have saved the pain of answering an address of so strange a nature as what you have sent me this day, which I know to be the production of a few. So to a a few, very few, do I impute it."
Three days after, the Legislature voted £1,000 towards the support of the garrison at Cape Breton. They had before made an appropria- tion to this service of £2,090. Thus they showed their loyalty to their sovereign, whilst they maintained their rights as freemen.
Once in the arena, the Freemen of Maryland, by their representa- tives, were disposed to bring their recalcitrant governor to the torture block, and to answer for real or imaginary delinquencies. On the 21st,
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after reciting in an address to the governor that the people of Mary- land were "burthened with many taxes and charges," they reminded him there were certain fines, forfeitures and amerciaments, which ·ought to be appropriated to the support of the government, and, as there have been no accounts been rendered to the House of Delegates for many years, they desired accounts of them from "1715 to this time."
On the 23rd of the month, the delegates of Maryland sent his ex- cellency another address. It was brief and pointed. It read :
"May it please your Excellency, You not being pleased hitherto to give us an answer to a former address of this House, requesting you would order to be laid before us, by what authority your excellency and his lordship's council have caused to be levied on the people of this Province one pound of tobacco per poll, we humbly presume to renew our application to your excellency for that purpose.
"And we do hope this request will be the more readily complied with, as it is the desire of the whole representative body of the people of Maryland."
That day Gov. Bladen sent three messages to the Lower House in reply to the addresses of that body. In the first he said that the tax of one pound of tobacco was levied "by virtue of an act of Assembly, for the ordering and regulating the militia of this province for better defence and security thereof, which you will find in the body of laws, page 101."
In regard to the naval officers' bond, the Governor said they were "lodged" with him, and he had ordered copies to be laid before the House.
As to the fines and forfeitures paid since 1715, that were appro- priated by the Legislature for the support of the Government, the governor said that he took it "for granted, that the agents, who re- ceived them, have accounted for them to the Lord Proprietary, to whom only they were accountable." The same reasoning and man- ner of reply was made as to the fines and forfeitures of common law. The Governor closed his communications with "and if there was any occasion to lay such accounts before the Lower House of Assembly, as you desire, which I think there is not, it would be a very difficult task on me to procure such accounts, because several of the gentle- .men who have been agents, are dead, and I am not acquainted with their executors or administrators. The same reasons will reach the amerciaments, and, therefore, I need not add anything more relating to them."
The governor's replies in regard to the bonds of naval officer, and the fines, forfeitures, and amerciaments appear to have been satisfactory ; but not that in regard to the levying of the tobacco tax by himself and council.
On September second, the Lower House sent the longest paper of the correspondence to the Governor, in which it recited the act by which the governor claimed to lay the tax, and stated that, as this act was one supplemental to one enacted to be in force for three years, its authority had long since expired. "And although," the address con- tinued, "this be our opinion on that point, we take leave further to ob- serve to your excellency, that if the said act were in its full force, yet it does not appear to us, that your excellency and the honorable board, have acted agreeable to the letter, meaning, or intention thereof.
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"It gives us great concern to have any cause of complaint against or difference with your excellency, and that honorable board, and therefore truly wish and hope to find, that the welfare and ease of the people may, and will, be the measure and rule of acting.
"We, therefore, hope you will agree with us, that it isa high in- fringement on the liberties of the people of Maryland to levy any taxes on them under color of law, as not only we, but our constitu- ents generally conceived has been done in this case."
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