USA > Maryland > Anne Arundel County > Annapolis > The Ancient City.: A History of Annapolis, in Maryland, 1649-1887 > Part 13
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. This correspondence is found in the current numbers of the Maryland Gazette.
CHAPTER XXIX. ANNAPOLIS A CENTURY OLD.
[1749.] Mr. Allen, in his brochure of St. Anne's Parish, says of Annapolis at this period :
"At this date (1749, ) one hundred years had passed away since the emigrants from Virginia had settled in the territory of this parish. And it may be worth while to take passing retrospect of the changes here during this period. The original inhabitants, the Indians, were all gone. The Puritans, they too, as such, were no longer heard of, their places of worship were desolate, and their graveyards-where are they ? At their Proctor's Landing, a city had grown up; it was the seat of Government for the province. The State House, the Church, the School Houses, and magnificent dwellings, some of which still re- main, had taken the place of the log-hut of the emigrant and the wigwam of the Indian. Luxury, fashion, and commerce, with their at- tendant dissipations and extravagance, had taken the place of the severe and stern simplicity of the early settlers. The battles and wars of its first days had been forgotten, and the full congregations worshipping at the Parish Church and the Chapel at the head of the Severn, show that Puritanism had passed away. And this last men- tioned change what had produced it ? The descendants of the early Puritans were not a few, and many of them were still here ; but were they Puritans? How came all this? Was it that there were lacking in Puritanism the elements of perpetuity ? True, in returning to the church which their fathers had left, they sacrificed no doctrinal belief ; still, the ecclesiastical government and the forms of worship, which their ancestors had called by such harsh names, and so utterly repu- diated, were the same. Certainly, then we are left to the conclusion that while the Church of England did embody whatever was needful to self-preservation and purity, the system which had here passed away, did not possess them. For could earnestness and zeal and de- votion have preserved them, they had continued to flourish."
As spiritual changes had taken place in the Church-so in material matters, marked transitions had occurred. A hundred years had · 1858.
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HISTORY OF ANNAPOLIS.
given the matchlock of the Marylander for the quiver of the Indian ; the pinnace for the canoe ; the printing press for pictorial chronicles ; skilled tillage for the unthrifty hunt ; African slavery for savage liberty ; the race-course for the wrestling match ; the school for the war-dance ; substantial edifices for the wigwam ; the grand ritual of a mighty Church for the artless appeal to the Great Spirit ; the busy throb of an important Capital for the still-hunt of the savage.
The out-look of the city was fair and promising-its merchants had secured the chief trade of the province ; ships from all seas came to its harbor ; its endowed school educated its citizens for important positions ; its thought made the mind of the province ; the gayety of its inhabitants and their love of refined pleasure had developed the race-course, the theatre, and the ball-room ;- their love of learning the Gazette and King William's School ; creations and enterprises that made the province famous, in after years, as the centre of the social pleasures, of the culture, and of the refinement of the American colonies.
CHAPTER XXX .* CHRONICLES OF ANNAPOLIS FROM 1746 To 1773.
[1746.] January 28, the ship Aurora, Captain Pickeman, from Hol- dand, arrived at Annapolis with nearly 200 Palatines. | Four died on the passage of twelve weeks.
Saturday, March 8, from 10 to 12 o'clock, there was a remarkable aurora borealis at Annapolis. "It extended a full quarter of the compass, and in some places resembled a red-hot oven. The corusca- tions, or streams of light, which were numerous, and continually changing shape and situation, reached near 50 degrees towards the zenith.'
The importance of Annapolis in the province at this time can be seen from the fact that Baltimoreans were obliged to do their adver- tising in the Annapolis paper-the Gazette,-the only journal then printed in Maryland.
On Tuesday, the 6th of May, the long boat of the ship Richmond, was upset about three miles from Tolley's Point, and the boatswain, gun- ner, and three others were drowned. About a week afterwards their bodies washed ashore near Annapolis.
At a meeting of the corporation about this period, all by-laws were re- pealed, and fourteen others were enacted in their stead, constituting at that time the entire local code of the city. They were :
1. To prevent nuisances.
2. To ascertain the allowance to juries for verdicts.
3. To oblige officers to attend to their duties.
* The items of thi . chapter are taken milaly from the Maryland Gazette. The quaint expressions are the Gazette's own.
1 Germans.
"THE ANCIENT CITY."
4. To prevent the dangers which may happen by the firing of chim- neys.
5. For security of the peace.
6. To prohibit keeping sheep, hogs, or geese, or useless cattle, or horses within the town fence ; except in styes and inclosures.
7. To prevent accidents by fire.
8. For the encouragement of tradesmen.
9. To prevent vexatious suits for small debts.
10. To subject such persons as shall hereafter be elected Sheriffs of . Annapolis to a fine, if they shall refuse to undertake the execution of said office.
11. To prevent the dangers and accidents which may arise from building, beaming, or graving ships, sloops, boats, and other vessels.
12. To prevent the entertaining and harboring of slaves
13. To prevent sundry irregularities within the city of Annapolis.
14. For repair of the public streets and other purposes therein men- tioned.
15. To repeal all former by-laws of this corporation.
June 13, three persons were fined £20 each by the Anne Arundel Court, held at Annapolis, for drinking the Pretender's health.
On July 6th, the schooner Peggy, bound for Annapolis, with pas- sengers, was struck by lightning near Sharp's Island, the mainmast was rent from top to bottom. Ten persons lay for some time as dead. On recovering their conciousness they were seized with violent vomit- ings. The cabin was filled with a sulphurous smell.
The Gazette, of the issue of July 15, says : "The gentlemen belong- ing to the ancient South River Club, to express their loyalty to his Majesty, on the success of the inimitable Duke of Cumberland's ob- taining a complete victory over the Pretender, and delivering us from persecutions at home, and popery and invasion from abroad, have ap- pointed a grand entertainment to be given at their Club House on Thursday next. An example worthy the imitation of all true loyal subjects."
On Wednesday night, September 2nd, about midnight, Dr. Charles Carroll lost a warehouse by fire, "the third disaster of the kind," which had befallen him in eight months. Loss £600 sterling.
On the 15th of September, three companies set sail, in high spirits, from Annapolis, to engage in the contemplated reduction of Canada by the English. The Captains were Campbell, Croftis, and Jordan. The men had attained great proficiency in drill. The practice of ap- pealing to the ruler of the universe for success in arms was in vogue in Maryland. The editor of the Gazette says of this embarkation and enterprise : "This important affair must excite, in every true subject, a hearty zeal and ardour in his prayers, that the GREAT GOD OF HOSTS would crown their enterprise with success." Small caps are the editors.
Monday September 29, Michael Macnemara was elected Mayor of Annapolis.
Wednesday, November 5th, the great Whitfield visited Annapolis. It was a day of thanksgiving. He preached a sermon from Prov. XIV, 28; "Righteousness exalteth a nation." As the service ended, the ornament at the back of the Speaker's pew, gave way, and struck' several gentlemen. Two were hurt severely. The fall was occasioned by a heavy gust of wind.
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HISTORY OF ANNAPOLIS.
During this year the sloop Molly, of Annapolis, Charles Giles, com- mander, bound to Barbadoes, was captured by a French privateer.
[1747.] Tuesday, January 6, was launched a very fine and large ship, belonging to Mr. William Robert, of Annapolis. She was called the Rumney and Long, after the names of the Builders, and would carry 700 hogsheads of tobacco.
On January 29, Sheriff William Thornton, by order of Anne Arundel County Court, offered for sale to the highest bidder, two men in his custody, for his fees.
The Maryland Gazette, of March 3, says, "on Monday last week, ar- rived in Patuxent, Capt. Isaac Johns, from London, which place he left the 13th of December last. We have not yet learned of any news he has brought except that he left Portsmouth twenty-four hours after a Fleet bound to America, under convey of a Man of War ; whom were the Captains German Cole for Patuxent, and Grindell and Creagh for Patapsco. He also brings advice, that his Excellency Samuel Ogle, Esq., with his Lady and Family, is on board the same Man of War, bound hither, with a commission to resume the Govern- ment of this Province ; his Excellency the present Governor designing for England this Spring."
On March 9, Thomas Williamson, advertised that "he gives good encouragement to men, women, and children, that can be aiding and assisting in the business of making duck and osnabrigs ; especially spinners."
By letters from London, the Gazette, of March 17, says, we learn that the Snow Glasgow, Capt. Montgomery, and the Ship Prince George, Capt. Coulter, both bound hither, were taken the 10th of September last, about 50 leagues from the Capes, by four Frenchmen of war from the West Indies, who, after they had taken out the goods, burnt both the vessels.
Stephen West, Jr., advertised in March of this year for persons who "are skilled in spinning of Hemp for sail-cloth, osnabrigs, sacking, or cordage ; and weaving of sail cloth, &c., or laying of rope, having all materials in readiness for carrying on the business."
A touch of Baltimore's growing commercial importance was felt at this time, the Gazette of Tuesday, March 24, argumentatively saying : "Last Saturday sailed out of Severn River, the Ship Britannia, Capt. John Hutchinson, for London, having on board 1064 hogsheads of to- bacco, consigned to Mr. John Hamburg. The great dispatch which has been made in the loading of that large ship, being but little more than two months (all our navigation being stopped for many weeks in the winter, ) and the dispatch which those ships that load in that river commonly made, is enough to make one wonder that so many go further up the Bay into Patapsco to load, where the navigation is so much more difficult, and must consequently take much longer time ; and where we are well informed the worm bites as bad as in Severn.
The Brig, Raleigh, late the Raleigh Privateer, Capt. Samuel Allyne, from Annapolis, with 5,000 bushels of wheat for Madeira, ran ashore and bilged on Willoughly's Point in Virginia, on the 21st of March at night. The vessel and cargo were lost, and the crew saved with much difficulty.
During April of this year, "some villians broke into the Council House in this city, and stole some of the arms. His Excellency, the
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Governor, has issued a Proclamation, offering a reward of fifty pounds to anv one that will discover the person or persons concerned in the fact."
On Friday, May 29, Dr. Alexander Hamilton, of Annapolis, was mar- ried to Miss Margaret Dulany, (daughter to the Hon. Daniel Dulany, Esq., "a well accomplished and agreeable young lady, with a hand- some fortune."
On Thursday night the 12th of May, "died here, after a short illness, Miss Anne Ogle. eldest daughter of his Excellency, our Governor, a very hopeful and promising young lady, endowed with a surprising wit and every endearing quality, beyond most of her tender years ; and is greatly lamented.'
Wednesday May 1, a negro man, named Tom, was executed here for a burglary, of which he had been convicted at the preceeding County Court in March.
On Sunday, July 12th, last, two very hopeful children, the eldest sons of Mr. William Reynolds, hatter, of this place, one of them 7. the other 6 years of age, were drowned. Their bodies were soon after taken up.
Among the Acts, passed at the late Session, was one "for repairing and amending the public and county goal, in the city of Annapolis." Also, one for the speedy and effectual publication of the Laws of this "Provinces and for the encouragement of Jonas Green, Printer."
On Tuesday, July 28th last, "Mr. Nicholas Maccubbin, of Annapo- lis, merchant, was married to Miss Mary Carroll, only daughter of Dr. Charles Carroll, a young gentlewoman blessed with every good qualification, having a handsome fortune."
A number of the Rebels, imported in the ship Johnson, into Oxford, were brought to Annapolis about this time and were put upon sale.
On the 3rd of August, the body of Elisha Williams was found drowned-servant to John Senhouse. An inquest was held, the coroner, at the time, charging "the too often rigorous usage and ill- treatment of masters to servants, whereby it very often happened. that such ill-usage was the causage of many servants making an end of themselves one way or other." The jury then took evidence. What was the exact result of their labors it is difficult to say, as the only record there is at hand is the Gazette's account given in the fol- lowing clouded style : "The jury gave the following verdict ; viz : That by his having been lately ill-used by Hannah Senhouse, his mis- tress, he went voluntarily into the water and was drowned, whether his having been ill-used, or expectation for the future to be so, was the cause of this drowning is left to a Grand Inquest for the body of this county to enquire into ; and we are infermed, that the transgres- sor, as well as the evidences, are bound over to the next Assize-Court. It is, therefore, to be hoped, and it is the intent of this (being in print, ) that all masters may, and will, for the future, use their ser- vants according to their deserts, let the consequence of this case end in whatever manner it will."
At this period Nicholas Clouds kept "boats and hands at Broad Creek, on Kent Island, to cross the Bay to Annapolis with gentlemen and their horses, and like wise from Annapolis to Kent Island."
The Annapolis Company, Capt. Campbell, showed the white feather at Saratoga. Lieutenant Joseph Chew of that company, and who was taken prisoner, stated : "We were indeed over-matched, yet our men
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HISTORY OF ANNAPOLIS.
behaved ill ; some threw away their pieces without ever firing of them ; others fired once, and ran off."
On November 16th, a negro man, named York, was convicted of horse-stealing in Anne Arundel county, and sentenced to death, and, on Wednesday, December 9, wasexecuted at Annapolis. In con- tradistinction to the great parade made today in the newspapers when a criminal is hung, the Maryland Gazette summed up the whole mat- ter in two lines.
December 14, the General Assembly was convened in extra session by Gov. Samuel Ogle. A quorum not appearing, the Assembly was prorogued until Monday the 21st. On the 22nd, the Governor made his speech to members, excusing the necessity of calling them together at that season, but he added he "thought it my indispensible duty to obey his majesty's commands, which I shall lay before you." He further stated what his majesty desired was that money he raised to support their own colonial troops in the war against the French until the whole expenses could be laid before Parliament.
The Upper House expressed its willingness to do all it could to de- monstrate their loyalty to their sovereign ; the Lower House. the im- mediate representative of the people, was more cautious in its ex- pressions. After stating the inconvenience with which they had as- sembled, they expressed their willingness to do all in their power to answer "his royal expectations." They also informed his Excellency that they would take the subject into their "serious consideration ; and determine thereupon, agreeable to the present circumstances of the people we represent." They were not long in coming to a con- clusion. On that very day it seems they made a further address to the Governor, in which they represented "that the vast charge and ex- pense the people of this province have already been at, in lodging, maintaining here, and transporting to Albany in the province of New York, the place of general rendezvous, and further supplying those levies with provisions there ; together with the heavy taxes, and other difficulties, under which the people we represent now labor; have rendered it altogether impracticable for us to raise or advance any sum for payment of the said forces. And as no further business lies before this House, we pray your Excellency will please to put an end to this meeting."
The Governor replied to the Lower House, "I wish with all my heart you could have thought of any way of answering his majesty's expectations at this time, in relation to our own levies, agreeable to the zeal you have hitherto shown upon the like occasions ; but as you represent it impracticable for us to raise or advance any further sum for the payment of the said forces, nothing remains for me to do, but to put an end to this Assembly."
The Legislature was prorogued to the second Tuesday in May en- suing.
On the 27th of December, Mrs. Baldwin, aged 99 or 100 years, died near Annapolis on her son's plantation. She is said to have been born in Anne Arundel which would make her birth about the settlement of the county. She left behind a numerous progeny.
[1748.] Information arrived at Annapolis early in this year that the schooner Hopewell, Capt. Coulhon, of Annapolis, had been captured by the French.
8
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"THE ANCIENT CITY. "
The Judicial Proceedings of the province throw great light upon the principles of the early Marylanders. We turn out of the way to take a case from Baltimore county. On the second of that assize "one Bevis Pain, an old grey-headed sinner, was tried for blasphemy. His abominably wicked expression (to vile and horrid to repeat) was fully proved upon him, and the jury soon found him guilty, and he was sentenced to be bored through the tongue, and to pay twenty pounds sterling ; the first part of the sentence being immediately put in execution, and he committed to the Sheriff's custody 'til he paid the fine."#
At the April Anne Arundel Court, "One William .Phillips, alias Gormond, was indicted for burglary and felony. Cleared of the burglary, but found guilty of the felony, he was branded with the letter R in the hand, and then committed for the want of security for his good behaviour."
On the second of June, one of the Kent Island ferry boats, that plied between Annapolis and the former place, was overset near the shore by a gale. Wm. Vickers, of Talbot county, Benjamin T. Fish, and John Donnahoe were drowned. One person saved himself by swimming ashore and another by holding on to the boat until he was taken off.
The captures, by the French privateers at this time, made an armed merchantman a valuable carrier. Thus, in July, the Ship Winchelsea, Thomas Cornish, commanding, lying in Severn River, as a carrier, advertised as an inducement to shippers that she carried 18 guns and 40 men.
On the 18th of August, Capt. Loyall from Madeira, arrived at An- napolis in a sloop that had been taken from the French by an English Man of War. Because the sloop could not be condemned at Maderia, a court of vice admiralty met on the 22nd, at Annapolis, and con- demned her and her cargo as a legal prize.
In August of this year, the Annapolis prison was guarded every night by a strong watch, as numerous prisoners were in it who were to be tried at the next assize for capital offences. For all that, on Satur- day morning, the third, in broad daylight, about 8 o'clock, Mark Parr, one of the prisoners charged with robbery, and "remarkable for his many infamous rogueries, having found means to get off his irons, scaled the prison walls, and walked off. He was seen walking through the town by several persons who did not know him. It was stated shortly afterward, how correctly we are unable to say, that his dead body was found in back woods."##
On Thursday, the 15th of September, court ended for Anne Arundel county. On that day "Joseph Humes ; of the city of Annapolis," Jeweler, for a burglary and felony, in breaking open and entering the store of Mr. Lyde Goodwin, merchant in this city, and stealing from thence several things of value ; Mathew Lapear and Charles Higgin- son, for breaking open and robbing the store of Dr. James Walker, near Patapsco Ferry, were sentenced to death. On Wednesday the 21st of September, Higginson was reprieved, but the other two on that day were executed at the gallows near Annapolis. It would seem from the expression "at the gallows" that this horrid instrument was in such constant use it was kept continually erected. Humes # Gezette.
** Md. Gazette.
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HISTORY OF ANNAPOLIS.
and Lapear "were attended to the place of execution by a numerous crowd of spectators, implicitly confessed the facts for which they suffered, behaved with great decency, and declared they died in charity with all the world."+
On Thursday, the 22nd of September, the Ship Winchelsea, Capt. Thomas Cornish, sailed out of Severn River with 950 hogsheads of to- bacco, consigned to John Hanbury, merchant, of London.
On Thursday, the 29th of September, John Ross, Esq., was chosen Mayor of Annapolis.
Two fatal accidents on a vessel in South River is recorded on the 6th of October-a boy belonging to it fell down the hold and was in- stantly killed ; and in the evening one of the crew of the same ship, fell overboard and was drowned.
Felons were imported in the province as late as this period-for the Gazette notes that this day (the 26th of October, ) the Snow Mary. Capt. Brown, arrived in nine weeks from London, with 52 felons. "The same paper contains an advertisement for their sale for a term of seven years. They consisted of men, women, and boys.
On Tuesday, November 1st, Capt. John Carpenter, died at Annapo- lis. He "had long been a worthy inhabitant of this city, and was many years commander of a ship from London, in the tobacco trade ; and who, by a diligent application and honest industry, had acquired a considerable fortune, with a fair character."
[1749.] On March 2nd, Robert Gordon, Esq., and Mr. Walter Dulany, former representatives, were unanimously rechosen delegates to the Legislature for Annapolis.
On Wednesday, March 28, "the Rev. Andrew Lendrum was in- ducted into this parish-Annapolis-in the room of the Reverend and Ingenious Mr. John Gordon, who is removed to the great grief of his parishioners, to St. Michael's parish, in Talbot county."#
On the night of the 27th of March, the night after the county elec- tion, at a tavern in Annapolis, "some persons being more merry than wise, and not considering that Golden Rule of Doing to others as they would they should do unto them, made themselves sport with Mr. Vincent Stewart, one of the company, (who had been a little too free with liquor,) by throwing and tumbling him about whereby he got very much hurt and bruised ; and last week he died. The coroner has had an inquest on his body, which is adjourned some days. It is a very melancholy affair, as he has left a sorrowful wife and six help- "less children."
On Saturday, July 29, Wm. Rogers, Esq., a gentleman who had held many posts of honor and trust, died at Annapolis, in the 50th year of his age. He was, at the time of his death, one of the Alder- men of Annapolis.
At the assize for Anne Arundel county, which ended September 13th, Charles Elliott received sentence of death for stealing a mare.
On the 29th of September, John Bullen, Esq., was elected Mayor of Annapolis. On the election day a race was run on the race-course near Annapolis, "for the late Mayor's Plate, £20, which was won by Mr. Butler's horse, Calico.## At night there was a ball, where there
1 Md. Gazette.
# Md. Gazette.
·· Md. Gazette,
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"'THE ANCIENT CITY."
was a great number of gentlemen, and a splendid appearance of ladies.'
Joseph Wilson and Isaac Wright, in October, were sent to Jail for counterfeiting bills of credit of the province. The counterieiting was poorly executed. They were sent to Cecil county for trial, where Wilson was soon after tried and received sentence of death, Wright having turned State's evidence against him. Wilson, however, sub- sequently broke jail and escaped.
On Wednesday, the 8th of November, the Ship Chester, Capt. Sedgley, from Bristol, arrived at Annapolis with about 20 passengers and a number of indented servants and some convicts.
On Wednesday, November 29th, the Ship Thames Frigate, Capt. James Dobbins, arrived at Annapolis, with 120 convicts on board.
[1750.] It will be observed by the following advertisement in the "Maryland Gazette," of the 7th of February, that the f'servants" or time-service men were sometimes men of ordinary education :- "To BE- SOLD. The time of a servant man, who has about six years to serve, understands arithmetic, writes a good hand, and would do well for a teacher of children in the country. Enquire of the Printer hereof."
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