CHAPTER XIII.

THE ENGLISH IN MARYLAND, 1632-1691.

BY WILLIAM T. BRANTLY,

_Of the Maryland Historical Society._

MARYLAND was the first Proprietary colony established in America; and its charter contained a more ample grant of power than was bestowed upon any other English colony. To Maryland also belongs the honor of having been the first government which proclaimed and practised religious toleration. The charter was granted in 1632, by Charles I., to Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore. But the true founder of Maryland was George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, a man of singular merit, whose influence upon the fortunes of the colony was such that his character and career belong to its history.

George Calvert was descended from a Flemish family which had long been settled in Yorkshire, where he was born in the year 1582. Graduating Bachelor of Arts at Oxford, he travelled on the Continent, and then entered public life under the patronage of Sir Robert Cecil. Calvert filled various offices until Cecil became Lord High Treasurer, when he was appointed clerk of the Privy Council. He was knighted in 1617, and, upon the disgrace of Sir Thomas Lake, in February, 1619, he was appointed by James I. one of the two principal secretaries of state. He was selected for this important post because there was work to be done, and he had made himself valued in public life for his industry and ability. It is true, indeed, that his theory of the Constitution was similar to that held by the King. He had always been allied with the Court as distinguished from the Country party, and was a stanch supporter of the prerogatives of the Crown. In the Parliament of 1621 he was the leader of the Government forces, and the immediate representative of the King in the House of Commons. When he came to draw the charter of Maryland he framed such a government as the Court, during this period, conceived that England ought to be.

Calvert was not altogether friendly to Spain.[866] It is a mistake to suppose that his political fortunes were so bound up with the success of the Spanish match, that, upon its final rupture in 1623, his position became untenable. He did not resign his secretaryship until February, 1625; and there is no sufficient reason for believing that he did not then do so voluntarily.

Fuller, the chief contemporary authority, says that “he freely confessed to the King that he was then become a Roman Catholic, so that he must be wanting in his trust or violate his conscience in discharging his office.” It is certain that he had not forfeited the favor of the King, nor incurred the enmity of the all-powerful Buckingham. He was allowed to sell his secretaryship to his successor for £6,000, and was retained in the Privy Council. A few weeks after his withdrawal from office he was created Baron of Baltimore in the Irish peerage; and in 1627 Buckingham summoned him to a special conference with Charles I. upon foreign affairs. The date of his conversion to the Church of Rome has been the subject of much discussion, but there is no satisfactory evidence that it preceded, for any length of time, the open profession of his new faith.

From early manhood Sir George Calvert had been interested in schemes of colonization. He was a member of the Virginia Company until its dissolution, and was, as secretary of state, one of the committee of the Council for Plantation Affairs. While secretary he determined to become himself the founder of a colony, and in 1620 he purchased from Sir William Vaughan the southeastern peninsula of Newfoundland. In the following year he sent a body of settlers to this region, and expended a large amount of money in establishing them at Ferryland. James I. granted him in 1623 a patent constituting him the Proprietary of this portion of Newfoundland which was called Avalon,—a patent which afterwards became the model of the charter of Maryland. The fertility and advantages of Avalon had been described to Lord Baltimore with the usual exaggeration of discoverers. He made a short visit to it in the summer of 1627, and in the following year he went there, accompanied by several members of his family, with the intention of remaining permanently; but the severity and long duration of the winter convinced him that the attempt to plant an agricultural colony on that inhospitable shore was doomed to failure. In August, 1629, he wrote to the King that he found himself obliged to abandon Avalon to fishermen, and to seek for himself some warmer climate in the New World. He also announced his determination to go with some forty persons to Virginia, and expressed the hope that the King would grant him there a precinct of land, with privileges similar to those he enjoyed in Newfoundland. Charles I., in reply, advised him to desist from further attempts and to return to England, where he would be sure to enjoy such respect as his former services merited,—“well weighing,” added the King, “that men of your condition and breeding are fitter for other employments than the framing of new plantations which commonly have rugged and laborious beginnings.”

Without waiting for an answer to his letter Lord Baltimore sailed for Virginia, where he arrived in October, 1629. To the Virginians he was not a welcome visitor. They either honestly objected to receiving Catholic settlers, being proud of their conformity to the Church of England, or were apprehensive that he had designs upon their territory. They tendered to him and his followers the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. The latter was one which no Catholic could conscientiously take, and it was therefore refused by Baltimore. His offer to take a modified oath was rejected by the council, and they requested him to leave the colony.

While in Virginia Lord Baltimore learned that the northern and southern portions of the territory comprised within the old charter limits of the colony had not been settled, and he determined to ask for an independent grant of a part of this unsettled region. Upon his return to England he learned that the King was willing to accede to his request. Baltimore finally selected for his new colony the country north of the Potomac, and prepared a charter to be submitted to the King, modelled upon the Avalon patent. The name of the colony was left to the choice of the King, who desired that it should be called Terra Mariæ—in English, Maryland—in honor of his Queen Henrietta Maria. This name was accordingly inserted in the patent; but before it passed the seals Lord Baltimore died. His death took place April 15, 1632, and he was buried beneath the chancel of St. Dunstan’s Church. But his great scheme did not die with him. His rights were transmitted to his son and heir Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore, to whom the charter was finally issued, June 20, 1632.

The territory granted was defined with accuracy. The southern boundary was the further bank of the Potomac, from its source to its mouth in the Bay of Chesapeake, and ran thence to the promontory called Watkins Point, and thence east to the ocean. The eastern boundary was the ocean and Delaware Bay to the fortieth degree of latitude; and the northern boundary was a right line, on the fortieth degree of latitude, to the meridian of the fountain of the Potomac, where the southern boundary began. It will be seen that Maryland, as originally defined, comprised all of the present State of Delaware and a large part of what is now Pennsylvania.

The country described in the charter was expressly erected into a Province of the empire; and the Baron of Baltimore, his heirs and assigns, were constituted the absolute lords and proprietaries of the soil. Their tenure was the most liberal known to the law. They held the Province directly of the kings of England, in free and common socage, by fealty only, yielding therefor two Indian arrows, on the Tuesday of Easter week, to the King at the Castle of Windsor. The Province was made a county palatine; and the Proprietary was invested with all the royal rights, privileges, and prerogatives which had ever been enjoyed by any Bishop of Durham within his county palatine. To the Proprietary was also given all the power that any captain-general of an army ever had; and he was authorized to call out the whole fighting population, to wage war against all enemies of the Province, to put captives to death, and, in case of rebellion or sedition, to exercise martial law in the most ample manner. He was empowered to establish courts and appoint judges, and to pardon crimes. He had also the right to constitute ports of entry and departure, to erect towns into boroughs and boroughs into cities with suitable immunities, and to levy duties and tolls upon ships and merchandise exported and imported. He could make grants of land to be held directly of himself, and erect portions of the land granted into manors with the right to hold courts baron and leet. It was further provided that, lest in so remote a region all access to honors might seem to be barred to men well born, the Proprietary might confer rewards upon deserving provincials, and adorn them with any titles and dignities except such as were then in use in England. All laws were to be made by the Proprietary with the advice and assent of the freemen, who should be called together, personally or by their deputies, for the framing of laws in the manner chosen by the Proprietary. In the event of sudden accidents the Proprietary might make ordinances for the government of the Province, provided they should not deprive offenders of life, limb, or property. Freedom of trade to all English ports was guaranteed.

Liberty to emigrate to the Province and there settle was given to all subjects of the Crown, and all colonists and their children were to enjoy the rights and liberties of native-born liegemen. There was an express covenant on the part of the Crown that at no time should any tax or custom be imposed upon the inhabitants or their property, or upon any merchandise to be laden or unladen within the Province. The charter concluded by directing that, in case any doubt should arise concerning the true sense of any word or clause, that interpretation should always be made which would be most beneficial to the Proprietary, “provided, always, that no interpretation thereof be made whereby God’s holy and true Christian religion, or the allegiance due to us, our heirs and successors, may in anywise suffer by change, prejudice, or diminution.”

It is especially to be remarked that the charter contained no provision requiring the provincial laws to be submitted to the Crown for approval. Nothing was reserved to the Crown except the allegiance of the inhabitants and the fifth part of all the gold and silver ore which might be found within the limits of the Province. But the powers conferred on the Proprietary were of a sovereign character; he was lord of the soil, the fountain of honor, and the source of justice. These privileges were the work of a friend of high prerogative; yet the rights of the people were not neglected. The freemen of the Province were entitled to participate in the law-making power, to enjoy freedom of trade, exemption from Crown taxation, and all the rights and liberties of native-born Englishmen. All the laws of the Province must be consonant with reason and not repugnant to the laws of England. If it be true that the powers given to the Proprietary were greater than those ever conferred on any other Proprietary, it is equally true that the rights secured to the inhabitants were greater than an in any other charter which had then been granted.

The charter expressly separated the Province from Virginia and made it immediately dependent on the Crown. The entire territory of Maryland had been included in the grants made in 1609, and subsequently to the London company for the first colony of Virginia. This company became obnoxious both to the Crown and the colonists, and, in 1624, a writ of _quo warranto_ was issued against its patents, the judgment upon which revoked all the charters and restored to the Crown all the franchises formerly granted. Virginia then became a royal colony, and there could be no question of the right of the King to partition its territory at pleasure. But the grant of Maryland nevertheless caused a great discontent in Virginia. Although no permanent settlements had been made north of the Potomac, the Virginians regarded all the territory comprised within the old charter limits as still belonging to them, and objected to having it partitioned.

One member of the Virginia company had, indeed, established stations for traffic with the Indians on Kent Island, almost in the centre of Maryland, and on Palmer’s Island, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. This man was William Clayborne, destined to become famous in the early history of the Province. He had been Secretary of the Virginia colony and one of the Council. Before the visit of the first Lord Baltimore to Jamestown, Clayborne had been commissioned to explore the great bay and to trade with the Indians. He may then have set up trading stations upon Kent and Palmer’s islands. In May, 1631, he obtained from Charles I. a license authorizing him to trade for furs and other commodities in all the coasts “in or near about those parts of America for which there is not already a patent granted to others for sole trade.” This license, which was merely passed under the privy signet of Scotland, could not be construed as granting any title to the soil or government. In Baltimore’s charter Maryland was described as hitherto unsettled,—_hactenus inculta_,—and this unlucky phrase was afterwards the source of innumerable difficulties. At the time of his visit to Virginia the region was probably unsettled so far as he could learn.

When intelligence of the grant of Maryland reached Virginia the planters were moved to sign a petition to the King, in which they remonstrated against the grant of a portion of the lands of the colony which would cause a “general disheartening” to them. The petition was referred to the Privy Council, which, after hearing both parties, decided, in July, 1633, that Lord Baltimore should be left to his patent and the Virginians to the course of law; and that, in the mean time, the two colonies should “assist each other on all occasions as becometh fellow-subjects.”

There can be no doubt that, from the outset, Lord Baltimore intended that Maryland should be a place of refuge for the English Catholics, who had as much reason as the Puritans to flee from persecution. The political and religious hatred with which the mass of the English people regarded the Church of Rome was increasing in bitterness, and the Parliament of 1625 had besought the King to enforce more strictly the penal statutes against recusants. Soon after the grant of his charter Lord Baltimore treated with the Provincial of the Society of Jesus, in England, for his assistance in establishing a mission in the new colony. At the same time he wrote to the General of the Order asking him to designate certain priests to accompany the first emigration, whose duty it should be to confirm the Catholics in their faith, convert the Protestant colonists, and propagate the Roman faith among the savages. These requests were granted, and the first expedition was accompanied by two Jesuits.

But Maryland was to be something more than a Catholic colony. Lord Baltimore had already determined that it should be a “free soil for Christianity.” When the charter was granted, it was well known that Baltimore purposed to settle Maryland with Catholics. How came it to pass that, under these circumstances, a Protestant king made a grant of such large powers to a Catholic nobleman? Different views have been taken of the clauses of the charter relating to religion. One view is that by the patent the Church of England was established, and any other form of worship was unlawful; another that the glory of Maryland toleration is due to the charter, and under it no persecution of Christians was lawful; while a third view is that the charter left the whole matter vague and undetermined, and therefore within the control of the Proprietary and his colonists. The only references to religion in the charter that need be considered are two: the first, in the fourth section, giving the Proprietary the advowsons of all churches which might happen to be built, together with the liberty of erecting churches and causing the same to be consecrated according to the ecclesiastical laws of England; the second, in the twenty-second section, providing that no law should be made prejudicial to God’s holy and true Christian religion.

These are the exact phrases used in the Avalon patent, which was issued to Sir George Calvert while still a member of the Church of England. In that case they probably operated as an establishment of that church. But these phrases were not retained in the charter granted to a Roman Catholic without good reason. The fourth section merely empowered the Proprietary to dedicate the churches which might be built; it did not compel him to build them: and the fact of being a Catholic did not then disable one from presenting to Anglican churches. There is, moreover, nothing in this section disabling the Proprietary from building churches of other faiths. The proviso in the twenty-second section was conveniently vague. It cannot be held either to establish the Church of England or to prohibit the exercise of any other worship. No such construction was ever placed upon it by the Crown, or the Proprietary, or the people. It is certain that Baltimore would not have accepted a charter requiring the establishment of a church from which he and those whom he intended to be his colonists dissented. It is still more certain that he would not have accepted a charter prohibiting the exercise of the Catholic worship.

The most plausible view of these provisions is that they covered a secret understanding between the Proprietary and the King, to the effect that both Catholics and members of the Established Church should enjoy the same religious rights in Maryland.[867] The opinion entertained by some that the charter itself enforced toleration is altogether untenable. These provisions did not prevent the Church of England from being afterwards established in Maryland nor avert disabilities from Catholics and Dissenters. Apart from the supposed agreement between Baltimore and the King, any persecution of Conformists in the Province would have been extremely impolitic; it would have resulted in the speedy loss of the patent. But Baltimore could without danger have prohibited the immigration of Puritans, and could have discouraged in many ways the settlement even of Conformists. Not only did he not do any of these things, but he invited Christians of every name to settle in Maryland. It is the glory of Lord Baltimore and of the Province that, from the first, perfect freedom of Christian worship was guaranteed to all comers. Because the event proved that this magnanimity was the truest wisdom and resulted in populating the Province, there have not been wanting those who declare that it was not magnanimity at all, but only enlightened self-interest.

By the decision of the Privy Council in July, 1633, upon the petition of the Virginia planters, Lord Baltimore achieved his first victory in the long struggle he was destined to wage with the enemies of his colony. Regarding his title to the territory as unquestionable, he now hastened his preparations for its colonization. He had purposed to lead the colonists in person, but, finding it necessary to abandon this intention, he confided the expedition to the care of his brother, Leonard Calvert, whom he commissioned as Lieut.-General. Jerome Hawley and Thomas Cornwallis were associated as councillors, and George Calvert, another brother of the Proprietary, was one of the emigrants. Lord Baltimore provided two vessels,—the “Ark,” of about three hundred and fifty tons burden, and the “Dove,” a pinnace of about fifty tons. In October, 1633, the colonists,—“gentlemen adventurers and their servants,”—to the number of about two hundred, embarked at Gravesend. The vessels stopped at the Isle of Wight, where Fathers White and Altham (the Jesuits who had been designated for the service) and some other emigrants were received on board. They finally set sail from Cowes on the twenty-second day of November, 1633, and took the old route by the Azores and West Indies.

Soon after their departure Lord Baltimore wrote to his own and his father’s friend, the Earl of Strafford, that, after having overcome many difficulties, he had sent a hopeful colony to Maryland with a fair expectation of success. “There are two of my brothers gone,” he added, “with very near twenty other gentlemen of very good fashion, and three hundred laboring men well provided in all things.”

The vessels remained for some time at Barbadoes, and did not arrive at Point Comfort until the 27th of February, 1634. Here the colonists were received by Governor Harvey, of Virginia, “with much courtesy and humanity,” in obedience to letters from the King. Fresh supplies having been procured in Virginia, the “Ark” and “Dove” weighed anchor and sailed up the bay to the mouth of the Potomac, which they entered and proceeded up about fourteen leagues, to an island which they called St. Clement’s. The emigrants landed here, and took formal possession of Maryland “for our Saviour, and for our Sovereign Lord the King of England.”

Governor Calvert left the “Ark” at the island and sailed up the river with two pinnaces, in order to explore the country and conciliate the Indian chieftains. He was accompanied by Captain Henry Fleet, of the Virginia colony, who was versed in the Indian tongues and acquainted with the country. They assured the chiefs that the strangers had not come to make war upon them, but to impart the arts of civilization and show their subjects the way to heaven. Not deeming it prudent to seat the first colony so far in the interior, Calvert returned down the river and was conducted by Captain Fleet up a tributary stream which flows into the Potomac, from the north, a few miles above its mouth. This river, which is now called the St. Mary’s, is a deep and wide stream. Six or seven miles above its mouth the Governor’s exploring party came to an Indian village, situate on a bluff on the left bank. They determined to settle here, but, instead of forcibly dispossessing the feeble tribe in possession, they purchased thirty miles of the land from them for axes, hatchets, and cloth, and established the colony with their consent. And thus the method of William Penn was antedated by half a century. By the terms of the agreement the Indians were to give up at once one half of the town to the English and part of the growing crops, and at the end of the harvest to leave the place altogether. The “Ark” was sent for, and on the 27th of March, 1634, amid salvoes of artillery from the ships, the emigrants disembarked and took possession of their new home, which they called St. Mary’s.

Attention was first given to building a guardhouse and a general storehouse, their intercourse meanwhile with the natives being of the most genial character. The Indian women taught them how to use corn meal, and with the Indian men they hunted deer and were initiated into the mysteries of woodcraft. They planted the cleared land, and in the autumn of the same year were able to send a cargo of corn to New England in exchange for salt fish and other provisions. From Virginia the colonists procured swine and cattle; and, within a few months after landing, the settlement was enjoying a high degree of prosperity. The English race had now learned the art of colonization.

Although Governor Harvey visited St. Mary’s and seems always to have been friendly to the new colony, the Virginians were bitterly hostile. Captain Young wrote to Sir Tobie Matthew from Jamestown, in July, 1634, that it was there “accounted a crime almost as heinous as treason to favor, nay, to speak well of, that colony” of Lord Baltimore. Sympathy with what they regarded as Clayborne’s wrongs increased their enmity. Soon after the “Ark” and “Dove” left Point Comfort, Clayborne informed the Governor and Council of Virginia that Calvert had notified him that the settlement upon Kent Island would henceforth be deemed a part of Maryland, and requested the opinion of the Board as to his duty in the premises. The Board expressed surprise at the question. and said that there was no more reason for surrendering Kent Island than any other part of the colony; and that, the validity of Lord Baltimore’s patent being yet undetermined, they were bound to maintain the rights of their colony. It was probably on account of remonstrances from Virginia that the committee of the Privy Council for plantations wrote to the Virginians in July, 1634, that there was no intention to affect the interests which had been settled when Virginia was under a corporation, and that for the present they might enjoy their estates with the same freedom as before the recalling of their patents. This letter, which was merely designed to show that Baltimore’s charter should not invade any individual right, appears to have been regarded by Clayborne as justifying his resistance to Calvert’s claim of jurisdiction over his trading stations.

Clayborne endeavored at once to incite the Indians to acts of hostility against the colony. He told them that the new-comers were Spaniards, enemies of the English, and had come to rob them. These insinuations caused a change in the demeanor of the Indians, which greatly alarmed the people of St. Mary’s. The suspicions of the natives, however, were soon dispelled and friendly relations with them were renewed. Clayborne now resolved to wage an open war against the colony. Early in 1635 a _casus belli_ was found in the capture by the Maryland authorities of a pinnace belonging to Clayborne, upon the ground that it was a Virginia vessel trading in Maryland waters without a license. Clayborne thereupon placed an armed vessel under the command of Lieutenant Warren, with orders to seize any of the ships belonging to St. Mary’s. Governor Calvert determined to show at once that this seditious opposition would not be tolerated. He equipped two small vessels and sent them against Kent Island. A naval engagement between the hostile forces took place in April, 1635, which resulted in the killing of one of the Maryland crew, and of Lieutenant Warren and two others of the Kent Island crew. Clayborne’s men then surrendered and were carried to St. Mary’s. Clayborne himself took refuge in Virginia, and Governor Calvert demanded his surrender. This demand was not granted, and two years later Clayborne went to England. He presented a petition to the King, complaining that Baltimore’s agents had sought to dispossess him of his plantations, killing some of his men and taking their boats. He offered to pay the King £100 per annum for the two islands, and prayed for a confirmation of his license and an order directing Lord Baltimore not to interfere with him.

This petition was referred to a committee of the Privy Council, before which Clayborne appeared in person, and arguments upon both sides were heard. The committee decided, in April, 1638, that Clayborne’s license to trade, under the signet of Scotland, gave him no right or title to the Isle of Kent, or to any other place within the limits of Baltimore’s patent, and did not warrant any plantation, and that no trade with the Indians ought to be allowed within Maryland without license from Lord Baltimore. As to the wrongs complained of, the committee found no reason to remove them, but left both sides to the ordinary course of justice. Clayborne returned to Virginia, postponing but not abandoning his vengeance, and Kent Island was subjected to the government of St. Mary’s, Captain George Evelyn being appointed commander of the isle. In the same year Palmer’s Island was seized, and Clayborne’s property there confiscated.

In February, 1635, the first legislative assembly of the Province was convened. Owing to the destruction of most of the early records during Ingle’s Rebellion, no account of the proceedings of this Assembly has come down to us. The charter required the assent of the Proprietary to the laws, and when the acts of this Assembly were laid before Lord Baltimore he disallowed them. In April, 1637, he sent over a new commission, constituting Leonard Calvert the lieut.-general, admiral, and commander, and also the chancellor and chief-justice of the Province. In certain cases, he was directed to consult the council, which was composed of Jerome Hawley, Thomas Cornwallis, and John Lewger. The governor was directed to assemble the freemen of the Province, or their deputies, upon the 25th of January ensuing, and signify the Proprietary’s dissent from the laws made at the previous assembly, and at the same time to submit to them a body of laws which he would himself send over. John Lewger, the new member of the council, and secretary of the Province, came to St. Mary’s in November, 1637, accompanied by his family and several servants. He was distinguished as a scholar at Oxford, and had been converted to Catholicism by the celebrated controversialist Chillingworth. His appointment is an evidence of the solicitude shown by the Proprietary for the affairs of his plantation. During the first years of the settlement he and his friends expended above £40,000 in sending over colonists and providing them with necessaries, of which sum at least £20,000 was out of Baltimore’s own purse.

There can be no doubt that the Proprietary contemplated the foundation of an aristocratic State, with large tracts of land in the hands of individuals who would be interested in upholding his authority. He published, from time to time, certain “conditions of plantation,” stating the quantity of land to which emigrants would be entitled. In the conditions issued in 1636 he directs that to every first adventurer, for every five men brought into the Province in 1634, there should be granted two thousand acres of land for the yearly rent of four hundred pounds of wheat; and to each bringing a less number, one hundred acres for himself, and one hundred acres for his wife and each servant, and fifty acres for every child, under the rent of ten pounds of wheat for each fifty acres. The conditions offered to subsequent adventurers were, naturally, less favorable. All these grants were of fee-simple estates of inheritance, and the colonists received in addition grants of small lots in the town of St. Mary’s. Each tract of a thousand acres or more was erected into a manor, with the right to hold courts baron and leet, and the other privileges belonging to manors in England. A large number of manors were laid off in the Province, and in some instances courts baron and leet were held.[868]

It was only in this regard that the design of transplanting the institutions of expiring feudalism to the New World was carried out. Political and social equality resulted from the conditions of the environment. The “freemen,” who were entitled to make laws, were early held to include all but indented servants, whether they owned a freehold or not. The second Assembly, which met in January, 1638, was a pure democracy. Writs of summons had been issued to every freeman directing his personal attendance. The governor presided as speaker, and the council sat as members. Those freemen who did not choose to attend gave proxies. Proclamation was made that all persons omitted in the writs should make their claim to a voice in the Assembly, “whereupon claim was made by John Robinson, carpenter, and was admitted.” Upon the question of the adoption of the body of laws proposed by Lord Baltimore, the Speaker and Lewger (who counted by proxies fourteen voices) were in the affirmative, and all the rest of the Assembly, being thirty-seven voices, in the negative. Thus was begun a constitutional struggle between the people and the Proprietary. The latter held that, under the charter, the right of originating legislation belonged exclusively to him. For this reason, he had rejected the laws made in 1635, and had himself proposed a number of bills. The colonists were unwilling to concede this claim, and now rejected, in turn, the propositions of the Proprietary. This early evidence of the persistence with which a handful of emigrants maintained what they conceived to be their rights possesses a peculiar interest. The immediate result of the contest was to leave the colony without any laws under which criminal jurisdiction could be exercised. This subject next occupied the attention of the House. Subsequently a number of laws were made, but with the exception of an act of attainder against Clayborne, their titles only remain. They were sent to Lord Baltimore, who promptly exercised his veto power upon them. In February, 1638, a county court was held at which Thomas Smith, who had been captured in the naval engagement described above, and subsequently held a prisoner, was indicted by a grand jury for murder and piracy. There being no court legally constituted to try Smith, he was arraigned and tried before the Assembly, Secretary Lewger acting as the prosecuting attorney. The House found him guilty, with but one dissenting voice, and he was sentenced to be hanged.

Soon after Lord Baltimore had for the second time rejected the acts of the Assembly, he wisely determined to yield his claim of the right to originate legislation. Accordingly he wrote to his brother in August, 1638, giving him power to assent to such laws as he might approve. The assent of the governor was to give force to the laws till the dissent of the Proprietary should be signified. This double veto power was similar to that which existed in most of the royal colonies, where the first negative was in the governor and the second in the king. In a Palatinate government, like Maryland, the Proprietary exercised the royal prerogative. There being no further obstacle to legislation an Assembly was called to meet in February. 1639, which body was composed partly of delegates elected by the people, and partly of freemen specially summoned by the governor’s writ. It was also held that any freeman, who had not participated in the election of deputies, might sit in his individual right. The laws passed at this session provided principally for the administration of justice in criminal and civil cases. It was enacted that the inhabitants should have all their rights and liberties according to the Great Charter.

One of the acts declared that “Holy Church within this Province shall have all her rights and liberties.” A similar law was made in the following year. Both are founded upon the first clause of Magna Charta and must be held to apply to the Roman Church, since the phrase “Holy Church” was never used in speaking of the Church of England. But these acts can hardly be regarded as evidence of an intention to establish the Roman Church. They do not seem to have had any practical effect whatever. We have seen that Lord Baltimore purposed to make all creeds equal in Maryland. Apart from this fixed purpose, from which he never swerved, the impolicy of granting any peculiar privileges to the Catholic Church, in a province subject to England, was so apparent that it was recognized by the Jesuits themselves. Among the Stonyhurst Manuscripts there is preserved the form of an agreement between the Provincial of the Society of Jesus, and Lord Baltimore, in which, after a statement of the manner in which Maryland had been obtained and settled, it is recited that it is “evident that, as affairs now are, those privileges, etc., usually granted to ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Church by Catholic princes in their own countries, could not possibly be granted here without grave offence to the King and State of England (which offence may be called a hazard both to the Baron and especially to the whole colony).” The agreement then binds the members of the society in Maryland not to demand any such privileges except those relating to corporal punishments.[869]

It is certain that, from the time the emigrants first landed at St. Mary’s, religious toleration was the established custom of the Province. The history of Maryland toleration does not begin with the famous Act of 1649. That was merely a legislative confirmation of the unwritten law. Long before that enactment, at a time when intolerance and martyrdom was almost the law of Christendom, and while the annals of the other colonies of the New World were being stained with the record of crimes committed in the name of religion, in Maryland the doctrine of religious liberty was clearly proclaimed and practised. It is the imperishable glory of Lord Baltimore and of the State. For the first time in the history of the world there was a regularly constituted government under which all Christians possessed equal rights. All churches were tolerated, none was established. To this “land of the sanctuary” came the Puritans who were whipped and imprisoned in Virginia, and the Prelatists who were persecuted in New England. In 1638 one William Lewis was fined by the council five hundred pounds of tobacco, and required to give security for his good behavior, because he had abused Protestants and forbidden his servants to read Protestant books. The Puritans were invited to settle in Maryland. In 1643 Lord Baltimore wrote to Captain Gibbons of Boston, offering land to any inhabitants of New England that would remove to his province, with liberty in matter of religion, and all other privileges.[870]

It appears from a case that came before the Assembly in 1642 that there was at that time no Protestant clergyman in Maryland. The only religious guides were the Jesuit missionaries, and they formed the only Catholic mission ever established in any of the English colonies in America. Two priests, as we have seen, accompanied the first emigration. In 1636 the mission numbered four priests and one coadjutor. They labored among the Indians in the spirit of Xavier, establishing stations at points distant from St. Mary’s. Their efforts to elevate the savage were not without success. One of their converts was Tayac, the chief of the Piscataways. He and his wife were baptized in 1640, when Governor Calvert and many of the principal men of the colony were present at the ceremony. The Jesuits also succeeded in converting many Protestants. The annual letter of 1638, as communicated to their Superior, states that nearly all the Protestants who came from England in that year, and many others, had been converted.

Although the missionaries did much towards conciliating the Indians, and a fair and gentle treatment of them was the constant policy of the colony, it was yet impossible to preserve a perfect peace with all the tribes. The increase of the colonists began to alarm them, and they were constantly committing petty depredations. All the inhabitants capable of bearing arms were trained in military discipline, and a certain quantity of arms and ammunition was required to be kept at each dwelling-house. Expeditions were frequently made for the purpose of punishing particular tribes which had committed “sundry insolencies and rapines.” Scarcely anything is known of the details of these Indian wars. It was made a penal offence for the colonists to supply any Indian with arms, but the Swedes on the Delaware had no scruples in this respect.

In 1640 another Assembly was held. St. Mary’s County had now been divided into hundreds, and conservators of the peace appointed for each hundred. In addition to the burgesses elected in each hundred, the governor summoned certain freemen by special writ, as had been previously done. The theory upon which this Assembly and those held in the following years proceeded, in framing laws, was that justice should be done according to the law of England, except in so far as changed by provincial enactments.

The Civil War was now at its height in England, and that mighty convulsion filled all the colonies with alarm and uncertainty. The supremacy of the Puritans foreboded danger to the colony of a Catholic nobleman, who still adhered to the cause of the King. Governor Calvert determined to consult his brother personally in regard to the course to be pursued in this crisis. Delegating his powers to Giles Brent, he sailed for England and soon after joined his brother at Oxford. They received from the King a commission to seize any London ships that might come to St. Mary’s. Baltimore sent this commission to Maryland; and in January, 1644, when one Richard Ingle appeared in the Province with an armed ship from London, Governor Brent seized the vessel, and issued a proclamation against Ingle, charging him with treason to the King. Ingle was taken, but soon after made his escape and returned to England. Governor Calvert arrived in September, 1644, and found the Province torn with internal feuds and harassed by Indian incursions. Many thought that the triumph of Parliament would put an end to the Proprietary dominion. Clayborne availed himself of the confusion to renew his designs upon Kent Island, and, by the end of the year, he had regained his former possession. Ingle soon after arrived in another ship, with parliamentary letters of marque. The Proprietary was as powerless as the King with whose fortunes his own were thought to be linked. Ingle landed his men, allied himself with the disaffected, and easily took possession of the government. Governor Calvert fled to Virginia, and the insurgents were undisturbed. The records of the Province brand Ingle as a pirate. To plunder seems indeed to have been his main purpose, and it is not clear that he even professed to act on behalf of the Commonwealth. He afterwards alleged, in a petition to Parliament, that, when he arrived in Maryland, he found that the governor had received a commission from Oxford to seize all London ships, and to execute a tyrannical power against Protestants; and that, therefore, he felt himself to be conscientiously obliged to come to the help of the Protestants against the Papists and Malignants. His only statement as to his proceedings in the Province is that “it pleased God to enable him to take divers places from them, and to make him a support to the well-affected.” It is, however, certain that the period of Ingle’s usurpation was marked with much oppression and extortion. The Jesuits were sent in chains to England, and most of those deemed loyal to the Proprietary were deprived of their property and banished.

Towards the close of 1646 Governor Calvert, who had been watching the progress of events from Virginia, deemed that the time was ripe for a counter revolution. He appeared at St. Mary’s, at the head of a small force levied in Virginia, and regained the government without resistance. Ingle left the Province, and the body of the people returned to their allegiance with marked alacrity. The most permanent evil caused by this usurpation—commonly called Clayborne and Ingle’s Rebellion, although they do not appear to have acted in concert—was the destruction of the greater part of the then existing records. The entire period is, consequently, involved in obscurity; and it is impossible to determine why it was that so many of the inhabitants were ready to join Ingle in what they afterwards called his “heinous rebellion.” Kent Island alone held out, and Governor Calvert went there in person, and brought back the island to subjection. The entire Province was now tranquillized; but Leonard Calvert did not live to enter upon his labors. On the 9th of June, 1647, he died at the little capital of St. Mary’s, which he had founded seventeen years before, and where he had long exercised, with wisdom and moderation, the highest executive and judicial functions. He had led out the colony from England when a young man of twenty-six years, and in the discharge of various offices he had, in the language of his commission, displayed “such wisdom, fidelity, industry, and other virtues as rendered him capable and worthy of the trust reposed in him.” Upon his death-bed he named Thomas Greene his successor, who now assumed the duties of governor. Greene proclaimed a general pardon to those in the Province who had “unfortunately run themselves into a rebellion,” and a pardon to those who had fled the Province, “acknowledging sorrow for his fault,” except “Richard Ingle, mariner.”[871]

The cause of the monarchy was now prostrate in England, and in the supremacy of Parliament Lord Baltimore saw great danger threatening his colonial dominion. It was necessary to put it out of the power of his enemies to say that Maryland was a Catholic colony, and at the same time he felt bound to protect his co-religionists. He therefore determined to pursue at once a policy of conciliation to the Puritans and of protection to the Catholics. The course he adopted was one well calculated to attain this double end. In August, 1648, he removed Greene, who was a Catholic, and appointed William Stone governor. Stone was a Virginian, and well known as a zealous Protestant and adherent of the Parliament. Lord Baltimore at the same time issued a new commission of the Council of State appointing five councillors, three of whom were Protestants, and he also appointed a Protestant secretary. Accompanying the commissions were oaths to be taken by the governor and councillors. Each was required to swear that he would not trouble or molest any person in the Province professing to believe in Jesus Christ, “and in particular no Roman Catholick for, or in respect of, his or her religion.” While the usual power to assent to laws in the name of the Proprietary was given to Stone, his commission contained a proviso that he should not assent to the _repeal_ of any law—already made or which should thereafter be made—which might in any way concern matters of religion, without special warrant under the seal of the Proprietary. The object of this restriction was to prevent the repeal, by subsequent legislatures, of the act of religious toleration which Lord Baltimore purposed to have passed by the next Assembly. By this act he did not design to have the custom of religious liberty, which had prevailed from the settlement, at all enlarged, but only to be a law of the land beyond the reach of alteration. This security was the more necessary since Stone had agreed to procure five hundred settlers to reside in Maryland, and these might create an overwhelming Protestant majority.

The new governor and council entered upon their duties in the beginning of 1649, and in April of that year the Assembly met. The first law made was the famous “act concerning religion;” which, at least so far as it related to toleration, was doubtless one of the sixteen proposed laws which Lord Baltimore had sent over in the preceding year with the new commissions. The memorable words of this act, the first law securing religious liberty that ever passed a legally constituted legislature, provide that—

“Whereas, the inforcing of the conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to bee of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths where it hath beene practised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutuall love and unity amongst the inhabitants here,” it was enacted that no person “professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall, from henceforth, be any waies troubled, molested, or discountenanced for, or in respect of, his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof within this province, ... nor any way compelled to the beleefe or exercise of any other religion, against his or her consent.”

The Assembly was composed of sixteen members, nine burgesses, the governor, and six councillors. Their faith has been a matter of dispute, but the most recent investigations make it certain that a majority were Catholics. The governor, three of the council, and two of the burgesses were, without doubt, Protestants. It is equally certain that three of the council and five burgesses were Catholics. The faith of the remaining two members is doubtful; and there is also doubt whether the governor and council sat as a distinct upper house or not.

By the other sections of the “act of toleration,” blasphemy, and denying the divinity of Christ, or the Trinity, were made punishable with death; and those using reproachful words concerning the Virgin Mary or the Apostles, or in matters of religion applying opprobrious epithets to persons, were punishable by a fine, and in default of payment by imprisonment or whipping. It does not appear that any of these penalties were ever inflicted. The toleration established by this act is so far in advance of all contemporary legislation, that it would be invidious to reproach the law-givers because they were not still more enlightened. It may have been that they regarded any broader toleration as prohibited by the provision of the charter respecting the Christian religion, or as likely to excite the animadversion of the Puritans in England. Parliament had recently passed a law (Act of 1648,