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 85
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121
In consequence of this petition, as it would appear, governor Stone and the council convened and met, as the record express- es it, "at a court held at Saint Mary's, 25th day of November, 1652." After a statement of the substance of the petition, the record proceeds: "The governor and council, now present in court, together with Thomas Cornwaleys, esqr.,; and others, whose advice and assistance was desired in this case of great concernment, have ordered and appointed, that sufficient forces be speedily raised for a march against the eastern shore Indians, and for that purpose every seventh man throughout the province is to be pressed for this service; councillors, commissioners,¿ and other officers and persons of public employments within this province, and others usually freed in cases of this nature, ex- cepted ;§ and that the sheriff or other to be appointed in every
* If this Dutch vessel taken by the Indians, as above mentioned, was captur- ed by them in the Delaware bay, as it possibly might be, the Dutch having at this time settlements on the Delaware, it would indicate, that all the Indians of the peninsula might have been engaged in an alliance to drive away all Euro- peans, where it was probably in their power to do it. As the Dutch, however, still carried on a trade with the two colonies on the Chesapeake, (Virginia and Maryland,) at least to the time of the "reducement" of those colonies in the spring of this year, it is more probable, that it was some Dutch vessel captured by them in the Chesapeake.
t The reader cannot but have much pleasure in greeting again our old colo- nial friend and acquaintance-the captain, as he was always called. It will be recollected, that captain Cornwaleys came to Maryland with the first settlers in 1643, as one of the assistants or councillors to governor Leonard Calvert, ap- pointed thereto by lord Baltimore. For several years after the first settlement of the colony, he seems to have been relied upon as the governor's Mentor in council and Achilles in combat. In the year 1643, he was called upon to com- mand the little army to be raised to repel the incursions of the Susquehanocks, as before stated, (p. 257.) His name does not often hereafter occur. He seems to have lived retired on his estate in St. Mary's county, called at this day Corn- waley's Neck. We shall see him, however, again called forth by lord Baltimore himself, on a very important occasion in 1657, for his advice and assistance.
# Meaning justices of the peace.
§ On this subject of exemptions from militia duty, see before p. 242, and 252-3. As to pressing men, &c., there was an act, passed at the September session of 1642, entitled, "an act providing some things for the better safety of the colony," which authorized the lieutenant general, "to press or take any vessels, men, pro- visions, arms, &c., at the most usual rate of the country, when necessary for defence,"-see before, p. 245.
457
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
county by the governor, or commander, or commissioners of such CHAPT. county for this employment, is, so near as he can, to press the VI. ablest and fittest men amongst every seven for this service, to- 1652. gether with such a convenient number of boats and other ves- sels for transportation, well fitted, as the governor shall conceive fitting and necessary to be used upon this expedition ; and it is further ordered, that every the six persons throughout the pro- vince are to furnish out the seventh man, so pressed as aforesaid, with sufficient and fitting provisions of victuals from the time of his setting forth upon this expedition until the time of his meet- ing at the general rendezvous at Kent hereafter mentioned, and for twenty days after, with one gun well fixed, one pound and a half of powder, and six pounds of shot, and all other fitting and necessary provisions, arms, and ammunition for this service ; from which charge no inhabitant of this province, councillor, or others, not pressed as aforesaid, is to be exempted; and it is further ordered, that all and every the forces so to be raised as aforesaid in Saint Mary's county, Charles county, and Patuxent river on the north side thereof,* shall meet together at Mattapa- nian upon the said Patuxent river,t near to the house late of Thomas Wair there, upon the twentieth day of December next, together with such boats, or other vessels as shall be pressed, or otherwise provided, for the transportation as aforesaid ; where the governor is desired to appoint some able person or command- er to take a view of them, as also how they are accommodated in every particular for the service, and under whose conduct and command they may with all convenient speed be transported un- to the isle of Kent to the general rendezvous there upon the 30th day of the said month of December ; and it is further or- dered, that all the said persons and soldiers are hereby appoint- ed to meet together at the said general rendezvous on the said island on the said thirtieth day of December, there to be dis- posed of and employed for this service under the conduct and command of captain William Fuller, of whom the governor,
* This seems to furnish evidence, that the population of the province had ex- tended itself at this time across the Patuxent northwards, perhaps into what is now called Calvert county. Charles county had been erected by an order of the governor and council for that purpose, on the 21st of November, 1650, and Mr. Brooke made commander thereof, in pursuance, as it would appear, of his previous agreement with lord Baltimore in England .- See before, p. 376.
¡ The convenience of shortening the voyage to the isle of Kent most proba- bly pointed out this place as the most proper place of rendezvous for the forces of this part of the province.
VOL. II .- 58
458
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
CHAPT. with the advice of the council, hath made choice of for com- VI. mander in chief on this present expedition, &c .;* And it is fur- 1652. ther likewise ordered, that for all such Indian prisoners, that shall happen to be taken and brought in, when this march is ended, they shall be divided according to their value upon a general division throughout the province amongst every the six, that are at the charge of setting forth the seventh, herein before mentioned, unless the provincial court shall think fit to dispose of any of them otherwise;} and that as to other purchase or plunder either in corn or otherwise, from the said Indian enemy, during this intended march, it is to go upon a general division among the commanders and soldiers to be employed in the ser- vice, as the provincial court shall direct and think fit, special re- gard being to be had therein of those that shall best demean themselves in the service."
In pursuance of this order, the governor, within a few days afterwards, issued a commission to captain William Fuller, bear- ing date the 29th of the same month and year, purporting to be "in the name of the keepers of the liberty of England, and ac- cording to the powers given unto him (William Stone,) by the right honourable the lord Baltimore, lord proprietary of this pro- vince, by his commission to him for the government thereof, and also according to the directions of the said order," (of which order a copy is mentioned to have been inclosed to captain Ful- ler with his commission,) "constituting and appointing him the said captain William Fuller commander in chief under him" (the governor,) "of all the forces to be raised for a speedy march
* Captain Fuller's name appears frequently hereafter, as a man of considera- ble note and influence with the Puritans of Ann Arundel ; where also some forces were appointed to be raised for this intended expedition.
t If the meaning of this clause in the above order be-that of distributing the Indians expected to be captured during the expedition, among the inhabitants of the province, as slaves : such appearing to be the necessary construction of it; it seems to be somewhat explanatory of the before mentioned act of 1649, en- titled, "an act touching Indians ;" which made it felony, punishable with death, "to take, entice, surprise, transport, or sell any friend Indian." It is to be in- ferred from this act of 1649, that it was then deemed lawful to transport or sell any enemy Indian, captured in what is called solemn war; upon the old princi- ple now exploded, that having a right to put a captured enemy to death, you have a right to make a slave of him, as the more humane commutation. The above order must have proceeded upon this ancient principle, it being at that time strictly conformable to the law of nations ; as appears from Grotius, (of the rights of war and peace, B. iii. ch. 7,) who wrote this celebrated work some short time prior to the year 1625, when it was first published at Paris, under the auspices of Lewis XIII. to whom the author dedicated it.
459
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
against the eastern shore Indians, giving him thereby full power CHAPT. and authority, (if he thought fitting,) to raise and levy such VI. forces as are to be raised and levied in the county of Ann Arun- 1652. del according to the said order :- and to meet, according to ap- pointment, upon the isle of Kent, the 30th day of December next, or at any other convenient time or place for this purpose, to march against all or any Indians inhabiting upon the eastern side of the bay of Chesapeake to the northward of the southerly bound of this province on that side of the bay, being over against Wicokomico point, and from thence in a direct line eastward to the main ocean ;* and to make war upon, and through God's as- sistance, by all possible means, to vanquish, destroy, plunder, kill, or take prisoners at your discretion, all or any the said In- dians, either by sea or land, and being so taken to put them to death by the law of war,t or to save them at your pleasure, and for that purpose to pursue them, if occasion be, beyond the limits of this province;} and in all and every the premises you are to follow, as near as conveniently you can, the directions of the before mentioned order,"
* If the "Wicokomico point," above mentioned, refers to one of the points making the mouth of the Wicomico river in Somerset county, it could not have been "the southerly bound of the province," as now settled. The point "from whence a direct line eastward to the main ocean," according to the charter, must run to form the south boundary of the province, was Watkyn's point, so called in the charter as well as since, and which point as now determined, forms the mouth of Pocomoke river. The charter mentions "Watkin's point, near the river Wighco," and from this repugnance arose the long cherished dispute as to where Watkin's point was. The above commission to captain Fuller demonstrates the uncertainty then prevalent even in Maryland, as to the true location of this point. Differences subsisted at this very time between Virginia and Maryland as to this boundary line between them, and which gave cause to lord Baltimore's directions in the last year, (1651,) to his governor to encourage settlers to take up lands near to those southern bounds of Maryland.
t This seems to have been a generally acknowledged right of war at the time of the above commission, as has been just stated from Grotius, in the passage before cited. Although civilized nations in Europe have renounced this right, yet, as the American Indians still continue to exercise this savage right, some doubt has been entertained by American statesmen of late, (particularly in the case of the Seminole war of 1818,) whether the law of retaliation does not still preserve this right to the United States to check the cruelties of these barbari- ans on their prisoners of war.
# This right of war,-to pass the frontiers of a neutral State in pursuit of an enemy,-is an acknowledged one at this day, under some limitations. Thus it was done by the commander of the army of the United States in 1818, in pur- suit of the Seminole Indians, who had retreated into Florida, then possessed by Spain. The right must have been still stronger in the case of such pursuit from one British colony into another. The Virginians, perhaps, did not pretend to protect such retreating Indians from the pursuit of the colonists of Maryland.
460
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
CHAPT. VI. To those, who are acquainted with the climate of Maryland, it would readily occur, that the weather generally prevalent here in 1652. the months of December and January would have rendered such an expedition, as that now proposed, extremely hazardous as well as oppressive; whether it was to have been conducted by land through trackless forests, which the eastern shore of the province must have then presented, or by water down the bay in uncomfortable shallops, from the isle of Kent to the Wighco- moco or Pocomoke, where it was possible, if they penetrated far up those rivers, the boats might have been frozen up, so as to expose the forces to great hardship and danger. These consi- derations, as well as some others, particularly that the Indians of the western shore had gained intelligence of the intended ex- pedition, appear to have operated upon the minds of the Puri- tans of Ann Arundel, so as to render the proposed expedition unpopular with them. It is probable, therefore, that no levy of men for that purpose took place in that county; accordingly we find that captain Fuller wrote from thence to governor Stone, on the thirteenth of December, in acknowledgment of the receipt of his commission, in which he says,-" Sir, I find the inhabit- ants of these parts wholly disaffected, not to the thing, but the time of the year; it being in all likelyhood, (as they con- ceive,) dangerous for their health; first, in regard to the want of necessaries, as also want of vessels fit to transport them; and next, that it is possible, they may be frozen into the rivers, and so expose themselves to more dangers through cold and want of necessary provisions than by the enemies; and one thing more, which doth most take with me, the Indians on the west side had notice of it before your commission came to my hands, as I am credibly informed; to prevent which, a longer time were to be desired, as also that some order might issue from yourself to pro- hibit the revealing of your design to any Indians under some penalty, as the law of arms hath in that case provided. As for the inhabitants of Kent, who were the material cause of this expedition, by exhibiting a petition to yourself for speedy relief, as is hinted in your order, I shall, (if weakness of body pre- vent not,) give them a visit, and advise with them, and readily assist them if occasion be offered, with men or otherwise. Sir, let me crave this favour, not to be mistaken in what I have writ. It is far from me to slight the power God hath set over me, but am willing to submit to it, and that really as for myself, I am
461
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
ready, both now and at any time, to do yourself and the country CHAPT. all possible service, but it is the present apprehension of the peo- VI. ple, that, after the extremity of the winter be past, it will be far 1652. more fit for this service."
The consequence of this representation from captain Fuller was, that the expedition was relinquished, at least for a time, and no further proceedings, relative to it, appear on record, ex- cept a proclamation issued by governor Stone, bearing date the 18th of December, (1652,) stating the intelligence he had re- ceived from captain Fuller, and that "he had, therefore, upon serious consideration thereof, and of the soldiers' great want of apparel and other necessaries at this unseasonable time of the year, thought fit, and with the advice of the council did thereby discharge all the forces raised for the said intended march, from any further service therein, for the present, so as they may de- part to their several habitations with their arms, ammunition and provision."*
It has been thought proper to state the before mentioned in- tended expedition, though probably never accomplished, some- what more in detail than may perhaps at first appear necessary, in order to exhibit the real situation of the province, in relation to the Indians seated within its territories, in a more natural and perspicuous point of view, than could have been done by a short narration of the facts comprised in these documents ; especially as they contain sentiments and opinions of the colonists in those days concerning the relation then subsisting between them and the aborigines of the country, not to be found elsewhere; and evidence derived from authentic records is, in such cases, a surer ground for the historian to tread upon, than fanciful conjectures too often laid down by speculative writers upon this subject.
On the same day, on which governor Stone issued his dis- Grants of charge of the forces assembled, as before stated, his attention ap- lands from pears to have been directed to some late or previous conduct of more ne- lord Balti- the two commanders of the isle of Kent and Ann Arundel coun- glected in ties,-captain Robert Vaughan of the former and Mr. Edward del and the Ann Arun- · Isle of Kent. Lloyd of the latter. As these two counties were so remote from the seat of government at St. Mary's, where the office for land affairs was kept, as to make it inconvenient to the inhabitants of those counties to obtain warrants for taking up lands therein, it
* The extracts above, relative to the above mentioned expedition against the eastern shore Indians, were taken from "Council Proceedings from 1636 to 1657," p. 260 to 264, and from p. 276 to 277.
462
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
CHAPT. had been thought proper, "for the ease of those inhabitants," to VI. authorise these two commanders just mentioned, by commissions 1652. for that purpose, bearing date the 29th of July, 1650, to grant warrants for taking up lands in their several and respective coun- ties, according to his lordship's conditions of plantation then in force in relation to the whole province. In these commissions it had been provided, as the duties of these commanders, "to cause the said warrants," so to be granted by them, "together with the particular demands or assignments upon which the same shall be granted, to be entered upon record by his lordship's se- cretary of the said province." For this purpose it became the necessary duties of these commanders to transmit, at least, these warrants, together with transcripts of all such demands or titles to land, or assignments thereof, within their respective counties, to the secretary's office at St. Mary's. These duties these com- manders had neglected to perform. In the absence of other rea- sons to be assigned for their misconduct in this respect, the general opinion, which certainly prevailed in the province at this time, that his lordship would shortly be deprived of all his rights and authority within the province, may be suggested as the ex- citing cause. Mr Lloyd, at the head of the Puritans of Ann Arundel, in conformity with their wishes, would very naturally adopt such ideas ; and, if the before mentioned averment in the Susquehanock treaty was well founded,-that the isle of Kent was now considered as belonging to captain Clayborne, it would also very probably account for Mr. Vaughan's conduct in like manner. Hence too we may possibly deduce the motives of Mr. Robert Clark, his lordship's surveyor-general of the pro- vince, in not making the due returns to the same office of the certificates of survey executed under those warrants within those counties. We should at first suppose, that this neglect of the surveyor-general might more probably have been that of his re- spective deputies in those counties, if he had any there. But governor Stone, in his order on this subject, seems to censure the surveyor for this neglect, as a personal misdemeanor in him- self, stating,-"that his the said surveyor's former irregular and unwarrantable proceedings herein having occasioned much trou- ble and inconvenience, to the great abuse both of his lordship's authority and the inhabitants." To apply a remedy to these abuses, and to support, as it were, his lordship's tottering au- thority within the province, governor Stone issued an order or
Sa q ti
0
463
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
proclamation, on the 18th of December, 1652, of which the CHAPT. said commanders and the surveyor-general were expressly re- VI. 1652. quired to take notice, and in which, after stating the before men- tioned neglect of these commanders and the surveyor-general, "to the great prejudice," as he says, "not only of his lordship in his rents due upon such surveys, but also to the great wrong and abuse of the said secretary's office, and likely in short time to produce much confusion and inconvenience," *- "he declared the said commissions, or any other for that purpose, so by him grant- ed to the said captain Robert Vaughan and Mr. Edward Lloyd, as aforesaid, to be void and null, and that no warrant or war- rants for land be thereupon granted by them or either of them after the last of this present month of December, further hereby willing and requiring, as well the said captain Vaughan and Mr. Lloyd, as also his lordship's surveyor-general, that they the said captain Vaughan and Mr. Lloyd do cause transcripts of all such demands or titles of land, assignments, and warrants within their several counties, as are not yet transmitted thither, there to be entered, and that the said surveyor-general make speedy return into the secretary's office of all such certificates of survey by him already made by virtue of any warrant whatsoever not yet re- turned, and that he presume not for the future to survey any land within this province for any adventurer or planter, to be granted upon his lordship's conditions of plantation without some war- rant from myself for authority from me, or other special warrant or direction from his said lordship here published for his so doing."t
While the Maryland colony had been thus subject, during the
1653. preceding year, to an important political revolution, affected A scarcity through the orders of the mother country, as well as to internal of corn. dissentions and discontents, religious, civil, and political, it might
* This "confusion and inconvenience" was, in all probability, the cause of the suit in the provincial court of chancery, in the year 1738, entitled, "Lord Pro- prietary vs. Jennings and others," reported in 1 Harris and McHenry's Reports, 92. It is probable, that Mr. Lloyd, the commander of Ann Arundel county, by virtue of the commission to him, of the 29th of July, 1650, for that purpose, as above stated, granted the warrant of the 8th of July, 1651, to Thomas Todd, for a great part of the land on which the city of Annapolis now stands, and the sur- vey might have been thereupon made, and the land laid out for him, but, through the neglect of the commander of the county and the surveyor-general, no tran- script of the right or title to the warrant was ever sent to the land office at St. Mary's by the commander, nor any certificate of survey thereof returned by the surveyor-general.
t "Council Proceedings from 1636 to 1657," p. 277.
464
HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
CHAPT. naturally be expected, that the agricultural affairs of the colony VI. would be liable also to a dangerous neglect, and that consequent-
1653. ly there might occur a scarcity within the province of even the necessary sustenance of life. A proclamation of governor Stone, dated the 24th of January, 1652, (1653, N. S.) seems to indi- cate this state of the colony. The preamble explains the cause. and purport of the instrument. “Forasmuch as I am given to understand, that there is like to be some scarcity of corn in the province this present year, and that divers persons have and do take the liberty to buy corn of the Indians inhabiting within this province, and to transport the same out of the province into other parts, to prevent the like for the future," he, the governor, "willed, required, and commanded all and every the inhabitants of this province, foreigners, and others, that they do not pre- sume to transport any corn bought of any Indian within this pro- vince, without special license from him," (the governor,) "till Michaelmas next, or further order to the contrary."* This seems to afford proof of two facts, relative to the internal state of the province, at this period of time, which deserve attention ; that, notwithstanding the fertility of a new soil, the agriculture of the cleared lands of the colonists was in such a wretched state, as to be insufficient for their subsistence ; and moreover, that they were now indebted to the superfluity of the savages of the coun- try for that necessary article of their sustenance. It is probable, that this state of things might in some measure be owing to an inconsiderate application of all their domestic industry to the cultivation of tobacco, a fault, even at this day, too prevalent with the planters and farmers of the western shore of Maryland, as well as Virginia. The free trade, which these two colonies had enjoyed with the Dutch prior to their late "reducement," principally in the sale and export of their tobacco, had probably also given uncommon encouragement to the growth of that com- modity, and thereby occasioned less of their attention to the cul- tivation of maize or Indian corn, their principal bread stuff.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.