Ingle seems to have been at this time in the service of what was once a parliament, but which had been reduced in 1648, by Pride’s purge, to about sixty members. In February, 1650, he informed the Council of State that on board two ships, the “‘Flower de Luce’ and the ‘Thomas and John,’ were persons bound to Virginia, who were enemies of the Commonwealth.” The vessels were stayed for over a month, when they were allowed to sail down to Gravesend, where, before they left for Virginia, the mayor and justices were to “take the superscription of passengers and mariners not to engage against the Commonwealth.”[69] In April of this year the Council of State ordered the payment to Ingle of £30 sterling for services and care in keeping Captain Gardner, who had been arrested for treason, in having tried to betray Portland Castle.[70] He again comes into notice in 1653, by some letters written by him to Edward Marston. He had been cast away by shipwreck in the Downs, and was then at Dover, where he had been very ill. Having heard that two prizes which he had helped to secure, had been condemned and that the rest of the men had obtained their shares, he wrote to secure the eleven shares due him, and told Marston to send one part to his wife, and the other to him. On November 14th, he again wrote that he had received no answer although “I have written you every post these 3 weeks, having been sick my want of money is great.”[71] This is the last fact, which can at present be found, about Richard Ingle, who first came into notice demanding tobacco debts, and is discovered, at last demanding prize money. These two acts were typical of the man, he was always on the lookout for gain and yet remained a staunch adherent to the Long Parliament, which did so much to strengthen English liberties, but whose acts led to such extreme measures as those which culminated in the execution of the self-willed unfortunate Charles I.
By a careful consideration of all the facts, it will be seen that the acts of Richard Ingle are in some cases legendary, and as such naturally have become more heinous with every successive account. The endeavor has been in this paper to give an unprejudiced historical account of his life, but in view of the mis-statements about him, it still remains to sum up, and examine the specific charges against him. He is accused of having stolen the silver seal of the province. Lord Baltimore’s own statements, however, concerning it are doubtful. “Whereas our great seal of the said province of Maryland was treacherously and violently taken away from thence by Richard Ingle or his complices in or about February,[72] 1644/5,” he wrote in August, 1648. Nothing had been said according to the records up to that time in Maryland about the loss of the seal. On the contrary, in a commission given by Governor Greene on July 4th, 1647, over a year before the proprietor’s commission for the great seal, are the words, “Given under my hand and the Seal of the province.”[73] and in the proclamation of March 4th, 1648, Greene promised pardon “under my hand and the seal of the province,”[74] to all out of the province except Ingle, who should confess their faults before a certain date.
It may be urged against these facts that “under my hand and the seal of the province,” was mere legal phraseology. But those which have been given are the only two instances of the use of the term from 1646 to 1648, and are both preceded and followed by commissions, &c., ending “and this shall be your commission,” or “given at St. Mary’s,” in which, if the term was merely technical language, why was it not more frequently used? Again, it may be said that it was a temporary seal. If it were, it is strange that no mention is made of the fact in the records of the province, or in Lord Baltimore’s commission for the new seal. It was hoped and desired that in this paper no occasion would arise to make accusations against any of Ingle’s opponents, but historic truth now requires it to be done. It must be remembered that Baltimore was in constant danger of losing his charter, in a great measure, on account of Ingle’s activity against him. Upon his authority alone is based the charge against Ingle about the seal, but of how much value is the authority of one who, at the very same time and in a commission sent out with that of the seal, wrote that Leonard Calvert “was limited by our commission to him not to appoint” any person governor “unless such person were of our privy council there,”[75] although no such limitation as to the governor’s right was made in any of the commissions to Leonard Calvert so this clause in the lord proprietor’s commission resolves itself into a Machiavellian statement. It is hardly credible that Lord Baltimore could have made such a statement from ignorance, for no one knew the commission better than the author of it. But notwithstanding the evidence against Lord Baltimore, the writer has too high an opinion of his character to attribute to him the diplomatic lie. Lord Baltimore was no doubt influenced a great deal, by what was reported to him concerning Maryland, so the blame must rest upon his informers. Still if these persons would resort to such methods in one case, they would be likely to do so in other instances. Whoever was the author of the statement, it throws doubt upon other supposed facts of this period, and leads to the conclusion that the commission for a new seal was one of the reconstructive acts of the proprietor, on a par with the treatment of Hill.
Ingle has been charged with the destruction of the records of the province. What was Baltimore’s opinion? “We understand” he wrote in 1651, “that in the late Rebellion there One thousand Six hundred Forty and four most of the Records of that province being then lost or embezzled.”[76] This hearsay statement of Lord Baltimore may have been based upon the testimony in 1649, of Thomas Hatton, Secretary of the province, of the receipt of books from Mr. Bretton, who “delivered to me this Book, and another lesser Book with a Parchment Cover, divers of the Leaves thereof being cut or torn out, and many of them being lost and much worn out and defaced together with divers other Papers and Writings bound together in a Bundle,”[77] and swore that they were all the documents belonging to the secretary or register which could be found, “except some Warrants, and some Draughts of Mr. Hill’s Time.” All the records, therefore, were not destroyed, but in 1649, there were in existence papers belonging to the Hill regime. But greater proofs against the vandalism of Ingle are the records themselves, or the copies of them, which could not have been made if the originals had been destroyed, and which have at last been deposited where thieves do not break through nor steal. There have been preserved among the records up to 1647, the original proprietary record books, liber Z., 1637-1644 and liber P. R., 1642 to February 12, 1645. The Council Proceedings, 1636-1657, the Assembly Proceedings, 1638-1658, and liber F., 1636-1642, proprietary records, have been handed down in copies. The loss of liber F., 1636-1642, can no more be attributed to Ingle than can the loss of liber K., 1692-1694, which was made fifty years after Ingle’s time. Both of these, as well as records of later years, have been preserved in copies only, but a brief study of the Calendar of State Archives, prefixed to the Acts of Assembly, will demonstrate that the destruction of records by Ingle could not have been so great as has been supposed. But did he destroy any? There are gaps in the records, that exist between February 14, 1645, when the rebellion occurred, and December, 1646, when Calvert returned, but it is not likely that under the existing circumstances very great care was taken of the records of these twenty-two months, and moreover there is no proof that Ingle was in the province after 1645, for he was probably in London in December of that year, and certainly in the following February. His appointing Cornwallis his attorney for collecting Maryland and Virginia debts would also lead one to believe that he did not return to the province. Some of the records of the Hill government, however, were in existence in 1649, but as far as is known have since disappeared. Ingle certainly did not destroy them, and indeed to a man engaged in the tobacco trade, there were few inducements to waste his time, and that of his men cutting up records.
It is difficult to understand why Lord Baltimore should have called Ingle an “ungrateful villain,” for the reception the latter met at St. Mary’s in 1644, was not calculated to inspire one with gratitude. The compensation offered Ingle might have been deemed liberal, but the Maryland authorities acknowledged that they had to make this offer for the public good and safety, and, therefore, no particular credit can be given them for kindness towards the troublesome mariner. But the relations between Ingle and Cornwallis are rather perplexing. The latter accused Ingle of not returning the value of goods entrusted to him, and also of landing, during his absence, “some men near his house,” and rifling “him to the value of 2,500 l at least.”[78] All this was done after Cornwallis had showed his devotion to Parliament, by releasing Ingle. It must be remembered in connection with the devotion to Parliament, that Ingle was doing the great carrying trade for Cornwallis. Besides, after Ingle had made him his attorney, he went to Maryland and there sued three men for the pillage and destruction of his property, without implicating Ingle. In the absence of full records concerning these two men, it is unfair to judge either of them harshly in this matter.
The indefinite allusion to Ingle’s piracy in 1644 was not sustained, but in 1649 he was again called “pirate.” The definition of piracy has undergone many changes within the past three hundred years. From robbery committed upon the high seas, it has come to mean, “acts of violence done upon the ocean or unappropriated lands or within the territory of a state through descent from the sea, by a body of men acting independently of any political or organized society.”[79] The pirate has also been held as an enemy, whom the whole human race can oppress. These definitions are from the international standpoint. What was the English law at the time of Ingle? The treatment of pirates was regulated by the Act of Parliament, made in the reign of Henry VIII.,[80] and Sir Leoline Jenkins, on September 2d, 1668, at a session of the Admiralty, said, “now robbery as ’tis distinguished from thieving or larceny, implies not only the actual taking away of my goods, while I am, as we say, in peace, but also the putting me in fear, by taking them away by force and arms out of my hands, or in my sight and presence, when this is done upon the sea, without a lawful commission of war or reprisals, it is downright Piracy.”[81] In the Assembly of March, 1638, piracy was defined as follows: “William dawson with divers others did assault the vessels of Capt. Thomas Cornwaleys his company feloniously and as pyrates & robbers to take the said vessels and did discharge divers peices charged with bulletts & shott against the said Thomas Cornwaleys, &c.”[82] Granted, although it is doubtful, that Ingle seized the pinnace, riding in St. Inigoes’ creek, he was not, therefore, a pirate. According to the testimony, he used no force, for the one in charge of the pinnace allowed him to take it; and the act was not committed on the high seas. For the acts committed on the land, Ingle acknowledged himself to have been responsible; for in his petition he wrote, that he “did venture his life and fortune in landing his men and assisting the said well-affected Protestants (i. e., such as adhered to Parliament)” against the government, the papists and malignants. His acts on the land were rather contradictory, if one reads the testimony. In 1647, for instance, a certain Walter Beane[83] at the request of Cuthbert Fenwick, said that during the plundering time, with the consent of Fenwick, he paid Ingle some tobacco, which was due Fenwick or Cornwallis. Ingle then gave him the following, “Received of Walter Beane five hundr Thirty Eight pounds of Tob for a debt tht the sd Walter Beane did owe to Cuthbert ffenwick. Witness my hand,
Richd. Ingle.”
Beane stated also that sometime before Ingle came, he paid six hogsheads of tobacco to Fenwick for Cornwallis, and that Ingle, upon his arrival, sent eleven men to fetch the hogsheads and other tobacco; that when Beane refused to give them up, Ingle was notified, and sent a note threatening extreme measures, and Beane was thus forced to give up the tobacco. Does it not seem curious that Ingle should give a receipt for one batch of tobacco, and within a short time have other tobacco forcibly seized? Of course the authorities of Maryland might have considered such acts piratical. But they were not. Ingle had a commission from Parliament, to relieve the planters in Maryland, by furnishing them arms, &c. He found the government of Maryland at enmity with Parliament, which was the actual government of England at that time, and assisted the friends of Parliament in Maryland. Even if he exceeded the provisions of his letter of marque he was responsible to Parliament alone.[84] That the English authorities did not disapprove of his conduct is shown by the weight attached to his statements, and by the fact that he was afterwards in the service of the Commonwealth.
As to Ingle’s having been a “rebel,” the facts all point to his participation in the beginning of a rebellion, caused probably, by those dissatisfied with Leonard Calvert’s rule, more probably by the influence of William Claiborne, who in spite of condemnatory acts by the Maryland Assembly, and the vacillating measures of Charles I., insisted for many years upon his right to Kent Island. But rebellion is viewed in different ways: by those against whom it is made, with horror and detestation; by those who make it, with pride and ofttimes with devotion. If Ingle led on the rebellion, he was acting in Maryland, only as Cromwell afterwards did on a larger scale, in England, and as Bacon, the brave and noble, did in Virginia, and to be placed in the same category with many, who will be handed down to future generations as rebels, will be no discredit to the first Maryland rebel.