USA > Maryland > The Day-star of American freedom, or, The birth and early growth of toleration, in the province of Maryland : with a sketch of the colonization upon the Chesapeake and its trobutaries, preceding the removal of the government from St. Mary's to Annapolis > Part 11
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' The secretary himself states, that he came, with his wife, his two sons (Robert and Thomas), and his three white servants, in 1648 ; and that the following year arrived, under his auspices, the widow, and William, Richard, Elinor, and the other children of his
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chancellor in the reign of Elizabeth, and so much admired by the queen for his graceful person and his elegant style of dancing. And the tradition, to some extent, is confirmed, not only by the exist- ence in both families of the same baptismal names,1. but also by that sense of beauty, ? which was a characteristic not less of the honorable
deceased brother Richard. Land Office Records, Lib. No. 2, p. 613.
1 "Sir Robert Hatton was a brother," says Burke, "of Sir Thomas Hatton, baronet ; and of Sir Christopher Hatton, K.B., father of Lord Hatton, and ancestor of George Finch Hatton, Earl of Winchilsea." Burke's Dictionary of the Landed Gentry, Vol. 2, p. 1287. The names also of Richard, Henry, Jobn. William, and . Sarah, occur both in Burke and upon our carly records. Thomas, indeed, is found frequently in the history of the English, as well as of the provincial family.
" The following note from the secretary, introducing Mr. John De Courcy (then written Coursey), is a fine specimen of the aut !. or's style-a model both of terseness and of elegance. John De Courcy was a brother of the Honorable Honry De Courcy ; and subsequently the clerk of Kent County :
"Mr. Bradnox, -. ... The bearer hereof, Mr. John Coursey, upon the invitation of some friends, comes amongst you to try bis fortunes at Kent. His quality and good carriage will, I know, purchase respect from all ; and especially from yourself and Mistress Brad- nox, whose courtesy and respect to strangers, especially to those of the better sort, hath never been wanting. And, therefore, I shall not need to use many words of commendation in his behalf.
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secretary of Maryland than of the distinguished statesman of England. The armorial bearings of the Hattons of London were :- " Argent, three hurts, each charged with a bend of the first ; on a chief vert, an eagle displayed or." And their crest was :- " A demi-bear rampant sable."1
Besides the offices of secretary and of privy councillor (the commissions for which were dated on the same day,' in the year 164S), he held the post of attorney-general of the province.3- Like the other councillors appointed in 1648, he went into office, it would seem, at the commencement of the Assembly, in 1649. It is supposed he brought from England the draft of "The Act concerning Religion." The official power and rank conferred
But desiring, with my wife, to be kindly remembered to yourself, and Mistress radnox ; Rest ; ".Your assured, loving friend, Thomas Hatton, " St. Mary's, Feb. 1653.
" The superscription-To his much respected friend Mr. Thos. Bradnox, at the Isle of Kent, in Maryland." See Court Record, at Chester-town, commencing in 1647.
1 Burke's General Armory.
' Bozman, vol. 2, p. 649, and p. G51.
' In 1652, and I presume other years, he -was the attorney- general. Land Office Records, Lib. No. 1, p. 302.
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upon our early secretaries were very great.1 The present secretaryship of State is but the shadow of the original office, under the dominion of the first lord proprietary. Although there is no evidence of the contingency, upon which he was authorized to act, we know he also received a commission appointing him to the post of governor .? In 1632, about the beginning of the revolutionary measures under the commissioners from the English com- monwealth, he was removed from the secretary- ship; re-instated in July, the same year;' and again deprived of the office, in the month of August, 1654. Before the Puritan Assembly at Patuxent, the last-named year, he appeared with Mr. Chand- ler, the other burgess from St. Mary's; and, in view of his " oath " to Lord Baltimore, as well as
' The secretary sat, not only in the privy council, but also upon the jench of the High Provincial Court. And great weight was attached to his opinions. The office also of chancellor was usually annexed to the secretaryship.
" The latter part of 1649, Gov. Stone having occasion to be absent from the province, appointed Thomas Green governor ; in case of his refusal, Mr. Hatton. Bozman, vol. 2, p. 377. In 1650, also, I perceive, he was appointed. Lib. No. 2, p. 615.
8 Bozman, vol. 2, p. 681.
* Bozman, vol. 2, p. 682.
· Bozman, vol. 2, p. 685.
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other reasons then reduced to writing, but now unfortunately lost, he refused to sit in that body.1 At the battle of 1655, in the service of the proprietary, he lost his life. An order was issued for the " sub- sistence " of his widow out of his lordship's "rents;" and every disposition manifested, in testimony of respect for his memory, and of gratitude for his noble fidelity .? Remarkable not more for mode- ration than for decision ; discharging his duty in every private and official relation ; a Protestant,3 but not a bigot; the ornament of his own faith, but distinguished for his loyalty to the charter, and to the person of the Roman Catholic proprietary ;
1 Bozman, vol. 2, p. 508.
2 Bozman, vol. 2, p. 698.
' He was one of the signers of the Protestant Declaration. The
. case of Gardiner (Bozman, vol. 2, p. 493) proves also how ready was the secretary to resist every attempt to seduce his ward and niece, Elear r Hatton, from the faith of her family. And his nephew, William, married Elizabeth, the daughter (See Rev. Wil-, liam Wilkinson's will, Lib. No. 1, 1635 to 1674, p. 190) of the first Protestant clergyman (an Anglo- Catholic) who arrived in St. Mary's after the landing of the Maryland Pilgrims. See arrival (Land Office Records, Lib. No. 3, p. 62) of " William Wil- kinson, clerk," in 1650, with his wife Mary, his daughters Rebecca and Elizabeth, and several other persons including his indented servants. The secretary's wife was also the godmother of Mathew, the son of William Stone, the Protestant governor. See p. 65.
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HON. MR. HATTON.
he presents to the student one of the most interest- ing characters in the history of the colonization of Maryland. A son and grandson, both bearing his own baptismal name, died, it would seem, in Maryland ; the one, in 1676,' the other in 1701 ;? the former (or a cousin also called Thomas), having lived some time at Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire, England ;3 the latter, disposing, by his will, of the right to a large tract, not then fully confirmed, but due to him, as heir to the "Secretary of Mary- land ;" and granted, probably, in token of the grateful recollections cherished by the proprietary, for the noble sacrifice at the battle of 1655. I
1 Will of Thomas IIatton of St. Mary's County, " gentleman," in Lib. No. 2, 1674 to 1704, on p. 381. Names his only son Thomas ; his sisters, Margaret and Rebecca " Wahop ;" and seve- ral of the Hansons, who seem to be his relations.
2 Wj' of Thomas Hatton, of St. Mary's County, also styled " gentleman," in Lib. T. B., p. 120. He possibly had a posthumous son ; but the only child named in the will is Elizabeth, to whom he gives " Hunting-Creek," surveyed (see Rent Roll for St. Mary's County, No. 1, Manors, fol. 2) for the secretary, in 1653.
3 Thomas (the son, I presume of the Hon. Thomas Hatton) lived at Tewkesbury, about 1674; and gave Samuel of Maryland a power of attorney relating to the claim arising upon the death of his brother John. Lib. M. M., 1672 to 1675, Judgments, p. 193, and pp 578-580.
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doubt if there is now living a lineal descendant of the same surnaine anywhere in America. But the Hattons of Piscataway are related to the family, through William, the nephew of the secretary, and the son-in-law of the Rev. William Wilkinson. William Hatton died at an advanced age in 1712, naming his children, Joseph Hatton and Penelope Middleton; and giving to each of his grand- children (including Hatton Middleton), "a gold ring," as the " token " of his "love." He also divided between his children, the home plantation, consisting of "Thompson's Rest," and "Rich Hill." 1
1 Will of William, Lib. W. B., No. 5, p. 432. In tracing the descent of the Hattons, near Piscataway, I am indebted, for the use of several land-papers, to the kindness of the Hon. William H. Tuck, of the Court of Appeals.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
Mr. Cuthbert Fenwick.
WE now descend from the Upper to the Lower House-from the privy councillors to the burgesses -from the representatives of the proprietary to the delegates of the planters, and of the other freemen of the province. The leading member of this body, one who breathed the spirit of Copley, of Cornwallis, and of Calvert, it would seem, was Mr. Cuthbert Fenwick ; a sincere believer in the faith of the old Latin church ; one of the original Pilgrims of 1634; and the fairest exponent of that system of religious liberty, which had constituted the w'ry corner-stone of the first settlement under the charter. Many, also, are his descendants in the United States. They have held a distin- guished rank in the field of civil and of military services. And they have been ornaments, not only of the priesthood, but also of the hierarchy of the American Roman Catholic church. Some
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still linger among us; our neighbors, and our friends. Through evil, and through good, after the lapse of many years, in the midst of vast social and political revolutions, they have clung, with the fondness of children, to the faith of their first, forefather. Is there no gratitude among Pro- testants ? Will the Protestant flinch from the performance of a plain historical duty ? Shall he, who inherits a pure Protestant blood, an unbroken Protestant faith, through eight generations, from the age of Elizabeth; whose first Protestant ancestor of the provincial line reached the shores of the Chesapeake but a year after the passage of the memorable Toleration Act, hesitate for one moment in doing justice to the memory of the early Roman Catholic law-givers of Maryland ?
Fenwick was the seat of a distinguished family of the same name, in the county of Northumber- land, England.1 And Fenwick was the manor erected for the early colonist, in what was subse- quently Resurrection hundred, St. Mary's County .?
' Burke's General Armory; Art. Fenwick, at Fenwick, in Northumberland.
2 Fenwick Manor was surveyed for Cuthbert Fenwick, in 1651.
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MR. FENWICK.
In Maryland, also, I am told, there was an old signet ring containing the arms of the Fenwicks, of Fenwick manor; and, it is said, that Cuthbert was a descendant of the Fenwicks in Northumber- land County. But history has a more solid founda- tion than mere oral tradition; and nothing, I regret, can positively be asserted respecting the armorial bearings of the Fenwicks, of St. Mary's ; or even their English original, beyond the relation- ship to the Eltonheads.
Of Captain Cornwallis, the chief councillor of the governor in 1634, and one of the noblest spirits in the band of original Pilgrims, Mr. Fenwick was the special protégé.1 For many years, also, from his arrival, did he hold a great variety of conti- dential trusts and responsible agencies ; living at " The Cross,"" during the captain's frequent voy- ages, to England ; and transacting, with strict fidelity, all his important business upon the manor.
It is upon the Patuxent. Rent Roll for St. Mary's & Charles, vol. 1, fol. 55.
1 Land Office Records, Lib. A. B. & II., p. 244.
.2 The name of Capt. Cornwallis's manor-house. The manor, itself, was called " Cornwallis's Cross." Rent Roll for St. Mary's County ; also Lib. No. 1, pp. 115-117, and elsewhere.
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. . So intimate was the relationship, that he was sum- moned on one occasion (the only case of so peculiar a kind of representation, I believe, upon the records), by a special writ, to sit as the " attorney " of the councillor, at a meeting of the General Assembly.1 . More, also, on account of the enmity . towards Cornwallis than any ground of personal dislike, was he plundered by Captain Ingle,' the pirate, the man who gloried in the name of "The Reformation."3 In the grant of land for the early Roman Catholic missions, his name and services, it appears, were used. It seems, also, he was inti-
" This was in 1640. Bozman, vol. 2, p. 171.
? He was, about 1645, surprised by Ingle's, party, and treacher- ously confined as a prisoner, on board that pirate's ship; the manor-house of Capt. Thomas Cornwallis much injured, and also plundered of its servants, valuable furniture, and other property. On his way to Accomac, Va., he was also robbed of his " clothes," and " papers." Lib. No. 1, pp. 432-433 ; pp. 572-573 ; pp. 582- 583 ; and p. 584. Lib. No. 2, p. 354 ; and pp. 616-617.
' The wor J, alas! is governed more by the shadow than by the substance! Here is a man from Wapping, in Middlesex, England (see Lib. No. 1, pp. 377)-a sca-captain of a reckless sort of courage-plundering a missionary, and many other Roman Catho- lics of the province; and, by universal consent, a pirate ; yet giving to his very ship the name of "The Reformation"" Lib. No. 1, p. 224. Triumphant, for a short time, in his rebellion ; he did a great deal of injury to the proprietary.
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MR. FENWICK.
mate with the Rev. Thomas Copley ; and often in contact with Governor Leonard Calvert ; took part in the little engagement of 1635, upon a tributary of the Chesapeake, between the pinnace commanded by Warren (the lieutenant of Clayborne), and the two armed boats under the command of Cornwal- lis ;1 and sat in the Assembly of 1638, the earliest of which we have a satisfactory account.ª As an individual freeman, he had a seat also in the legis- lature of the subsequent year.3 And few, if any, of the original colonists were members more fre- quently of the legislative body. Again : we find him aiding the government in the regulation of the Indian trade with the colonists ;' and about the same time, he reported the information he had obtained respecting the murder of Rowland Wil- liams, of Accomac'-a case which engaged the
€ 1 Bozm a, vol. 2, p. 35; and p. 65, where the name is written " Hemirk," but doubtless intended for "Fenwick." The lieute- nant and two of his men were killed ; and one was lost on the captain's side. Cornwallis's boats were called " The St. Helen," and " The St. Margaret." Clayborne's next officer in command was subsequently convicted at St. Mary's.
' Bozman, vol. 2, p. 65.
' Bozman, vol. 2, p. 103.
4 Bozman, vol. 2, p. 115.
5 The Report is dated May 8, 1638." See Lib. No. 2, pp. 83-84.
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prompt attention of the governor, and resulted in the union of Maryland with her sister colony,1 in the punishment of the Nanticokes. In 1644, he held % a commissionership in St. Mary's2-an office out of which grew that of the early county court judge. He was the foreman of many of the most impor- tant trial juries,3 at the provincial court ; the first member of the financial committee,4 and proba- bly the speaker, in the Lower House of the Roman Catholic Assembly of 1649; 5 and, in the Protestant one of 1650, the chairman of a joint committee ® upon the "Laws," including Governor Green and Colonel Price from the Upper House. The latter part of his life, he resided upon Fenwick manor ; and died about the year 1655.' Nothing
' Lib. No. 1, p. 159.
2 Bozman, vol. 2, p. 280.
' In the case, for instance, of the Piscataway Indians already quoted.
* Lib. No. 2, p. 489.
" From the report of the financial committee, the only remain- ing fragment of the Journal, it is evident that he performed some special or honorable service, besides that of an ordinary member.
® Lib. No. 3, p. 56.
7 His Will is dated "March 6, 1634." Lib. S., 1658 to 1662,
"Judgments," Court of Appeals (in the Armory), p. 219.
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occurs upon the record, to lessen, in the least, the esteem to which he is so justly entitled as a legislator, and a public officer ; a Christian, and a man.
Mr. Fenwick bore the name of one of the most · celebrated saints,' in the history of the early Eng- lish Church; held a tract bounded by St. Cuth- bert's Creek;" although present, did not sign the
' In speaking of the ravages of the Danes, during the ninth century, Sir Francis Palgrave says : "The Pagans, under Half- dane, destroyed all the churches and monasteries. The ruin of the Cathedral of Lindisfairne, in particular, was lamented as the greatest misfortune of the age. Cuthbert, one of the prelates of this see, canonized by the grateful veneration of the English, was considered as the patron saint of the North ; and the island of Lindisfairne was viewed as holy land."
In a note, he adds :- " The body of St. Cuthbert was saved when the church of Lindisfairne was destroyed, and after many migrations it was deposited in the Cathedral of Durham, to which city the see of Lindisfairne was transferred (A. D. 990) ; the pre- sent bishops of Durham being the successors of the bishops of Lindisfairne. The corpse of St. Cuthbert was deposited in a magnificent shrine, which was destroyed at the time of the Reformation." " In 1827, a skeleton, supposed to be that of St. Cuthbert, was disinterred by the Rev. James Rainc. The body had been deposited with some most curious relics of the Anglo- Saxon age-amongst them, the cross." Palgrave's History of the Anglo-Saxons, p. 124. The engraving of St. Cuthbert's cross is on p. 142 of the History.
* Rent Roll for St. Mary's and Charles, vol. 1, fol. 55.
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Protestant Declaration ; upon the questions arising between the two religious parties, in the Protestant Assembly of 1650, voted with the Roman Catholic members;1 gave a legacy to each of the Roman Catholic priests, in testimony of his faith in the Church of Rome ;' to say nothing of the further evidence derived from the fact, that so many of his descendants are still members of the same commu- nion.
In 1649, then a widower, and the father of Thomas (who seems to have died young), of Cuth- bert, Ignatius, and "Teresa ;"3 Mr. Fenwick mar- ried Jane,' the widow of Robert Moryson (the name is written upon the record, indistinctly), of
1 See, in various places, the proceedings of the Assembly, in 1650, Lib. No. 3, Land Office ; also the signatures, in the same Liber, on p. 57, to the letter of this Assembly, intended for Lord Baltimore.
. 2 By some of the early Roman Catholics (for example, by Robert Clarke) legacies were given "to the church " -- meaning, of course, the Roman Catholic ; by others, to the well known priests, Lawrence Starkie and Francis Fitzherbert, always, either tacitly or avowedly, in token of their faith in the same church ; and by a third class (Cuthbert Fenwick, for instance), simply "unto Mr. Starkie," and " unto Mr. Fitzherbert." See Mr. Fenwick's Will, Lib. S. 1658 to 1662, Judgments, p. 219.
3 Land Office Records, Lib. No. 2, p. 515.
* Lib. S. 1658 to 1662, Judgments, p. 218.
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" Kecoughtan " County, Va .; the sister also of Wil- liam Eltonhead ' (the privy councillor of Md.), and Richard Eltonhead? (of "Eltonhead," Lancaster County, England) ; and the niece of Edward' Elton- head, one of the "masters"" of the English "High Court of Chancery." He had issue, also, by his last marriage ; and his widow died in 1660.5 The
2 Lib. No. 3, p. 262; Lib. S. 1658 to 1662, Judgments, p. 135 ; and pp. 219-220. Also Testamentary Records, Lib. No. I., p. 94.
' Lib. F. F. 1665 to 1669, Judgments (Court of Appeals), in the Armory, p. 788.
' Land Office, Lib. A. B. and H., p. 165.
' Lib. 5, 1658 to 1662, Judgments (Court of Appeals), p. 1; and Lib. No. 3 (Land Office), p. 413.
' The social and domestic life of the past constitutes the most Interesting branch of history. Mrs. Fenwick's will (see Testamentary Records, Lib. No. 1, p. 114) sheds much light upon the subject ; enables us to form some idea of the degree of comfort in the family of this carly colonial legislator ; and gives a very good key to a bed-chamber, a lady's wardrobe, head-dress, and other articles, in 1660. She bequeaths to her step-daughter, " Teresa," a little bed, mohair rug, a blanket, a pair of sheets, and " the yellow curtains ;" her taffeta suit, and serge coat ; all her " fine linen," consisting of aprons, handkerchiefs, head-clothes, &c. ; her "wedding-ring ;" her hoods, scarfs (except her " great " one), aud gloves (except three pair of cotton) ; and her three petticoats, one of which is a " tufted-holland," another a " new serge," and the third a "spangled " one. She gives to her own three children, Robert, Richard, and John, her " great scarf," all her jewels. "plate," and rings (except the " wedding " one) ; and to each of them a bed, and pair of cotton gloves. To her stepsons, Cuthbert
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children were Robert, Richard, and John.1 But
and Ignatius, she wills an "ell of taffeta ;" to her negro-servant, Dorothy, her " red cotton coat " and some " old linen ;" to Esther, her " new maid-servant,"' all the linen of "the coarser sort ;" to Thomas, the Indian, two pair of shoes, a matchcoat, and some other things ; to Anthumpt, another Indian, several articles of clothing; to Thomas's mother (the "old Indian woman ") three yards of cotton ; to the Rev. Francis Fitzherbert, a hogshead of tobacco, for five years ; to William (a negro) the right to his free- dom, provided he pay a hogshead every year to the church, and continue a member ; and to the church the same negro, as a slave " for ever," if he leave her communion-one of the few cases of individual intolerance, on the same side, in our early history, and outweighed by a great number of instances, on the other if not, indeed, excusable by the fact, that some of her dearest friends had fallen by the bloody hand of the Puritans, including her own bro- ther, the Hon. Wm. Eltonhead. Take also the following (from Lib. No. 1, Land Office Records, p. 401) about two years before her brother's execution. According to the testimony of Mary Jones, it appears, Martin Kirk and his wife, with Lizy Potter, " had found a way to pay Eltonhead, without weight or scales !" " Hang them!" they added, "Papists! dogs! They shall have no right here ; for the governor cannot abide them, but from the teeth outwards." The Vandal outruns the bigot in the case of a noted Protest nt of Kent Island, who, entering Capt. Brent's house, and going into the "loft," threw down the captain's books, with the words, "Burn Papists! devils!" This was about the time of Ingle's rebellion. I deem it fair to add, the part of Roger Bax- ter's testimony relating to the books, was not reduced to writing. But Francis Brooke, a judge of the county court, was present at the taking of the deposition ; and states the fact, in his own depo- sition. Lib. No. 2, p. 387.
' See wills of Mr. Fenwick, and his widow Jane. I infer, then,
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Cuthbert, his eldest son by a previous marriage, held, under the will, the lordship of Fenwick Manor. The Fenwicks of Cole's Creek, of Cherry- fields, of Pomonkey, and elsewhere, in Maryland ; of Kentucky; and (it is said) of the South also (including a well-known officer in the war of 1812) ; are but some of the off-shoots' from the family of Cuthbert, the pilgrim of 1634, and the original lord of the manor. One of the descendants of the early law-giver was a member of the convention, which framed the Constitution of the State, in
that his three youngest sons were, on their mother's side, descend- ants of the Eltonheads, of Eltonhead ; whose arms, according to Burke's General Armory, are-Quarterly, per fesse indented, sable and argent, on the first quarter three plates.
' The family is so large as to render it impossible to present even a condensed history in any but a work expressly devoted to the department of genealogy. The following wills contain a large body of facts :- Wills of Richard, in 1714, Lib. W. B., No. 5, p. 699 ; of John, 1720, T. B. No. 1, p. 339 ; Dorothy, 1724, W. B., No. 1, p. 285 ; ( athbert, about 1728, C. C., No. 2, p. 888 ; Ellen, 1737, T. D., p. 825 ; Philip, 1750, D. D., No. 6, p. 183; Enock, 1753, B. T., No. 2, p. 582; Joseph, 1758, B. T., No. 2, p. 624 ; Cuthbert, 1762, D. D., No. 1, in 2 parts, p. 801 ; Benedict, 1769, W. D., No. 2, p. 251; Bennett, 1770, W. D., No. 3, p. 458 ; George, 1769, W. D., No. 3, p. 703; Elizabeth, 1771, W. D., No. 4, p. 347 ; Robert, 1774, W. F., No. 1, p. 113; and Ignatius, 1776, W. F., No. 2. p. 219.
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1774-1776;1 two held a seat in the Senate of Maryland;' and a fourth was the consul of the United States, at Bordeaux. Many of them were priests ; " one was the president of a college ;' and two were bishops.5 They are also connected with the Spaldings of St. Mary's, the relations of the bishop of Louisville." And a living descendant of the pilgrim held the post of attorney-general' --
* Ignatius, of Mary's County.
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