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 23
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 23
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THE DESERTED RUINS OF MARLEY CHAPEL.
"In some pine woods, near Marley, nine miles from Baltimore," says Mrs. Helen Stewart Ridgely, "are faithful relics of the past- the ruins of an Episcopal chapel."
The ceiling of Marley Chapel is a segmented arch from which much of the plaster has fallen. It is supported by wooden cornices, and the brickwork over the doors and windows follows the same curve. Between the windows at the east end a stretch of cleaner plaster indicates that some of the church furniture once stood there. The bare ground enclosed in this ruin indicates that either a brick or tile pavement covered the aisle and that the pews were raised above the pavement and probably floored with boards. There remain only a few beams of all the woodwork.
GOVERNOR EDWARD LLOYD.
During the time between the death of Governor Seymour and the appointment of his successor, Edward Lloyd, President of the Council, became acting Governor. He was the son of Colonel Phile- mon Lloyd, whose wife was Mrs. Henrietta Maria (Neale) Bennett, daughter of Captain James Neale, a former representative at the Court of Spain. Governor Edward Lloyd inherited from his grand- father, Commander Lloyd, in 1695, the celebrated homestead, "Wye House," ever since owned by an Edward Lloyd. His wife was the beautiful Quakeress, Sarah Covington. From them came Edward Lloyd, the legislator of 1739 and husband of Ann Rousby. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married General Sam Ringgold; Henrietta Maria became Mrs. Nicholson, and Richard Bennett Lloyd, their brother, married the charming Joanna Leigh, of the Isle of Wight; his brother, Edward Lloyd, was the hero of the Revolution, rival of Thomas Sim Lee for Governor, the husband of Elizabeth Taylor and the father of Governor Edward Lloyd of 1809-exactly one hundred years later than his ancestor, the royal Governor of 1709.
McMahon pays this tribute to Governor Edward Lloyd's administration of 1709: "It is as conspicuous in our statute book, even at this day, as the blessed parliament in that of England. A body of permanent laws was then adopted, which for their compre- hensiveness and arrangement, are almost entitled to the name of a code. They formed the substratum of the statute law of the Province, even down to the Revolution."
Secretary Calvert, in his correspondence with Governor Lloyd, touched upon bills of exchange, abuse of his lordship's manors, rent rolls, town lands, the King's temporary line, advancement in the value of his lordship's lands, arrearages of rent, the Ohio territory and French encroachments.
Governor Lloyd was succeeded by Governor John Hart, the appointee of Leonard Calvert, endorsed by George the First.
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GOVERNOR JOHN HART.
After the King had held the Province from 1689 to 1715, the fourth lord proprietor, Charles, the sixteen-year-old son of Benedict Leonard, was restored as a Protestant. He was represented by Gov- ernor John Hart, who had been appointed by the Crown in 1714 and endorsed by both King and Proprietor in 1715. Hart was an enthusiast, but failed to make his enthusiasm useful. He tried to improve the tobacco trade; recommended the growth of hemp; called attention to the need of better roads; urged the building of a govern- ment house; but he became involved in a contest with the leading Catholics. He quarreled with Charles Carroll, who, after the restora- tion, had been commissioned "chief agent, escheator, naval officer and receiver-general of all our rents, arrears of rents, fines, forfeitures, tobaccos, or monies for land warrants; of all ferries, waifs, strays and decedents; of all duties arising from or growing due upon exportation of tobacco aforesaid, tonnage of ships, and all other monies, tobaccos, or other effects," and also authorizing him "to sell or dispose of lands, tenements, or hereditaments to us now escheated or forfeited." Governor Hart, the new Protestant governor, when he learned that the new Protestant Proprietor had permitted a strong Catholic to retain so much power, was furious. The Assembly stood by the Governor, holding that no private employee of the Proprietor should receive the fines imposed by the Assembly. A petition was sent to the Proprietor asking the restoration of the Governor to his full powers. Mr. Carroll fixed the salary of the Governor and even advised him not to assent to some bills awaiting his signature. Mr. Carroll held his agency, but was not continued Register of the Land Office. Governor Hart was also involved, as Chancellor, by taking the part of the people against His Majesty's Surveyor-General of Customs. He had warm supporters among Protestants, but before his recall in 1720, was broken in health.
THE CALVERT GOVERNORS.
Charles Calvert, his successor, was a cousin of the Lord Proprie- tor. During his administration the bad condition of the tobacco interest led the Lower House to begin the contest over " officers' fees."
His successor, Benedict Leonard Calvert, brother of the Pro- prietor, became a still weaker supporter of the proprietory interests. His hostility to the clergy was now the controversy. He was an open enemy of two such leaders as Dulany and Bordley. He stood boldly on his ancestry, but died on his way to England.
From these preccedings it is seen that the question of land grants was a cause of dissatisfaction thus early in the history of the county -and it may be of interest to give here an able review of this question from the recent historian, Mereeness, upon Provincial Maryland.
The first conditions of plantation had been declared before the colonists had left England. The size and rent of the grant frequently
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varied, but each person, so entitled, was required to record his right in the Secretary's office. Following this came the demand for land, a warrant of survey, directed to the Surveyor-General, who gave his certificate, which was embodied in a patent passed by the Governor under the seal of the Proprietor. Still later this simple arrangement was complicated by requiring proofs of right, sales of right, petitions, caveats and resurveys.
About 1670, the Proprietor and his son, Charles, then Governor, began to increase their revenues. A clerk and register, out of the office of the Secretary, was put in charge especially to prove rights, issue land warrants and draw up grants; this was followed, later, by a council of four, consisting of members of State, which was empow- ered to hear and determine all matters relating to land. This held until 1689, when the Land Office was closed, only to be opened in 1694. Then Henry Darnall, the Proprietor's cousin and Receiver- General, was put in charge of the Land Office, dying in 1712. Charles Carroll, Solicitor and Register in the Land Office, became Darnall's successor, for which he was most liberally rewarded by magnificent manors.
During the royal administration represented by Governor Hart, a dispute arose concerning the two Proprietors interests. The Governor and his Council undertook to grant numerous petitions for resurveys and to decide disputes. Secretary Sir Thomas Lawrence claimed the custody of all papers giving evidence of land titles, and also the right to issue warrants, refusing the Proprietor's agent the right to search the records without the usual fee. This was compro- mised by leaving the records in the Secretary's office but granting the Proprietor's agent to use them to correct his rent-rolls, the Secretary claiming one-half of the fees for land warrants. This led the Pro- prietor to increase the purchase money from 240 to 480 pounds of tobacco per 100 acres. The Assembly now came into the contest with a demand to publish the changed conditions of plantation and laws were passed requiring surveyors to qualify according to law. Upon the restoration of the Proprietary in 1715, a new Commission was issued to Charles Carroll, still further increasing his power, which brought on the contest with Governor Hart, ending in a reduction of the fees of the agent, until 1733. The rent rolls, after Carroll's death, fell into confusion. Governor Ogle was now in office and the Land Office gave him much trouble, which continued to grow worse.
In 1760, Mr. Lloyd, in charge of the Land Office, was required to build a house for the Receiver-General to contain all land records. Upon the completion of the building in 1766, a Board of Revenue, consisting of public officers, was authorized to audit all accounts of the Land Office and make a report to the Proprietor. This Board of Revenue was comprised of the Governor and leading officers. The Lower House charged that its members were growing independently rich. The Lower House even urged that the Proprietor had no right to dispose of vacant lands different from former proclamations, nor to settle the fees paid for services performed in the Land Office, claim-
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ing the office as a public repository of the first evidence of every man's title to his real estate; they asserted that the records had been made at the expense of the people and were, therefore, considered as public records. If the land-holders have no right to have copies, except at the will of his lordship, or on terms his lordship may be pleased to allow them, they are but tenants at will of the Proprietor. The con- troversy remaining unsettled, was absorbed in the coming struggle with England. Governor Eden conceded that the Land Office was public so far as the custody of the records, but the question of public or private control remained to be solved.
The continual cultivation of tobacco in the early period of the Province did not encourage industrial development and few towns grew up. The tobacco trade was with England direct, and in return English goods were returned.
Located at first upon navigable waters, planters held their social intercourse through the bay and its tributaries, and roads were not made until the back country became settled. Abundance of food was furnished in the bay, and the backwoods gave wild turkeys, deer and other choice meats. With the lavish gifts of nature for their support and the money returns from their tobacco crops, but little incentive for progress existed.
As early as 1663, Governor Charles Calvert had begun to sow wheat, oats, peas and barley, and even flax and hemp. Tobacco planters were required to grow at least two acres of corn; a bounty for raising flax and hemp was offered.
In 1715 Governor Hart addressed both Houses of the Assembly upon the necessity for devoting spacious tracts of fertile lands not adapted to tobacco, to the growth of hemp, but none of these sug- gestions seemed to bring the Province up to industrial development until 1710, when the fertile soils of Howard and Frederick Counties were devoted to the production of wheat.
Liberal inducements had been offered by Charles Calvert to Pala- tine settlers. Two hundred acres of back lands were offered to every family, requiring no payment of quit rent for three years, and then only four shillings per hundred acres.
In 1735 Daniel Dulany induced about one hundred families to settle on his lands in Frederick County. In 1749 another large body arrived and were offered homes upon any terms agreeable. At the beginning of the Revolution, Frederick County had a population of nearly 50,000, about one-seventh of the whole Province. The influ- ence of their sturdy subduing of forests, converting them into wheat fields, was extended even to the eastern shore, and in 1770 the Bordley wheat field of 300 acres on Wye Island became an object lesson to wealthy planters.
At last mines opened up. Manufactures of iron implements followed. In 1749 there were eight furnaces for making pig iron and nine forges for bar iron.
Public roads began in 1739, followed by an act of Assembly for clearing, marking and improving roads. The Assembly also loaned
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money to Howard and Anne Arundel to open, straighten and improve the same. The result was that before entering statehood, wagons, drawn by eight horses, had taken the place of post-horses upon roll- ing roads.
Fifty vessels were owned in 1749 by inhabitants of the Province, transporting then about 28,000 hogsheads of tobacco, in addition to £16,000 sterling exports of wheat, corn, pig iron, lumber and furs. Twelve years later the tobacco exports had decreased, while exports of other products amounted to £90,000.
In 1762 Philadelphia offered a better market for Maryland prod- ucts than could be found in Maryland owing to the scattered ports of delivery in the Province.
The need of money now became imperative. Paper currency came and with it a law for inspection of tobacco, added to the devel- opment of the western counties; the Province at last began to be more independent of the mother country. (Mereness.)
Now there were many evidences of advancement in the Province.
ANNAPOLIS IN 1718.
In 1718, "New Town," upon Powder Hill, was added to Annapo- lis. It was ten acres, secured by a Commission of Colonel William Holland, Colonel Thomas Addison, Captain Daniel Mariartiee and Mr. Alexander Warfield for the encouragement of trade in the city. The lots were given to builders who did not hold other lots in Annapolis. Philip Hammond, the merchant, had his warehouse in "New Town."
The lotholders of Annapolis, at that time, were Dr. Charles Car- roll, Samuel Young, Thomas Bladen, Patrick Ogleby, Robert Thomas, Amos Garrett, the merchant and ex-mayor, Benjamin Tasker, James Carroll and Philip Lloyd.
In 1820 Benjamin Tasker laid out his "Prospect to Annapolis" on the north side of the Severn.
St. Anne's Church was now so crowded a gallery had to be added in 1723. During that year, too, an 'act for encouraging learning was passed and Rev. Joseph Colebatch, Colonel Samuel Young, William Locke, Captain Daniel Mariartiee, Mr. Charles Ham- mond, Mr. Richard Warfield and John Beale were commissioned to procure land, build and visit schools for Anne Arundel.
In 1727 several parishioners of St. Anne's, headed by Rev. Alex- ander Frazier were authorized to build a chapel in the upper part of the parish. The site selected was near Indian Landing; its patrons were Vachel Denton, Thomas Worthington, John Beale and Philip Hammond.
William Parks was authorized to print, in 1727, a compilation of the laws of the Province, and in 1728, Henry Ridgely, Mordecai Hammond and John Welsh were empowered to lay out land for a custom house.
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GOVERNOR SAMUEL OGLE.
In 1732 Lord Baltimore appointed Samuel Ogle, son of Samuel Ogle, of Northumberland, England, as his representative in Annapo- lis. The Legislature gave £3,000 for a Governor's residence, but it was not used by Governor Ogle, then a bachelor. The Governor soon engaged in the controversy concerning the dividing line of Mary- land and Pennsylvania. Lord Baltimore, despairing of receiving his rights, had decided to accept a compromise. Disturbances had for several years been created by the German settlers on the disputed territory. Captain Thomas Cresap formed an association to drive out the Germans. In this contest one man was killed; Cresap was wounded and was taken prisoner. Governor Ogle sent Edmund Jennings and Daniel Dulany to Philadelphia to demand Cresap's release: they failed. Reprisals were ordered; four Germans were arrested and taken to Baltimore. Cresap's exclamation, when he saw Philadelphia, was, "Why this is the finest city in the Province of Maryland."
Penn sent a committee to Governor Ogle to treat, but the Governor's demands were not accepted. Riots upon the contested border increased and Governor Ogle addressed the King, who replied by enjoining both Governors to keep the peace, to allow no settlers in the disputed territory until his wishes were made known. Affairs were in such a serious condition that Lord Baltimore came over to the Province and assumed charge for one year.
Governor Ogle had found the Province excited over English statutes. He possessed many essential qualities for a successful governor. He won over Daniel Dulany, one of the strongest opposers, but he could not silence the opposition. He settled the controversy over English statutes by appointing four of the ablest members of the Lower House, but the act of Assembly which supported the government, having been allowed to expire, the House expelled those four members who had been appointed to office.
New leaders rose in the House to oppose "officers' fees," and to quiet the Province, the Lord Proprietor determined on a new Governor.
GOVERNOR SIR THOMAS BLADEN.
In 1742, Sir Charles Calvert appointed his brother-in-law his representative. Both had married daughters of Sir Theodore Jansen, Baronet of Surry.
In 1742, £1,000 more were added to the fund for a Governor's mansion and Governor Bladen was empowered to buy four lots and to erect thereon a residence for himself and future Governors. In 1744, he bought four acres, from Stephen Bordley and built the stately hall now the central building of St. Johns College, an architect from Scotland planned it, but before completing this magnificent banquetting hall, the Legislature and Governor disagreed upon its
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designs and refused further aid. It so stood for a number of years a decaying monument of splendor and was dubbed "Bladen's Folly." In 1784, it was granted, with its grounds, to St. Johns College.
Governor Bladen made the treaty with Thomas Penn. "The Six Nations" had also given trouble by claiming land along the Sus- quehanna and Potomac. The Governor was disposed to a peaceful settlement by buying their lands. The Assembly agreed, but disputed his authority in appointing Commissioners. To his appointments the Assembly added the names of Dr. Robert Key and Charles Carroll, and drew up instructions for their action. This gave offense to Governor Bladen. The Indians pressed an answer, but the Assembly would not yield and the Governor appointed his commis- sion alone. It met and adjusted the controversy, by paying £100 currency for the Indian claim. By that treaty, the Nanticokes left the Eastern Shore and paddled their canoes up the Susquehanna River and settled in the Wyoming Valley.
The members of the Assembly from Anne Arundel and Anna- polis City in 1745, were Major Henry Hall, Dr. Charles Carroll, Mr. Philip Hammond, Mr. Thomas Worthington, Captain Robert Gordon and Dr. Charles Stewart, of Annapolis. This Assembly refused to aid the Governor in sending troops to Canada. It occasioned considerable discussion, but the independent descendants of the old settlers of the previous century held their ground in able remonstrance. This led Governor Bladen to ask a recall and Samuel Ogle was again named as his successor, in 1747.
The Maryland Gazette, the earliest newspaper of the Province, made its re-appearance, in 1745, under Josias Green, and henceforth its pages furnish a reliable history of the county.
GOVERNOR OGLE'S SECOND TERM.
On March 12, 1747, the new Governor brought over his bride in the ship Neptune, from Liverpool and on the 9th of June, Governor Bladen, the only royal Governor born in the Provinces, sailed for England. His father was Hon. William Bladen, Clerk of the Council and first public printer, who held an estate of 2,000 acres in St. Mary's. His daughter Ann, married Hon. Benjamin Tasker, whose daughter Ann, became the wife of Governor Samuel Ogle.
In December, Governor Ogle called the Assembly to raise funds for the support of the Maryland troops in Canada. The Assembly refused and was dissolved. Governor Ogle's report upon the condition of trade, population and expenses of the Province was a comprehensive exhibit, which he sent to the Board of Trade, of London.
The Act of the Assembly for the inspection of tobacco and the limitation of officer's fees, passed shortly after his restoration to office increased the general good feeling toward him. During his administration the land grants extended to Howard District of Anne Arundel. He built the house which stands on the corner of King
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George and College Avenue. During his second term of service, the prosperity of the Province was well-marked. Upon his death in 1752, the Maryland Gazette paid this tribute:
"His great constancy and firmness in a painful illness were suit- able to a life exercised in every laudable pursuit. His long residence among us made him thoroughly acquainted with our Constitution and interests and his benevolent disposition induced him to promote the public good. He was a pattern of sobriety and regularity; a sincere lover of truth and justice. That his administration was mild and just, his enemies, if such a man had any, dare not deny. In private life he was an amiable companion and in his friendship warm and sincere."
THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.
We have reached the Centennial year of the settlement, of Anne Arundel, and in that review the words of Rev. Ethan Allen are of interest. Says he: "The Puritans as such, were then no longer heard of; their places of worship were desolate and their grave-yards, where are they?"
At 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 remain, had taken the place of the log-hut of the emigrant and the wigwam of the Indian. Luxury, fashion and commerce, with their attendant dissipations and extravagances, had taken the place of the severe and stern simplicity of the early settlers.
A hundred years had given the match-lock 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.
Annapolis had now been the capital for half a century. Opulent men had built costly, elegant houses as their city dwellings and had large plantations, or manors, where they dwelt when overlooking their tobacco crops. Lumbering equipages, drawn by superb horses were their traveling outfits in the country. "In town, sedan chairs, borne by lacquies in livery were often seen. They sat on carved chairs, at quaint tables, amid piles of ancestral silverware and drank punch out of vast, costly bowls from Japan, or supped Madeira, half a century old."
The legal lights of Annapolis were Jennings, Chalmer, Rogers, Stone, Paca, Johnson, Dulany. The clergy were men of culture, who could write Latin notes to their companions; they enjoyed their imported Madeira; were hearty livers and enjoyed the renowned crabs, terrapins and canvass-back ducks, for which the city was famous. With races every fall and spring, theatre in winter, a card
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party each evening, assemblies every fortnight, dinners three or four times a week, at which wit, learning and stately manners were exhibited, all softened by love of good fellowship, it is not surprising that a foreigner should declare: "There is not a town in England, of the same size as Annapolis, which can boast of a greater number of fashionable and handsome women."
The style in winter is to enjoy the capital, but in milder seasons, to travel among the great estates and manors until the principal families in Calvert, St. Marys, Charles, Prince George and Arundel and even across the bay, had been visited.
They were bold riders, expert in hounds and horse flesh, and the daily fox-chase was as much a duty as it was to go to church with proper equipage and style on Sunday.
Between the old colonial mansions of the Northern and Southern colonies a striking contrast seems to exist. In Maryland and Vir- ginia there are brick buildings of remarkable solidity and considerable architectural pretensions. In solidity they shame the mock shal- lowness of our modern pretension. A noble hospitality is expressed in the great mansions of this time. The central building lodged the family and guests; the two wings, connected by corridors, served for kitchen, offices and servants quarters. In the less-imposing homes of the people, the "hipped-roof" was almost universal, now revived by our Mansard. The cosy comfort, the burnished brass knockers, the low ceilings, the Queen Anne garden with box edging, all speak to us lovingly of ancestral days worthy of being reseen and reviewed.
Our modern clubs are only imitations of the South River and the Tuesday Club, of Annapolis. The former has been separately noted elsewhere. The latter was an assembly of wits, who satirized every one and did it successfully. The most distinguished and influential men of the ancient capital, graduates of British Universities, wits of first order were its members. The meetings were held at the houses of its patrons. Offensive topics were laughed out of discus- sion. Hon. Edward Dorsey, known as "the honest lawyer" was at one time speaker. "He was charged with negligence in office in not displaying his talents in oratory to the club. Speaker Dorsey rising with that gravity and action, which is his peculiar talent on all such occasions, discoursed in a nervous and elegant style, which is natural to that gentleman on all occasions." Notes of this club's discussions have been preserved in the Archives of the Maryland Historical Society.
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