USA > Maryland > Anne Arundel County > The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland. A genealogical and biographical review from wills, deeds and church records > Part 21
USA > Maryland > Howard County > The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland. A genealogical and biographical review from wills, deeds and church records > Part 21
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The oldest son of this marriage was Rev. Walter Dulany Addison, the friend of Washington and founder of the first church in Washington City, to which flocked the aristocratic parishioners in their stylish outfits. He also built Addison Chapel.
Miss Murray has given us an interesting sight into the Dulany homestead, which then stood at the water's edge of the Naval Academy.
The letters of Miss Rebecca Dulany to her three sisters, tell of a boat excursion to "Rousby Hall"; of her dinner at Colonel Fitzhughs; of her ride in Colonel Taylor's vessel, to Colonel Platers; of the garden walks and guitar concerts; of the handsome entertain- ment at Mrs. Platers; of a dinner next day at Colonel Barnes, to which she went in Colonel Platers' chariot and four, where there were a great number of gentlemen whose names she would not reveal.
The son of the above writer, tells also, of his experience upon arriving at Annapolis, from his school in England. He was invited to an evening party at the Dulany homestead. Soon after dinner he took a ride in his English costume of yellow buckskin, blue coat, red cassimere vest and fine top-boots. Returning, he presented himself at the door, but was met by his grandmother (Mrs. Mary Grafton Dulany), in highly offended dignity. "What do you mean, Walter, by such an exhibition? Go immediately to your room and return in a befitting dress."
He next appeared in silk stockings, embroidered vest, etc .; and, to his amazement, was ushered into an apartment splendidly adorned, filled with elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen. The scene equalled anything he had seen in London. This view of Annapolis was just at the close of the Revolution, when the French officers who had aided us were lions in society.
The daughters of Mr. Walter Dulany and Mary Grafton, were Rebecca Addison Hanson, Mrs. Mary Fitzhugh, Mrs. Kitty Belt, Mrs. Peggy Montgomery.
HON. DANIEL DULANY. (THE YOUNGER).
Both father and son were leading men in political affairs, but the son eclipsed the father. Yet the father decided most of the
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Chancery records I have reviewed. The son was educated at Eton and Clare Hall in Cambridge. He entered the Temple and returning was admitted to the bar in 1727.
He became a member of the Council, and Secretary of the Province. His celebrated essay against the Stamp Act made him renowned, but the position he took in the debate with Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, classed him among the enemies to American Independence.
His wife was Rebecca Tasker, daughter of Hon. Benjamin and Ann (Bladen) Tasker.
Their three children were Daniel, Barrister of Lincoln's Inn, London; Colonel Benjamin Tasker Dulany, aid to General Washington. He married Eliza French, whose daughter Eliza French Dulany became the wife of Admiral French Forrest, of the Confederate Navy.
Ann Dulany (of Hon. Daniel) married M. De la Serre, whose daughter Rebecca, was married at the residence of Marquis of Wellesley, to Sir Richard Hunter, physician to the Queen.
McMahon, the historian, pays Hon. Daniel Dulany the follow- ing tribute:
"For many years before the downfall of the Proprietary Gov- ernment, he stood confessedly without a rival in the Colony, as a lawyer, a scholar, and an orator, and we may safely regard the asser- tion, that in the high and varied accomplishments which constitute these, he has had amongst the sons of Maryland but one equal and no superior. The legal arguments of Mr. Dulany that yet remain, bear the impress of abilities too commanding, and of learning too profound to admit of question. For many years before the Revolu- tion, he was regarded as an oracle of the law. It was the constant practice of the Courts of the Province to submit to his opinion every question of difficulty which came before them and so infallible were his opinions considered, that he who hoped to reverse them was regarded as 'hoping against hope.'
"Nor was his professional reputation limited to the colony. I have been creditably informed that he was occasionally consulted from England upon questions of magnitude, and that, in the Southern counties of Virginia, adjacent to Maryland, it was not unfrequent to withdraw questions from their Courts and even from the Chan- cellor of England, to submit them to his award. Thus, unrivalled in professional learning, according to the representations of his contemporaries, he added to it all the power of the orator, the accomplishments of the scholar, the graces of the person, the suavity of the gentleman.
"Mr. Pinkney, himself, the wonder of his age, who saw but the setting splendor of Mr. Dulany's talents, is reputed to have said of him, that even amongst such men as Fox, Pitt and Sheridan, he had not found his superior.
"Whatever were his errors during the Revolution, I have never heard them ascribed, either to opposition to the rights of
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America, or to a servile submission to the views of the Ministry, and I have been creditably informed, that he adhered, throughout life, to the principles advanced by him in opposition to the Stamp Act. The conjecture may be hazarded that had he not been thrown into collision with the leaders of the Revolution, by the proclamation controversy and thus involved in the discussion with them, which excited high resentment on both sides, and kept him at a distance from them until the Revolution began, he would, most probably, have been found by their side, in support of the measures which led to it. Mr. Dulany was Secretary of the Province when he conducted the famous controversy with Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. He was also a member of the Upper House, under the Proprietary Govern- ment.
" He wrote under the name of "Antilon" in opposition to 'First Citizen.' Full copies of that discussion are still extant in the Mary- land Gazette of our Maryland State Library. The political differ- ences which it engendered survived the close of the Revolution. Mr. Dulany held no public office after it, and the brilliancy of his talents displayed alone in the forum of Provincial Courts, did not shed its effulgence in National Councils, and his fame, reflected from the humble pedestal of State history, has not depicted to the Nation the phenominal proportions of his intellect. Mr. Dulany died in Baltimore, March 19th, 1797, aged seventy-five years and was buried in St. Paul's Cemetery, corner of Lombard and Fremont Streets."-(Riley).
The Dulany mansion in Annapolis stood in the present Naval Academy grounds, and for a number of years was occupied by the Superintendent.
Lloyd Dulany's old homestead is now the public school building. The famous bowl which was brought over in the Peggy Stewart belonged to him. A few evenings after its arrival, Mr. Dulany gave an entertainment in which he explained how the bowl was saved when the vessel was burnt. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, in reply to Mr. Dulany's explanation, remarked, "we will accept your explanation provided, this bowl always furnishes this same kind of tea."
Daniel Dulany (of Walter) married Mary Chew, widow of Governor Paca. Their son Lloyd was killed by Rev. Bennett Allen, former Rector of St. Anne's. Walter Dulany was a 'brother.
To get a definite idea of the all-prevailing influence of the Dulany name in legal quarters, study, as I have done, the Chancery records, wherein their opinions were the power behind the throne.
JUDGE SAMUEL CHASE.
Samuel Chase known in history as "The Torch of the Revolu- tion," was born in Somerset County, in 1741. His father was the Rev. Thomas Chase of the Church of England, half of whose salary was cut off by an Act supported by his son.
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Samuel Chase studied law in Annapolis. He joined the "Sons of Liberty." When Zachariah Hood's property was destroyed in revenge for his attempting to distribute stamps in the Colony, Chase was an active participant. Hood's friends who were promi- nent and distinguished families, resented Chase's conduct, saying, "Chase was a busy-body, restless incendiary, a ring-leader of mobs, a foul-mouthed and inflaming son of discord and faction-a pro- moter of the lawless excesses of the multitude." To these charges Chase replied in a vehement address, in which he admitted his agency, but justified his conduct. Fierce, vehement, fearless, he bore a tinge of harshness which was redeemed by noble and generous qualities-but the adherents of the Maryland Court looked upon him, then, as a dangerous fanatic. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774, and continued until 1778. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1783, was sent to England to collect a bank claim; recovered $650,000 of it. In 1778, was made Judge of the newly established Criminal Court in Balti- more. Colonel John Eager Howard induced him to remove to Balti- more and granted him a whole square, now in the centre of the city.
He was a member of the State Convention that adopted the Federal Constitution; he thought it not democratic enough. In 1791, he became Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland.
In 1794, on the occasion of a riot, he had arrested two of the rioters. They refused to give bail and the Sheriff was afraid of a rescue, if he took them to jail. "Call out a posse comitatus, then" said the Judge-"Sir, no one will serve." 'Summon me, then I will be posse comitatus. I will take them to jail." Instead of presenting the rioters, the grand jury indicted the Judge for holding a place in two Courts at the same time.
In 1796, President Washington appointed Judge Chase an associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
In 1804, he was impeached for misdemeanor. He was defended by Luther Martin, Attorney-General of Maryland, who in that defence was thus pictured. "Rolicking, witty, audacious Attorney- General, drunken, generous, slovenly, grand-shouting with a school boy's fun at the idea of tearing John Randolph's indictment to pieces and teaching Virginia Democrats some law." His address was never exceeded in "powerful and brilliant eloquence," in the forensic oratory of the country."
It defeated the impeachment, for the two-third majority could not be secured.
Judge Chase's temper was better fitted for the bar than the bench, yet his courage and ardor were needed where he held sway.
Judge Chase married first, Ann Baldwin, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. His second wife was Hannah Kitty Giles, of Kentbury, England. He died June 19th, 1811.
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JUDGE JEREMIAH TOWNLEY CHASE.
Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase, was born in Baltimore, in 1748, and removed to Annapolis in 1779. He was Mayor of Annapolis in 1783, and there delivered an address of welcome to General Wash- ington upon his resignation of this commission. Judge Chase also welcomed LaFayette to Annapolis, in 1825. He was upon the Com- mittee of Safety for Baltimore and was a private in the first military company.
In 1775, he was elected a member of the convention from Balti- more County to frame a Constitution and was a member of the body which framed the declaration for Maryland. He served in Governor Thomas Johnson's council ; was a member of Congress in 1783; in 1789, was Chief Judge of the Third District and Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, from which he resigned in 1824. He was firm, dignified, impartial, kind, temperate, and a sincere Christian. He married Hester Baldwin, name-sake and descendant of Hester Larkin, daughter of John Larkin, of South River. As the widow of Nicholas Nicholson she married John Baldwin, Jr. She died in 1749, aged one hundred years and is supposed to be one of the first persons born in Anne Arundel County.
She left a long line of distinguished descendents, one of whom, Hester Ann Chase Ridout, daughter of Thomas Chase (of Judge Townley) presented the Chase mansion to the Episcopal Church. Judge Chase died in 1828, and was buried in the City Cemetery.
THE REVOLUTION OF 1688.
There were several contributing causes in Maryland which helped to swell the Revolution of 1688 in England. The Proprietary rule of the Province had suffered greatly from the fact that during its whole existence, with the exception of the few years between 1675 and 1684, and the one short period of 1732, all the proprietors and their secretaries resided in England. The Province was held by representatives not always faithful, not even always discreet, but always in conflict through their varying responsibilities. They were the Governor, Secretary, Commissary-General, two Judges of the Land Office, and an Attorney-General, aided by many more minor appointees.
Cecilius, son of the first Lord Baltimore, was a trained adminis- trator, discreet, politic, able, deeply interested in the project for which, it is estimated, he must have spent some £40,000 sterling with but little received in return. His representative Governor, Leonard Calvert, was likewise an able and well-disposed administrator, but Charles Calvert, son of Cecilius, a busy man of strong personality, succeeding in 1675, was not the able diplomat that his father had been. Succeeding his uncle, Philip, as Governor, there was at once jealousy and dissension.
It is true he suppressed the Fendall rebellion, but he was not able to suppress the men engaged in it.
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Lacking the gentleness, sympathy and persuasive appeal of his father, he was charged with being cold, stern and self-interested.
He married the widow of his secretary, Henry Sewall, and gave her children and other members of his family some of the most important offices in the Province. He restricted the suffrage and endeavored to keep the leaders of the opposition out of the House of Delegates by not summoning them, when elected. When the house was obstinate he did not hesitate to use personal influence to secure reluctant assent.
Only a few years subsequent to a fall of more than fifty per cent. in the price of tobacco, the rent of all lands after 1670, was doubled, and further, while a large per cent. of the people were Protestants, the government was under the control of Catholics. Added to this, he left the province in 1684 to his minor son and a board of deputy governors, at the head of which was his cousin, the notorious George Talbott, to be followed later by William Joseph, a quaint fanatic, to succeed him, whose ideas of "divine right" were not well received, but in reality brought on a rebellion in the lower House of the Assembly (Mereness). A crisis was now at hand, not only in the prov- ince, but in the mother country-it ended in the revolution of 1688, which drove King James from the throne and placed William and Mary in control
Enemies of the Proprietary now began a contest for control under the false cry that Catholics were plotting with Indians to murder Protestants. Col. Henry Darnall, Colonel Pye and Mr. Boar- man were charged with conspiring with the Seneca Indians for that purpose, and it was only by the prompt action of Colonel Darnall in hurrying from place to place, convincing the people of the falsity of the rumor, that an uprising was quelled in its early stage. Certain Protestants, viz .: Henry Hawkins, Captain Edward Burgess, Colonel Nicholas Gassaway, Captain Richard Hill and Major Edward Dorsey, addressed a letter to Colonel Digges, of Lord Baltimore's council, to know if there was any truth in the rumor. Colonel Digges replied by a total denial of the charge, assuring the writers that Colonel Jowles, Colonel Darnall and Major Ninian Beale would scour the woods to see if any Indians could be found. His reply satisfied the writers who then joined in letters to the people and to the Council announcing their belief in the falsity of the charges, and they were rewarded by military appointments, viz .: Mr. Edward Dorsey, Major of Horse; Mr. Nicholas Gassaway, Major of the Foote; Mr. Nicholas Greenberry, Captain of the Foote, in the room of Captain Richard Hill; Mr. Edward Burgess, Captain of the Foote; Mr. Henry Hans- lap, Captain of the Foote; Mr. Henry Ridgely, Captain of the Foote. Captain John Coode was the leading spirit in this revolutionary move- ment against the lord proprietary. He had been suppressed by Charles Calvert during an earlier attempt at rebellion, but his spirit was still undaunted. He and Captain Josias Fendall had been tried for revolt. Coode had married a daughter of Thomas Gerrard, who had been a Councillor under Fendall. He was first a Catholic and
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then a Protestant, and although once a clergyman, he was considered vain, unprincipled, caring nothing for Protestantism, but using it only as a pretext in his revenge against the lord proprietor. With such a man as leader, was organized, in 1689, a Protestant Association to put William and Mary in control of the province. The records were seized by Colonel Coode, head of the militia. The officers of the Proprietor could only collect a force of eighty men, who surren- dered without a shot.
This association met with but little approval by the Protestants of Anne Arundel County, who even refused to send delegates to a convention at St. Mary's.' Captain Richard Hill, of Anne Arundel, urged the inhabitants to think well before renouncing the proprietors who had given them their property, to rush to a government which might not be able to hold it. For that effort he was denounced by Captain Coode and driven from power. In his defence, Captain John Browne, of Anne Arundel, wrote: "Captain Hill is a Scotchman, bold in speech, who spoke what others only dared to think." But the Association was successful; Coode was put in command of the King's forces, assisted by Colonel Nicholas Greenberry. The new monarchs were proclaimed, an assembly was called and all the offices filled with Protestants. Each of the counties, except Anne Arundel, sent an address to the King in support of the movement, beseeching him to take the government into his own hands, but counter addresses, denouncing Coode and his followers, were also sent. The signatures to the former, however, numbered twice as many as the latter.
Charges, strong and forceful, were brought against the govern- ment of the Proprietor. The King approved the measures of the Association, but the opinion of Lord Chief Justice Holt in 1690 was, " I think the King may constitute a governor whose authority will be legal, though he must be responsible to the Lord Baltimore for the profits.'
The royal government, however, was established in 1692 and continued for nearly a quarter of a century in control of the province.
Sir Lionel Copley was appointed Governor. He summoned a General Assembly which met May 10, 1692, O. S., at St. Mary's. The first act was to acknowledge William and Mary, and the next to establish the Episcopal Church as the State church of Maryland. Every county was divided into parishes and taxes were levied upon the people, without distinction, for the support of the ministers, the repair of the old and the building of new churches. In 1704 an act was passed "to prevent the growth of popery," by which it was made a penal offence for a priest of the Catholic Church to say mass or to perform any of their sacred functions, or for any Catholic to teach a school. This was subsequently modified in allowing Catholic priests their functions in private houses. This led to the custom of building chapels connected with the dwellings of Catholic families; nor were Catholics alone so deprived. All dissenters were alike treated, even the gentle Quakers. In 1702 the English toleration act for "Dis-
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senters" was extended to Maryland, and in 1706 relief was granted to the "Quakers" or "Friends."
The Assembly next attempted to deprive the Proprietary of his rights in the province. He was still entitled to all of the unsettled lands, with the right of making grants for them, to the quit rents and certain duties, not connected with the government, viz .: port duties of two shillings per hundred on all tobacco exported from the colony. The Assembly disputed his claim, but Lord Baltimore having appealed to the King, the latter, by royal letter, authorized him to collect his revenues in the province. The Assembly finally yielded up to the Proprietary his port and tonnage duties and entered into a compromise in issuing land patents. The Assembly now turned its attention to the location of the State Capital.
St. Mary's was the home of the Catholic element of the province and it was now too remote for a convenient meeting place. Both of these reasons were made effective. All prayers for retaining the gov- ernment upon its historic ground were laughed at and rejected. The capital was removed to "the town land at Proctors," which was henceforth to be called Annapolis, and so, in a few years, old St. Mary's, "in the very State to which it gave birth, in the land which it redeemed from the wilderness, now stands a solitary spot dedicated to God and a fit memento of perishable man" (McMahon). Its suc- cessor, rising upon its ruins, grew into an attractive centre of wealth. A portion of St. Mary's population followed the government to the new capitol. The very first record of this new seat shows that progress had been made for a coming city.
There is one venerable building on State House Hill which must have been built as the Court House for the Port of Entry in 1683. It is the time-honored Treasury building. When it was repaired during the administration of Treasurer Spencer Jones, a special search was made to get its date of erection, but nothing could then be found. The present efficient Chief Clerk of the Land Office, Mr. George Schaeffer, had a picture of it from a New York journal showing the members of the Assembly in continental dress standing about it under the shade trees surrounding it. Mr. David Ridgely, in his excellent " Annals of Annapolis," published in 1841, tells us that the Lower House met in the larger room and the Upper House in the smaller one, but when that meeting took place was left to conjecture.
The first Assembly, by the records, met in Major Dorsey's house, which a living historian, Mr. Elihu S. Riley, thinks was probably the house No. 83 Prince George Street, now Mrs. Marchand's.
The first State House was built in 1697, when the Assembly met there until its destruction by fire in 1704, after which Major Dorsey's house was again occupied until the completion of the second State House in 1706. We have a record of the Armory which stood north of it; of King William's School, which stood south of it, but no mention of the Treasury building. Even when the third State House was projected in 1772 and its corner stone was laid by Gover- nor Eden, the clap of thunder from a clear sky was noted, but still
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no mention of this quaint little building, which must have then taken the place of the second State House for a season until the completion of the third.
Judging from the want of record after 1694, the inference is clear that our historic little Treasury building was built after the organiza- tion of Anne Arundel Town as a port of entry in 1683, and at the time of Governor Nicholson, was the house in which he called his Council together for the organization of the capital
GOVERNOR NICHOLSON.
In 1694 Governor Nicholson met in Council at the Court House in Anne Arundel Town and issued an order for the removal of the records from the city of St. Mary's to Anne Arundel Town, to be con- veyed in good, strong bags, to be secured with cordage and hides, and well packed, with guards to attend them night and day, and to be delivered to the Sheriff of Anne Arundel County, at Anne Arundel Town. This removal took place in the winter of 1694-5.
The first Assembly was held in a house of Major Edward Dorsey on 28th February 1694, O. S., and in 1695, the town became Annapolis, with a resident naval officer and a public ferry across the Severn.
A contract was made with Casper Herman, a burgess from Cecil, for building the parish church, school house and State house, all from brick made near Annapolis.
The foundation of the first State House was laid April 30, 1696. In June, 1697, the building was so well advanced as to be set apart for public use. The officers in charge were Governor Nicholson, Hon. Sir Thomas Lawrence, Baronet, Secretary; Hon. Henry Jowles, Chancellor; Hon. Kenelm Cheseldyne, Commissary-General. Struck by lightning in 1699 and entirely consumed by fire in 1704, the first State House had but a brief existence. This gave Governor Seymour occasion to say, "I never saw any public building left solely to Providence but in Maryland."
Major Dorsey's house was again rented for the Assembly Hall until a new State House could be built.
Governor Nicholson was a man of integrity, liberal in views, firm in purpose.
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