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 8
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IF we take the religious elements of the popula- tion represented in this Assembly; the difference will again be in favor of the Roman Catholics.
In 1648, the burgesses appeared either as indivi- dual freemen ; or as the representatives, each, of a definite number. And, in 1650, the six hundreds of St. Mary's county, as distinct integers, sent their own respective delegates. Assuming the constitu- tion of either year, for the sake of the argument ; the result, in 1649, would be substantially the sáîne.
The settlement upon Kent Island was an off- shoot of the Anglo-Catholic colony at Jamestown. Col. Clayborne was undoubtedly an Episcopalian. There, also, have we the traces of the life and
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143
ANGLO-CATHOLICS OF KENT.
labors of the Rev. Richard James, and of one or more other ministers of the Anglican church.1 It is but just to admit, that most of the Islanders were Protestants. But the population of Kent was small. In 1639, if not many years later, she was but a hundred of St. Mary's county .? In 1648, she paid a fifth part only of the tax;' and did not hold, in the Assembly of that year, a larger ratio of political power." That also was before the
! Thanks to the zeal and learned diligence of the Rev. Mr. Allen, but especially of Mr. Streeter.
2 In 1639, was also erected the "hundred Court of Kent." Bozman, vol. 2, p. 140.
' From the Bill of Common Charges at the Assembly of 1648, I take, as an illustration, "The Clerk's Fees." This item amounts to 1250 pounds of tobacco, of which "Kent is to pay 250." Lib. No. 2, pp. 302-303.
. It was about a fifth, as the following Protest of that year will show. It is signed by all the members, including Captain Vaughan, the delegate from Kent ; and Captain Bradnox, and Mr. Conner, the two freemen from that county :-
The Protest of 1648, New Style.
" We, the freemen assembled in this present general Assembly, do hereby declare, under our hands; and generally, jointly, and unanimously protest, against the laws which are now pretended to be put in force by the last general Assembly ; conceiving that they were not lawfully enacted. For that no summons issued out
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THE DAY-STAR.
retur., we may suppose, of all the Roman Catho- lics, who had been expelled or exported from St. Mary's, by Capt. Ingle, and the other enemies of the proprietary. In 1649, she had but one delegate ; while St. Mary's was represented by eight. And this year, she paid but a sixth part of the tax.' And for many years after, as well as before this Assembly, there is no evidence what- ever of a division of the island, or the county, even into hundreds.ª Its population did not, in 1648, exceed the fifth ; nor in 1649, the sixth part of the
to all the inhabitants, whereby their appearance was required by lawful authority. Witness our hands, this 28th January, 1647.
Robert Vaughan, 24 voices. Robt. Clarke, proxy, Geo. Akerick, 8,
Cuthbert Fenwick, 3,
Walter Peake, 22,
Robert Percy, proxy,
Wm. Thompson, proxy, Capt. Price, 9,
John Medley, ₹ 15
Thomas Bradnox,
Phil. Conner, Thomas Thornborough,
Richard Banks, 24,
Edward Packer, 3,
Thomas Allen, 6, John Wyatt, proxy, Mir. Brooke,
George Saugher, 6, Edwd.Cotton, proxy, Barnaby Jackson, ? William Bretton, 4."
Walter Waterlen, 2,
Lib. No. 3, pp. 293-294; and Bozman, vol. 2, pp. 323-324.
It would seem, then, that in the Assembly of 1648, there were but 27 votes for Kent, and 130 for St. Mary's.
1 Bill of Charges for 1649, Lib. 2, p. 488.
2 I have carefully examined the records at Chestertown ; and am satisfied this county was not laid off into hundreds till many years afterwards.
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POPULATION OF THE PROVINCE IN 1649.
whole number of free white persons in the pro- vince.1
. In no hundred of St. Mary's county, was there a majority of Protestants, unless in St. George's. It is not altogether certain that the Protestants out- numbered the Roman Catholics, even in that hun- dred. The Rev. William Wilkinson, of the English church-the first permanent pastor of the
' The numbers and resources of the province had been greatly diminished by the contest of Col. Clayborne, by the rebellion of Capt. Ingle, and by various other causes.
Notwithstanding the destruction of so many of the records, and the lapse of so much time, it is gratifying to think that amid the twilight of the past, we have still .preserved for our own generation, many of the most important lights and landmarks of history ; and that the population of the province, at the period of which I am writing, may yet be ascertained with a reasonable degree of certainty. If we multiply five by the twenty-seven votes from Kent-the number which represented, in 1648, its freemen, or the heads of its families-that county will have 135 persons. The same ratio will give to St. Mary's 650. But this estimate was true of the latter county only at the beginning of that year, The month of June, there were not less than 140 tithables, or 700 persons in this county. And the return of other colonists to St. Mary's before the succeeding April, accounts for the fact, that in 1649 Kent paid but a sixth part of the tax ; at which time the whole population of the province approached 900, including the 130 or 140 inhabitants upon the Isle of Kent. For the levy and assessment of 1018 upon St. Mary's, see Lib: No. 2,- .- . p. 366, and p. 369.
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THE DAY-STAR.
Anglo-Catholic faith after the landing of the Pil- grims-but whose name has never yet appcared upon any page of Maryland's history-did not arrive in St. Mary's till the year 1650. A preacher and a planter, engaged in the discharge of his ministerial functions, as well as in the trade of the province (and what right have we to censure one who seems to have been without a temporal sup- port from his own church ?); living also, for a long period, in St. George's hundred; we cannot sup- pose he was altogether unsuccessful in his official labors. But even before his arrival, we there discover the germs of an early Anglican faith. In that hundred, as early as 1642, lived the Wick- liffes, the Cadgers, the Marshalls, and other Epis- copalians.1 There also was the earliest home,
1 " Council Proceedings," Lib. 1637 to 1658, pp. 209-215. Wm. Marshall's deed for " three heifers " is an interesting paper ; and one of the earliest gifts upon the Records of Maryland for the support of a Protestant ministry-the very first I remember, in which allusion is made to a " parish." It may be found in Lib. No. 1, on pp. 608-009, and is dated " the 3 day of June," 1654-the pro- posed field of labor being a locality then called " The Neck of Wicocomico." Robt. Cadger, whose devise is mentioned by Bacon, was the only son of the Robert who came from the Old World, and who lived in St. George's in 1642. The will of the
147
ANGLO CATHOLICS OF ST. GEORGE'S.
thought at a period subsequent to 1649, of the Addisons, of Oxon-Hill, a family which, for morc than six generations, has borne a willing testimony to the faith of Cranmer, of Ridley, and of Latimer.1 Conceding, what must remain a matter of consi- derable doubt, that St. George's was a Protestant hundred as carly as 1649; and adding the county of Kent, on the eastern shore; the Protestants would hold two-sixths, or one third, of the whole political power, substantially, if not formally, represented during this year, in the Lower House of the Assembly -- an estimate which also accords with the ratio of the Protestant to the Roman
emigrant contains a conditional devise for the erecting and "maintaining of a free-school" upon his home plantation, and is dated in the year 1667. We are also struck with the fact that the person selected by the "Protestant Catholics," as the organ of their petition against Doct. Gerrard, for seizing the " key " to the chapel (see Bozmau, Vol. 2, anno 1642, p. 199), resided in this very hundred ; and that he bore the surname of Wickliffe, the morning-star, in the opinion of our Protestant historians, to the Reformation of the sixteenth century ; certainly as important an agent in the production of that event as the great Wesley in the reproduction of the Oxford theology of the present age.
In this hundred lived also Col. Price ; and (I have reason to think), for a short period, Capt. Banks. But I cannot say what time they became residents.
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THE DAY-STAR.
Catholic delegates-assuming that Mr. Browne was one of the former. But it is not improbable that the Protestants constituted a fourth only of the population of Maryland.
The Protestants had, it is true, a majority in the Assembly of 1650.1 But it was proper that the opportunity should be offered them, under the most favorable circumstances, of acknowledging their gratitude for so beneficent an administration of the government ;2 and of testifying in the most formal manner, that, under the proprietary's rule, they were in the enjoyment of a real, practical free-
' The eleven delegates from St. Mary's were John Hatch, Walter Beane, Wm. Brough, Robt. Robins, Francis Poesy, Thos. Steerman, Cuthbert Fenwick, Geo. Manners, John Medley, Philip Land, and Francis Brooke-the first six Protestants, the remaining five Roman Catholics. James Cox and Geo. Puddington (Protes- tants) represented the newly-erected Puritan county of Anne Arundel ; while Capt. Vaughan (another Protestant) was the repre- sentative from Kent, but sat also in the Upper House. Of the hundred of St. Mary's, Messrs. Hatch and Beanc represented St. George's ; Messrs. Medley, Brough, and Robins, Newtown ; Mr l'oesy, St. Clement's; Messrs. Land and Brooke, St. Mary's ; Mr. Fenwick, St. Inigoc's ; and Messrs. Steerman and Manners, St. Michael's. Lib. No. 3, 47-55. See also ante, p. 71, and p. 132.
' This they did in a most handsome manner. See Act of Re- cognition in Bacon and in Bozman.
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ROMAN CATHOLICS OF ST. MARY'S.
dom.1 Even on that occasion, they outnumbered the Roman Catholic delegates from St. Mary's, by a majority of one only .? And it is but necessary to add, while one of the most prominent Roman Catholic delegates of 1649 was elected to the honorable post of clerk of the Assembly in 1680, and two others held a seat in that body, not a sin- gle Protestant of the latter year had represented the county in the Legislature of the former.
St. Mary's was the home-the chosen home-of the disciples of the Roman church. The fact has been generally received. It is sustained by the tradition of two hundred years, and by volumes of written testimony ; by the records of the courts ; by the proceedings of the privy council ; by the trial of law-cases ; by the wills and inventories ; by the land-records, and rent-rolls; and by the very names originally given to the towns and hun- dreds ; to the creeks and rivulets ; to the tracts and manors of the county. The State itself bears the
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1 See the Protestant Declaration.
" The Declaration itself is quite sufficient. But abundant evi- dence of the fact is elsewhere preserved.
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THE DAY-STAR.
name' of a Roman Catholic queen.' Of the six hundreds of this small county, in 1650, five had the prefix of St. Sixty tracts and manors, most of them taken up at a very early period, bear the same Roman Catholic mark.3 The villages and
1 It was once very often written " Marie-Land ;" and St Mary's, not unfrequently "Saint Marie's." "Terra-Maria " is the name given to the province in the Latin Charter.
* Henrietta Mariah, the wife of Charles the First, and daughter of Henry the Fourth, the great king of France-a name given also to a daughter of Capt. Neale (a favorite of the Crown), through whom the Lloyds, the Tilghmans, and many of the other Inost distinguished Protestant families of the province, derived the best Roman Catholic blood. The name itself has come down through the same channel, consecrated by the recollections and traditions of many generations; cherished in the memory, and enshrined in the heart of more than one living descendant of the Neales.
" I have easily counted this number ; and am satisfied they are not all-to say nothing of many more taken up in Charles, by colonists living there in 1649, and before that county was carved out of St. Mary's. It is, of course, not certain that every one was surveyed for a Roman Catholic ; nor have many of the well- known Roman Catholic estates any prefix. But who can doubt the historical value of such general evidence in estimating num- bers or masses, or deny that "St. Peter's Key," "St. Peter's Hill," or most of the other tracts of this class were taken up by the miem- bers of the Roman Catholic Church ? See Rent Roll for St. Mary's and Charles, Vol. 1 and 2. In the county of Anne Arundel,
151
SKIGH-TAM-MOUGH AND COUNA-WEZA.
creeks, to this day, attest the wide-spread preva- lence of the same tastes, sentiments, and sympa- thies. Not long after the passage of the "Act" relating to "religion," the Protestants, it is admit- ted, outgrew their Roman Catholic brethren ; and, in 1689, succeeded very easily in their attempt to. overthrow the proprietary. But judging from the composition of the juries, in 1655, we see no rea- son to believe they then had a majority. In the trial of the Piscataway Indians,1 during the year
the original seat of the Puritans (but soon after the home of the Quakers and of other Protestants), and at the date of the Rent Roll I have consulted, several times the area of St. Mary's, there were but three estates with the prefix! And each of these, it appears, was taken up by gentlemen, who from evidence aliunde, were Roman Catholics.
1 Skigh-tam-mough and Couna-weza. They were tried at the September Term of the Provincial Court, at St. Mary's, for the murder of two negro servants. Gov. Stone, the Chief Justice, presided ; the Attorney-General, Mr. Hatton, conducted the pro- secution ; and Mr. Fenwick was the foreman of the Jury. The scene of the murder was near South River; and the servants, as well as the plantation where the deed was done, belonged to Capt. Daniel Gookins-a name distinguished in the early history of New England. Mary, the servant, who had escaped. notwith- standing the severity of her wound, was the chief witness. But Warcosse, the Emperor, had sent down to St. Mary's some arti- cles found in the possession of the suspected Indians, and which, it
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THE DAY-STAR.
1653-a case where religious bias,' we may sup- pose, could exert but little influence on the selec- tion of the jurors-it would be safe to assert, that, at least, twelve (or one-half of the panel) were Roman Catholics.1 In the cases of Robert Holt,
was known, had belonged to Capt. Gookins. And the Indians, who spoke through interpreters, confessed at the trial they were present at the murder -- at one moment admitting, at the next denying their guilt : "fearful, and desiring," says the record, " to conceal" it. They were convicted, sentenced, and executed on the same day. For the trial of the case, see Lib. No. 1, pp. 452-485.
1 The Jurors were Cuthbert Fenwick, Wm. Bretton, Edward Packer, Philip Land, Wm. Evans, Richard Hoskins, Wm. Johnson, John Medley, Richard Willan, Henry Adams, James Langworth, John Thimblebee, Nicholas Gwyther, John Steerman, Richard Banks, John Lawson, Robt. Cadger, John Nichols, Daniel Clocker, Wm. Edwine, John Taylor, John Harwood, Zachary Wade, and Thomas Sympson. There is strong reason for the opinion, that the first twelve were Roman Catholics ; and that eight of the other twelve were Protestants : i. e. Messrs. John Steerman, Richard Banks, John Lawson, Robt. Cadger, John Nichols, Daniel Clocker, Wm. Edwine, and John Taylor. The faith of the remaining four is a matter of doubt. See Appendix, No. 3. This trial, we also know, occurred after the arrival of the Puritans, and the influx of other Protestant population. The Roman Catholic, therefore, was comparatively a weaker element, in September, 1653, than in the month of April, 1649. But even then it was probably stronger than the whole combination of the Episcopal with the Puritan, and other Protestant clements. There cannot be a doubt,
153
CASES OF HOLT AND WILKINSON.
and the Rev. Wm. Wilkinson,' in 1659, evidence of the strongest character appears. " For the trial
so far as regards St. Mary's County -- the only one involved in the main point of the inquiry.
' Indicted, the one for " bigamy ;" the other as an "accessary." See Lib. S. 1658 to 1662, Judgments, pp. 200-201. They were indicted separately ; but it was proposed to try them before the same jury. And they both lived in St. George's. See Indict- ment. Mr. Thomas Hynson, the ancestor of the Hynsons of Chestertown, was the foreman of the Grand Jury ; and Mr. Thos. Ringgold, from whom so many gentlemen of the same county, and elsewhere, have derived their intermediate ancestry, was the foreman of the trial Jury. The cases are extraordinary ; and the degree of Mr. Wilkinson's sin presents a difficult question for the casuist. Holt is indicted for marrying Christiana Bonnefield during the life-time of his " lawful wife ;" and Parson Wilkinson for.feloniously joining the parties, "after he had divorced ye said Robert Holt." The reverend gentleman "saith, that he did join " them " in marriage ;" " but denyeth yt he did any thing by way of divorce ;" "notwithstanding confesseth yt he drew, and signed as a witness," the paper containing "a release of all claim of marriage " " to the said Robert ;" upon a confession, from the wife, of two distinct deeds of infidelity ; and her subsequent " refusal to be reconciled." There is no doubt of the fact, that the parson violated the civil law. But how far he was guilty, in a religious sense (upon proof, if any, of the wife's bad faith), would depend, not only upon the soundness of the Roman Catho- lic theory, which elevates monogamy to the dignity of a sacra- ment, but also upon the condition of parties living in a sort of wilderness-the Bishop of London having no power, under the laws of England, to dissolve the bond-the Parliament, without any practical or real jurisdiction over the case-the Provincial
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THE DAY-STAR.
of these cases, twelve fit Protestants could not be found at the provincial court' held at St. Mary's, and usually thronged at that period with crowds of appellants and appellees; with witnesses in civil and in criminal proceedings; with spectators, and many other residents of the province !2 Immediately
Assembly never granting a divorce a vinculo for any cause what- ever-and the English Church having no higher representative, or depositary of her authority, in this province, than the clergy- man indicted. I am quite sure the legislature did not grant divorces at that time. I have no recollection, indeed, at this moment, of a single case under either of the first two proprie- taries, during the sixty years before the removal of the govern- ment to Annapolis. And I do not see how Lord Baltimore, consistently with his faith in the Church of Rome, could appprove of the dissolution of a marriage.
1 The fondness for law-suits, mingled with a veneration for judicial authority, was a striking characteristic of our ancestors. The most trifling disputes were submitted to the magistrates of the county, and afterwards to the Appellate Court of the province. St. Mary's, where the Court sat, was the great place of resort ; the centre of news; and the scene of the most important business transactions.
" The jurors summoned for the trial were Mr. Thomas Ringgold, Robert Cadger, Nicholas Young, Daniel Clocker, William Hewes, Thomas Cadger, James Veitch, Thomas South, John Hamilton, Thomas Belcher, Robert Blunkhome, and Hugh Bemin. After the reading of the indictment, " the prisoners allege, yt this jury " is a very weak jury to go upon so weighty a business (they being ' so nearly concerned therein) as life and death. And there being
*
155
OVERZEE VS. CORNWALLIS.
afterwards a verdict, in another case,1 was given by a jury taken, apparently, from the by-standers, and consisting of not less than six Roman Catholics, nor more than two Protestants" (one, if not both, non-residents of St. Mary's county), exclusive of the four, who had been summoned in the cases of Messrs. Holt and Wilkinson.
" few others present in court but what are Catholics, which the " prisoners afcre requested might not be warned on the jury, desir- "ing that a Protestant jury might pass on them, and which the " governor consented unto, as most reasonable " (sec pp. 200-201) ; " bail " is therefore ordered for their appearance at the next term, the governor himself becoming Mr. Wilkinson's security. But & few days later, a proclamation was issued in favor of Richard, the son of the Lord Protector, including a pardon of all persons indicted or convicted. P. 215.
1 The case Overzee vs. Cornwallis.
" The jurors in this case, it would seem, were summoned upon the spur of the moment, and without the least difficulty. The Roman Catholic jurors (their faith could easily be proved by the testamentary and other records) were James Lindsey, James Langworth, Henry Adams, Richard Will, Philip Land, and a sixth, whose name I do not this moment remember; the four taken from the panel in Holt's case (all Protestants) were Thomas Ringgold, Thomas South (both, I think, residents of Kent), Thomas Belcher, and James Veitch ; and the remaining two were Mr. Thomas Hynson, and Capt. Sampson Waring. See p. 201. We might also take, at randon, a jury, on p. 183 ; and from various records conclusively show, that one-half, if not more of them, were members of the church of Rome.
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THE DAY-STAR.
But the wills furnish the best clew to the faith of our early ancestors-precious memorials of the past-ripe harvest-fields of rich historical lore- giving us the best glimpse of our primitive life and manners -- and bringing us into close and living sympathy with the state of society, two hundred years ago. But more beautiful are they than pre- cious. For they touch our hearts. They breathe the spirit of parental affection, in all its depth and wild intensity. They point from the rude home, where the weary pilgrim of the forest lies down to die in his humility, to a bright and everlasting mansion prepared for him in the skies! This day, they speak-voices from the dead-a willing testi- mony to a mighty truth in the history of a conti- nent, and to a sublime doctrine of the Christian religion ! More of them emanate from a Roman Catholic than from a Protestant source. The will of William Smith, one of the original pilgrims of 1634, appears upon the first page of the oldest testamentory record at Annapolis; and contains the living evidence of his faith in the church of Rome. It would be difficult to give all the recorded confessions, or the half of those little tes-
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ROMAN CATHOLIC WILLS.
timonials of love and fidelity, which were be- queathed. to the same church, during the fifty years succeeding the settlement at St. Mary's. i
But it will be sufficient to say, the Roman Catholic greatly exceed the number of Protestant wills ;2 and of the latter (or those having any sort of anti- Roman-Catholic mark), many are signed by the Quakers-a denomination, of whom there is no trace upon the provincial records, as early as 1649.
Counting the suitors and freeholders of the dif- ferent manors, with all the indented white servants, it is highly probable, that every hundred of St. Mary's county, except St. George's, had a majority of Roman Catholics, in 1649. Excluding the ser- vants (a large class, at that time), there can be lit- tle doubt upon the point of mere numbers, and
1 I have examined most of the wills anterior to 1650, including those from Kent Island. And as far as any result may be based upon so general an inquiry, I find the Roman Catholic (or those either having upon their face a Roman Catholic mark, or known from other evidence to have been signed by Roman Catholics) bear to the Protestant wills in both counties, a ratio of not less than four to one. Messrs. Fenwick and Manners are the only burgesses of the Assembly in 1649, whose wills are preserved. It is not unworthy of note, that both papers are strongly marked Roman Catholic ones.
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THE DAY-STAR.
none whatever with regard to superior influence. Even, in 1650, St. Mary's hundred was represented by two disciples of the Roman church; and there also was the seat of the proprietary's government. In St. Michael's, were the three manors of Governor Leonard Calvert, to say nothing of other evidence. Doctor Thomas Gerard was the lord of two large manors, in St. Clement's; and Newtown had more estates with the prefix of St.1 than any hundred erected before or after the year 1649. St. Inigo's was probably not carved out either of St. Mary's, or of St. Michael's, before the year 1650; but included a manor held by the missiona- ries as early as 1639,2 with the manor-house,' or supposed seat of one of the interesting little Roman Catholic missions.
Nor ought the activity of many of the priests, in converting the Protestants ; or the large number of emigrants they also had introduced ;‘ be omit-
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