The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 71

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 71

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" I, Thomas Greene, esq., his lordship's lieutenant governor for the time being, do absolutely protest against all such undue proceedings, and do hereby declare the aforesaid assembly held by the governor as aforesaid at the time and place aforesaid to be most lawful, and all acts therein assented unto by the freemen, and enacted by the governor aforesaid, to be laws of the pro- vince, as fully to all effects in law, until his lordship shall have signified his disassent thereunto, as any laws heretofore in the province have or ought to have been; and further I declare in the face of this present assembly, that I shall, to the utmost of my power, by virtue of his lordship's commission, given to me in that behalf, see the due observance of the same throughout all the parts of this province, until his lordship's disassent there- unto shall appear under his hand and seal as afore.

THOS. GREENE."

It seems an extraordinary circumstance, as has been before observed, that governor Calvert, immediately on his restoration to the government, should have taken up the same assembly which had been convened and sat under the authority of Mr. Hill; especially, if it was true, as stated by the assembly of 1649, in their letter to the lord proprietary, that most of the members of that assembly so convened by governor Calvert on his restoration, were disaffected to the lord proprietary's govern- ment, or personal enemies to governor Calvert. It seems pro-

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bable, from some subsequent proceedings in the province, that CHAP. V. governor Calvert was anxious to avail himself of every circum- 1648. stance favourable to facilitate his restoration to the province, and that to conciliate the minds of the disaffected he agreed to call the same assembly, which had before sat under the authori- ty of Mr. Hill, under an expectation that they would assent to laws favourable to his permanent possession of the province. They appear, however, in the act entitled, "an act for customs," to have over-reached him; if the act was expressed, as stated in the subsequent act of 1661, ch. 6, that the assembly granted the customs therein mentioned to the lord proprietary "in consi- deration that his lordship would undertake to defray the whole charge of the government in war and in peace." If this meant more than to defray the charge of the expedition to recover the province, it was certainly an unreasonable stipulation and ad- vantage taken of the governor under his embarrassed circum- stances ; for, in case of a war waged against or within the pro- vince by a foreign enemy, as the Indians for instance, the in- habitants ought to have borne the expense, presupposing al- ways that the proprietary government was the only just and legitimate one, and the customs might not have been sufficient for such accumulated expense. It is difficult, however, to re- concile these suppositions with the preceding protest of this present assembly, and the earnest anxiety of the governor in his counter protest to "see the due observance" of the acts passed at that assembly of 1646-7. Those acts, particularly that en- titled, "an act for customs," must have been beneficial to his lordship, or the governor, and indeed his lordship himself, ac- cording to the assembly's letter to him, (in 1649,) would not have manifested such an anxiety to sustain their validity. On the contrary, the people of the province must have conceived them unfavourable to their interests at this time, or the assembly of this session would not, thus unanimously to all appearance, have attempted to avail themselves of so frivolous an objection to the proceedings of that assembly in 1646-7, as the want of a legal summons appears to have been; and indeed the lord pro- prietary himself, in his commission of the 12th of August, 1648, (hereafter stated,) annexed to the body of laws then sent in by him, states it as a fact, "as he was informed," that the two acts of the session of 1646-7, principally perhaps the "act for cus- toms," were "found too burthensome and inconvenient for the

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CHAP. V. people." It is among these circumstances only that we can 1648. trace the causes for the preceding protest.

Annexed to the proceedings of this present assembly of 1647-8, as they are on the record, appear some depositions, "taken in open assembly, 29th February, 1647," as therein expressed, for the purpose of proving the promise and argreement of governor Calvert, that all the charges and expenses of retaking possession of the province, particularly the "soldiers' wages," should be paid out of the lord proprietary's private estate within the pro- vince, and that governor Calvert agreed with the soldiers, that they should take "cowes, and heifers, and calves," at a certain price therein mentioned, "towards their wages."*

If this session of assembly continued to, and ended on, the fourth of March, as stated by Mr. Bacon, in his Collection of the Laws of this province, the journal thereof, as now remaining, is imperfect ; for, nothing more appears of that journal at this day than what has been in substance herein already stated ; ex- cept, that on "Thursday, 27th January," a committee was ap- pointed to draw up a bill for the keeping of a garrison at Cedar point ;" but no such bill appears on record.t-The titles of four other acts are stated by Mr. Bacon, as having been "passed on the fourth of March, 1647," at this session ; which titles, he has probably collected from subsequent acts of assembly, whereby they were repealed ; for, he subjoins to his statement of them the following-"N. B. I do not find the acts of this assembly any where recorded." The first and second of them, however, appear on the journal, as herein before stated. The one enti- tled "an act touching Pagans," confirmed among the perpetual laws of 1676, though afterwards repealed in 1678, did a copy of it now exist, might gratify philosophic curiosity in the investiga- tion of the views, in which our ancestors were accustomed to consider the Indians of America, to whom, without doubt, the word "pagans" related. The last act also of this session, passed on the last day thereof, as it would seem, entitled "an act for settling government in the province as the present state of things will permit," would have thrown considerable historical light on the affairs of the province at this period of time ; particularly the first clause thereof "touching soldiers' wages," which it seems

* See these depositions at large in note (LVIII.) at the end of this volume.

t The journal of this assembly, from which the preceding substance of it has been stated, is recorded in a book, now remaining in the council chamber, enti- tled "Assembly Proceedings from 1637 to 1658," p. 308 to 321.

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was dissented to by the lord proprietary, probably on account of CHAP. V. the pledge made by governor Calvert of both their private estates 1648. within the province as herein before stated. The third clause thereof also-"touching levies and judgments ;" the fourth " touching officers' fees ;" the fifth "touching oath of fealty ;" were each of them in like manner dissented to; the two last "touching the defence of the province, and the fort at St. Ini- goe's," must have been temporary in their nature, and therefore expired when their uses ceased.

tion of ge-

To close the session amicably, and to conciliate, if possible, Proclama- the affections of all the inhabitants of the province after their neral par- late dissentions, we may suppose to have been the motives of don. governor Greene in an executive act or measure performed by him on the last day of the session-the fourth of March. On this day he thought it proper to issue his proclamation of pardon to every inhabitant residing within the province for any offence whatsoever committed by any of them from the fourteenth of February, 1644, unto the sixteenth of April then last past, and to every other person out of the province "acknowledging sorrow for his fault," and requiring pardon before the feast of St. Mi- chael the archangel next, excepting Richard Ingle, mariner .*

Although the people of the province appear to have been now Provincial restored to a situation of apparent peace with each other ; yet it court ad- journed, would seem, that their natural enemies-the Indians, ever rest- and pro- less at the intrusion of Europeans upon them, were again exhi- clamation thereof biting some symptoms of a disposition to invade the settled made. parts of the province, particularly those of St. Mary's. Gover- nor Greene, therefore, thought it proper to issue a proclamation, about the latter end of May, giving notice of his having ad- journed the court, then to be held in the beginning of June fol- lowing, until the next October, assigning as a reason therefor, that in case of such intended invasion, of which he had receiv- ed information, the attendance of jurors and others upon the court "would much weaken those parts from whence they came."t Whether this reason for this adjournment of the court was real or pretended, some doubts seem to arise, not only from the ex- pression in the proclamation-"considering the danger of the present times," but also from the circumstance of the freemen of the county of St. Mary's actually meeting, about the middle

* See this proclamation at large in note (LIX.) at the end of this volume.

t See this proclamation in note (LX.) at the end of this volume.

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CHAP. V. of June, "to advise touching the levy of the charges incurred 1648. this year." So that "the danger of the present times" might arise, not merely from the expected invasion of the Indians, but from other causes not now to be ascertained. It would appear to us at this day, that the meeting of the freemen to lay the county levy would have "weakened the parts from whence they came," as much as their attendance on the provincial court would have done. On this proceeding, however, for laying the county levy,* it seems necessary to remark, that it appears to be one of the first instances on record, where county charges were levied in a distinct manner from those which might be called pro- vincial charges. It does not appear, that "the freemen of the county of St. Mary's" met together on this occasion as a legis- lative body, but in the same manner as has been long since usual, under both the provincial and state governments of Maryland, for the justices of the peace of a county to meet and lay the levy of their respective counties.

Affairs of England having re- lation to Maryland.

Connected as the affairs of a colony, especially in its most youthful state, necessarily must be with those of the mother country, and more particularly when under the government of a lord proprietary, whose residence and conduct in the parent state would have great influence and bearing on the affairs of his province, we are unavoidably often led, not only to pay at- tention to the political proceedings of the parent country, but to inquire also as to the part and conduct which such lord proprie- tary may have taken in those proceedings. But in this, as be- fore observed, we have no source of information to recur to, ex- cept such few scanty materials as our provincial records afford ; and in this respect they are totally barren of information. Scenes of as interesting a nature took place in England in the course of the summer of this year, (1648,) as any which had hitherto oc- curred since the commencement of the unhappy civil wars of that country. After the king had given himself up as before observed, to the Scotch army, in the year 1645, a general paci- fication, as to military affairs, seems to have taken place through- out England for some years. But "civil dudgeon" seems never to have ceased to rage. While there were church of England- men and papists to subdue, the two greatfanatic sects-the pres- byterians and independents conjointly exercised their powers against them. But, having laid them prostrate, the contest for

* See the record of this meeting in note (LXI.) at the end of this volume.

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power necessarily commenced between themselves. The ma- CHAP. V. jority of the members of parliament were presbyterian, but the 1648. independents, with the cunning Cromwell at their head, had, by an artful "new model" of the army, secured them on their sider A military despotism ensued, and the army, that is Cromwell, dictated to the parliament whatever he was pleased to have done. Thus it always has been, and will be, under republican govern- ments, except in the instance of some extraordinary chief, as Washington, whose virtue can controul his ambition. The pres- byterians, thus unexpectedly bereft of power, began to grow restive and uneasy under their yoke. The Scotch presbyterians claimed a right in the person of their king, (who was now close- ly imprisoned in Carisbrook castle in the Isle of Wight,) as well. as the people of England. To release his majesty from this im- prisonment, ostensibly at least, they marched a considerable army into England, about the beginning of July in this year, 1648; but, although the royalists had risen in numerous bodies in dif- ferent parts of the kingdom, so as to create a considerable diver- sion of the enemy from bringing all their force against the Scotch army, yet these presbyterians were so jealous of the church of England, and so anxious to get the king into their own power in order to dictate to him their beloved abolition of episcopacy, that they would not suffer the royalists to join them ; and prac- tised such delays in their march, as gave Cromwell time to col- lect his forces together. The consequence was, that after this independent leader had defeated the little royalist army under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, to whom the Scotch general refused any assistance, he so totally routed these Scotch presbyterians at Preston, in Lancashire, on the 19th of August this year, that not a man of them remained in England, except the killed, wound- ed, and prisoners.

What part the English Roman Catholics took in these scenes of this year, the histories of England do not particularly inform us. It is certain, that such were the prejudices against them among the ruling powers of that kingdom at this time, that they could not openly avow themselves as such, or at least they could not be openly patronized by any of the great religious parties. From the natural operations of gratitude, we ought to infer, that they would have favoured, as far as in their power, the cause of the royalists or church of England. But there is too much ground for suspicion, that a great portion of them had adopted

VOL. II .- 42

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CHAP. V. the sinister resolution of remaining neutral, cherishing a vain

1648. hope, that as the independents professed a general toleration of religious sects, they would be in a better state under them than under the church of England. The state of Ireland at this time affords strong evidence of such a disposition in the Catholics. When the civil wars of this century first commenced in England, the Irish, as well as the English Catholics heartily, to all appear- ance, joined in support of the royal cause. But, through the clamour of the fanatic members of parliament-both presbyte- rian and independent, the king was obliged to enforce the laws against them more strictly than he had before done, in compli- ance with the wishes and indeed remonstrances of those sects. As soon as the two parties in England were arrayed in hostile ar- maments against each other, the Irish Catholics embraced this. period as a favorable æra, for obtaining all that toleration if not ascendancy in Ireland, to which from their numbers they deemed themselves entitled. They formed armies, and instituted a na- tional council of their chiefs or principal men, who sat at Kil- kenny in Munster for the direction of their affairs. When the royal cause in England was on the decline, and the king himself became a prisoner to the English army, the Irish Catholics split into two parties. The more moderate of them, principally those of English descent, and especially the army of Catholics under general Preston, who commanded them in Munster and within what was commonly called the English Pale, were for adhering to the royal family of England. But those of Ulster under Owen O'Neale, a descendant of the old aboriginal Irish chief, Shan O'Neale, were for establishing a monarchy completely in- dependent of England; when O'Neale probably flattered him- self, that the crown might fall upon his head. In this the latter party were highly encouraged by the Pope's Nuncio-Rinuncini, who had been sent into Ireland, probably for this purpose, about. October, 1645; and had ever since indefatigably continued to stimulate the Irish Catholics to every excess. A pamphlet was published by them, (in the year 1647,) to demonstrate,-"that the kings of England never had any right to Ireland ; that, sup- posing they once had, they had forfeited it by turning heretics, and neglecting the conditions of pope Adrian's grant ; that the old Irish nation might by force of arms recover the lands and goods taken from their ancestors by usurpers of English and other foreign extraction ; that they should kill not only all the

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Protestants, but all the Roman Catholics of Ireland who sup- CHAP. V. ported the crown of England ; that they should choose an Irish 1648. native for their king, and throw off at once the yoke both of he- retics and foreigners."*

In coincidence with this state of things in Ireland, even the queen of England herself, the unfortunate Charles's wife, who was now resident at Paris, had been constantly urging the king to give up the church of England and throw himself into the arms of the presbyterians, as the surest means of obtaining the zealous aid of the Scotch in regaining his crown.t She also prompted her son prince Charles, who had about this time, (in the summer of 1648,) took the command of a part of the English fleet, which had revolted from the parliament, to pay the greatest court to the presbyterians and abandon the church of England. The royal monarch, however, though closely confined in prison, stuck to his integrity and his religion, nor would he give them up, though to redeem his crown and his life.

This short sketch of the religious contests in Europe, at the - period of time of which we are now treating, (for, the English civil war of this century was founded in religious contests mere- ly,) is here given with a view of throwing some light on the otherwise obscure transactions of our humble colony. But we are still at a loss for the interesting information of the conduct of our lord proprietary amidst all these European scenes. When the sub- sequent attempt was made in 1656, to deprive him of his province, he was accused by the agents of the Puritans of Maryland then in England, "of practising with the king at Oxford and Bristol against the parliament ;" which must have occurred, if at all, in the year 1643 or 1644; and that, from his special favour with the king, he had then procured two commissions ; one, jointly to himself and his brother-the governor, relative to the trade of his own province, which, as is stated, "tended to the ruin of the parliament's interest ;" the other, to himself solely, "con- cerning the customs in Virginia, which he was to receive under the king."} From these circumstances we may infer, that lord

* Leland's Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 320.

t One proof of this arises from the circumstance, hereafter stated, of her send- ing Sir William Davenant, in the year 1646, from Paris to the king, when he was a prisoner to the Scotch at New Castle, in England, expressly for the purpose of persuading him to join the presbyterians and desert the church of England.

# See the document entitled, "A Paper relating to Maryland," inserted at the end of this volume, taken from Hazard's Collections, vol. i. p. 623, who states it as from Thurloe's State Papers, A. D. 1656.

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CHAP. V. Baltimore was by inclination attached to the king's cause and 1648. the real support of his crown ; but possibly, when the scene changed,-when Bristol was taken, and all the west of England was conquered by the parliamentarians, and the king had given himself up to the Scotch, and the prince of Wales was driven out of Cornwall into France, he might have thought with some other Roman Catholics of that time, that the destruction of the established church of England would be the resurrection of re- ligious liberty to Catholics as well as dissenters .- Fatal decep- tion !. However, agreeably to the dictates of prudence, we may suppose, that he now thought it proper to temporise. From several important documents sent by him to his province, which bear date at "Bath," in August of this year, 1648, we are in- duced to infer, that his present place of residence was in that city in England. It had been taken from the king's party, with all the rest of the west of England, in the summer of 1645. His lordship had probably, either for health or retirement, after- wards fixed his residence here ; and from hence dates his orders and regulations to his province of Maryland.

Governor Greene re- moved and governor Stone ap- pointed in his stead.

He had now, it seems, thought it proper to remove governor Greene, (whom his brother Leonard Calvert had originally ap- pointed,) from the office of lieutenant general and governor of his province, and to appoint in his stead William Stone, esqr., who, as it seems, was then an inhabitant of Northampton coun- ty in Virginia, and who is moreover stated to have been "a zea- lous Protestant, and generally knowne to have beene always zealously affected to the parliament."* Although the cause of the removal of governor Greene is hinted, in one of the papers of the agents before mentioned, to have been for some "matters against the lord Baltimore ;"t yet, as our provincial records pre- sent no explicit authority for supposing lord Baltimore to have en- tertained any serious dissatisfaction at the conduct of governor Greene,¿ particularly as he was placed first in the commission of

* So stated in Mr. John Langford's pamphlet, entitled, "A Refutation of a scandalous pamphlet, entitled, " Babylon's Fall in Maryland ;" both more parti- cularly quoted hereafter.

+ See the Paper entitled "A Breviat of the Proceedings of the Lord Balti- more," &c. inserted at the end of this volume.

# It is proper to mention, however, that some allusion seems to have been made, in the assembly's letter to lord Baltimore, in 1649, (hereafter stated,) to some " indignation" entertained by lord Baltimore against " his then governor," on account of the distribution of his lordship's private property in the payment of the soldiers. The then governor must have been governor Greene ; as it ap-

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the council of the same date with that to governor Stone, we are CHAP. V. warranted in relying upon the express inducement to that mea- 1648. sure assigned in that commission to governor Stone, as being the principal cause of such a change in the office of governor : that is, that governor Stone "had undertaken in some short time to procure five hundred people of British or Irish descent to come from other places and plant and reside within our said province of Maryland." This large acquisition of numbers would have been, as is expressed in his commission, "an advancement of the colony ;" and the investment of Mr. Stone in the office of go- vernor might have been a sine qua non in some stipulations or agreement entered into between him and lord Baltimore to this purpose. It is possible also, that lord Baltimore, as before sug- gested, might have wished to temporise, and, in order to give the appearance of impartiality with regard to religious sects, thought it most prudent to appoint a "Protestant" governor, in- stead of Mr. Greene, (who, from subsequent documents, appears to have been a Roman Catholic,*) as well as a Protestant sec- retary of the province, (Mr. Hutton,) instead of Mr. Lewger, and also a Protestant majority in the council. As the reader will find this commission to governor Stone at large among the do- cuments at the end of this volume, some few remarks will here be added only on those clauses of it, which appear to have created some considerable variances from the former commissions to the same purport.

After the usual revocation of all former commissions hereto- Strictures fore granted to any former lieutenant general or councillor of the on the province, this new commission proceeds in the appointment of sion to go- commis- William Stone, esqr., to be lieutenant general, &c., of the pro- Stone. vince, as also chancellor and chief justice thereof, assigning the reasons before mentioned for such appointment, with a special power, not before expressed in any former commission to the lieutenant general, of appointing and constituting all officers and ministers in the province, excepting councillors and such other officers as should be specially appointed by the lord proprietary ;

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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 71

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