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 96
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1658. Governor Fendall re- turns to Maryland.
After a winter voyage across the Atlantic, governor Fendall arrived in Maryland, on Friday, the 26th of February, 1657, (O. S.) when Mr. Barber surrendered up to him his authority as governor. On the next day, a council was held at St. Mary's (the old city, probably,) at which were present, the lieutenant (Mr. Fendall,) Mr. Secretary, (Philip Calvert,) and captain William Stone; when the before mentioned articles of agreement between the lord proprietary and Richard Bennett, esq. were published.t Upon the reading of which, the lieutenant, Mr. Fendall, immediately dispatched letters to captain William Fuller, Mr. Richard Preston, and the other gentlemen, compos- ing the government at Providence on the Severn, desiring them to give him, Mr. Secretary, and captain Thomas Cornwaleys, a meeting at St. Leonard's creek in Patuxent river, upon the eighteenth of March following, in order to the performance of the articles of agreement before mentioned, a copy of which was sent to them with the aforesaid letters.
*See these instructions, of the 20th of November, 1657, at large in note (XCII.) at the end of this volume.
t So stated in the book entitled, "Council, H H, 1656 to 1658," p. 10. It may be here noted, that there are grounds to suppose, that no printing press had as yet been established in the province, so that the publication of these articles of agreement must have been made, as that of proclamations and other public docu- ments had heretofore been done in the province, by causing the sheriff of the county to read the same publicly at the seat of justice or other public place, and posting the same at the like places for the inspection of the people. This is the mode, by which statutes were published in England in the early period of its history.
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HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
On the appointed day, the eighteenth of March, the three CHAPT. gentlemen last mentioned attended in council at St. Leonard's VI. 1658. creek, agreeably to appointment ; but wind and weather not per- mitting captain Fuller and the rest from Providence to arrive at the appointed time, it was resolved by governor Fendall and the other two in council, on the part of the lord proprietary, that they should wait till Saturday the 20th of March.
On the twentieth of March, captain William Fuller, Mr. Richard Preston, Mr. Edward Lloyd, Mr. Thomas Mears, Mr. Philip Thomas, and Mr. Samuel Withers, arrived, but the day being far spent, and Sunday (the next day) not fit to treat of business, all further treaty was put off till Monday the 22d.
On the twenty-second of March, both parties having met, the Negotia- lieutenant (Mr. Fendall) read the before mentioned articles of tions be- tween the agreement and demanded the records, the great seal, and the proprieta- whole government to be resigned up into his hands, and in the ritan go- name of the lord proprietary, promised a ratification of the said vernors, articles under the great seal of the province. The before men- render of for a sur- tioned instructions of his lordship to his lieutenant general were the pro- then also read. It appears from the record of the proceedings the former. vince to of this day, that captain Fuller and his council were not per- fectly content with these articles of agreement entered into between lord Baltimore and Mr. Bennett, particularly as to the first article thereof, which stipulated, "that no offences or differ- ences, which had arisen in Maryland upon and since the said controversies there should be questioned by his lordship's juris- diction there, but should be left to be determined by such ways and means as his highness and his council should direct." Not caring to trust to the future decision of his highness, the lord pro- tector, they therefore required an additional agreement containing a general clause of indemnity on both sides, for any act made or done in the transactions of the affairs of the province since the first of December, 1649, to the day of the date. Such a clause of "indemnity on both sides" was at first objected to by gover- nor Fendall and his council, on the ground that it would be "an admission of a necessity of pardon, and consequently an impli- cation of guilt in his lordship's officers ; but" (as the record further states) "upon consideration, that some of his lordship's officers needed an indemnity for breach of trust," they assented to a clause for that purpose.
The second clause thereof also, as to the oath of fidelity, was
ry and pu-
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CHAPT. strongly opposed by captain Fuller and his council. The pro- VI. prietary party contended, that an oath of fidelity was of common 1638. right due to any lord of [a palatinate government,]* and ought not to be utterly waived. They, however, agreed, that an arti- cle should be drawn up, waiving it as to persons then resident in the province, but to stand in force as to all others.
The Puritan party further required also, that certain clauses should be inserted in a new agreement, for the confirmation of all past proceedings done by them in their assemblies and courts of justice since the year 1652, the time of the first "reduce- ment"' of the province; and lastly, they insisted, that none of them should be disarmed, so as to be left to the mercy of the Indians. After considerable debate upon and discussion of these proposed articles, during this day and the next the 23d, they were at last acceded to by the proprietary party, and direc- tions given, that they should be prepared and engrossed against the next morning.
The final and sur- render in conse- quence thereof.
On the twenty-fourth, "the governor and council met, and the agreement articles were read, fairly engrossed in parchment, to the commis- sioners," (captain Fuller and his council,) "which being to the content and peace of all parties, were by the governor and-t signed ; and afterwards in the face of the whole people sealed, as follows :
"Articles agreed upon and consented to by captain Josias Fendall, lieutenant of this province of Maryland, and Philip Calvert, principal secretary of the same, for and in behalfe of the right honourable Cecilius lord and proprietary of the provinces of Maryland and Avalon, &c., upon the surrender of the govern- ment of the said province to his lordship's said officers by cap- tain William Fuller, Mr. Richard Preston, &c. this 24th day of March, in the yeare of our Lord, 1657.
" Imprimis, That all ministers of justice and officers military, with all persons whatsoever, be and remain indemnified on both sides, and freed from any charge or questioning for any act or passage made or done in the transactions of the affairs of this
* Instead of the above words in brackets, there is a blank in the record. I have, however, to make sense of the passage, ventured to fill it up as above.
t This blank is so in the record. It would appear from the attestation, that these articles were "signed" only by governor Fendall and Mr. Secretary Cal- vert. The instrument might have been considered as an act of state, emanating from the legitimate authority of the province-the governor and secretary, and not requiring the signature of captain Fuller, or any of his party.
16
re la S
and fur or
fee
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province since the first of December, one thousand six hundred CHAPT. and forty-nine, to the day of the date above written, without VI. further consideration of restitution or satisfaction to be required 1658. or made on either side.
"2. That all sheriff's and clerk's fees, as well as secretary's fees, which sheriffs, clerks, and secretaries, have been made since the year 1652, shall be paid their due fees and arrears thereof; and that all levies and taxes, and arrears of the same, raised and levied by the two last assemblies, viz. in the years 1654 and 1657, and in every county their respective county- charge, be fully satisfied and paid to whom they are appointed.
"3d. That no person whatsoever within the province shall by reason of any act or passage made or done, in relation to the late alteration of the government made in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-two, be deemed, or hereafter be made, incapable of electing or to be elected to all future assemblies.
"4th. That no act or orders of assemblies or courts within this province, made or past since the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-four, in cases of meum et tuum, shall be de- clared void by pretence of irregularity of the power of govern- ment established in the year one thousand six hundred fifty and four.
"5th. That all such as shall, within six months after the date hereof, come or send to the secretary's office, and there, accord- ing to conditions of plantation, make their right appear, shall have warrants granted for so much land as they shall make appear to be due, and the same land by them entered upon, by virtue of caveats entered in county or provincial courts :- Pro- vided, that such lands be not formerly taken up by any lawful warrant from his lordship's other officers, nor reserved for his lordship's uses.
"6th. That the oath of fidelity shall not be pressed upon the people now resident within this province, but in stead and place thereof, an engagement be taken and subscribed in manner and form following, viz :
" I, A. B., do promise and engage to submit to the authority of the right honourable Cecilius lord Baltimore and his heirs, within this province of Maryland, according to his patent of the said province, and to his present lieutenant and other officers here by his lordship appointed, to whom I will be aiding and assisting, and will not obey or assist any here in opposition to them.
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CHAPT. VI.
1658.
" 7th. Lastly, that no person whatsoever within this province shall, by any colour or suggestion, be disarmed or dispoyled in his armes or ammunition, (and thereby, consequently, left to the cruelty of the Indians,) unless such person be proved to bear armes to an hostile intent, or contrary to the usual and allowable customes of the country for such man's defence.
" In witness whereof, we the said captaine Josias Fendall, lieutenant of this province of Maryland, and Philip Calvert, principal secretary of the same, have set our hands and fixed his lordship's great seale for this province."*
These articles being signed, sealed, and delivered to the "commissioners," (captain Fuller and his council, ) "they" (the "commissioners,") with many others, subscribed the engage- ment, and delivered the record thereof to Philip Calvert, secre- tary of state.
At the same time the governor's commissiont was publicly read and proclaimed, and writs issued immediately for an assem- bly to be held at St. Leonard's,¿ on the 27th of April following.
Thus, after a lapse of six years, after his lordship had been deprived of the government of his province, we see him again restored to the full enjoyment thereof beyond any probable ex- pectation. But the same coincidence of circumstances which was now in the mother country, tending to a restoration of the exiled royal family to the throne of England, had also contri- buted to bring about a more speedy restoration of the lord pro- prietary to his province. Although Cromwell had just rejected most unwillingly the title of king, yet he manifested now to- wards the close of his life an anxious desire to reinstate the kingdom in all its ancient political institutions ; (particularly in the re-establishment of a house of lords ;) provided, that he could retain the hereditary sovereignty. It was observed, that he paid great court to the ancient nobility of the realm. With this spirit and temper, it is highly probable, that Bulstrode Whit- locke, esq., and sir Thomas Widdrington, both lawyers of note, and commissioners of the great seal for the office of chancellor, were actuated, when they made their report on the first reference
* Taken from the Council book, Liber, H. H., 1656 to 1668, so far as they have not been erased and torn out. The defective parts of that record have been supplied by the recital of the same articles in the act of assembly of 1658, ch. I.
t See this commission in note (LXXXVII.) before referred to.
¿ Meaning, most probably, St. Leonard's creek, where the preceding negotia- tions had taken place.
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of the Maryland disputes to them by Cromwell ; and from them CHAPT. it is probable, that the committee for trade had taken their favor- VI. 1658. able sentiments also in behalf of lord Baltimore's proprietary rights. They saw no inconsistency with or obstruction to the liberties and privileges of the freemen of Maryland under a pro- prietary government, agreeably to lord Baltimore's patent. He had been at great expense in planting the colony, and it would have been injustice, particularly at that early period after the settlement thereof, to have deprived him of a just remuneration for those expenses. He had always allowed, from the first set- tlement of the colony, a full enjoyment of all that fanciful reli- gious liberty, which was then pretended to be the order of the day. As this impolitic conduct of his had, without doubt, brought upon him the internal commotions and insurrections within his province, so also on the contrary with some wise and liberal statesmen in England, into whose disposal his cause most fortunately happened to fall, it must have operated power- fully in procuring his restoration,
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
NOTE (I.) p. 24.
The following state paper is copied from Chalmers's Annals, ch. IX. note, 18, who publishes it as-" From Maryland pap. vol. 1, bundle C .; "-which pur- ports to be from papers still extent in the plantation office, England.
" At the Star Chamber :- 3d July, 1633.
PRESENT,
Lord Keeper,
Lord Privy Seal,
Lord High Chamberlain,
Earl Dorset,
Earl Bridgewater,
Earl Danby,
Lord Viscount Wentworth,
Lord Viscount Falkland,
Lord Cottington,
Mr. Secretary Windebank.
" Whereas an humble petition of the planters of Virginia was presented to his majesty, in which they remonstrate, that some grants have lately been obtained of a great portion of lands and territories of the colony there, being the places of their traffic, and so near to their habitations, as will give a general disheart- ening to the planters, if they be divided into several governments, and a bar put to that trade which they have long since exercised towards their supportation and relief, under the confidence of his majesty's royal and gracious intentions towards them, as by the said petition more largely appeareth : Forasmuch as his majesty was pleased, on the 12th of May last, to refer to this board the con- sideration of this petition, that, upon the advice and report of their lordships such orders might be taken as to his majesty might seem best: It was there- upon ordered, on the 4th of June last, that the business should be heard on the second Friday in this term, which was the 28th of the last month, and that all parties interested should then attend ; which was accordingly performed ; and their lordships, having heard the cause, did then order, that the lord Baltimore, being one of the parties, and the adventurers and planters of Virginia, should meet together betwixt that time and this day, and accommodate their contro- versy in a friendly manner, if it might be, and likewise set down in writing the propositions made by either party, with their several answers and reasons, to be presented to the board this day ; which was likewise accordingly done. Now, their lordships, having heard and maturely considered the said propositions, an- swers, and reasons, and whatever else was alledged on either side, did think fit to leave lord Baltimore to his patent, and the other parties to the course of law, according to their desire. But, for the preventing of farther questions and differ- ences, their lordships did also think fit and order, that, things standing as they do, the planters on either side shall have free traffic and commerce each with the other, and that neither party shall receive any fugitive persons belonging to the other, nor do any act which may draw on a war from the natives upon either of them : And, lastly, that they shall sincerely entertain all good correspon- dence, and assist each other on all occasions, in such manner as becometh fel- low subjects and members of the same state."
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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
The preceding document is published also in Hazard's Collections, vol. 1, p. 337; but the copy there varies a little in some words and expressions from that in Chalmers's Annals; the most material passage of which is the following ; instead of-" their lordships did order, that, things standing as they do, the plant- ers on either side shall have free traffic," &c., as above; in the copy in Haz- ard's Collections it is thus ;- "their lordships did also think fit and order, that things stand as they do ; the planters on either side shall have free traffic," &c.
It may not be improper to subjoin here also a remark of Chalmers, upon the preceding paper. "The wisdom as well as equity of the decisions of the privy council, with regard to Maryland, may be attributed to the presense of lord Strafford" (lord Viscount Wentworth,) "who was the friend of Sir George Cal- vert, and extended his protection to the son, because he recollected the good offices of the father." The reason assigned here by Mr. Chalmers for the fore- going decision does not appear to be altogether satisfactory. As the order seems at this day to have been clearly founded in right and justice, I would rather attribute the decision to the "presence" of Sir Thomas Coventry, the "lord keeper," than to that of lord Viscount Wentworth, whose political character, as to consistency, was certainly equivocal, and personal partiality is not an honest ground for the decision. According to lord Clarendon, (Hist. of the Civil Wars, p. 15, folio edit.) Sir Thomas Coventry was one of the ablest law- yers of his time,-had successively filled the offices of solicitor and attorney ge- neral, "with great abilities and singular reputation of integrity," and in his office of lord chancellor, (or "keeper" of the great seal, in which he appears on this occasion) this historian further adds,-"Sure justice was never better ad- ministered." Henry Montague, earl of Manchester, the "lord privy seal" above mentioned, had also acted with ability in the highest stations of the law ; hav- ing succeeded lord Coke, in the year 1616, as lord chief justice of the court of king's bench. Lord Clarendon observes also of him, that "he was full of in- tegrity and zeal for the Protestant religion." It is true, that lord Cottington and secretary Windebanke, especially the latter, are admitted to have been great pa- trons of the English Catholics. But their influence in the council could have little weight with men of the preceding characters.
NOTE (Il.) p. 28. 3
This Patowmack-town was the same Indian town as that called Patowomeke in captain Smith's History of Virg. vol. ii. p. 177, when he, as the first discov- erer, first explored the Patowmack river in the year 1608; an account of which has been before given in sec. VII. of the introduction to this history. As an Indian town, it must have been, at this time, when governor Calvert visited it, one of considerable population and importance, and had either given to the river or received therefrom the name of Patowomeke; for, according to Smith, in the year 1608, it could then turn out two hundred warriors ; which, according to Mr. Jefferson's conjectural proportion of warriors to inhabitants, at that pe- riod of time, to wit, as three to ten, would indicate a population of at least six hundred men, women, and children. Having experienced but little interruption from Europeans in the lapse of twenty-six years between Smith's first visit to them in 1608 and this by governor Calvert in 1634, their numbers were not pro- bably now much diminished. Such visits, as had been in the intermediate time made to them by the English, were for the most part friendly, except in one in- stance. In the year 1610 captain Argall was sent by the then governor of Vir- ginia, (lord Delaware,) during a time of great scarcity there, bordering on a famine, to Patowomeke "to trade for corne : where finding an English boy, one Henry Spilman, a young gentleman well descended," (as stated by Smith in his Hist. vol. ii. p. 2, and 6,) "and preserved from massacre by the kindness of
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Pocahontas," who had placed him for security with the Patowomekes, captain Argall, through means of this lad, "had such good vsage of those kinde sal- vages, that they fraughted his ship with corne, wherewith he returned to James- towne." It was here also, that captain Argall, on another trading voyage for corn, in the year 1612, found means, through the treachery of Japazaw, the then king of the Patowomekes, whom he bribed with a brass kettle, to decoy Pocahontas herself, who was then in that neighbourhood, on board of his vessel, and carried her with him to James-town, where she was not long afterwards married to Mr. John Rolfe, and peace with Powhatan thereby procured. Ibid. p. 14. It appears also, that this place, and the country round about it, must have been, even under the imperfect agriculture of Indians, uncommonly fertile : for, in the year 1619, Japazaws, the king, went to James-town, "to desire two ships to come trade in his river." A vessel was accordingly sent under the command of captain Ward for that purpose, but on his arrival there, finding that "the people there dealt falsly with him, hee tooke 800 bushels of corne from them perforce." Ibid. p. 39. About the time of the great massacre in Virginia, in the year 1622, captain Raleigh Croshaw, a man of some note among the Virginia settlers at that time, having gone to the Patowmack with captain Spil- man, the same person, as it would appear, who was a lad there in 1610, on a trading voyage, among other places on that river visited this town of the Pa- towomekes, and was there persuaded by the king, (perhaps Japazaws, before mentioned,) to remain with him, and «be his friend, his countenancer, his cap- taine, and director against the Nacochtanks and Moyaons his mortal enemies." To which Croshaw agreed, persuading one Elis Hill, another Englishman, to remain with him. Croshaw's principal design appears to have been to form a settlement here, and to carry on a trade with the Patowomekes for his own pri- vate gain. Not long after he had been here, captain Hamar arrived from James- river in a vessel to trade for corn, and applied to the king for that purpose. "The king replied hee had none, but the Nacochtanks and their confederates had, who were enemies both to him and them. If they would fetch it, he would give them 40 or 50 choice Bowmen to conduct and assist them." These Na- cochtanks were seated on the Maryland side of the Patowmack, in Prince George's county, just below the mouth of the eastern branch. The offer of this sanguinary and revengeful king was very improperly embraced by the English, and a party of them, conducted and aided by the savages was sent by Hamar. They attacked the Nacochtanks, and, "after a long skirmish with them," killed eighteen of them, and drove the rest out of their town, which they plundered, and took away with them what they wanted, "and spoiled the rest." Hamar returned to James-town, leaving at Patowomeke the additional number of four men, with Croshaw and Hill. The late massacre, however, soon created in these six men some alarms, and they, with the assistance of some of the sav- ages, built a fort, "in a convenient place," near to the Patowomekes town. Croshaw thus securely settled, as he thought, sent, by another vessel from James town which came to trade in Patowomeke, a message to the governor and coun- cil of Virginia, that "if they would send him but a bold shallop, with men, armes, and provision for trade, he would provide them by the next harvest, (in the autumn,) " corne sufficient, but, as yet, it being but the latter end of June, there was little or none in the country." In consequence of this message, captain Madyson, with two vessels, "and some six and thirtie men," was sent to Cro- shaw. Madyson, after his arrival at Croshaw's fort, proceeded further up the river to the same Indian town, before mentioned, called, Moyaones ; situated in what is now Prince George's county, in Maryland, about six miles above Mount Vernon ; "where hee got provision for a moneth, and was promised much more ; so he returned to Patowomeke; but, not liking so well to live amongst the salvages as Croshaw did," (who had by this time returned back to James-town, )
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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
"he built him a strong house within the fort, and was well used by the salvages." Madyson, however, seems to have been a more timid man than Croshaw, and, in the opinion of Smith, was "too jealous," and entertained improbable suspi- cions, of the treachery of the king of the Patowomekes. Upon some sugges- tion made to him, that this king was secretly in league with Opechancanough, who had dictated the massacre in the preceding spring on James river, to mur- der Madyson and his party now at Patowomeke. Madyson, having decoyed the king and his son into his strong house within his fort, set a guard of men over them, then with the rest of his men sallied out upon the town of the Pa- towomekes, and most cruelly and unjustifiably "slew thirty or forty men, women, and children ;" the remainder of them escaping out of the town. He then re- turned to his fort, "taxing the poore king of treason, who denied to the death not to know of any such matter, but said,-This is some plot of them that told it, onely to kill mee for being your friend. Then Madyson willed him to command none of his men should shoot at him as he went aboord, which he presently did, and it was performed ; so Madyson departed, leading the king, his sonne, and two more to his ship, promising when all his men were shipped, he should re- turne at libertie; notwithstanding he brought them to James towne, where they lay some daies, and after were sent home by captaine Hamar, that tooke corne for their ransome." Smith's Hist. vol. ii. p. 86-88. It was to have been ex- pected, that this unnecessary cruelty towards the Patowomekes would have ex- cited their revenge on some future occasion. Accordingly, in the latter end of the year 1622, or in the beginning of 1623, when captain Spilman, before men- tioned, who had lived so long with the Indians, and had been in part brought up by them, was sent from James river "to trucke in the river of Patowomeke,'> without regarding the former acquaintance and knowledge they had of him, they murdered him and a party of one and twenty men, who had gone ashore with him from their vessel at some place "about Patowomeke, but the name of the place they knew not." The remaining part of the crew, five in number, weighed anchor and returned home. All they could tell was,-that they heard a great noise among the savages on shore, and saw a man's head thrown down the bank, but how captain Spilman was surprised or slain they did not know .. Smith's Hist. vol. ii. p. 95. It has been said, that this murder was committed by a tribe called the Pascoticons, and that governor Wyatt came shortly after- wards himself to the Patowmack and "took a severe revenge" on these Indians. Burk's Hist. of Virg. vol. i. p. 275. With these hostilities between the Virgin- ians and the Indians on the Patowmack, all further traffic between them, prior to the arrival of governor Calvert, appears to have ceased, or no subsequent ac- counts thereof have reached us. It is probable, that Japazaw, the former king of the Patowomekes in 1623, was now dead, as the present Werowance, or king, was said to be an infant, who must have been either his son. or. his nephew ; most probably the latter, agreeably to what is said to have been the Indian rule of descent as to their regal power. In either case it corroborates the opinion, entertained by some,-"that the dignity of office of Sachem was hereditary," which has been denied by others. But, it is most probable, that this infant Werowance, or Sachem, was Japazaw's sister's son; for, although it appears from what has been before mentioned, that he had a son of his own, yet the de- scent to his nephew would be more in conformity to what is stated by Smith, as to the manner of government with the Virginia Indians, exemplified by him in the case of Powhatan,-"whose kingdomes," he says, "descended not to his sonnes nor his children, but first to his brethren, whereof he hath 3, namely, Opitchapan, Opechancanough, and Catataugh, and after their decease to his sis- ters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest, and after them to the heires male or female of the eldest sister, but never to the heires of the males." The con- struction of this sentence made by Mr. Thompson in his note (5) to Jefferson's
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