USA > Maryland > The founders of Maryland as portrayed in manuscripts, provinical records and early documents > Part 8
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Two of the seamen, without orders, searched her body and declared she had witch marks. During the night, she was fastened to the capstan, and the next morning, the marks " for the most part were shrunk into her body." The sailors then asked Corbyn to examine her, and she confessed she was a witch. The Captain of the ship retired to his cabin, and the sailors, notwithstanding his protest, took and hung her, and then cast her body in the sea.
Francis Darby, Gent., aged thirty-nine years, deposed, that this statement was correct, and he was probably Father Francis Fitzherbert, as it was common for Jesuits to take another name, when on a journey. 1
During the sway of the Parliament commissioners, Thomas Mathews. William Boreman, John Pyle, and John Dandy 2 acknowledged their belief in the su- premacy of the Pope.
' Annapolis manuscript record.
2 John Dandy had been in Clayborne's employ at Kent Island, and was a violent blacksmith. In October, 1640, he was summoned by the Assembly to answer for misdemeanors. In October, 1657, he was tried
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
On the 30th of November, 1657, Lord Baltimore agreed to forget past controversies, to omit the clauses in the oath of fidelity, to which the Protestants of the Province objected, and did further promise " that he would never give his assent to the repeal of a law es- tablished in Maryland, whereby all persons professing to believe in Jesus Christ have freedom of conscience there," and then the Commissioners of Parliament sur- rendered their power, and once more he appointed his own officers.
The next year Maryland linked herself with Massa- chusetts in the persecution of the Quakers.
Toward the latter part of 1657 a ship arrived at Jamestown with Thomas Thurston and Josiah Cole, preachers of the Society of Friends. They were looked upon as disturbers of the peace and imprisoned by the Virginians. After their release they went to Maryland and were kindly received by the Puritans William Du- rand and William Fuller, and hospitably entertained by Richard Preston of Patuxent1 and his son-in-law William Berry. As they were conscientiously opposed to swearing, they in the place of judicial oaths, simply affirmed. This fact, and the wearing of their hats, gave offence to Lord Baltimore's officers.
At a court held at Patuxent July 8, 1658, a warrant was issued for Cole and Thurston because they had
for cruelty to a servant causing his death, found guilty and hung on an island at the mouth of Leonard's Creek.
' Richard Preston in 1640 came with seven in his family, and entered land for 73 persons.
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remained in the Province, above one month, without taking the oath of fidelity. Two weeks later, " taking into consideration the insolent behavior of some people called Quakers, who at the Court, in contempt of an order there made and proclaimed, would presumptu- ously stand covered," the authorities banished them and they made their way to the Dutch settlement at Manhattan through the Indian country.
Preston and others were fined for entertaining the preachers, and one was whipped for refusing to assist a Sheriff in arresting Thurston.
The council, in 1659, issued an " order to seize and whip them, from constable to constable," until they be sent out of the Province.
Francis Howgill published at London, in 1660, a pamphlet entitled " The Deceiver of the Nations disco- vered, and his cruelty made manifest, more especially his cruel works of darkness in Mariland, and Virginia."
Alluding to the treatment of Cole and Thurston he remarks:
" The Indians, whom they judged to be heathen, exceeded in kindness, in courtesies, in love, and mercy, unto them, who were strangers, which is a shame to the mad, rash rulers of Mariland that have acted so barbarously to our people, and them that came to visit them in the name of the Lord, that instead of receiving them, rejected them, and made order after order, and warrant after warrant, for pursuing, banish- ing and whipping of them, who came to them, in the name of the Lord, in such haste, that I have seen fifteen
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warrants out against one man, in a little time, and in one province."
Josiah Cole, traveling in company with Jacob Lum- brozo, the Jew doctor, in July 1658, asked " whether the Jews did look for a Messiah ?" Lumbrozo an- swered ; " Yes." Then Cole asked " Who he was that was crucified at Jerusalem ?" The Jew replied : " He was a man." Then the Quaker, asked " How did he do all his miracles ?" and the answer was : " He did them by art magic." Cole continued : " How did his disciples do the same miracles, after he was crucified ?" The Doctor replied " he taught them his art." Some months after Cole and Thurston were banished, Lumbrozo was arraigned for blasphemy, when he stated to the court, that he " said not any thing scoff- ingly, or in derogation of him Christians acknowledge for their Messiah," but merely declared his belief as a Jew.
The same year that the Quakers appeared, Father Fitzherbert was arraigned. Henry Coursey, described by Lord Baltimore as " a person of good repute and credit, and well esteemed by all the inhabitants of Maryland, he being of the Church of England," wrote to his Lordship as follows :
" Since I wrote my last to you, I have received a message from Mrs. Gerrard, which is, that Mr. Fitz- herbert, hath threatened excommunication to Mr. Gerrard, because he doth not bring to church, his wife and children. And further, Mr. Fitzherbert saith,
FATHER FITZHERBERT DISTRACTS. · 133
that he hath written home, to the heads of the Church, in England, and that if it be their judgments to have it so, he will come with a party, and compel them. My Lord, this I offer to your Lordship, as Mrs. Ger- rard's relation, who, I think, would not offer to re- port any such thing, if it were not so. And, my Lord, I thank God, the government of the country is now in your officers' hand, but I think, and have good reasons to think so, that it will not long continue there, if such things be not remedied.
" I told Mr. Fitzherbert of it, about a year since, in private, and also that such things were against the law of the country.
" Yet, his answer was, that he must be directed by his conscience, more than by the law of any country. I do not my Lord, thrust myself upon any business of quarrel, but it is peace and quietness I desire. And I hope, your Lordship hath no other cause but to wish the same, and so I refer the consideration of it to you."
On the 5th of October, 1658, his Lordship's At- torney General, at a Court held at St. Leonard's Creek, presented the following :
" An information of his Lordship's attorney against Francis Fitzherbert, for practising of treason and sedi- tion, and giving out rebellious and mutinous speeches, in this his Lordship's Province of Maryland, and en- deavouring, as far as in him lay, to raise distraction and disturbances in this his Lordship's said Province.
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"1. Francis Fitzherbert did, on the 24th of August, 1658, traitorously and seditiously, at a general meet- ing, in arms, of the people of the upper part of Patux- ent River, to muster, endeavor to seduce and draw from their religion, the inhabitants there met together."
The second and third charges were of the same pur- port.
"4. That he hath rebelliously and mutinously said, that if Thomas Gerrard Esq., of the Council, did not come and bring his wife and children to his church, he would come and force them to the Church, con- trary to a known Act of Assembly for this Province."
For the prosecution there were several witnesses. A son-in-law of Gerrard, Robert Slye the husband of his daughter Susannah, deposed : That some time in or about July or August in the year 1656, Mr. Fitz- herbert being at his house, he asked him, who it was, that raised the report that he had beaten his Irish ser- vants, because they refused to be of the same religion with him. Mr. Fitzherbert replied, that he would not and could not disclose the author, but he further said that Mr. Gerrard had beaten an Irish servant of his, because she refused to be a Protestant, or go to prayer with the family that were so. To which Mr. Slye re- plied that the story was unfounded.
Mr. Fitzherbert then said, that " Gerrard, although be professed himself a Roman Catholic, yet his life and conversation were not agreeable to his profession, because he brought not his wife and children to the church."
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FITZHERBERT'S TRIAL.
" Mr. Fitzherbert told the deponent further, that if Mr. Gerrard brought not his children freely to his church, nor educated them in the princi- ples of the Romish religion, he would take such a course, that he would undertake their education in Mr. Gerrard's own house, whether Mr. Gerrard would give way thereunto or no."
To the charges Fitzherbert demurred.
"1. Neither denying or confessing the matter here objected, since by the very first law of this country, Holy Church, within this province, shall have, and enjoy all her rights, liberties and franchises, wholly and without blemish, amongst which that of preaching and teaching is not the least.
"Neither imports it what church is there meant; since by the true intent of the Act concerning Religion, every church professing to believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is accounted Holy Church here.
2. Because, by the act entitled, An Act concerning Religion, it is provided that no person whatsoever, pro- fessing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be molested, for or in respect of his or her religion, or the frec exercise thereof. And undoubtedly preaching and teaching, is the free exercise of every Churchman's religion. And upon this I crave judgment."
The Court decided that the charges of mutiny and sedition had not been proved. Gerrard, it was evident, was not a Roman Catholic at heart.
After the compromise by Lord Baltimore with the
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Parliament Commissioners, he appointed Josias Fen- dall, Governor. On the 28th of February 1659, the Assembly convened at Thomas Gerrard's house, and on the first of March, the lower branch of the legisla- ture adjourned to the residence of Robert Slye, his son in-law, and declared itself the highest court of juris- diction in the Province. Gerrard and his fellow coun- cillor Utie, with the Governor, assented to this position, and the upper house ceased to sit as a distinct body, and the Assembly as the source of power issued com- missions.
Soon after this republican movement, Gerrard seems to have changed his residence to Virginia.1
The Provincial Records contain an account of the hanging of a witch, in 1659, in the presence of John Washington the first American ancestor of George Washington, as he was coming from England. Wash-
1 He lived at Masthotick Creek, the southern boundary of West- moreland Co., Va. On March 3d 1670 he entered into a compact with his neighbors John Lee, Henry Corbin and Isaac Allerton, to build a banqueting house at or near their respective lands.
- John Lee was a relative of Col. Richard Lee a friend of Parliament during the civil war. Isaac Allerton graduated in 1650 at Harvard. His mother, Fear Brewster, was the wife of Isaac Allerton Sr. who came with her father, the leader of the Puritans, to Plymouth Rock in the May Flower. Hancock, the son of Richard Lee, married the daughter of Isaac Allerton, thus, on the banks of the Potomac, at an early day, the families of those who were useful and faithful to the interests of the commonwealth of England intermarried.
In the will of Thomas Gerrard dated Feb. 5, 1672, he expressed a wish to be buried in Maryland, by the side of his first wife Susanna Snow, and appointed Major Isaac Allerton, John Lee, and John Cooper to settle his estate.
On Herrman's Map of Virginia and Maryland, engraved by Faithorne, drawn in 1670, Allerton's plantation is marked.
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WASHINGTON'S ANCESTORS. 137
ington complained to the authorities of Maryland against Edward Prescott for hanging a witch, and the proceedings of the Court were as follows :
" Present October 5, 1659, at Mr. George Reade's house Josias Fendall Esq., Governor Philip Calvert Esq. Secretary, Capt. William Stone, Mr. Thomas Gerrard, Col. Nathaniel Utye, Mr. Baker Brooke, and Mr. Edward Lloyd.
" Whereas John Washington1 of Westmoreland County hath made complt ag'st Edward Prescott, Merch't Accusing ye s'd Prescott of ffelony unto ye Gouvernor of this Province, alleging how that hee ye
1 J. L. Chester, Esq., of London, a careful investigator, has pointed out the mistake of Sparks, Irving and others in supposing that John Washington was the son of Lawrence of Sulgrave.
General Washington in a letter to the Earl of Buchan states that his ancestors were related to the Fairfaxes.
Henry Fairfax, Sheriff of Yorkshire, and Richard Washington married sisters, Anna and Eleanora Harrison of South Cave, York- shire.
William, son of Henry Fairfax, became President of the Council of Virginia, and his daughter married Lawrence, the brother of General George Washington. Henry Washington had a son Richard, who was in Lincoln's Inn. (See Fairfaxes of America, Munsell, Albany, 1868, p. 58.)
Mr. Chester in a letter to me, writes of this Richard, as follows : " In reply to your inquiries about Henry Washington of South Cave, I am able to say that he did have a son Richard. Henry Washington was married to Eleanor Harrison in 1689 and this Richard was their eldest son, born the next year. His father died in 1718, and the widow lived in St. Andrews' Holborn, London. She had seven children, two were baptized at South Cave, and five at Doncaster or in London."
It is probable that Jolin Washington was one of the sons of Richard of Lincoln's Inn, and grandson of Henry, and that the Richard Wash- ington of London, with whom General George Washington frequently corresponded, was his cousin, and the son of another child of Richard of Lincoln's Inn.
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s'd Prescott hanged a witch, on his ship, as hee was outward bound from England within the last yeare, upon wich complaynt of ye s'd Washington the Gov'r caused ye s'd Edward Prescott to bee arrested. Tak- ing bond for his appearance att this Provincial Court of 40,000 lbs. Tobacco. Gyving moreover notice to ye 's'd Washington, by letter of his proceedings therein, a copie of wich l'tre, with the said Washington's an- swere thereto are as followeth :
" Mr. Washington, Upon yo'r complaynt to mee y't Mr. Prescott did in his voyage from England hither cause a woman to bee executed for a witch, I have caused him be apprehended uppon suspition of ffelony and I've intend to bind him over to ye Provincial Court to answer it, where I doe allso expect you to bee to make good ye charge. Hee will be called uppon his Tryal ye 4th or 5th of October next, at ye Court, to be held there at Patux't neare Mr Fenwick's house, where I suppose you will not fayle to bee. Witnesses examined in Virginia will bee of no value here in this case, for they must be face to face, with ye party accused, or they stand for nothing. I thought good to acquaynt you with this, that you may not come unprovided.
" This at present S' is all from
Yo'r ffriend
JOSIAS FENDALL.
29th September.
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A WITCH HUNG.
" Hon'ble S'. Yors of this 29th instant, this day I received. I am sorry y't my extraordinary occasions, will not permit me to bee at ye next Provincial Court to bee held at Mary Land ye 4th of this next month.
Because then, God willing, I intend to gett my young sonne baptized.1 All ye company and Gossips2 being already invited. Besides in this short time wit. nesses cannot bee gott to come over. Butif Mr. Pres- cott bee bound to answer at ye next Provinciall Court after this, I shall doe what lyeth in my power, to get them over. S' I shall desire you for to acquayut mee, whether Mr. Prescott be bound over to ye next Court, and when ye Court is, that I may have sometime for to provide evidence.
Yo'r ffriend & Serv't, JOHN WASHINGTON.
30 Sept. 1659.
" To which complaint Edward Prescott submitting himself to trial, denied not, that one Elizabeth Rich- ardson was hanged on his ship, as he was outward
! The Rev. Mr. Cole was the first clergyman on the Virginia side of the Potomac and at this time lived at Matschotick, Westmoreland, a near neighbor of the pioneer settlers Lee, Gerrard, Washington, and Isaac Allerton the grandson of William Brewster, the head of the Puritans of Plymouth Rock.
2 Gossips, sponsors for an infant in baptism from the Anglo-Saxon God and syb or sip kindred or affinity. Verstegan says, " Our Christ- ian ancestors understanding a spiritual affinity to grow between the parents, and such as undertook for the child at baptism, called each other by the name of God-sib, which is as much to say, as that they were sib together, that is of kin together through God."
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bound, the last year, from Eugland, and near the West Isles by Master John Greene, and the company, hung."
No one appearing to deny this plea, that he was not responsible for the acts of Greene and his crew, the accused was discharged.
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THE CONDITION OF RELIGION FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES THE SECOND UN- TIL A.D. 1700.
THE absence of towns, and the separation of plan- tations by numerous streams and dense forests were un- favorable to the upbuilding of churches. As there were no centres of population, the accession of Charles the Second found only one clergyman, who was more than sixty years of age, employed in the duties of his profession.
The Society of Friends with their migratory evan- gelists of, both sexes, discovered a field in Maryland, ripe for their labors. The non-conformists who came from Virginia, as they were not able in their scattered residences, to support a pastor, willingly listened to preaching of the Gospel, by the new sect developed by the agitations of the Cromwellian era. Among the earliest, to brave the discomforts of traveling in the wilderness, to speak of the love of Jesus, for sinful humanity, was Elizabeth Harris, the wife of a prosper- ous London merchant. After her return to England, a convert named Robert Clarkson wrote as follows :
" Dear Heart : I salute thee in the tender love of the Father, which moved thee, towards us, and do own
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thee, to have been a minister by the good will of God, to bear outward testimony to the inward truth on me and others, even as many as the Lord in tender love and mercy, did give an ear to hear. Praise be to his name forever, of which and of life, God hath made my wife partaker with me, and hath established our hearts in his fear. And likewise, Ann Dorsey, in a more large measure; her husband I hope abideth faithful; likewise John Baldwin and Henry Carline. Charles Balye, the young man who was with us, at our parting, abides convinced, and several others, in these parts, where he dwells. Elizabeth Beaseley abides as she was, when thou wasthere. Thomas Cole and William Cole1 have made open confession of the truth, likewise Henry Woolchurch, and many others, suffer the reproachful name. William Fuller abides unmoved.2 I know not but that William Durand doth the like, he frequents our meeting but seldom. *
* * We have disposed of the most part of the books which were
1 William Cole became a Quaker preacher and in 1062 was impri- soned at Jamestown for violating the statutes. Besse, vol. 2, p. 138.
2 William Fuller was appointed on July 22, 1654, by the Agents of Parliament, with Richard Preston, William Durand, and others, Com- missioners for the government of Maryland. When Stone and his forces appeared on Sunday, March 25, 1655, Fuller at the head of one hundred and twenty men marched around the peninsula in the southern suburb of Annapolis, with the colors of the Commonwealth of England flying. A skirmish took place and the color-bearer was killed. This led to a short and sharp engagement in which the Balti- more party under Stone was completely routed, threw down their arms, and begged for mercy.
In adopting the tenets of the Society of Friends, Fuller relinquished military exercises.
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sent, so that all parts are furnished and every one that desires it, may have benefit by them, at Herring Creek, Roade River, South River, all about Severn the Broad Neck and thereabout, the Seven Mountains, and Kent. With my dear love, I salute thy husband, and rest with thee and the gathered ones, in the eternal word, which abideth for ever."
Thus in 1657, before the arrival of Cole and Thurs- ton, to which allusion has been made, the planting of Quakerism had commenced, and Preston, Berry and the more sober-minded citizens, listened gladly to the tenets of the society.
In the autumn of 1663, Alice Ambrose1 and Mary Tomkins, were at the Cliffs of the Chesapeake, in Cal- vert County, having retreated from New England, where, says Bishop, they " suffered thirty-two stripes apiece, with a nine corded whip, three knots in each cord, being drawn up to the pillory, in such an uncivil manner, as is not to be rehearsed, with a running knot about their hands, the very first lash of which, drew the blood, and made it run down, in abundance, from their breasts."
From thence, they wrote to George Fox, in England, telling him of their " good .service and sufferings for the Lord."
John Burnyeat of Cumberland, in 1665, was im- pelled to leave England, and visit Maryland, where he
1 Alice Ambrose afterwards married John Gary, supposed to have been the son of the wife of Dr. Peter Sharpe, who was a widow Gary.
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held large meetings and "Friends were greatly com- forted, and several were convinced." In 1671, he made a second visit, accompanied by Daniel Gould of Rhode Island. One day in 1672, as he was about to sail for England, unexpectedly to all, a ship from Ja- maica appeared in the Patuxent river, having on board George Fox, whose name is so prominently identified with the religious history of the seventeenth century, and several other Quakers, one of whom was William Edmundson, a native of Westmoreland, and once a soldier in Cromwell's army.
Feeling that his stay must be brief, the feet of Fox had scarcely touched the sands of the Patuxent before he began to preach. For four days he expounded his doctrines, with singular clearness, and with a voice remarkable for mellowness, prayed from the depths of his soul, and as a result, five or six justices of the peace, and many " world's people," who came from curiosity, went away from the meetings, much inter- ested.
Partly by land, and partly by water, he hastened to the Cliff's, in Calvert County, and addressed a large assembly, and then, crossing the Chesapeake Bay, crowds gathered to listen, and a judge's wife was frank to say " she had rather hear him once, than the priests a thousand times."
Returning to the western shore, he spoke at the Severn, where the numbers were so great that no build- ing was large enough to hold the congregation.
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GEORGE FOX's LABORS. . 145
The next day he was at Abraham Birkhead's, six or seven miles distant, and there the Speaker of the As- sembly was convinced ; then mounting his horse he rode to Dr. Peter Sharpe's at the Cliffs of Calvert. Here was a " heavenly meeting," many of the upper sort of people present, and a wife of one of the Go- vernor's councillors was convinced.
Some Roman Catholics came to deride but they had no heart to oppose. From theuce he rode eighteen miles to James Preston's, on the Patuxent, where an Indian chief and some of his tribe came to see the strange man who was lifting up his voice, like John the Baptist, in the wilderness. After a tour to Vir- ginia and Carolina he came back to Preston's on the twenty-seventh of the eleventh month, 1672, and soon began to travel amid snow storms, to declare the truth in Christ, as he understood it. Taking a boat at the Cliffs, for the Eastern Shore, he was obliged to pass a night without fire. In Somerset County, he held a meeting at Anamessex, and then proceeded to Hun- ger's Creek, Little Choptank, Tredhaven, Wye, and to John Taylor's on Kent Island.
His labors had been incessant; neither wintry sleet nor the burning sun detained. He forded streams, slept in the woods, and in barns, with as much serenity, as in the comfortable houses of his friends, and was truly a wonder unto many.
Before he returned to England, he rested a few days at the Cliff's, went up to Annapolis, attended the meet-
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ing of the Provincial Assembly, and early in 1673, sailed for his native land.1
Edmundson proceeded to North Carolina, while Fox visited New England. In 1672 the former, upon his return, visited the valley of the James River, called upon Governor Berkeley and met with Major General Richard Bennett, late Commissioner of Parliament for Maryland. He writes in his Journal :
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