USA > Maryland > The founders of Maryland as portrayed in manuscripts, provinical records and early documents > Part 4
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4 A Capt. Robert Winter was in the Assembly of 1638. On Janu- ary 12, 1637-38, he transported the following servants, Richard Browne, Arthur Webb, John Speed, Bartholomew Phillips, Thomas White, Rowland Morgan, George Tailor, aged 15 years. Before September 1638 he died. See Annapolis MSS.
6 Pope Pius the Fifth had freed English subjects, from allegiance to the Sovereign of England. After the Gun Powder Plot the Oath of Allegiance was required of all persons sailing to English colonies. It begins as follows.
"IA- -- B --- do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify, and declare in my conscience before God and the World, that our Sovereign Lord King James is lawful and righteous King of this realm, and all other his Majesty's dominions and countries, and that the Pope, neither of himself, nor by any authority by the Church or See of Rome, or by any other means with any other, hath any power or authority to depose the King, or to dispose of any of his Majesty's
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OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.
brought back. After the vessels were again anchored, near Gravesend, they were visited by Edward Watkins the London Searcher, who reported to the Privy Council as follows: " According to your Lordship's order of the 25th day of this instant month of October, I have been at Tillbury Hope where I found a ship and pinnace belonging to the Right Honorable Cecil Lord Baltimore where I offered the oath of allegiance to all and every the persons aboard, to the number of about 128, who took the same, and inquiring of the Master of the Ship whether any more persons were to go the said voyage, he answered that some few others were shipped who had forsaken the ship and given over the voyage, by reason of the stay of said ships."1
The vessels after they left the Thames stopped at the Isle of Wight, where the Jesuit Father White, and others who had forsaken the ship, were probably re- ceived. On the 22d of November they sailed from this Isle. Father White writes: "Yet we were not without apprehension, for the sailors were murmuring among themselves, saying that they were expecting a
kingdoms or dominions," etc. Another clause reads : " Also I do swear from my heart, that notwithstanding any declaration or sentence of excommunication, or deprivation made or granted by the Pope or his successors * * * * I will bear faith and true allegiance to his Majesty." etc. Again " And I do believe, and in conscience am resolv. ed, that neither the Pope, nor any person whatsoever, hath power to absolve me of this oath," etc.
1 Copy, from original, in British Public Record Office.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
messenger with letters from London, and from this it seemed as if they were ever contriving to delay us."
After the ships had been at sea several weeks, Cecil Lord Baltimore wrote to his deceased father's intimate friend, Wentworth, known in history as Earl of Strafford, the following account of the difficulties of sending out the first ships to his Plantation :
" After many difficulties since your Lordship's de- parture from hence, in the proceedings of my Planta- tion wherein I felt your Lordship's absence, I have at last sent away my ships, and have deferred my going till another time, and indeed my Lord, my ships are gone ; after having been so many ways troubled by my adversaries, after they had endeavored to over- throw my business at the Council Board, after they had informed by several means some of the Lords of the Council that I intended to carry over nuns into Spain, and soldiers to serve that King, which I believe your Lordship will laugh at, as well they did, after they had gotten Mr. Attorney General to make an in- formation in the Star-Chamber that my ships were departed from Gravesend without any cockets from the Custom House, and in contempt of all authority, my people abusing the King's officers, and refusing to take the oath of allegiance ; whereupon their Lord- ships sent present order to several captains of the King's ships who lay in the Downs, to search for my ships in the river, and to follow them into the narrow
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SECOND LORD BALTIMORE.
seas, if they were gone out, and to bring them back to Gravesend, which they did, and all this done before I knew anything of it, but imagined all the while that my ships were well advanced on their voyage; but not to trouble your Lordship with too many circum- stances, I, as soon as I had notice of it, made it plainly appear unto their Lordships, that Mr. Attorney was abused and misinformed, and that there was not any just cause of complaint in any of the former accusa- tions, and that every one of them was most notoriously and maliciously false, whereupon they were pleased to ' restore my ships to their former liberty.
" After they had likewise corrupted and seduced my mariners, and defamed the business all they could by their scandalous reports, I have as I said, at last, by the help of some of your Lordship's good friends and mine, overcome these difficulties, and sent a hopeful colony into Maryland with a fair and probable expecta- tion of good success, however without any danger of any great prejudice unto myself, in respect that others are joined with me in the adventure. There are two of my brothers gone, with very near twenty other gen- tlemen of very good fashion, and three hundred labor- ing men well provided in all things."1
The following were the few persons above the con- dition of laboring men :
' Strafford's Letters.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
Leonard Calvert, Governor. Frederick Winter. Thomas Cornwallis, Commissioner. John Saunders.
Jerome Hawley, 66 Thomas Dorrell.
Andrew White, Priest. Edward Cranfield.
John Altham, alias Gravener, Priest. Capt. John Hill.
George Calvert, Baltimore's brother. Henry Green. Justinian Snow, Factor. John Medcalf.
Henry Wiseman. Nicholas Fairfax.
Richard Gerard. William Saire.
Edward Winter. John Baxter.
Fairfax and others died before they reached their destination, others survived but a little while after landing, and some left the Plantation.
Saunders, the partner of Cornwallis in business, died soon after arrival in Maryland, the brothers of Sir John Winter lived but two or three years,1 George Calvert went to Virginia and was in sympathy with Clayborne, and died before the year 1653,2 Richard - Gerard who was about twenty years of age when he landed at St. Mary, remained in America about one year. During the civil war in England he adhered to the King and was Governor of Denbigh Castle. After the restoration of monarchy, he was made one of the cup bearers of Charles the Second.3
1 Annapolis MSS.
"In the statement of Lord Baltimore's Case, published in London in 1653, it is stated, that both of his brothers, Leonard and George Calvert, had died in America.
' Foster's Lancashire.
GOVERNOR LEONARD CALVERT.
T HE Government of the Plantation was entrusted by Cecil, Lord Baltimore, to his brother Leonard Calvert as Deputy, with two commissioners, Thomas Cornwallis and Jerome Hawley, as friends and advisers.
Leonard Calvert was the second son of George Cal- vert the first Lord Baltimore, born about A.D., 1606, and thus twenty-eight years of age at the time of his landing at Saint Mary. In early life he had lived in Ireland, and in the spring of 1629 under a letter of marque, sailed in the ship St. Claude for Newfound- land, and it was in this ship probably, that his father and family went to Virginia, in the autumn of that year. 1
Ilis life as Governor of Maryland was not distin- guished for boldness and originality, and his relative George Evelyn the Commander of Kent Island once sneeringly said, " Who was his grandfather but a gra- zier? what was his father ? what was Leonard Cal- vert himself at school but a dunce and a blockhead."2
He appears to have been greatly under the influence of Margaret Brent, a strong-minded woman, who on
' See Page 42.
9 Streeter's Evelyn.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
November 22, 1638, arrived in Maryland with her sister Mary, and brothers Fulk and Giles.
Cecil Lord Baltimore, in 1639 was so poor, that he and his wife and children were obliged to live at the house of his father-in-law, Earl Arundel,1 and his brother Leonard, when he died on the 9th of June 1647, was far from rich.
His successor as the head of the Province, Thomas Green, has left on record an interesting statement of the last events of his life. About six hours before he expired, in Green's presence he said to Margaret Brent, " I make you my sole executor. Take all, and pay all." After these words he desired all to leave the room, but Margaret with whom he had private conference. When Green was again invited to his bed-side, he heard him say "I give my wearing clothes to James Lindsay and Richard William my servants, specifying his cloth suit to Richard William, and his black suit to James Lindsay, and his wearing linen to be divided between them. I give my colt to my godson Leonard Green," and also requested that the first mare colt that should fall, be given to Mrs. Temperance Pypott of Virginia." 2
Under this nuncupative will, Margaret Brent claimed and held the house in which Governor Calvert resided.
1 Bruce's State Papers.
? Annapolis Manuscripts.
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LEONARD CALVERT'S WILL.
Recognized by the Maryland Assembly of 1648, as the attorney of Governor Calvert, she demanded a vote in that body, against which Governor Green protested. With masculine vigor, she then claimed to be the representative of the Lord Proprietary, and, in turn, protested against all the acts of the Assembly.
Lord Baltimore was displeased at her position and wrote " bitter invectives," but the Assembly of 1649, defended her, with a gallantry worthy of the courtiers of Queen Elizabeth. They stated to the Proprietary in England : " As for Mistress Brent's undertaking, and meddling with your estate, we do verily believe, and in conscience report, that it was better for the colony's safety, at that time, in her hands, than in any man's else,1 in the whole Province, after your brother's death ; for the soldiers would never have treated any other with that civility and respect, and though they was ever ready at several times to run into mutiny, yet she still pacified them, till at last things were brought to that strait, that she must be admitted and declared your Lordship's attorney, by order of Court."
In the early records, there is a notice of this lady journeying, in May, 1643, to the Isle of Kent, ac- companied by Anne a lame maid servant of Sir Ed- mund Plowden. Until late in life, the Attorney of
1 The expression " any man's elso " may be a slip of the pen, not a p un.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
Leonard Calvert retained her powers of fascination. When fifty-seven years old, in 1658, she states to the Provincial Court, " that Thomas White lately deceased out of the tender love and affection he bore unto the petitioner, intended if he had lived to have married her, and did by his last will give uuto the said peti tioner his whole estate which he was possessed of in his life time."1 Three years after this, she was alive, but the precise date of the death of Leonard Calvert's best friend, has not been ascertained.
1 Annapolis Manuscripts.
1
CA
THOMAS CORNWALLIS, COMMISSIONER.
COMMISSIONER Thomas Cornwallis was the most prominent of the founders of Maryland. In mental endowments, well known ancestry, and worldly goods, he had no superior.
His grandfather was Sir Charles Cornwallis,1 distin-
CORNWALLIS PEDIGREE.
Sir THOMAS CORNWALLIS, Kt. Comptroller of the Household of Queen Mary. Married Anne daughter of Sir John Jer- ningham. Died 1604. Had two sons, and three daughters. 1
Sir WILLIAM. Sir CHARLES. Knighted by King James and Ambassador to Spain.Married Elizabeth dau. of Thomas Fincham, Esq. Had two sons.
Sir WILLIAM, Kt., married Catharine daughter of Sir Philip Parker of Erwarton, Suffolk. Had six sons and five daughters.
THOMAS, married Anne dau. of Samuel Bevercott of Ordsall near Scrooby, and probably sister of Sam'l the postmaster of Scrooby, before. William Brewster who be- came the head of the first Puri- tan colony in America.
THOMAS, 2d son, Com'r of Maryland.
A brother of the Maryland Commissioner was Rector of a Suffolk Parish, and on a brass tablet in the church is a Latin inscription which translated reads :
" Here are placed the remains of the holy man Philip Cornwaleys, former Rector of this Church, youngest son of William Cornwaleys, Knight. Died Dec. 30, 1688."
In the grave yard there is a stone in memory of "Frances wife of Samuel Richardson, Clerk, daughter of Thomas Cornwallis Esq., died June 24, 1684," who was probably the aunt of the Maryland Com- missioner.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
guished as the English Ambassador at the court of Spain, and subsequently as the Treasurer of King James' son, Henry, Prince of Wales. In 1614, he fell under the displeasure of the King, because he sympa- thized with certain members of Parliament, who were opposed to the marriage of Prince Charles with a daughter of the King of France, and the suppression of faithful Puritan ministers.
His father Sir William, K't, was noted for his literary tastes, and printed essays. The Commissioner was born in 1603, and was thirty-one years of age, when he landed on the shores of the Potomac.
In 1635, he commanded the expedition against the Virginians, trading in the Chesapeake.1
After Evelyn became Commander of Kent Island, on Dec. 3d, 1637, he was licensed to trade with the Indians, and shipped in the pinnace St. Thomas for that island, axes, and other articles in the name of his fellow commissioner Jerome Hawley.
The Charter of Maryland conferred monarchical power upon the Proprietary. It authorized him to prepare laws, and submit them to any legislature con- vened, and dissolved at his pleasure. In 1637, Lord Baltimore instructed Governor Calvert to call a legis- lature, and present a code of laws sent out from Eng- land, for their acceptance. In January, 1638, the Assembly convened pursuant to notice. The Governor,
1 See page 51.
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MONARCHICAL POWERS.
and Secretary Lewger,1 although but few members were present, desired that the laws prepared by the Proprietary should be assented to after a single reading, to which Cornwallis objected. The Governor continued to press the question, but when the vote was taken, a large majority refused, at that time, to accept the laws. After a brief adjournment, the as- sembly met in February, and the delegates then re- solved that all laws should be read three times on three several days, before a vote should be taken, and they also expressed a wish that all bills might emanate from their own committee. Governor Calvert, restive at the independence of the members, again proposed to adjourn, which Cornwallis described in a pamphlet of the day as " that noble, right valiant, and politic sol-
1 Wood in Athence Oroniensis states that John Lewger, the first Secretary of the Province was born in London 1602 and took the degree of A.B. in 1619 at Trinity College, Oxford, and in 1622 was made A.M. Became a Bachelor of Divinity on the same day as Phil. Nye, the prominent member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. In 1632 he was a Rector of the Church of England in Essex, but under the influence of Chillingworth became a Roman Catholic, and soon after, Chillingworth renounced the Church of Rome and wrote a book in which he states : " The Bible, and that only, is the religion of Pro- testants, and every one by making use of the helps and assistances that God has placed in his hands, must learn that, and understand it for himself, as well as he can."
Lewger after joining the Roman Church was appointed by his college classmate Cecil, Lord Baltimore, Secretary of Maryland and in November 1637 arrived with his wife, and son John aged nine years, Martha Williamson a maid servant, and several others.
The Annapolis Records mention Cicely and Elizabeth Lewger who were probably born in the Province. The wife of the Secretary died
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
dier " opposed, and said "that they could not spend their time in any business better than this for the country's good."
The Governor replied that he would be accountable to no man, and adjourned the Assembly until the 5th of March. The freemen then convened and after pass- ing such Acts as they approved, on the 19th, the As- sembly was dissolved.
Lord Baltimore now receded from his arbitrary po- sition, and told his brother that he would assent to all laws enacted by the Provincial legislature, not contrary to the laws of England, subject to the final approval of the Proprietary.
The next legislature convened in February 1639, and enacted the law of England " that Holy Church shall have and enjoy all her rights, liberties and fran-
in a few years, and soon after the civil war broke out under Ingle he went back to England and never returned. Being a widower he entered the priesthood and lived at Lord Baltimore's house in London. Ben- jamin Denham, the Earl of Winchester's Chaplain in 1667 writes : " All that is treated of in the Privy Council about Roman Catholics is discovered to Lord Brudenell, and Lord Baltimore, Governor of Mary- land, whose Chaplain, an English recusant, now a Romish priest, was one of the vice-gerents there in Charles the First's time."- Green's State Papers. He died about this period.
John Lewger Jr. remained in the Province, and when twenty years of age, acted as temporary clerk of the Assembly of 1647-48. By pro- fession he was a Surveyor. On August 28th, 1650, he secured the house which had been his Father's at Saint Mary. In his will dated Nov. 6, 1669, he alludes to his " loving wife Martha," his sons William and Jolin, and gives his daughter Elizabeth "his cow Muley." -- See Annapolis Manuscripts.
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THE CORNWALLIS MANSION.
chises wholly and without blemish" which Church under the charter, was the Church of England.
Soon after Cornwallis had finished a substantial brick house, the best in the colony, in 1640, he visited England, and in December, 1641, returned to Mary- land, in a ship, commanded by Captain Richard Ingle, and took his seat in the legislature which in March, 1642, was convened.
The very first step of this Assembly was to declare that it could not be adjourned without its consent, another advance in the direction of republicanism.
The next year an order was issued to the Colonial Surveyor " to lay out 4000 acres of land in any part of Patowmack river upward of Port Tobacco creek, for Capt. Cornwaleys."
Owing to an order for reorganization of the govern- ment received from Lord Baltimore, Governor Calvert convened an Assembly on the 5th of September 1642. Under the reconstruction, Cornwallis was designated as a Councillor but " he absolutely refused to take the oath of a Councillor according to the requirements of the last commission."
In the spring of 1643, Leonard Calvert sailed for England and Giles Brent became acting Governor, who commissioned Cornwallis to lead an expedition against the Susquehanna Indians. The author of Nova Al- bion writes, that with fifty-three "raw and tired
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
Marylanders" he met two hundred and fifty Indians and killed twenty-nine.
In November 1643, a London ship commanded by Richard Ingle sailed for America. Upon its arrival at Saint Mary, by virtue of a commission granted by Charles the First, acting Governor Brent captured the vessel, Ingle escaping, and tendered the crew an oath against Parliament. In January 1644, he summoned Ingle to yield his body to the Sheriff of Saint Mary County to answer for treason against his Majesty, but he did not appear, and left the Province.
When the war between the King and Parliament commenced, Cornwallis was living with more comfort and elegance than any one in Maryland. In his own language : "By God's blessing upon his endeavors, he had acquired a settled and comfortable subsistence having a comfortable dwelling house furnished with plate, linen hangings, bedding. brass, pewter, and all manner of household stuff, worth at least a thousand pounds, about twenty servants, at least a hundred breed cattle, a great stock of swine and goats, some sheep and horses, a new pinnace about twenty tons, well rigged and fitted, besides a new shallop and other small boats."
Appointing Cuthbert Fenwick his agent he sailed for England in April, 1644, where he found his cousin Sir Frederick Cornwallis one of the best friends of King Charles, and Governor Leonard Calvert who
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INGLE'S PETITION.
did not return to Maryland until the following Sep- tember.
Ingle, smarting under the seizure of his ship, was commissioned by Parliament, to cruise in the waters of the Chesapeake, against malignants as the friends of the King were called, and in February 1645, appearep in the ship Reformation, near St. Inigo creek, when there was an uprising in favor of Parliament, in which all the servants of Cornwallis participated, ex- cept some negroes and a tailor named Richard Hervey- ยท Fenwick, his agent, was taken aboard Ingle's ship, and a party led by John Sturman, his son Thomas, and William Hardwick took possession of the mansion, burned the fences, killed the swine, took the cattle, wrenched off the locks from the doors, and damaged his estate to the amount of two or three thousand pounds. When Ingle returned to England with Father White the Jesuit as a prisoner, Cornwallis, who was there, instituted a suit against him, which called forth in February, 1646, the following memorial to the Lords in Parliament assembled.
" The humble petition of Richard Ingle, showing That whereas the petitioner, having taken the cove- nant, and going out with letters of marque, as Cap- tain of the ship the Reformation, of London, and sailing to Maryland, where, finding the Governor of that Province to have received a commission from Oxford to seize upon all ships belonging to London,
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
and to execute a tyrannical power against the Protest- ants, and such as adhered to the Parliament, and to press wicked oaths upon them, and to endeavor their extirpation, the petitioner, conceiving himself, not only by his warrant, but in his fidelity to the Parlia- ment, to be conscientiously obliged to come to their assistance, did venture his life and fortune in landing his men and assisting the said well affected Protest- ants against the raid tyrannical government and the Papists and malignants. It pleased God to enable him to take divers places from them, and to make him a support to the said well affected. But since his return to England, the said Papists and malignants, conspiring together, have brought fictitious acts against him, at the common law, in the name of Thomas Cornwallis and others, for pretended trespass in taking away their goods, in the parish of St. Chris- topher's, London, which are the very goods that were by force of war justly and lawfully taken from these wicked Papists and malignants in Maryland, and with which he relieved the poor distressed Protestants there, who otherwise must have starved, and been rooted out.
"Now, forasmuch as your Lordships in Parliament of State, by the order annexed, were pleased to direct an ordinance to be framed for the settlement of the said province of Maryland, under the Committee of Plantations, and for the indemnity of the actors in it, and for that such false and feigned actions for matters
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CORNWALLIS SERVANTS.
of war acted in foreign parts, are not tryable at common law, but, if at all, before the Court and Marshall; and for that it would be a dangerous example to permit Papists and malignants to bring actions of trespass or otherwise against the well affected for fighting and standing for the Parliament :
" The petitioner most humbly beseecheth your Lord- ships to be pleased to direct that this business may be heard before your Lordships at the bar, or to refer it to a committee to report the true state of the case, and to order that the said suits against the petitioner at the common law may be staid, and no further proceeded in."
For eight years Cornwallis attended to business in London, and in 1652 returned to Maryland, now under the control of the friends of Parliament, to demand com- pensation for injuries done by certain persons to his property, during the Ingle revolution. To secure the amount of land due to him, for the transportation of servants, the following memorandum was filed.
SERVANTS BROUGHT A.D. 1634,
Twelve in the Ark, besides five more received by the death of his partner, John Saunders.
The same year brought from Virginia Cuthbert Fenwick.1 John Norton, Sr.3
Christopher Martin.2 John Norton, Jr.
' Member of Assembly 1638, and other years.
* A tailor ;; Assemblyman in 1638.
$ Assemblyman in 1638.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
A.D. 1635.
Zachary Mottershead.1
John Gage,2
Walter Waterling.2
Francis Van Eyden.
A.D. 1636.
John Cook. Richard Hill.
Tho. York, killed at Nantioke. Restitutia Tue.3
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