To return to the year 1645. The rebellion supposed to have been originated by Ingle, was according to statements of the Assembly of 1649, continued by his accomplices, and during it “most of your Lordships Royal friends here were spoiled of their whole Estate and sent away as banished persons out of the Province those few that remained were plundered and deprived in a manner of all Livelyhood and subsistance only Breathing under that intollerable Yoke which they were forced to bear under those Rebells.”[38] The people were tendered an oath against Lord Baltimore, which all the Roman Catholics refused to take, except William Thompson, about whom there is some doubt.[39] Ingle, himself, said that he had been able to take some places from the papists and malignants, and with goods taken from them had relieved the well-affected to parliament. Further on in this paper it will be seen that Roman Catholics’ property was attacked under Ingle’s auspices, but that the bad treatment of them did not continue long and was not very severe, may be inferred from the fact that in 1646, there were enough members of the council, who were Roman Catholics, in the province to elect Hill governor. In this connection ought to be mentioned the report, by an uncertain author, concerning the Maryland mission, written in 1670. The report is devoted principally to an account of a miracle which, strange to say, had not been recorded, as far as is known, although twenty-four years had elapsed since it had occurred. “It has been established by custom and usage of the Catholics,” the uncertain author wrote, “who live in Maryland, during the whole night of the 31st of July following the festival of St. Ignatius, to honor with a salute of cannon their tutelar guardian and patron saint. Therefore, in the year 1646, mindful of the solemn custom, the anniversary of the holy father being ended, they wished the night also consecrated to the honor of the same, by the continual discharge of artillery. At the time, there were in the neighborhood certain soldiers, unjust plunderers, Englishmen indeed by birth, of the heterodox faith, who, coming the year before with a fleet, had invaded with arms, almost the entire colony, had plundered, burnt, and finally, having abducted the priests and driven the Governor himself into exile, had reduced it to a miserable servitude. These had protection in a certain fortified citadel, built for their own defence, situated about five miles from the others; but now, aroused by the nocturnal report of the cannon, the day after, that is on the first of August, rush upon us with arms, break into the houses of the Catholics, and plunder whatever there is of arms or powder.”[40] Now this statement bears upon the face of it a contradiction, for the restriction upon the Roman Catholics could not have been very great, since they were allowed to retain, up to August, 1646, the powder and cannon necessary to fire continual salutes, moreover, when next day the soldiers came to their dwellings, nothing seems to have been taken except the ammunition, and this was done no doubt to prevent any further alarm, that a body of troops situated as they were might reasonably have felt at hearing artillery discharges five miles away.
Many writers have stated that good Fathers White and Fisher were carried off to England by Ingle, but from the records of the Jesuits at Stonyhurst, it is learned that Father White was seized “by a band of soldiers,” “and carried to England in chains,” and also that in “1645 This year the colony was attacked by a party of ‘rowdies’ or marauders and the missioners were carried off to Virginia.”[41] These extracts serve to show what was the confusion existing in the minds of contemporaries of Ingle, and the extreme difficulty, therefore, of finding the real truth. But in the sworn statements preserved in the Maryland records, some facts may be found. Within a few days of the events at St. Mary’s resulting in partial subversion of Baltimore’s government, the “Reformation” was riding at the mouth of St. Inigoes’ creek, near which was situated the “Cross,” the manor house of Cornwallis, who, when he had been obliged in 1644 to leave Maryland, had left his house and property in the hands of Cuthbert Fenwick, his attorney.[42] Fenwick was intending to go to Accomac, Virginia, and sent Thomas Harrison, a servant, who had been bought from Ingle by Cornwallis, and a fellow servant, Edw. Matthews, to help Andrew Monroe to bring a small pinnace nearer the house.[43] In the pinnace were clothes, bedding, and other goods, the property of Fenwick. Monroe refused to bring the pinnace, and waited until Ingle came into the creek;[44] and allowed the pinnace to be captured, (if that may be called a capture to which consent was given,) and plundered. Fenwick said that the pinnace was plundered by “Richard Ingle or his associates;”[45] another witness said that Ingle “seized or plundered” the pinnace, and Monroe was employed by him in his acts against the province, and while in command of another pinnace assisted in the pillaging of Copley’s house at Portoback.[46] Matthews as well as other servants were held captives on the “Reformation,” and Harrison took up arms for Ingle and afterwards left the province and fled to Accomac. Fenwick went on board, no doubt to protest against such acts, and when he returned to the shore was seized by a party of men under John Sturman, who seems to have been a leader in the rebellion, and carried back to the vessel where he was kept prisoner.[47] In the meantime Thomas Sturman, John Sturman, coopers, and William Hardwick, a tailor, led a party to sack the dwelling of Cornwallis, who, in a petition to the Governor and Council in 1652, described it as “a Competent Dwelling house, furnished with plate, Linnen hangings, beding brass pewter and all manner of Household Stuff worth at least a thousand pounds.” In the same petition he said that the party “plundered and Carryed away all things in It, pulled downe and burnt the pales about it, killed and destroyed all the Swine and Goates and killed or mismarked allmost all the Cattle, tooke or dispersed all the Servants, Carryed away a Great quantity of Sawn Boards from the pitts, and ript up Some floors of the house. And having by these Violent and unlawfull Courses forst away my Said Attorny the Said Thomas and John Sturman possest themselves of the Complts house as theire owne, dwelt in it Soe long as they please and at their departing tooke the locks from the doors and ye Glass from the windowes and in fine ruined his whole Estate to the damage of the Complt at least two or three thousand pounds.”[48] It may be well to bear in mind that Cornwallis in this petition, which was against the two Sturmans and Hardwick, who did not deny the allegations, but claimed the statute of limitation, no mention is made of Ingle, save that on his ship Fenwick was detained.[49]
In the latter part of the year 1645 began the era of petitions, which should be taken with allowance, for the age has been characterized as one of perjury, and in the representations by both parties in Maryland politics, advantage was taken of every slight point to strengthen their respective positions, and from internal evidence it seems that some statements were garbled, to say the least about them. The opening of this era was marked by the presentation, December 25th, 1645, by the committee of plantations, to the House of Lords, the following statements and suggestions, viz: that many had complained of the tyranny of recusants in Maryland, “who have seduced and forced many of his Majesty’s subjects from their religion;” that by a certificate from the Judge of the Admiralty grounded upon the deposition of witnesses taken in that Court: Leonard Calvert, late Governor there, had a commission from Oxford to seize such persons, ships and goods as belonged to any of London; which he registered, proclaimed, and endeavored to put in execution at Virginia; and that one Brent, his deputy Governor, had seized upon a ship, empowered under a commission derived from the Parliament, because she was of London, and afterward not only tampered with the crew thereof to carry her to Bristol, then in hostility against the Parliament, but also tendered them an oath against the Parliament; the committee under these circumstances recommended that the province should be settled in the hands of protestants.[50] This was the first part of the determined effort to deprive the great Cecil Calvert of his charter of Maryland, which Richard Ingle continued so vigorously in after years. He was probably in England at that time, for he refers to the action of the Lords in regard to the settling of the Maryland government, in his petition of February 24th, 1645/6, to the House of Lords. To this petition was appended a statement on behalf of Cornwallis, which will explain it. Cornwallis said that on Ingle’s return to England, to cover up his defalcation in the matter of 200 pounds worth of goods, he had complained to the committee for examinations against Cornwallis as an enemy to the State. The matter was given a full hearing, and when it was left to the law and the defendant was granted the right of having witnesses in Maryland examined, Ingle had him arrested upon two feigned actions to the value of 15,000 pounds sterling. Some friends succeeded in rescuing him from prison, and then Ingle sent the following petition to the House of Lords, which had the effect of stopping for the time proceedings against him.[51] Having done so he carried the prosecution no further. The petition is somewhat lengthy, but it should be read as it is eminently characteristic of the man.[52]
“The humble petition of Richard Ingle, showing That whereas the petitioner, having taken the covenant, and going out with letters of marque, as Captain of the ship Reformation, of London, and sailing to Maryland, where, finding the Governor of that Province to have received a commission from Oxford to seize upon all ships belonging to London, and to execute a tyrannical power against the Protestants, and such as adhered to the Parliament, and to press wicked oaths upon them, and to endeavor their extirpation, the petitioner, conceiving himself, not only by his warrant, but in his fidelity to the Parliament, to be conscientiously obliged to come to their assistance, did venture his life and fortune in landing his men and assisting the said well affected Protestants against the said tyrannical government and the Papists and malignants. It pleased God to enable him to take divers places from them, and to make him a support to the said well affected. But since his return to England, the said Papists and malignants, conspiring together, have brought fictitious acts against him, at the common law, in the name of Thomas Cornwallis and others for pretended trespass, in taking away their goods, in the parish of St. Christopher’s, London, which are the very goods that were by force of war justly and lawfully taken from these wicked Papists and malignants in Maryland, and with which he relieved the poor distressed Protestants there, who otherwise must have starved, and been rooted out.
“Now, forasmuch as your Lordships in Parliament of State, by the order annexed, were pleased to direct an ordinance to be framed for the settlement of the said province of Maryland, under the Committee of Plantations, and for the indemnity of the actors in it, and for that such false and feigned actions for matters of war acted in foreign parts, are not tryable at common law, but, if at all, before the Court and Marshall; and for that it would be a dangerous example to permit Papists and malignants to bring actions of trespass or otherwise against the well affected for fighting for the Parliament.
“The petitioner most humbly beseecheth your Lordships to be pleased to direct that this business may be heard before your Lordships at the bar, or to refer it to a committee to report the true state of the case and to order that the said suits against the petitioner at the common law may be staid, and no further proceeded in.”
It is not known how this matter was settled, but in 1647, September 8th, Ingle transferred to Cornwallis “for divers good and valuable causes” the debts, bills, &c., belonging to him, and made him his attorney to collect the same. Among the items in the inventory appended to the power of attorney were “A Bill and note of John Sturman’s, the one dated the 10th of April 1645 for Satisfaction of tenn pounds of powder the other dated the 4th of April 1645 for 900 l of Tob & Caske,” and “an acknowledgemt of Capt William Stone dated the 10th of April 1645 for a receipt of a Bill of Argall Yardley’s Esq, for 9860 l of Tobacco and Caske,”[53] which show that the mercantile interests of Ingle were not subservient to his supposed warlike measures. A consideration of the statements by Cornwallis and of those by Ingle, proves that the latter must have had considerable influence in the Parliament, and that he was prepared to stand by and defend all his actions, and the similarity to his petition of ideas and even of words in certain places, would safely allow the conjecture that Ingle had something to do in the report of 1645 already mentioned. It is curious also to compare his reference to the ill-treatment of the Protestants, and the mention of the hardships of Baltimore’s adherents, made by the Assembly of 1649. There is no record of the presence of Ingle in Maryland after the spring of 1645, though the rebellion which he was accused of instigating continued some months longer.[54] For continuity, a rapid sketch of the history of Maryland during the next two years must be given.
For fourteen months the province was without a settled government. In March, 1645/6, the Virginian Assembly in view of the secret flight into Maryland of Lieutenant Stillwell, and others, enacted that “Capt. Tho. Willoughby, Esq., and Capt. Edward Hill be hereby authorized to go to Maryland or Kent to demand the return of such persons who are alreadie departed from the colony. And to follow such further instructions as shall be given them by the Governor and Council.”[55] After Hill had arrived in Maryland he was elected governor by the members of the council, who, notwithstanding Ingle’s rebellion, were in the province. The right of the council to elect Hill was afterwards disputed, but one word must be said in regard to this. The reason for disputing the right was that the councilors could elect only a member of the council to be governor. In the commission to Leonard Calvert in 1637, no such restriction was made,[56] in the commission of 1642 the restriction occurs, and in the commission of 1644, which has been preserved in two copies, the same provision was made.[57] As Lord Baltimore himself had confused ideas about this commission, it is not surprising that the council thought they were doing right in electing Hill. Even if the council had no right to act thus, Hill had stronger claims to the governorship. In Lord Baltimore’s commission to Leonard Calvert, of September 18th, 1644, is the provision:[58] “and lastly whereas our said Lieutenant may happen to dye or be absent from time to time out of the said province of Maryland, before we can have notice to depute another in his place we do therefore hereby grant unto him full power and Authority from time to time in such Cases to Nominate elect and appoint such an able person inhabiting and residing within our said province of Maryld, as he in his discretion shall make choice of & think fit to be our Lieutenant Governor, &c.” Such is the command as recorded in the Council Proceedings of Maryland. But Baltimore, in 1648, in a commission to the Governor and council in Maryland, wrote that Leonard Calvert had no right to appoint any person in his stead “unless such persons were of our privy council there,”[59] although he recognized the validity of Leonard’s death-bed appointment by witnesses of Governor Greene. He, to be sure, was a member of the council, but this fact was not mentioned in the preamble of the commission, in which the words, with some slight changes in tense and mood, are almost identical with those in the preamble of the commission of July 30th, 1646, from Calvert to Hill, which, notwithstanding doubts to the contrary, must have been genuine. For Lord Baltimore, in the commission of 1648 seems to have acknowledged that his brother had granted the commission to Hill,[60] who, in a letter to Calvert, said that he had promised him one-half the customs and rents, the remuneration stipulated in his commission. Hill, not knowing that Calvert was dead, wrote him a letter, dated June 18th, 1647, urging the payment of his dues, and the next day Greene, the new Governor, replied that he did not understand the matter, but that if Hill would send an attorney “full satisfaction should be given him.” When Hill wrote next he waived the authority of Calvert, and based his claim upon the right of the council to elect him, and in this way placed himself upon an illegal footing, which circumstance was taken advantage of for a time by the Maryland authorities. But finally at a court held June 10th, 1648,[61] one year after Calvert’s death, a claim from Hill was presented “for Arrears of what consideration was Covenanted unto him by Leonard Calvert, Esq., for his Service in the office of Governor of this Province, being the half of his Ldps rents for the year 1646 & the half of the Customes for the Same yeare.” It was ordered by the court, “that ye half of that yeares Customes as far as it hath not already been received by Capt. Hill shall be paid unto him by the Ld Proprs Attorny out of the first profitts which shall be receivable to his Ldp * * * his Ldps Receiver shall accompt & pay unto Capt Edward Hill or his assignes the one halfe of his Ldps rents due at Christmas next in Lieu of the Sd rents of the yeare 1646 which were otherwise disposed of to his Ldps use.” There is, however, one fact which must not be lost sight of in regard to Leonard Calvert’s commission to Hill. If it was executed by a member of the council, and therefore was a forgery, for in the records Calvert’s name is signed to it, and the place of the seal is noted, it is not at all likely that it would have been allowed by Calvert on his return, and by his immediate successors, to be preserved and copied into the records. If all other proof failed this last would establish the validity of Hill’s commission.
But Calvert, who, throughout his whole career as governor of Maryland, showed unchanging devotion to his brother’s interests, gathered in Virginia a body of soldiers and returned at the end of 1646 to St. Mary’s, where he easily repossessed himself of that part of the country, though Kent Island remained still in possession of Claiborne’s forces. Thus was ended what has been called Ingle’s rebellion, in which the loss of the lord proprietor’s personal estate “was in truth so small as that it was not Considerable when it was come in Ballance with the Safety of the Province which as the then present Condition of things stood, hung upon so ticklish a pin as that unless such a disposition had been made thereof an absolute ruin and subversion of the whole Province would inevitably have followed.”[62] Another proof of Hill’s regular appointment is that Calvert on the 29th of December, soon after his return, re-assembled the Assembly, which Hill had summoned and adjourned, and proceeded with it to enact laws.[63] Although a later Assembly in 1648 protested against the laws passed by this Assembly, the proprietor recognized them as valid, and wrote in 1649 that it had been “lawfully continued” by his brother “ffor although the first Sumons were issued by one who was not our Lawfull Lieutenant there, yet being afterwards approved of by one that was, it is all one, as to the proceedings afterward as if at first they had issued from a lawfull Governor.”[64] The writer is no lawyer, but it seems, that, if the Assembly of Hill was “lawfully continued” and “approved” by Calvert, the recognition by Baltimore must have been legally retroactive, and, therefore, that the laws passed before Calvert’s return must have been legally valid, saving of course the proprietor’s dissent. Leonard Calvert having spent some months in settling the affairs of the province died, June 9th, 1647, and Greene ruled in his stead. In the following March, Ingle’s name again appears in the records. The governor, on March 4th, 1648, proclaimed pardon to all except Richard Ingle, and in August of the same year the lord proprietor issued, besides his commissions to Governor Stone, to the council and to secretary Thomas Hatton, commissions, for the Great Seal, for muster master general, and for commander of the Isle of Kent. John Price was made muster master general for his “great Fidelity unto us in that Occasion of the late insurrection and Rebellion in our said province was begun there by that Notorious Villain Richard Ingle and his Complices,” and Robert Vaughan was appointed commander of Kent for the same reason.[65] Then in 1650 was passed the act of Oblivion, excepting Ingle, Durford, and some of the Isle of Kent. In 1649, Baltimore granted to James Lindsey and Richard Willan certain lands, and directed that in the grants should be inserted the notice “of their singular and approved worth courage and fidelity (in Ingle’s insurrection) to the end a memory of their merit and of his (the Proprietor) sense thereof may remain upon record to the honour of them and their posterity forever.”[66]
An investigation into Ingle’s doings at this time may explain the bitter terms in which he is mentioned in the official records of Maryland, and also why upon him was foisted the chief responsibility for the disturbances. During the year 1646, Lord Baltimore was engaged in defending his charter, against the justice of which such grave charges had been brought by Ingle and others, in the winter of 1645/6. On January 23rd, 1646/7, application in Baltimore’s behalf, was made to the House of Lords, that the depositions of witnesses made before the Admiralty Court in regard to Maryland should be read. In a few weeks Baltimore begged that the actions looking to the repeal of his charter might be delayed, and on the same day certain merchants in London, who were interested in the Virginia trade, requested that the ordinance should be sent to the Commons, for Baltimore’s petition was intended only to cause delay.[67] The matter was stayed for the time, but by December, 1649, Ingle had sent to the Council of State a petition and remonstrance against the government of Lord Baltimore’s colony. The hearing, which was referred to the Committee of the Admiralty, was postponed until January 10th, 1650, when Baltimore’s agent requested it to be deferred until the 16th. Witnesses were summoned and upon Baltimore’s appearance, he was ordered to make answer in writing to Ingle by the 30th. On January 29th the matter was again postponed until February 6th, “in respect of extraordinary occasions not permitting them to hear the same to-morrow.” Delay followed delay until March 1st, when Ingle was “unprovided to prove” the charges against Lord Baltimore for misconduct in the government of Maryland, but on the 15th of the same month, “after several debates of the business depending between Capt. Ingle and Lord Baltimore, touching a commission granted to Leonard Calvert, * * * by the late King at Oxford in 1643” the advocate for the State and the attorney general were directed to examine the validity of the original charter to Cecil, Lord Baltimore. Allusion to this matter was again made in the records, but nothing showing its result unless it be the order of the Council of State, of December 23d, 1651, that Lord Baltimore should be allowed to “pursue his cause according to law.”[68]