Upon the dissolution of the Long Parliament and the establishment of the Protectorate, Lord Baltimore took measures to recover the absolute control of Maryland; and Stone, (who since June, 1652, had continued in the place of governor of Maryland,) in obedience to instructions received from his lordship, violated the terms of the agreement, which had been arranged with Bennet and Clayborne, acting in behalf of the Parliament, and set them at defiance. These commissioners having addressed a letter to Stone proposing an interview, he refused to accede to it, and gave it as his opinion, that they were "wolves in sheep's clothing." Bennet and Clayborne, claiming authority derived from his Highness the Lord Protector, seized the government of the province, and entrusted it to a board of ten commissioners.[229:A]

When Lord Baltimore received intelligence of this proceeding, he wrote to his deputy, (Stone,) reproaching him with cowardice, and peremptorily commanded him to recover the colony by force of arms. Stone and the Marylanders now accordingly fell to arms, and disarmed and plundered those that would not accept the oath of allegiance to Baltimore. The province contained, as has been mentioned before, among its inhabitants a good many emigrants from Virginia of Puritan principles, and these dwelt mainly on the banks of the Severn and the Patuxent, and on the Isle of Kent. They were disaffected to the proprietary government, and protested that they had removed to Maryland, under the express engagement with Governor Stone, that they should enjoy freedom of conscience, and be exempt from the obnoxious oath. These recusants now took up arms to defend themselves, and civil war raged in infant Maryland. Stone, to reduce the malecontents, embarking for Providence with his men, landed on the neck, at the mouth of the Severn. Here, on the 25th of March, 1654, he was attacked by the Protestant adherents of Bennet and Clayborne, and utterly defeated; the prisoners being nearly double of the number of the victors, twenty killed, many wounded, and "all the place strewed with Papist beads where they fled."

During the action, a New England vessel seized the boats, provision, and ammunition of the governor and his party. Among the prisoners was this functionary, who had been "shot in many places." Several of the prisoners were condemned to death by a court-martial; and four of the principal, one of them a councillor, were executed on the spot. Captain William Stone, likewise sentenced, owed his escape to the intercession of some women, and of some of Bennet and Clayborne's people.[229:B] John Hammond, (the same who had been, two years before, expelled from the Virginia Assembly,) also one of the condemned, fled in disguise, and escaped to England in the ship Crescent. The master of this vessel was afterwards heavily fined by the Virginia assembly for carrying off Hammond without a pass. Of the four that were shot, three were Romanists; and the Jesuit fathers, hotly pursued, escaped to Virginia, where they inhabited a mean low hut.[230:A]

Thus Maryland became subject to the Protectorate. The administration of the Puritan commissioners was rigorous, and the Maryland assembly excluded Papists from the pale of religious freedom. Such were even Milton's views of toleration;[230:B] but Cromwell, the master-spirit of his age, soared higher, and commanded the commissioners "not to busy themselves about religion, but to settle the civil government." He addressed the following letter, dated at Whitehall, in January, 1654, to Richard Bennet, Esq., Governor of Virginia:—

"Sir:—Whereas, the differences between the Lord Baltimore and the inhabitants of Virginia, concerning the bounds by them respectively claimed, are depending before our council and yet undetermined; and whereas, we are credibly informed you have, notwithstanding, gone into his plantation in Maryland, and countenanced some people there in opposing the Lord Baltimore's officers; whereby and with other forces from Virginia, you have much disturbed that colony and people, to the engendering of tumults and much bloodshed there, if not timely prevented:

"We, therefore, at the request of the Lord Baltimore and divers other persons of quality here, who are engaged by great adventures in his interest, do, for preventing of disturbances or tumults there, will and require you, and all others deriving any authority from you, to forbear disturbing the Lord Baltimore, or his officers, or people in Maryland, and to permit all things to remain as they were before any disturbance or alteration made by you, or by any other, upon pretence of authority from you, till the said differences, above mentioned, be determined by us here, and we give farther order herein.

"We rest, your loving friend,

"OLIVER, P."

Cromwell was now endeavoring to heal the wounds of civil war, to allay animosities, and to strengthen his power by a generous and conciliatory policy, blended with irresistible energy of action. In return for Lord Baltimore's ready submission to his authority, the Protector apparently recognized his proprietary rights in Maryland, yet at the same time, he sustained and protected his commissioners, only curbing the violent contest that had arisen between Virginia and Maryland respecting their boundary. His policy as to the internal government of these colonies was one of a masterly inactivity.

"To the Commissioners of Maryland.