USA > Maryland > The founders of Maryland as portrayed in manuscripts, provinical records and early documents > Part 9
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" As I returned, it was laid upon me to visit the Governor Sir William Barclay, and to speak with him about Friend's sufferings. I went about six miles out of my way, to speak with him, accompanied by William Garrett, an honest, ancient Friend. I told the Go- . vernor, that I came from Ireland, where his brother was Lord Lieutenant, who was kind to our Friends ; and if he had any service for me to his brother, I would willingly do it; and as his brother was kind to our Friends in Ireland I hoped he would be so to our Friends in Virginia.
" He was very peevish, and brittle, and I could fasten nothing on him, with all the soft arguments I could use. *
" The next day, was the men's meeting at William Wright's house, the justice [Taverner] went to the meeting, about eight or nine miles, and several other
1 After Fox arrived in England he sent a copy of the Writings of Edward Burroughs to several gentlemen, among others to Judge Stevens and Justices Johnson and Coleman of Anamessex, Maryland, and to Major General Bennett, Lt. Col. Waters, and Col. Thomas Dew of Nansemond Co., Virginia. Bowden, vol. 1, p. 381.
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MAJOR GENERAL BENNETT.
persons came to the meeting, particularly Richard Bennett, alias Major General Bennett. Justice Tavern- er's wife came to me and told me that the Major General and'others were below staying to speak with me; so I went down to them. They were courteous, and said, they only stayed to see me, and acknowledge what I had spoken in the meeting, was truth. I told them, the reason of our Friends drawing apart from them, was to lay down a method, to provide for our poor widows, and fatherless children. * The Major General replied, he was glad to hear, there was such care and order among us. He further said, he was a man of great estate, and many of our Friends poor men ; therefore, he desired to contribute with them. He likewise asked me, how I was treated by the Governor ? I told him, that he was brittle and peevish, and I could get nothing fastened on him. He asked me ' If the Governor called me dog, rogue,' etc ? I said, ' No.' 'Then ' said he ' you took him in his best humor, those being his usual terms, when he is angry, for he is an enemy to every appearance of good.'
" They were tender and loving, and we parted so, the Major General desiring to see me at his house, which I was willing to do, and accordingly went.
" He was a solid, wise man, receiving the truth, and died in the same, leaving two Friends executors."
Dr. Peter Sharpe of the Cliff's, whose name is per- petuated by Sharpe's Island, in the Chesapeake, in his will, made in 1672, says : " I give to Friends, in ye
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ministry, viz: Alice Gary, William Cole, and Sarah Mash, if then in being; Winlock Christeson and his wife, John Burnyeat, and Daniel Gould, in money or goods, at the choice of my executors, forty shillings worth apiece; also for a perpetual standing, a horse for the use of Friends in ye Ministry, and to be placed at a convenient place for their use."
The Wenlock Christeson of the will, or Christopher- son, is the same person, who when sentenced to death at Boston, uttered the memorable words : " For the last man that was put to death here, are five come in his room. If you have power, take my life from me, God can raise up the same principle in ten of his servants, and send them among you, in my room."
In 1674, Christeson, with others, ask the Provincial Assembly for permission to affirm, instead of taking the usual oaths prescribed by law.
The Rev. John Yeo of the Church of England ap- pears in Maryland in 1675, and was disturbed by the movements of the Quakers, Mennonite Baptists, Roman Catholics and other non-conformists. From the Pa- tuxent, on the 25th of May, 1676, he wrote the following letter of lamentations to Sheldon, Archbishop of Can- terbury.
" Most Reverend Father : Be pleased to pardon this presumption of mine, in presenting to yor serious notice these rude and undigested lines, wob (with hum- ble submission) are to acquaint yor Grace, with ye deplorable estate and condition of the Province of Mary- land, for want of an established ministry.
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REV. JOHN YEO.
" Here are in this Province ten or twelve thousand souls, and but three Protestant ministers of us, yt are conformable to ye doctrine and discipline of y® Church of England.
" Others there are (I must confess) y' ruune before they are sent, and pretend they are ministers of the Gospell, yt never had a legall call or ordination to such an holy office; neither indeed are they qualified for it, being, for the most part, such as never under- stood anything of learning, and yet take upon them to be dispensers of the Word, and to administer ye Sacra- ment of Baptism ; and sow seeds of division amongst ye people, and no law provided for ye suppression of such in this Province.
"Society here is in great necessitie of able and learned men to comfort the gainsayers, especially having soe many profest enemies as the Popish Priests and Jesuits are who are incouraged and provided for. And ye Quaker takes care and provides for those yt are speakers in their conventicles; but noe care is taken, or provision made, for the building up Christians in the Protestant Religion ; by means whereof, not only many dayly fall away, either to Popery, Quakerism, or Fanati- cisme, but also the Lord's Day is prophaned, religion despised, and all notorious vices committed ; so that it is become a Sodom of uncleanness, and a pest house of iniquity.
" I doubt not, but yor Grace will take it into consider- ation, and do yor utmost for our eternall welfare; and
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now is y time yt yor Grace may be an instrument of universall reformation, with greatest facility. Cecilius, Lord Barron Baltemore, and absolute Proprietor of Maryland being dead, and Charles Lord Barron Balte- more and our Governor being bound for England this year, as I am informed, to receive a further confirma- tion of y Province from His Majestie, at web time, I doubt not, but yor Grace may soe prevaile with, as yt a maintenance for a Protestant ministry may be cs- tablished as well in this Province, as in Virginia, Bar- bados, and all other His Majesties plantations in West Indies ; and then there will be encouragement for able men to come amongst us, and yt some person may have power to examine all such ministers as shall be admitted into any county or parish, in wt Diocis, and by wt Bishop they were ordained, and to exhibit their l'rs of Orders to testifie the same, as yt I think the gene- ralitie of the people may be brought by degrees to a uniformitis ; provided we had more ministers yt were truly conformable to our mother ye Church, and none but such suffered to preach amongst us. As for my own pt, God is my witness, I have done my utmost indeavor in order thereunto, and shall (by God's as- sistance) whiles I have a being here, give manifest proof of my faithful obedience to the Canons and Con- stitution of our sacred mother.
" Yet one thing cannot be obtained here, viz, Conse- cration of Churches and Church-yards, to ye end yt Christians might be decently buried together, whereas
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FEW ROMAN CATHOLICS.
now, they bury in the severall plantations where they lived : unless yor Grace thought it sufficient to give a Dispensation to some pious ministers together with ye manner and forme, to doe the same. And confident I am yt you will not be wanting in any thing yt may tend most to God's glorie, and the good of the Church, by weh you will engage thousands of soules to pray for yer Grace's everlasting happiness."
The Archbishop of Canterbury referred Yeo's let- ter to Compton, Bishop of London, who on the 17th of July, 1677, wrote : " In Maryland, there is no settled maintenance for the ministry at all, the want whereof does occasion a total want of ministers and divine worship, except among those of the Romish belief, who 'tis conjectured do not amount to one of a hun- dred of the people."
Lord Baltimore to the application of the Bishop replied, that the Act of 1649, confirmed in 1676, tole- rated and protected every sect, and continued " Four ministers of the Church of England are in possession of plantations which offered them a decent subsist- ence.1 That, from the various religious tenets of the
' The Rev. Wm. Wilkinson died in 1663, and Francis Doughty was probably dead. The four ministers referred to were perhaps Yeo ; Coode a political agitator ; the minister sent out by Charles the Second referred to in letter of Mary Taney, see page 160; and Matthew Hill. The last was a native of Yorkshire, educated at Magdalene College and Rector at Thirsk, but ejected by the Act of Uniformity. He came about 1669 to Charles County, Maryland. His father-in-law Walter Bayne had entered a tract of 5000 acres called Barbadoes, on the east side of the main fresh run of Port Tobacco creek. Calamy says, after he was settled and had bright hopes " new troubles arose. He was a good scholar, a lively preacher, and of a free and generous spirit."
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members of the Assembly, it would be extremely diffi- cult, if not impossible, to induce it to consent to a law, that shall oblige any sect to maintain other ministers, than its own."
Yeo does not appear to have been remarkable for learning, or Christian charity.1 In December, 1677,
1 The following letter is preserved among the New York MS. Re- cords at Albany, addressed "To Mr. Henry Smith at Capt. Greges his house, present These at N. Yorke."
Whorekill, November the 14th, 1678.
Worthy Sir,
Yours of the 5th I Rec'd the 7th Instant in wch you desired me to minde Capt. Avery, to swear the Evidences, that these depositions might be sent to you. ; in order to your desire, I did the same day write a warrant, and Carried it myselfe to Avery, and he signed it and Im- ediately I ride wth it to the Sherieffe who wth all expedition served it upon most of the evidences, but the day before they were to appeare to give in there Testimony, the s'd Avery came to your house, and did abuse me at a very high Rate & Thretning to send me to Yorke to answer wt I had done, viz., written a warrant wch did, as he said, properly belong to the clerke's office for bringing it to him to signe when he was as he pretended Drunke (to his Creditt be it spoken) at wych time, he absolutely refused to examine any evidence, unless it were by express order of the Governor, notwithstanding the warrant was for them, to give in there Evidence, in the behalfe of our Sov- raigne Lord, the king and Avery did then take away the warrant and Toare his name out it, neither would he Returne it any more to the sherife, but I wth much Intreaty and some thretning gott a Coppy of it Attested, a Coppy of wch I have sent you.
Avery is very greate with Helins & there gange: there is never a Barrell the better Herring amongst severall of them, they are very Briske againe now, since the sloop brought noe order for there coming to Yorke ; and now Helms saith, that all ye men in the Countrey shall never gett him to Yorke. Avery sideing with them, you are daily abused, and I am counted amongst them, the worst of men. Helms cannot leave his Tricks yet, for when Mr Clark's Goods came down, out of # doz. Reapehooks he Borrowed six, for he left not one; he kept them severall dayes, till at last old Tom told Clarke's serv'ts that his Mr had them, and went and fetched ye hooks to them.
YEO'S CERTIFICATE. 153
he moved from the Patuxent to Whorekill, what is now called Lewes, in Delaware, and there became in- volved in local disputes. The following certificate dated March 28, 1678, was given by the Court, on the Delaware.
"John Yeo, minister, being lately arrived out of Maryland, appeared in Court, and exhibited and pro- „duced his letters of ordination and license to read divine service, administer the holy sacraments, and preach the word of God according to the laws and con- stitution of the Church of England.
" The Court accepts said John Yeo, upon the appro- bation of his honor the Governor, to be maintained by the free willing gifts, whereunto, the said John Yeo declared himself contented."
In 1680 he was arraigned for mutinous expressions against the Duke of York, the town and the Court, but was acquitted. After this he appears to have re- turned to Calvert County, Maryland, and from thence,
He hath also lately bought hoggs he did one the 14th of the last month declare before some people yt ye king did allow dutch waights and measures to pass in this countrey, but the Governor did cheate the countrey of it, web of y" Scurrolous speeches ye 26th of S bris. The day after our arrivall at ye Whorekill sold Corns the Clark's place for one quart of wine, at Mr Vines his house & one the Tuesday after he acted as clarke at ye Court. I heartily long to see you home and then I doubt not but all will be well. Mrs Smith presents her Affections to you, she is mightily troubled at your absence. I have seen very few women Grieve more for the death of A husband, than she grieves for your Long absence, Espetially in that you came not with the sloops. Thus not doubting, but that you will in a short time ----- all your Enimies and Returne victorious, I am, Sir, Your Ready friend and Serv't, JOHN TEO."
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in 1682, went to Baltimore County where, about the year 1686, he died.
Another form of Christian faith was planted in Maryland, in 1680, and the Province became the rival of Holland, in varieties of religious belief, and to it were applicable the lines of Andrew Marvell, written concerning Amsterdam.
" Sure, when Religion, did itself embark
And from the East, would Westward steer its bark, It struck ; and splitting on this unknown ground, Each one thence pillaged the first piece he found ; Hence, Amsterdam, Turk, Christian, Pagan, Jew, Staple of sects, and mint of schism grew ; That bank of conscience, where not one, so strange Opinion. but finds credit and exchange, In vain for Catholics, ourselves we bear, The Universal Church is only there."
The visionary but pure-minded priest Labadie, after he withdrew from the Church of Rome, urged some peculiar views, which were not acceptable to the Re- formed Churches, and after much persecution, he and his adherents were sheltered in Friesland, a province of the Netherlands.
In 1679 Danker and Sluyter were sent by the La- badists to select a site for a colony in North Ame- rica. Arriving at Manhattan, now New York City, on October the twentieth, they became acquainted with Ephraim Herrman, clerk of the Court of Newcastle and Upland on the Delaware River, and son of Au- gustine Herrman, the proprietor of Bohemia Manor, in Maryland.
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LABADISTS ARRIVE.
With him, these delegates descended the Delaware, passed Tacony, a Swedish settlement, now a suburb of Philadelphia, and rested on Tinicum Island, a few miles below that city.
While the Labadists were neat in dress, frugal in living, and like the Quakers depended much upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, yet there was no ' affinity between these religionists. Danker, in his journal, says, that while he was at a Swede's house, on the Island, " there arrived three Quakers, of whom one was the great prophetess, who travels through the whole country, in order to quake. She lives in Maryland, and forsakes husband and children, planta- tion, and all, and goes off for this purpose. . She had been to Boston,1 and was there arrested by the au- thorities, in account of her quaking."
On the 1st of December, the Labadists arrived at the plantation of Caspar, another son of Herrman, situated between the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay. From thence they went to Augustine Herr- man's, " the uppermost plantation of Maryland, that is as high up as it is yet inhabited by Christians."?
Danker, on Sunday, the 30th of December, 1679, writes in his journal :
" Augustine is a Bohemian and formerly lived in the Manathans, and had possession of farms and planta-
1 Perhaps Alice Gary, see page 143.
2 Augustine Herrman a native of Prague came to Manhattan about 1649 as clerk or factor to the brothers Gabri. In 1650 he was one of the selectmen of Manhattan.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
tions, but for some reason, I know not what, disagree- ing with the Dutch Governor Stuyvesant, he repaired to this place, which is laid down upon a complete map which he has made of Maryland and Virginia, where he is very well acquainted, which map he has dedicated to the King.1
"In consequence of his having done the people a great service, he has been presented with a tract of land of ten hundred or twelve hundred acres, which he knowing where the best land is, has chosen up here, and given it the name Bohemia."
He adds : " He was very miserable both in body and soul. His plantation was going much into decay, as well as his body, for want of attention. There was not a Christian man to serve him, as the term is, but only negroes."2
On another page, speaking of the children, he writes : " They are all of a Dutch mother, after whose death, the father married an English woman, the most willful and despicable creature that can be found. He
' The Map alluded to is called " Virginia and Maryland as it is planted aud inhabited this present year 1670 ; surveyed and exactly drawne by the only labours and endeavours of Augustine Herrman, Bohémiensis."
It was the only map engraved by Faithorne who was distinguished for crayon portraits, and delicate copper plate engraving. The only one I have ever seen, is in the British Museum. It is in four folio sheets, and at the bottom, has a portrait of Herrman. Lately the state of Virginia has had a reduced copy, printed by the litho-photographic process.
" Negroes were considered infidels, and not allowed to be baptized, as baptism was supposed to give freedom to slaves. The Assembly of 1715 enacted the following :
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THE HERRMAN FAMILY.
is a very godless person, and the wife by her wicked- ness has compelled all the children to leave the father's house and live elsewhere."
Several of the children embraced the tenets of Laba- die.1 After Danker returned to Manhattan, he wrote that Ephraim Herrman was on a visit, and with his wife rejoicing in their faith. Under date of the 4th of ' June he writes : " Visited by Ephraim and one Peter Beyaert, a deacon of the Dutch Church, a very good soul, whom the Lord had begun to trouble and en- lighten."
Danker and Sluyter returned to Friesland and a colony was organized to proceed to Maryland. The
"Forasmuch as many people have neglected to baptize their negroes, or to suffer them to be baptized, on a vague apprehension, that negroes by receiving sacrament of baptism are manumitted or set free.
" Be it, hereby, further declared, and enacted, that no negro or negroes, by receiving the holy sacrament of baptism, is thereby manumitted or set free, nor hath any right or title to manumission, more than he or they had before, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwith- standing."
1 He was married on Dec. 10, 1650, to a Dutch woman at Manhattan, and she had the following children
Ephraim George baptized Sept. 1, 1652.
Caspar July 2, 1656.
Anna Magaritta March 2, 165S.
Judith May 7, 1660.
Francina March 12, 1662.
By an Act of the Maryland Assembly in 1666, these were all natu- ralized.
Anna Margaritta married Matthias Vanderhuyden, and her daughter Anna Francina, became the second wife of Edward Shippen a wealthy Quaker of Philadelphia, who in 1675, had been whipped on Boston Common, for speaking against the established religion. A descendant of this Edward Shippen was the wife of Benedict Arnold, the traitor to the American cause during the war of the Revolution.
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THE FOUNDERS OF MARYLAND.
company arrived in New York on the 27th of July, 1683. Deacon Peter Bayard the hatter and nephew of Governor Stuyvesant, leaving his family, united with them.
On the 11th of August, 1684, Augustus Herrman makes a deed, conveying certain lands to Peter Sluyter, Joseph Dankaerts, Petrus Bayard of New York, John Moll and Arnold de la Grange of Delaware.
The Labadist colony, like all communist organiza- tions, had a brief existence. Bownas, as a Quaker preacher, describes a visit to it, in 1702:
" When supper came in, it was placed upon a long table, in a large room, where, when all things were ready, about twenty men or upwards came in, at a call, but no women.
" We all sat down, they placing me and my companion near the head of the table, and having paused a short space, one pulled off' his hat, but not the rest till a short space after ; and then one after another they all pulled their hats off, and as that occurred sat silent, uttered no words that we could hear, for half or quarter of an hour ; and as they did not uncover at once, so did not they cover again, at once, but, as they put on their hats, fell to eating, not regarding those who were still uncovered, so that it might be two minutes' time, or more, between the first and last putting off their hats.
"I, afterward, queried with my companion concerning the reason of their conduct, and he gave, for this an-
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LABADIST SETTLEMENT.
swer, that they held it unlawful to pray, till they felt some inward motive for the purpose, and that secret prayer was more acceptable than to utter words.
- "I, likewise, queried, ' If they had no women among them ?' He told me they had, but the women all by themselves ; having all things in common, respect- ing their household affairs, so that none could claim , any more right than another to any part of the stock. All men, whether rich or poor, must put what they had in the common stock, and likewise, if they had a mind to leave, they must go out empty handed.'
"They frequently expound the Scriptures among themselves ; and being a very large family, in all up- ward of one hundred men, women, and children, they carried on the manufacturing of linen, and had a very large plantation of corn, tobacco, flax and hemp, to- gether with cattle of several kinds."
In 1681, a sum of money was paid out of the secret service fund of the king for the payment of the passage of the Rev. Jonathan Sanders, to Maryland ;1 and in 1683 the Rev. Duel Pead2 and William Mullett were designated for labor in the Province.
1 There is among the British Public Records a recommendation of the Rev. Ambrose Sanderson by the Privy Council dated Oct. Sth, 1681, as a suitable minister for Protestant subjects, addressed to the Proprie- tary of Maryland, but there is no evidence that he came to America nor do we find any mention of Jonathan Saunders.
2 In Westminster Abbey on April 18, 1663, Paul Thorndyke, son of John Thorndyke of New England, aged twenty, ancestor of the Ameri- can family ; and, Duell Pead, one of the King's scholars about sixteen years of age, was baptized by the Dean, publicly, in the font, then
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In 1685, according to a letter of Mary Taney, wife of the sheriff of Calvert County, the ancestor of the late distinguished Chief Justice of the United States of America, there was no Church of England minister then residing in her vicinity. Under date of the 14th of July she wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
" May it please your Grace ; I am now to repeat my request to your Grace, for a church in the place of Maryland where Ilive ; but first I humbly thank your Grace, that you were pleased to hear so favorably, and own my desires very reasonable, and to encourage the inhabitants to make a petition to the King.
Our want of a minister, and the many blessings our Saviour designed us by them, is a misery, which I and a numerous family, and many others in Maryland, have groaned under. We are seized with extreme horror when we think, that for want of the Gospel our children and posterity are in danger to be con- demned to infidelity or to apostacy. We do not ques- · tion God's care of us, but think your Grace, and the Right Reverend, your Bishops, the proper instruments
newly set up." In 1664 he was a member of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, and in 1671 was Chaplain on board HI. M. ship Rupert, Among the entries in the Caniden Society's volume entitled " Secret Services of Chas. II and James II " under date of 14 June, 1683, is the payment of £20 to Duell Pead, Clerk, bounty to him for the charge of his transportation to Maryland." If he ever came to America, he did not long remain, for in 1691 he was licensed as Curate or Minister of St. James, Clerkenwell. See Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers. He had a son Deuel, who in 1712, received the degree of A.M. from Cambridge University, and was probably the clergyman who was settled at Annapolis, Maryland, and also preached in Virginia.
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MARY TANEY'S PLEA. 161
of so great a blessing to us. We are not, I hope, so foreign to your jurisdiction, but we may be owned your stray flock ; however, the commission to go, and baptize, and teach all nations, is large enough. But I am sure we are, by a late custom upon tobacco, sufficiently acknowledged subjects of the King of England, and therefore by his protection, not only our ' persons and estates, but of what is more dear to us, our religion. I question not but that your Grace is sensible, that without a temple it will be impracticable, neither can we expect a minister to hold out, to ride ten miles in a morning, and before he can dine, ten more, and from house to house, in hot weather, will dishearten a minister, if not kill him.
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