The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 26

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823
Publication date: 1837
Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver
Number of Pages: 1062

USA > Maryland > The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations > Part 26

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against the severe laws enacted against the Catholics, was com- SEC. IX. mitted to custody. This circumstance, together with that of his 1585. perusal of a book, then lately written and published by a doctor William Allen, afterwards a cardinal, wherein it was attempted to be maintained, that it was not only lawful, but honourable, to kill princes excommunicated, confirmed him in his former reso- lution .* Having obtained his liberty, he communicated his inten- tion to a person of the name and ancient family of the Nevils, who at first entered zealously into the design, and was de- termined to have a share in the merits of its execution. But Nevil, becoming in the mean time, next heir to the title of the earl of Westmoreland, which had been forfeited by the last earl, he conceived hopes, that by doing some acceptable service to the queen, he might recover the estate and honours. He there- fore, betrayed the whole conspiracy to the ministers ; and Parry, being thrown into prison, confessed the guilt, both to them and to the jury who tried him. The letter from cardinal Como, be- ing produced in court, put the encouragement he had received both from the pope and the cardinal, beyond all question.t

These incidents are here mentioned, only as a few of the most prominent proofs, with which the historians of those times abound, of the improper conduct of the English Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth ; which, if not a complete jurisdiction, yet greatly palliates the injustice, if any, in enacting those rigorous statutes against popery, which took place in her reign, and which could not have been justified on any other principle.}

On the death of Elizabeth, and on the accession of James to 1603. the throne, the English Catholics, as before observed, had cher- Their con- duct on the ished ardent hopes, that he would restore them to their lost in- accession fluence and power. Disappointed in these expectations, and of James I.

* This cardinal Allen was originally an English Catholic, bred at the univer- sity of Oxford, but shortly after Elizabeth's accession to the throne, and the res- toration of the reformed religion, he retired from England, and had the princi- pal hand in founding the English Catholic college at Douay, on the borders of France and Flanders, in the year 1568, where probably he wrote his above men- tioned mischievous book. It was from here, as well as from similar institutions at St. Omer's and Leige, that the Catholics in England were supplied with priests during the reigns of Elizabeth and James. He was made a cardinal by pope Sextus V. about the time of the famous invasion of England by the Spanish armada,fin 1558, at the particular request of Philip II., to whom this pope had given the investiture of England, after having excommunicated Elizabeth, and deprived her as far as he could, of her right to the kingdom. See Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) vol. 7, p. 415, and the Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. 26, p. 388.

+ Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) vol. 7, p. 446. Hume's Hist. ch. 41.

# See note (Q) at the end of the volume.

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SEC. IX. surprised and enraged, to find James on all occasions, express 1603. his intention of strictly executing the laws already enacted against them, and moreover actually giving his royal assent to further rigorous statutes against them,* a few of the most zea- lous among them began to revolve in their minds some means of liberating themselves from the persecution they experienced. In the fury of these sentiments, they meditated that horrible contrivance usually denominated the gunpowder plot : "an event," as Hume observes, "one of the most memorable that history has conveyed to posterity, and containing at once a sin- gular proof both of the strength and weakness of the human mind ; its widest departure from morals, and most steady attach- ment to religious prejudices ; a fact as certain, as it appears in- credible." As this scheme consisted in blowing up by gunpow- der, the two houses of parliament, while the king was delivering his speech to them from the throne, the excellence of it, as boast- ed of by them, was, that by a sort of retributive justice, it would destroy at one blow, the authors of their sufferings, and bury their principal enemies in one common ruin. "They flat- tered themselves with the vindictive pleasure of beholding those sacrilegious walls, in which were passed the edicts for proscrib- ing their church, tossed into a thousand fragments." Their scheme, however, was discovered in a very extraordinary man- ner, within a few days prior to its intended execution, and con- sequently became abortive.

1605-6. The parliament met in safety, and notwithstanding the king's The causes speech to them contained a softening apology for the Catholics, of addi- tional sta- tutes against them. they proceeded to enact laws, not only for the attainder of such offenders in the late plot, as had made their escape out of the kingdom, but "for the better discovering and repressing of popish recusants," and "to prevent and avoid dangers" arising from such recusants.t By these statutes, additional disabilities, re- straints, penalties and forfeitures, were imposed upon the Eng- lish Catholics beyond what they had been before liable to. And thus, by an intemperate zeal and injudicious conduct, not com- porting with any sound principles of morality, however consis- tent it might be with their religious tenets, they brought on them- selves a greater degree of intolerance from the Protestants to- wards them, than they would otherwise have experienced.

* See the statutes of 1 Jac. I. ch. 4 and 25.

t See the statutes of 3 Jac. I. ch. 4 and 5.

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It does not appear that any other statutes against Catholics SEC. IX. were enacted during the remainder of James's reign. Those 1606. already mentioned, both of this and the preceding reigns, con- tained severities enough to keep them in all due subjection, had those laws been executed on all occasions with the utmost rigour. But it seems to have been one of the greatest anxieties of James's life, to exculpate himself in the eyes of the rest of Europe, from the charge of being a persecutor of the Catholics, though he heartily joined in the suppression of the Puritans. He accord- ingly, therefore, pardoned popish recusant convicts, or remitted their forfeitures, as often as the clamor of his Protestant subjects would permit him to do it with any seeming propriety. As the house of commons during his reign, was composed entirely of members professing to be of the established Protestant Church, among whom were many strongly tinctured with Puritanism, and as the administration of justice and the execution of the laws, would necessarily be entrusted to many zealous Protestants, it soon became impossible for the Catholics to live in the kingdom, and at the same time openly profess their religion. Whenever, therefore, any great incident occurred relative to persons of that persuasion, the nation seemed to feel an uncommon alarm. The assassination of Henry IV. of France, which happened not long 1610. afterwards, had such an effect upon the English nation, that James, instigated in all probability not a little by a sense of his own personal danger, was under a necessity of issuing his pro- clamation, commanding all jesuits and priests to depart the king- dom, and that no recusants should come within ten miles of the court. This tragical event in France, so roused the antipa- thy of the Protestants to the Catholics, that the laws began now to be executed against them with increased rigour and severity. The king's absurd obstinancy, in persisting in his endeavours to marry his son Charles to a princess of the royal family of Spain, was another constant source of uneasiness to his Protest- ant subjects. They dreaded the consequences of such a union, to their party in England; and as the increased influence and power of the house of commons, became obviously discernable towards the latter part of his reign, insomuch that larger strides towards that political liberty, which they aftewards, in Charles's reign, more boldly assumed, were for the first time manifested by that body, in a remonstrance to the king, on the then state of affairs. Jealous of the extraordinary propensity of James to fa-

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SEC. IX. vour the Catholics, they urged to him in a bolder tone than any 1621. house of commons had ever before used towards a sovereign of England, the dangers which they apprehended to the Protestant religion. Among the many causes of those great and growing mischiefs which they apprehended, they represented "the develish positions and doctrines whereon popery is built, and taught with authority to their followers, for advancement of their temporal ends.

"The expectation of the popish recusants of the match with Spain, and feeding themselves with great hopes of the conse- quences thereof.

"The interposing of foreign princes, and their agents, in the behalf of popish recusants, for connivance and favour unto them.

"Their forfeitures compounded for, at such mean rates, as amounted to less than a toleration.

" The licentious printing and dispersing of popish books, even in the time of parliament.

"The swarms of priests and Jesuits, the common incendiaries of all christendom, dispersed in all parts of the kingdom.

"And that the popish religion had such a restless spirit, that if it should once get but a connivance, it would press for a toler- ation : if that should be obtained, they must have an equality; and from thence they would aspire to superiority, and will never rest until they get a subversion of the true religion."

Among a variety of other remedies for these evils, they pressed his majesty "to put in execution the laws for preventing of dan- gers by popish recusants."*

The ex- cesses of the Catho- lics and Puritans, political parties. It is at this session of parliament, that historians have fixed the era of the rise of the two distinct political parties in En- gland, which have subsisted even to this day, under different de- give rise to nominations. Those who opposed the absolute power, which the king now claimed, formed soon afterwards what was known by the name of the country-party, and received the powerful aid of the Puritans. The court-party were principally composed of the clergy of the established church, those also who enjoyed offices under the crown, and the vast body of Catholics, which se- cretly lurked in the kingdom.t But as, happily for the English nation and their descendants in America, those who advocated

* Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) vol. 8, p. 191.

t Rapin's Hist. (Tindal's hist.) vol. 8, p. 182. Hume's Hist. note (LL) to ch. 48.

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the rights of the people, as exercised by their representatives in SEC. IX. parliament, finally prevailed, so even, throughout the remainder 1621. of the reign of James, they found themselves able to maintain that firm position which they had now taken in support of their religious as well as civil and political liberties. For the reasons before suggested, it became necessary, in their estimation, that the English Catholics, who certainly were but a minor part of the nation, should yield up their religious rights, when the enjoyment of them became manifestly incompatible with those of a majority of the people. It was in this state of things, that parliament now pressed the execution of the laws heretofore made against them.

But James was too tenacious of what he deemed his preroga- tive, to give way so readily. Soon after he had prorogued and dissolved parliament, in order to please the king of Spain, and to promote the projected match between his son and the infanta, in defiance of the law, as well as the before mentioned remon- strance of the commons, he issued writs to the judges and jus- tices of the peace, to release all the imprisoned recusants. Deeming himself head of the English Church, and thereby pos- sessed of supreme ecclesiastical power, he wished to have it considered, that the toleratian of Catholics was a measure of that nature. But not only the religious Puritans murmured at this proceeding of the king; the frends of civil liberty were alarmed at so important an exertion of prerogative: for it does not appear to have been definitively ascertained, at this period of time, whether the king had not a power of dispensing with pe- nal statutes .* This last session of parliament, however, appears to have formed a crisis, from which the declension of the royal pre- rogative under the English constitution is manifestly visible, as the Catholics had, prior to this period, by the patronage of the king, gained such an evident ascendancy in their influence in the affairs of the nation, as to render the situation of the Puritans so un- comfortable, as to prompt them to emigration, so now the Puri- tans, in their turn, through the increased power and privileges of the house of commons, of which many of them, or at least many of those who inclined much to favour them, were mem-

* Rapin says, that some stop was put to these dispensing mandates or writs of the king, by the advice of the lord keeper, Williams. Rappin's Hist. (Tindal's edit.) vol. 8, p. 261. But this was subsequent to the period of time we now speak of, and at the time of the ratification of the Spanish treaty of marriage, in 1623.

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SEC. IX. bers, began to be enabled to retort upon the Catholics, their own 1621. intolerant system. By their clamours for a vigorous execution of the laws against Papists, it became now necessary for them also to look about for a place of refuge.

under the patronage of Sir George Calvert.

First It was in this situation of things, that Sir George Calvert, scheme of a colony who was now one of the principal secretaries of State, and of the of English Roman Catholic religion, influenced probably by the recent ex- Catholics, in New- ample of the emigration of the Puritans to New England, con- foundland, templated a settlement of Catholics in Newfoundland. As this nobleman was subsequently the founder of the colony of Mary- land, it would be highly desirable to give a satisfactory sketch of some of the minutiæ of his life; but as the historians, who have touched upon the affairs of his two colonies, have been sparing in their accounts of either his character or his life, and the few American biographers, who have briefly mentioned him, have given barren and contradictory accounts of him, it is impossible, at this day, to gratify the reader with many interesting incidents relative to him. He is said to have been descended from a noble family in Flanders, but he himself an Englishman, born at a place called Kipling* in Yorkshire, England, in the year 1582. It appears that he received or finished his educution at Trinity college, Oxford; where he took his bachelor's degree in the year 1597, having manifested some proficiency in literature, es- pecially the classics, by writing and publishing in the preceding year, a Latin poem, entitled, "Carmen funbre in D. Hen. Untonum." After receiving his diploma at Trinity college, he set out to the continent on his travels, and made the tour of Europe; as is still the usage of young men of fortune and family in England; from which we may infer, that either he or his parents then possessed a considerable estate. At his return to England, which is said to have been "in the beginning of the reign of James the first,"t he obtained the place of one of the under secretaries or clerks in the office of Sir Robert Cecil, who had been one of the prin- cipal secretaries of state at the death of Elizabeth, and who, by artful management, had contrived to be continued in that office by king James. After passing some years in this subordinate

* No place called Kipling, (said to be the birth place of Sir George Calvert, as above mentioned, in both Belknap's and Allen's Amer. Biog. Dict. Art. Cal- vert,) appears on any map or in any common description of Yorkshire. It may therefore be supposed to have been erroneously written or printed for Riplay, which is a small town in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

t James the first was proclaimed at London on the 24th of March, 1602-3. i

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situation, as it would appear, so as to make himself well ac- SEC. IX. quainted with the business and affairs of state; Sir George ob- tained the king's favour so far as to be made one of the princi- pal secretaries of state in the room of Sir Thomas Lake, in the year 1619, prior to which he had received the order of knighthood .* His knowledge of public business and his dili- gence and fidelity conciliated the regard of the king, so as to induce his majesty to bestow upon him the further bounty of a pension of a thousand pounds out of the customs. Shortly after his promotion to the high office of being one of the princi- pal secretaries of state, he obtained a seat in parliament as one of the representatives for Yorkshire, at this present session of 1620-1, (of which we have been just speaking,) through the friendship, as it is said,t of the celebrated Sir Thomas Went- worth, who was afterwards earl of Strafford. Although this fact may be true, and a personal friendship might have then subsist- ed between Sir Thomas and Sir George, being both (or their families,) natives and residents of the West-Riding of York- shire,¿ yet they certainly pursued, at this period of time, (espe- cially in the session of 1620-1,) very different politics. Sir Thomas Wentworth himself was one of the most active mem- bers, and one of the most able and zealous anti-courtiers, both at this session and in the preceding one of 1614. Sir George Calvert was now one of the principal secretaries of state, as just mentioned, and, as we may presume, did not, or indeed could not with propriety while he retained his office, act in any other way than in conformity with the wishes of the king. From the well known temper and disposition of James, he could not have retained the favour of that monarch, which he seems to

* Chalmers, in his Annals, (ch. ix.) says, that Sir George Calvert was made Secretary of State to James the first, through the interest of Sir Robert Cecil. But as Sir Robert Cecil, (created Earl of Salisbury in 1605,) died in 1612, and Sir George was not made secretary until 1619, there seems to be an inaccuracy in his statement. Chalmers possibly meant, that he was first originally patronised and introduced at court by Cecil as above mentioned. He had not been knight- ed at the date of the second charter of Virginia, (to wit, May 23d, 1609,) as he is therein named George Calvert, esquire, being one of the patentees. t Chalmers, ibid.

#As the small town called Ripley, (which we have above supposed to be the birth place of Sir George Calvert,) and Wentworth castle, or the manor of Went- worth, the ancient famliy seat of the Wentworths and earls Strafford, are both situated in the West-Riding of Yorkshire, there might have arisen from that cir- cumstance an intimacy between Sir Thomas Wentworth and Sir George Calvert, and perhaps their families. Thomas was a baronet, but Sir George only a knight.

VOL. I .- 30

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SEC. IX. have done to a great degree, without a thorough compliance with his views.

This session of 1620-1, which is deemed by historians to have formed a remarkable epoch in the progress of the English con- stitution, must have presented difficulties to Sir George, particu- larly in his double capacity of a new member and a secretary of state, which would put in requisition all his best talents. Be- sides the formidable stand now made by the house of commons against the king's prerogative, two subjects more immediately affecting the interests of the British colonies in America, came into debate for the first time in parliament :- the tobacco trade and the fisheries. It does not appear, that Sir George Calvert took any part in the debate on the former subject. Not enter- taining, at that time, any idea of his Maryland colony, he pro- bably felt indisposed to intermeddle in an affair, which the king deemed to be peculiarly appropriated to his own jurisdiction and management. His colony of Maryland, however, subsequently became as much interested in the subject as Virginia; and it would, therefore, perhaps be improper to pass over it here alto- gether unnoticed. Sir Edwin Sands, before mentioned as treasurer of the council and company of Virginia, was also a member of parliament at this session, and being chairman of a committee of the house, "for inquiring into the decay of trade," reported as one of the causes of it, "the importation of Spanish tobacco." Instead of the returns from Spain being in bullion or specie, they were in tobacco, evidently to the great injury both of England and Virginia; to the injury of the former by excluding the importation of specie, and of the latter by excluding from the mother country the staple commodity of the colony. "The remedy," which he therefore proposed was -- "to supply Great Britain with tobacco out of Virginia and the Somer islands; and to prohibit all other tobacco." Nothing could be more reasonable than this proposition; yet it admitted of con- siderable debate. Upon the question of prohibiting the impor- tation of foreign tobacco, it seems, there was "not one nega- tive;" but towards the encouragement of it from Virginia and Bermudas several circumstances combined to prevent any legis- lative act upon the subject. In the first place, it was well known that the king had a most inveterate aversion to the use of tobac- co in any way; and a member, (Sir J. Horsey,) in the course of the debate observed,-"He thought not to speak of this vile weed. When he was first a parliament-man, this vile weed was

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not known. Thousands have died of this vile weed. He ab- SEC. IX. hored it the more, because the king disliked it .* It was prohi- bited to be used in ale houses. It was no good ground," (that is staple of trade,) "for Virginia." Another reason for the un- willingness of the courtiers to act upon the business, was, that the king, being at this time extremely anxious for the marriage of his son with the infanta, would not assent to any prohibition of a Spanish commodity, lest it might give offence to the king of Spain. A third and powerful reason was, that the king af- fected to consider all regulations of every thing respecting colo- nies as under his peculiar direction, and not the subject of any attention of the house of commons.}

In the debate on the fisheries, (which occurred in a few days after the former,) Sir George, it seems, thought himself more peculiarly interested, or felt himself more at liberty to act in co- incidence with the king's sentiments. As the South Virginia company, or First Colony, as it was called, had, since the first charter of 1606, by which the continent of North America had been placed under two distinct companies, under the denomina- tion of the First and Second colonies, obtained two other dis- tinct charters to themselves, while the North Virginia or Ply- mouth company, or Second colony, had continued to act under the first one of 1606, some enterprising members of the latter company, particularly Sir Ferdinando Gorges, with others, peti- tioned the king, "to make certain adventurers, intending to erect and establish fishery, trade, and plantacion, within the ter- ritories, precincts, and lymits of the said Second colony, and their successors, one several, distinct, and entire body, and to grant unto them, such estate, liberties, privileges, enlargements, and immunities there, as in the letters patent are therein parti- cularly expressed and declared." King James, who had a passion for colonization, readily acceded to their proposals, and

* The king, besides his several proclamations against the growth, importation, or use of tobacco, published a treatise also against it, entitled, "A counterblast to [tobacco." One [of his "Witty Apothegms," as published in a collection of" them, was-"Were he to invite the devil to a dinner, he would have three dishes : first, a pig ; second, a poll of ling and mustard ; and third, a pipe of tobacco for digesture." Grainger's Biog. Hist. and the Annual Register for 1769, p. 33.

t This debate occurred on the 17th and 18th of April, 1621 .- See it in Chal- mers's Annals, ch. iii. note 17; who remarks upon it, that "it is the first instance which occurs, of the modern policy of promoting the importation of the com- modities of the colonies, because they were countries under our dominion," in preference to the productions of foreign nations.

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SEC. IX. granted the letters patent to the duke of Lenox and others, bearing date November 3, (18 Jac. 1,) 1620 .* This grant comprehended all the northern part of the continent between forty and fifty-eight degrees of north latitude, under the denomi- nation of New England; and, among other "privileges, en- largements, and immunities," granted to them power and autho- rity "to attach, arrest, take, and seize all ships and goods what- soever, which should be brought from or carried into the terri- tories, lands, rivers, and places thereby granted, unless it be by the licence and consent of the said company first had and obtained in writing, one moiety of such forfeitures to be to their own use, the other moiety to the king."t As this grant extend- ed to 48°, it included nearly the whole of the coast of New- foundland adjacent to the banks thereof. It being necessary for vessels, engaged in the fishery on those banks, to have liberty to land on the coast, not only to dry their nets, and salt their fish, but for procuring wood and water, the patentees availed themselves of a construction, which this clause admitted, of pro- hibiting those engaged in the fishery from using their coasts as ' above mentioned. This affecting the interests of the nation became an object of the national legislature. A debate accord- ingly took place on it, on the 25th of April, 1621, in which Sir Edwin Sands, (treasurer of the South Virginia company, as before mentioned,) after stating the grievance, moved "that a free liberty should be allowed to all the king's subjects to fish there. That the taking of timber was no prejudice to the colony. It was pitiful, that any of the king's subjects should be prohibited, since the French and Dutch were at liberty, who would come and fish there, notwithstanding the colony. That this New-England company now prohibit the taking of timber where it is nothing worth, and take away the salt the merchants leave there.

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The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 26

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823 Publication date: 1837 Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver Number of Pages: 1062

Author: Bozman, John Leeds, 1757-1823
Publication date: 1837
Publisher: Baltimore : J. Lucas & E.K. Deaver
Number of Pages: 1062