The history of Maryland : from its first settlement, in 1633, to the restoration, in 1660 ; with a copious introduction, and notes and illustrations, Part 92

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 92

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* Strong's " Babylon's Fall," &c.

+Mr. Strong's account on this occasion is, as follows :- "Captain Stone and his company still drew nearer to Providence, unto a place called Herring creek, where they apprehended one of the commissioners, and forced another man of quality to flie for his life, having threatened to hang him up at his own door ;

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place or at a little further on his march, governor Stone deputed CHAPT. doctor Luke Barber and Mr. Coursey, to go on before them to VI. Providence with a proclamation, (or declaration, as doctor Bar- 1655. ber calls it,) addressed to the people of Ann Arundel. It may be proper here to premise, that this gentleman-doctor Barber appears to be the same person alluded to in the "paper relating to Maryland," just before stated, under the denomination of captain Barber, who is said to have had "a commission to re- duce the people to the lord Baltimore, in case captain Stone would not." No mention of such a commission, in his letter to the lord protector, is made by him, and the fact, therefore, seems questionable. He appears, however, to have been a zea- lous friend of lord Baltimore, and had arrived in Maryland about the twentieth of March, 1654-5, when the governor, captain Stone, as he says, was "ready to march with his army." From his own statement, it appears, that he was induced to accompa- ny the governor on his march, only on the particular request of the latter, and, therefore, being a neutral person, and in the con- fidence of the lord protector, he was the more fit to be sent as a peace maker between the contending parties. Of the contents of the proclamation, thus sent by doctor Barber, we are unin- formed, it not being now extant ; except so much of it as is stated by doctor Barber, in his letter to the lord protector, where- in he says, that "in the end of this declaration the governor did protest, as in the presence of Almighty God, that he came not in a hostile way to do them any hurt, but sought all meanes pos- sible to reclaime them by faire meanes ; and to my knowledge," (doctor Barber adds,) "at the sending out of parties, (as occa- sion served,) he gave strict command, that if they met any of the Ann Arundel men, they should not fire the first gun, nor upon paine of death plunder any : these were his actings to my knowledge upon the march." The "declaration," however, does

and, not finding the man, affrighted his wife, and plundered the house of ammu- nition and provision, threatening still what they would do to the people at Pro- vidence, and that they would force the rebellious factious Roundheads to submit; and then they would shew their power." The " commissioner," here alluded to, whom they found at Herring bay, must have been one of those, whose names have been herein before stated, (p. 505,) composing captain Fuller's council. It is possible, that this "commissioner" might have been at Herring bay on a visit to the "man of quality" mentioned, whom we may suppose to have resided there ; both of them, as we may infer, being hostile to governor Stone and his proceed- ings, and the "commissioner" sent forward by captain Fuller to explore and make report of governor Stone's advance.

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CHAPT. not appear to have had any salutary effect ; for, according to the VI. cotemporary author, before cited, who was probably present at 1655. the transaction,* the two gentlemen messengers, (doctor Barber and Mr. Coursey,) were permitted to read the "declaration," (or proclamation,) "but having no other treaty to offer, they were quietly dismissed to their own company, to whom they might have gone if they would." It seems, however, that they did not return to governor Stone, and his army ; nor did another messenger, (Mr. Packer,) dispatched by governor Stone, on the next day after the others, upon a similar errand as we may sup- pose. It is possible, that the rapid advance of the army to the harbour of Providence might have precluded the necessity of it; for, on the evening of the same day, on which the last messen- ger arrived, "captain Stone and his army appeared in the river of Severn at Providence, with eleven or twelve vessels greater and lesser, in which their whole army were wafted." On the appearance of this fleet and army, captain Fuller called a coun- cil of war ; at which Mr. William Durand, the secretary of the Puritan government at Providence, was appointed to go on board a merchant ship, called the Golden Lyon, then lying at anchor in the river, of which one Heamans was master. Mr. Durand was directed to affix a proclamation on the main mast of the said ship, directed to captain Heamans, commander thereof; in which proclamation, "he, (the said Heamans,) was required, in the name of the lord protector and commonwealth of England, and for the maintenance of the just libertyes, lives, and estates of the free subjects thereof, against an unjust power, to be aiding and assisting in this service." On this statement our cotempo- rary author§ remarks :- "The said captain Heamans at first was unwilling ; but afterwards seeing the equity of the cause and the groundless proceedings of the enemy, he offered himself, ship, and men for that service, to be directed by the said William Durand."

When we advert to other information relative to the conduct of captain Heamans, we cannot but be struck with the strong probability, that all this proceeding of deputing Mr. Durand to go on board the Golden Lyon, and the fixing a proclamation on

* Leonard Strong, in his " Babylon's Fall," &c .- Mr. Strong was then one of captain Fuller's council.

t Mrs. Stone's letter, hereafter referred to.

Į Leonard Strong's " Babylon's Fall," &c.

§ Leonard Strong, ibid.

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the main mast thereof, for the purpose before expressed, was a CHAPT. mere pretext, before concerted between captain Heamans and VI. the Puritans, to gloss over his interference, and to make it ap- 1655. pear as if he had been impressed into the Puritan service. Doc- tor Barber, in his letter to the lord protector, expressly states, that "Heamans, commander of the Golden Lyon, was hired by them," (that is, by the Puritan government at Providence,) "having since received his reward of them ;"' and Mrs. Stone also, in her letter to lord Baltimore, states, that "they were bet- ter provided than her husband expected; for, they hired the cap- tain of the Golden Lyon, a great ship of burden ; the captain's name is Roger Heamans, a young man, and his brother, who have been great sticklers in the business, as I hear."* Mr. Hea- mans, therefore, must have been a volunteer in the contest, and was probably a zealous Puritan.

Governor Stone, with his little fleet and army, had, by this time, about "the shutting in of the evening," as it is said, on the 24th of March, (O. S.) arrived within the outer harbour of Pro- vidence, now Annapolis. He was now also within the range of the shot of the Golden Lyon ; from whence a gun was fired at him, in order, as is said, to bring him or some messenger on board. Governor Stone did not think it proper to pay any at- tention to this signal of war, as it appeared ; but, having arrived within the mouth of the creek, which forms the southern boun- dary of the peninsula on which the city of Annapolis now stands, proceeded to land his men on a peninsula or point of land, which lies on the southern side of both the river Severn and the before mentioned creek, nearly opposite to and in an eastern direction from what is called the dock or inner harbour of Annapolis, and on which point or peninsula a small fortress, called fort Horn, was afterwards built during the American revolutionary war. While governor Stone was landing his men on this point of land or peninsula, the commander Heamans, or Mr. Durand, thought it proper to repeat their fire upon the boats of governor Stone as they were rowing to the shore. The shot thereof lighting some- what near to them, the governor deemed it most prudent to send a messenger on board the Golden Lyon to know the reason of their conduct, with directions to the messenger to inform the captain of the ship, that he (governor Stone) thought "the cap- tain of the ship had been satisfied," To which the captain "an-

* Mrs. Stone's letter, in note (LXXXV.) at the end of this volume.

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CHAPT. swered," (in a very blustering tone, as it appears,) "satisfied VI. with what? - I never saw any power captain Stone had, to do as 1655. he hath done; but the superscription of a letter. I must, and will appear for these in a good cause."*

The battle on the Severn.

Governor Stone having moved his vessels further up the before mentioned creek during the night, captain Heamans, or the Puri- tans on shore, contrived, early in the next morning, to place a vessel or vessels, "with two pieces of ordnance," at the mouth of the creek, and by that means blockaded governor Stone's lit- tle fleet within the same, so as to prevent them from coming out. The governor soon after, however, on the same day, (being Sun- day, the 25th of March, 1654-5, O. S.) appeared with his small army, in military parade, on a narrow neck of land, (most pro- bably that, on which the remains of the before mentioned fort now are,) near where he had landed. The captain of the ship, (Heamans,) observing this, brought his guns to bear upon them, and firing at them, killed one man, and by that means forced them to march further off into the neck of land .; In the mean time captain Fuller, the Puritan commander, with his army con- sisting of a hundred and twenty men, embarked on board of their boats, most probably from the peninsula whereon Annapolis now stands, and went up the river some distance, where they landed and marched round the head of the creek to where captain

* This is so stated by Mr. Leonard Strong, (in his " Babylon's Fall," &c.) who most probably was in Annapolis at the time. But he has no where, in his pam- phlet, previously mentioned any prior eclaircissement or explanation, which might have taken place between governor Stone and the captain, after the arrival of the former with his fleet within the Severn, to which the "satisfaction" mention- ed seems to allude. Nor does doctor Barber or Mrs. Stone, in either of their let- ters, hint at any such previous explanation. It is probable, however, from the above, as stated by Mr. Strong, that governor Stone and captain Heamans had some explanation with each other previous to the firing on the boats, and that governor Stone had exhibited to him some letter or instructions, which he had lately received from lord Baltimore.

+ Mr. Strong's words are :- " The same day, being the first day of the week, and the 25th of March, the enemy appeared in a body upon a narrow neck of the land, near their vessels, and with drums and shoutings said, come, ye rogues, come, ye rogues, round headed dogs; which caused the captain of the ship to give fire at them, and forced them to march further off, into the neck of land." Doc- tor Barber, however, states, that, " in firing upon them in the next morning, as he was credibly informed, they killed one of the governor's men, and so began the war, which after fell out." Mrs. Stone also, in her letter to lord Baltimore from St. Mary's, states as follows :- " The gunner's mate of Heamans, since his com- ing down from Ann Arundel to Patuxent, hath boasted that he shot the first man that was shot of our party." It was, therefore, most probable, that at the firing from the ship in the morning, as just stated by Mr. Strong, the first man was killed of either side.

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Stone and his people were waiting to receive them, a distance CHAPT. of six miles, as is stated by our author. On the approach of VI. the Puritan army, the sentry of the people of St. Mary's, or Ma- 1655. rylanders, as our author calls them, fired his alarm gun, when the Marylanders immediately appeared in order. As we have no other authority for the minutiæ of this battle, than the account of it given by the author just quoted,* which cannot be conve- niently condensed into a smaller compass and is probably true in substance, when stripped of its partial colouring, it is thought best here to follow his precise words. "Captain Fuller still ex- pecting, that then at last, possibly they" (meaning captain Stone and his Marylanders,) "might give a reason of their coming, commanded his men upon pain of death not to shoot a gun, or give the first onset : setting up the standard of the commonwealth of England, against which the enemy shot five or six guns, and killed one man in the front before a shot was made by the other.t Then the word was given, in the name of God fall on ; God is our strength,-that was the word for Providence: the Maryland- ers' word was,-Hey for Saint Maries. The charge was fierce and sharp for the time ; but through the glorious presence of the Lord of hosts manifested in and towards his poor oppressed people, the enemy could not endure, but gave back ; and were so effectually charged home, that they were all routed, turned their backs, threw down their arms, and begged mercy. After the first volley of shot, a small company of the enemy, from be- hind a great tree fallen, galled us, and wounded divers of our men, but were soon beaten off. Of the whole company of the Marylanders there escaped only four or five, who run away out of the army to carry news to their confederates. Captain Stone, colonel Price, captain Gerrard, captain Lewis, captain Kendall,¿ captain Guither, major Chandler, and all the rest of the council- lors, officers, and souldiers of the lord Baltimore, among whom, both commanders and souldiers, a great number being Papists, were taken, and so were all their vessels, arms, ammunition, pro- vision ; about fifty men slain and wounded. § We lost only two

* Mr. Leonard Strong, in his " Babylon's Fall," &c .; who might possibly have been in the battle, he being then one of captain Fuller's council.

t The man killed, it seems, was William Ayres, the ensign bearer. See the papers in note (LXXXVIII.) at the end of this volume.

# This is so written in the MS. but it is probable, that it was meant for captain Josias Fendall, so conspicuous in the province soon after.

§ Among the killed in battle, of those of governor Stone's party, Mr. Thomas Hatton, the late secretary of the province appears to have been one.

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CHAPT. in the field ; but two died since of their wounds. God did ap- VI. pear wonderful in the field, and in the hearts of the people; all 1655. confessing him to be the only worker of this victory and deliver- ance." The author seems to lay some stress upon the circum- stance of the firing upon the colours of the commonwealth, and killing the first man before a shot was fired by the other. But, if men will fight under colours, which they are not authorised to use, as is often the case of pirates, their opponents are not bound to respect such colours or standard ; and, as it will herein after appear, that the assumption of power by the Puritans of Mary- land, in July, 1654, was never recognized by the lord protector of England, the representative of that commonwealth, it seems to follow, that the erection of the standard of the commonwealth was without any lawful authority, and governor Stone, therefore, not bound to respect it. If any importance can be attached to the fact of killing the first man, after the hostile proceedings of the two parties practised towards each other for some time before, it is evident, from the concurring testimony of doctor Barber and Mrs. Stone, before stated, that the killing the first man was by the fire from the ship in the morning before the battle began ; which was, according to the opinion of doctor Barber,-the be- ginning of the war.

Our partial author, just cited, whom we have been under a ne- cessity of following, through want of other information, has thought it proper to conclude his pamphlet with the account of the battle, as just quoted ; except in the subjoining of a "post- script" to it, which contains nothing more than a nonsensical rhapsody of praise and glory to the Lord " for this his highest deliverance to his people, and destruction to Babylon." He has omitted an important catastrophe of the tragedy ; of which omission his opponent* has not failed to take notice ; that is,- " the putting to death of four of captain Stone's party by the people above mentioned, in cold blood, several days after the fight." This omission, however, is supplied by the statements of two other authorities. Doctor Barber says, that "after the skirmish, the governor, upon quarter given him and all his com- pany in the field, yielded to be taken prisoners ; but, two or three days after, the victors condemned ten to death, and exe- cuted foure, and had executed all, had not the incessant petition- ing and begging of some good women saved some, and the

* Mr. John Langford, in his " Refutation of Babylon's Fall," &c.

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souldiers others ; the governor himselfe being condemned by CHAPT. them and since beg'd by the souldiers ; some being saved just VI. as they were leading out to execution." Mrs. Stone also, in her 1655. letter to lord Baltimore, states, that "after quarter given, they tried all your councellors by a councell of warre, and sentence was passed upon my husband to be shot to death, but was after saved by the enemy's owne souldiers, and so the rest of the coun- cellors were saved by the petitions of the women, with some other friends which they found there." The four, who were shot to death, after trial by a court martial, were Mr. William Elton- head, (probably the same Mr. Eltonhead, who had lately arrived from England, with intelligence to governor Stone, as before mentioned,) lieutenant William Lewis, Mr. Leggat, and a Ger- mun, whose name is not mentioned, but who is stated to have lived with Mr. Eltonhead, probably as his servant. This trans- action must strike every enlightened individual at this day as one of those atrocities, which the vindictive passions, incident to a civil war in any community, are too apt to produce. It is an uni- versally acknowledged principle, that the captor in war, even in the case of civil commotions, has no right to put his captive to death, after surrender and quarter given. There is no necessity then to trouble the reader with a refutation of the artful apology offered by Messrs. Bennett and Matthews for this outrage upon the law of nature and nations, in their document entitled, "a paper relating to Maryland," presented by them, in the succeed- ing year, 1656, to the government of England .*

The unfortunate issue of governor Stone's expedition to Pro- vidence necessarily invested the Puritan party there with the full and complete powers of the government of the province. But, nevertheless each party became anxious to justify their respec- tive conduct on the occasion in the sight of the supreme authori- ty of the mother country-the lord protector. To this anxiety on the part of the Puritans, is attributed the detention of governor Stone and all those individuals, who had been his councillors by the commission of lord Baltimore, as prisoners of war for a much longer time after they had agreed to spare their lives, than perhaps they would otherwise have done. Thus detained as prisoners, they were prevented from writing or giving any intel- ligence of their conduct on the late unfortunate occasion to any

* See this document and the last clause thereof, in note (LXXXVIII.) at the end of this volume.

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CHAPT. of their friends or partizans in England; and governor Stone VI. was not allowed, it seems, to write even to his wife at St. Ma- 1655. ry's without the restriction of having his letters perused. He had been wounded in the shoulder in the late conflict, but not dangerously; and on that account probably they gave leave to his wife to go up from St. Mary's to Providence to visit him. Before her departure from St. Mary's, however, she wrote to lord Baltimore in England the letter herein before frequently re- ferred to, and which was subsequently in the present year pub- lished in England by Mr. Langford in his pamphlet entitled, "A refutation of Babylon's Fall," &c.

But a more important account of the late transactions within the province, and one that was likely to have more weight and influence with the supreme power of the commonwealth-the lord protector, was written by doctor Luke Barber, before men- tioned. This gentleman, it seems, as stated in his letter, had been particularly well known by the lord protector himself, "not only in his army, but also as a domestic servant" to his high- ness. As he is termed a doctor in some of the records and do- cuments relating to the province, it may be inferred, that he had been either a surgeon or physician in the lord protector's army and family, and might have come out to Maryland to better his fortunes in one of those capacities, though it seems probable, from other circumstances, that his embarkation for Maryland might have been the result of some prior concert with lord Bal- timore for political purposes in the province. However this might have been, he seems to have been an uniform friend to lord Baltimore; and the favourable disposition, which evidently was afterwards entertained by the lord protector towards lord Baltimore and his proprietaryship in Maryland, was in all pro- bability much owing to the personal influence of doctor Barber with the protector. He was detained, it seems, at Providence, by the Puritans, with the councillors of governor Stone, for some time, and supposing, that he should not have liberty to leave the country and return to England, as he intended, he wrote the letter to his highness the lord protector, herein before cited. But the Puritans, being perhaps informed of his high standing with Cromwell, did not detain him long, and he return- ed to England in the same ship in which he intended to have sent his letter, and there explained "by word of mouth to his

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highnesse," as it is stated, the substance of what he had pre- CHAPT. viously written .* VI.

The Puritans of Providence, having thus, by the defeat of governor Stone, secured to themselves the government of the whole province, proceeded, as is too generally the case with the delinquents victorious party in a revolution, to the forfeiture or at least the ed. sequester- sequestration of all the property of those, whom they termed "delinquents;" meaning thereby governor Stone and all those, who had acted with him in the late conflict. To effectuate this purpose, captain Fuller and his council issued the following order.

" Whereas the ordering, directing, and governing the affairs of Maryland, for the administering of justice, [and] conservation of the peace, is committed to us by the supreme authority of the commonwealth of England, &c:

"It is ordered, that captain John Smith do take what he may concerning the estates of delinquents, which are sequestered in Patuxent and Patowmack and St. Mary's; to take an inventory thereof, and use such prudential means to save indemnified the said estates, as he shall think fit, until further order come from the governor and council under his highness the lord protector."}

Our documents furnish us with no information as to the period of time, during which governor Stone and his companions were detained in custody at Providence. It is probable, that as soon as captain Fuller and his council had despatched their messengers to England, in order to forestall the accounts of their opponents and prepossess the minds of the government there in their favour, governor Stone and those prisoners, whose lives they had spar- ed, were liberated, but with the mortification of being witnesses to the execution of the preceding order for a sequestration of their property.

* This is so stated by Mr. Langford in his "refutation of Babylon's Fall," &c. The letters of doctor Barber and Mrs. Stone are inserted at large in note LXXXV. at the end of this volume.

+ "Council Proceedings from 1636 to 1657," p. 310. There is no date an- nexed to this document, in the record thereof; but, according to the order in which it stands on the record, it was issued prior to the 13th of August, 1655, and from what both doctor Barber and Mrs. Stone observe in their letters, as to sequestering the estates of governor Stone and the others, who had been con- demned, the above order must have been issued subsequent to the battle of the 25th of the preceding month of March. Neither does it appear, whether those, who made this order, (most probably captain Fuller and his council,) made it in virtue of their powers as an executive or judiciary part of the government.

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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 92

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