Virginia and Maryland OR The Lord Baltamore's printed CASE uncased and answered Shewing the illegality of his Patent and usurpation of Royal Jurisdiction and Dominion there With The Injustice and Tyranny practised in the Government against the Laws and Liberties of the English Nation and the just Right and Interest of the Adventurers and Planters Also A short RELATION of the Papists late Rebellion against the Government of his Highness the Lord Protector to which they were reduced by the Parliaments Commissioners but since revolting and by Lord Baltamore's instructions caused to assault the Protestants there in their Plantations were by a far lesser number repulsed some slain and all the rest taken Prisoners To which is added A brief Account of the Commissioners proceedings in the reducing of Maryland with the Grounds and Reason thereof the Commission and Instructions by which they acted the Report of the Committee of the Navy concerning that Province and some other Papers and Passages relating thereunto together with the Copy of a Writing under the Lord Baltamore's Hand and Seal 1644. discovering his Practices with the King at Oxford against the Parliament concerning the Londoners and others trading in Virginia For the oppression of the poor for the sighing of the needy now will I arise saith the Lord I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Psal. 12. 5. London printed and are to be sold at the Crown in Popes-head-Ally and in Westminster-Hall 1655. Virginia and Maryland OR The Lord Baltamores printed Case uncased and answered IN the yeer 1607. divers preceding discoveries having confirmed an Opinion That the Country of Virginia was fit for Plantation It pleased God to affect the mindes of very many worthily disposed Noblemen Gentlemen and others to conceive it as a matter of great Religion and Honour to undertake the work of perfecting a Christian Plantation in those parts Whereupon King James was pleased to become the first Founder of this noble work and by his Letters Patents from time to time renewed and enlarged granted all ample Priviledges and Immunities both to those that managed in England those that went to inhabit there which gave so great an encouragement that fifty Earls and Barons three hundred and fifty Knights and six hundred Gentlemen and Merchants of primest rank became incoporated and were originally named in the Letters Patents by the name of the Company of Virginia being a greater union of Nobles and Commons then ever concurred to such an undertaking But nevertheless partly by the natural difficulties incident to all new Plantations but chiefly through the unnatural and faulty impediments arising by the cross agitations of two powerful factions in the Company the work went heavily on for the first twelve yeers appearing desperate in the several ill successes thereof And though afterward somewhat advanced and prosperous yet in the yeer 1621. by the fatal blow of a Massacre it was almost shattered to pieces and brought to a very low and calamitous condition which occasion the contrary faction presently took hold of insomuch that they exceedingly slighted the action and cared not to cast aspersions on the Country and on the whole management of that affair And then further strongly possessed and advised the then King against the form of the Companies Government as consisting of an excessive number of Councellours and a confused Popularity as being a Nurse of Parliamentary spirits and obnoxious to Monarchical Government Thereupon Order was made upon the eighth day of October 1623. at the Council-Table whereby the Company were moved to give in their assents for surrendeing their Patent and altering their form of Government and a new one proposed wherein the Interests and Rights of all men should be preserved which Order the Company not submitting unto A Quo Warranto was directed for the calling in of their Patent and an advantage taken upon their mispleading The Patent was condemned in Trinity-Term following but for many years after not vacated upon the Record in the Office of the Rolls whereby some that sought the overthrow of the Lord Baltamore's Patent for Maryland in the beginning of the Parliament 1640. took out the Virginia Patent again under the broad Seal of England therefore thought by primest Lawyers now to be unquestionably in force at least to point of interest and that Patent of Maryland unconsistent and void Thus in brief was the late Company dissolved and a Commission given to divers Lords and others for present directing and ordering the affairs of Virginia and that they should advise touching a better form of Government for advancing and establishing the Colony Then issued also several Proclamations and several Orders from the Council-Table with great assurances under the Broad Seal privy Seal that all men with the Adventurers and Planters should be assured that their Rights and Interests should be conserved and enlarged onely alteration in point of Government But both that Commission and renewing of the Companies Charter expired and all those Proceedings were delayed by reason of the death of King James which then suddenly ensued The principal scope of that Commission was that they should finde a better form of Government for the Countryes advancement and therein was especially promised the conservation of every man's right intentions worthy the wisdom and justice of so great a Prince But nothing was done by those Commissioners touching either of those ends nor by those by whose prosecutions these things hapned who having attained their private ends of spleen and profit upon the changes and revolutions of ensuing times deserted the interest of the Colony and left her weltring in her blood unsupplied with Ammunition and Arms in the heat of a difficult war with the Indians the burthen and charge whereof was onely undergone by the remaining Planters who thus forsaken by their former friends were constrained both to work and fight for their lives and subsistance and thereby preserved the Colony from desertion and at last restored it by the blessing of God to peace and plenty And then about the yeer 1633. Lord Baltamore pretending though not truely the greatest part of the Country was unplanted procured that the aforesaid judgement so long delayed was entred and obtained a Patent for that part now called Maryland which he hath since held with a few people and small Adventurers bebarring of those to whom it belonged from planting of it destroying and ruinating those formerly seated under Virginia at the Isle of Kent and interdicting Trade with the Indians for Furs discovered and begun by the Virginians by direction and commission from the King which since by this means is enjoyed by the Dutch and Swedes with the profit of many thousand pounds yeerly which Trade had been solely in the English Nations hands had not the Lord Baltamore interdicted â—t and seized all Vessels and displanted their Plantations And those Swedes and Dutch do trade for great quantities of Guns Powder and Shot with our Indians to the total
hazard their lives in all extremities alwayes accompanying new designs and beginnings in hope that their shares upon the division of Lands being four hundred Miles along the Sea-shore and into the Land from Sea to Sea would recompence them and their Heirs as in Ireland heretofore and now is done But this Interest by the Patent of the Lord Baltamore's comprehending neer two degrees which is an hundred and twenty Miles is wholly taken from them and scarce is there any room for any Adventurers to take up any Land due unto them It is truely answered that all the Adventurers of the Company were Tenants in common to all the Land which was not actually divided and set out and their claim cannot justly be thus nullified and yet their interest said to be reserved 3. It is granted That the Lord Baltamore may have as large a proportion of Land as ever was granted to any by the Company though his adventures have never been proportionable to sommens But we think it agreeing to reason that he should people it either shew his right to it by the adventure of people sent over to plant it which was by the Company appointed to be fifty Acres to every person transported thither otherwise how unreasonable is it that he should possess two third parts of the Bay of Virginia which may perhaps be said to be as big as the Kingdom of England and Scotland and yet now in many yeers have not more men there except such as have gone from Virginia then can or do plant as much as is contained in a small corner thereof and those chiefly employed in Tobacco and the great name of Maryland is but in effect made a factory for Trade Ammunition and Arms being as commonly sâ—ld to the Indians though not altogether so openly as among the Swedeâ—â— Dutch a Nursery for Jesuits and a bar to keep off other Planters from the greatest part of the Country left void and for the most part not known by him or his 5. We say that after we had discovered and brought the Indians of those parts of Maryland to a Trade of Corn and Beaver by vertue of the King's instructions under the Broad Seal of England with the expence of our Bloods and Estates and exercised annual intercourse with them above eight and twenty yeers how can it be said our Interests and Rights are preserved when we are forbidden this Trade our Men slain Vessels and Goods seized Persons imprisoned and the whole Trade assumed onely to the Lord Baltamore's use and he not able to manage it neither but left it to the Swedes and Dutch 6. And chiefly we answer We claim Right by Possession having planted the Isle of Kent almost three yeers before ever the name of Maryland was heard of and Burgesses for that place sitting in the Assembly of Virginia whereby it is evident that the Lord Baltamore's suggestions to the King mentioned in his Patent that those parts were uncultivated and unplanted unless by barbarous people not having the knowledge of God was a mis-information and by it that Patent appears to be surreptitiously and illegally gotten and if the Lord Baltamore takes a way those Lands from them who have also purchased the Interest of the Natives a Right not inconsiderable seize their Goods and that in an hostile manner as he hath done How can it be said that those mens Interests and Rights are preserved they being the first Discoverers of that Island by vertue of the King's Commission and planted there under the Government of Virginia on the confidence they apprehended from the former assurances and there began in great part the Trade of Furs How unjust an intrusion then will the Lord Baltamore's Patent appear which overthrows the Interests of so many and such Persons for the Company of Virginia were of a nature diversified from other Companies which if it had not been founded on so good Grounds yet their zeal and pious endeavours to propagate the true Christian Religion enlarge the English Dominions and to encrease the Trade and strength of shipping and considerably the Customes do deserve justice with addition of reward for so honourable and good intentions In the next place to prove the Lord Baltamore's usurpation of Royal Jurisdiction and Dominion in Maryland as absolute Lord and Proprietary there needs no more then his Commissions and Processes running in this stile viz. We Vs and Given under our hand greater Seal of Arms in such a yeer of our Dominion c. The Oath also that he tenders to all his Subjects and the Inhabitants such being the very words thereof as by the Oath it self copied from his own hand and herewith published appears This is surely incompatible to the English Nation that there should be any such principality erected over them whereas the books of Law teach us that all Writs Executions and Commands ought to be done in the name of the Supream Authority onely and is so appointed by the late Platform of Government for all the Dominions of the Commmonwealth of which this is a part and by a late Ordinance declaring Treason upon such penalty that none ought to exercise any power but in the Lord Protector's name and these men acting so wilfully cannot excuse themselves By the ancient English Laws all those Pleas that concern Life and Member and Pardons cannot be done in the name of any inferior Person and all Writs Indictments and Process as heretofore so must now only be in the name of the Lord Protector and not in the name of the Lord Baltamore's as he hath assumed in Maryland And whereas the Lord Baltamore pretends to the like priviledges as in the County-Palatine of Duresme even those priviledges of Duresme and all the other County-Palatines of England were and are taken away as dishonorable and incongruent to the English Nation by the Statute of the 27 Hen. 8. 25. With what strange confidence then doth the Lord Baltamore publish to the world That these Royalties and Priviledges are warranted by his Patent when as they are contrary to Law and to the Government now established under his Highness and to a Clause in his Patent wherein it is provided That no Construction be made thereof whereby the Government in the Common-wealth of England should suffer any prejudice or diminution Whereby it appears there was as good Cause to reduce Maryland as Virginia the People and General Assembly thereof also complaining of their Grievance among many other exorbitant Usurpations of Lord Baltamore over them as appears by their Complaint in Governor Green's time made and Recorded there by a Committee of that Assembly But 't is known that Governor Green was deposed by Lord Baltamore for suffering that Committee and not for proclaiming the King's Son as he aleadgeth when no such thing appears in rerum natura nor no word in all his many Instructions of the Parliament much less of his pretended affection to them or their friends but clean contrary And
't is notoriously known that all the Lord Baltamore's Governors usually took the Kings part against the Parliament and his Brother Mr. Leo Calvert his only Governor while he lived there ever declared himself against them And to evince this irrefrageably and clearly to demonstrate the management and complexion of this business both Lord Baltamore himself and his Brother by long Solitations at Oxford procured and sent over in Anno 1644. Commissions under the Kings Broad Seal to surprize the Parliaments and London-ships in Virginia and to impose Customs raise Regiments and Fortifie the Country against the Parliament which appears by several Writings under the Lord Baltamore's Hand and Seal one of which is hereunto annexed They did with zeal proclaim the Kings Son Charles the Second at Maryland and some that read it and assisted therein of the primest rank are still continued Counsellors by him and never a word of blame whereas 't is evident his own Interest is more than circumspectly watcht over and contended for How can he pretend that his Governor Captain Stone bare any affection to the Parliament when without check from himself in their Assemblies Laws he used the name of King and His Majesty and of Charles the First when the Second was Proclaimed there And why did Lord Baltamore himself in England advisedly consent and approve those Laws in terminis under his hand 1650. if such had not been his own thoughts toward the Parliament The Commissioners that were imployed by the Parliament to Reduce Virginia Anno. 1652. were commanded to Reduce all the Plantations in the Bay of Chesapiak and then that all Writs should issue in the Name of the Keepers of the Libertie of England They saw not how they could decline this service well knowing how contrary to those Commands and the Honor and Interest of the Parliament the Government of Maryland was exercised and think strange any should pretend assistance and supply of Victuals from Maryland to that Fleet when no such thing ever was that the Parliament Ships were entertained there in his Harbors whenas never any of them came at Maryland nor within near 100. miles thereof save only the Ginny Frigot who went thither to Reduce that Province they knew his Governor had alwayes bore affection to the Kings side that Charles the Second as hath been said was proclaimed there that the Councel were all Papists or indifferently affected and that they refused to Govern the people by the Laws of England another Clause in the Parliaments Commission to which several of their actings and even Lord Baltamore's Instructions were contrary as in this particular and many others appears by the Reports of the Committee of the Navy and the Councel of State to whom the Parliament referred this Cause a Copy of which Report is hereunto annexed And they ruled in Maryland in such an absolute way and authority as no Christian Prince or State in Europe exercises the like His Governor hath an absolute Negative Voice in all things and in the Assembly of the Burgesses calls into the Upper House as he terms it whom he will to over-vote the rest places and dis-places whom he will in that Councel and the Lord Baltamore himself though in England appoints all Officers even to the meanest degree and who flatter him most are sure to have it His Mandates are sent over to stop Justice and the Judges imprisoned for proceeding according to Justice Writs are given out under the Governors hand in his own Case without any judgement of Court to seize mens Goods into the Governors hands His Governors are not suable for any just debts and so they usually exercise their priviledges even to the oppression and discontent of the people No Appeals allowed from their Courts though consisting but of two men and those perhaps of no great knowledg or skill in Government no not to the general Representative Assemblies It would be infinite to rake in this Dunghil but all indifferent men that have lived and been there know these things to be sad Truths and surely not without cause have the general Assemblies there most of the Councel and the Freemen been often contesting with the Lord Baltamore's Governors about these things and yet could never obtain any redress from him but have resolved to Petition the State of England Why therefore should Maryland so ill Founded and so ill Managed be wrung from the right of Virginia against all Law and Equity as is before truely set forth And be established to Lord Baltamore a professed Recusant as his publish'd Book intimates who hath in effect made it a subject of his own domination and tyrranny being his main aim But to colour it and the better to get friends first made it a receptacle for Papists and Priests and Jesuites in some extraordinary and zealous manner but hath since discontented them many times many ways though Intelligence with Bulls Letters c. from the Pope and Rome be ordinary for his own Interests and now admits all sorts of Religions and intended even 2000 Irish and by his own Letters clears and indemnifies one that said Those Irish would not leave a Bible in Maryland His Country till he employed Captain Stone never had but Papist Governours and Counsellors dedicated to St. Ignatius as they call him and his Chappel and Holyday kept solemnly The Protestants for the most time miserably disturbed in the exercise of their Religion by many wayes plainly enforced or by subtil practises or hope of preferment to turn Papists of which a very sad account may from time to time be given even from their first arrival to this very day Virginia hath used all good Neighbourhood towards them without which assistance and supply even of all things they could not have subsisted for their numbers were inconsiderable and their Adventures small and very little after the first ship in comparison of such a work And though Lord Baltamore pretends great Adventures with his Friends thither yet none have appeared there to any considerable value from him for many yeers onely what Merchants and some few have done upon Returns of Tobacco and Beaver so that in Truth it will appear and that by his own Letters too Maryland hath been chiefly planted by Virginia from first to last and by people from thence wanting seats in their narrow limits Maryland taking away above half the Country which as hath been said before was onely discovered by Virginia with continual Trade and abode of people there for above 20 yeers by Commissions and Warrants in the King's Name and was planted by Colonel Claiborn under Virginia Government some yeers before ever the name of Maryland or Lord Baltamore was ever heard of there which himself knew though he mis-informed the King and obtained his Patent upon pretence of Unplanted places onely But the many illegal Executions and Murthers of several persons at the Isle of Kent by the Lord Baltamore's commands and his Officers the Imprisonments Confiscations of many
mighty power manifested even to administration together with the success and the evils drawn upon themselves appears by the relation thereof at this time also published by a Messenger from thence The Lord Baltamore pretends in print his entertainment into Maryland of the Parliaments Friends thrust out of Virginia but those very men whom he so stiles coming thither being promised by Captain Stone that he would 〈◊〉 urging the Oath upon them complain of it to the Parliament are in answer thereunto vilified by Lord Baltamore and publickly taxed for obscure factious fellows and in his later Letters termed the basest of men and unworthy of the least favour or forbearance such advantages doth he make on all sides at such a distance and in such incomposed times that he confidently takes the liberty to aver such extream and contrary things which amaze other men that see them The place as himself confesses had been deserted if not peopled from Virginia He might with more reason scruple to supplant the Rights of the most considerable conjuncture of worthy men that ever undertook such an Adventure as Plantation out of England which hath been the beginner and parent of all the rest The late King James revoked the Virginia-Companies Patent for denying him to alter the Government for which he had fundamentally provided to give Instructions from time to time and was the same which the last King did by his Commission to Sir William Davenant of which the Lord Baltamore speaks so much and makes such inferences as serve his own ends But the Truth is all that can rightly and properly be collected from thence is onely this his right to the Soil being in express words reserved if the King might dispose of the Government of Maryland why not the Parliament as they have done and why not the Lord Protector as he also hath done Another of those Fundamentals was That no Papists should be tolerated to remain in Virginia but sent away if they would not take the Oath of Allegiance and was so practised this the old Lord Baltamore refusing stayed not in Virginia and Hinc illa lachryma to all those that were of the Councel who with their wives and children have not suffered a little for it of which onely Colonel Matthews and Colonel Claiborn remain alive His Son this Lord Baltamore now publishes himself a Recusant and avers contrarily that the Laws against Papists and Recusants extend not thither yet his Patent sayes No interpretation shall be admitted thereof by which God's holy and truely Christian Religion or the allegiance due to the Successors of the State of England should suffer any prejudice or diminution By all which surely it 's most evident This County Palatine aimed and coveted by him appears disagreeable to Law and to his own Patent and as a Monster unlike the rest of the Dominions of the Commonwealth of England contrary to the late Platform of Government under his Highness the Lord Protector yet hath he omitted no means to inforce his Dominion on those men that are most unwilling to submit to him as an absolute Prince and hereditary Monarch Neither doth that instance of the Roman Commonwealth in his printed Pamphlet hold for him who though they permitted and continued many Kingships over people that formerly had them as is now done in Virginia among the Indians yet he cannot shew that ever they constituted Kings over the people of Rome to govern absolutely over them as this case pleads for to have a negative voice yea and as power ad placitum in all things that is before specified to the great regret of the Inhabitants the oppression of many and the obstruction of justice of which Maryland hath afforded no mean examples and complement But although Virginia seeks the re-establishment of her bounds so often assured under the great Seal of England and otherwise yet to renew any such Authority as this of Maryland or that of the Company over her she desires it not but to be from time to time under such Government as the State of England shall appoint Duplicate Instructions for Captain Robert Dennis Mr. Rich Bennet Mr. Tho. Sleg and Capt. William Claiborn appointed Commissioners for the reducement of Virginia and the Inhabitants thereof to their due obedience to the Commonwealth of England WHereas the Parliament of England by an Act intituled An Act prohibiting trade with the Barbadoes Virginia Bermudas and Antego hath committed to this Councel several powers therein expressed for the setling reducing and governing the said Islands printed Copies of which Acts are herewith delivered you In pursuance whereof a Fleet is now set forth victualled armed and manned under the command and conduct of Captain Robert Dennis to effect by the blessing of God the ends aforesaid for the management of that service you are hereby joyntly nominated and appointed Commissioners and for your better directions and proceedings therein you are to follow these Instructions following Such of you as are here to repair on board the ships John or the Guinny Friggot of the States which of them you shall think fit and winde and weather permitting to sail to Virginia as Captain Robert Dennis shall direct and appoint And upon your arrival in Virginia you or any two or more of you whereof Captain Robert Dennis to be one shall use your best endeavors to reduce all the Plantations within the Bay of Chesopiack to their due obedience to the Parliament and the Common-wealth of England For which purpose you or any two or more of you wherof Captain Robert Dennis to be one have hereby power to assure pardon and indemnity to all the Inhabitants of the said Plantations that shall submit unto the present Government and Authority as it is established in this Common-wealth in which pardons you may make such limitations and exceptions as you or any two or more of you whereof capt. Robert Dennis to be one shal think fit And in case they shal not submit by fair wayes meanes you are to use all acts of hostility that lies in your power to enforce them and if you shal find the people so to stand out as that you can by no other wayes oâ— means reduce them to their due obedience you or any two or more of you whereof capt. Rob. Dennis to be one have power to appoint captains and other Officers and to raise forces 〈◊〉 in every of the plantations a foresaid forth esurtherance and good of the service and such persons at shall come in unto you and serve as soldiers if their masters shal stand in opposition to the prelent Government of this Common-wealth you or any two or more of you whereof cap. Râ—b Dennis to be one have here by power to discharge and set free from their mastâ—gs all such persons so serving as souldiers You shall cause and see all the several Acts of parlament against Kingship and the house of Lords to be received and published as also the Acts for
we have taken in Subjection to the Common-wealth of England and unsutable to Freemen to own any other power than that to which we belong and to whom we are and have Engaged and contrary to the Word of God to fight for and defend and maintain Popery and a Popish Antichristian Government which we dare not do unless we should be found Traytors to our Country fighters against God and Covenant-breakers The Premises Considered we humbly spread our Condition before your view and Consideration hoping that as you are Commissioners for the Common-wealth of England and that power which God hath put into your hands that you will up and be doing in the name and power of our God that we be not left for our faithfulness as a prey to ungodly and unreasonable men before we can make our Complaint and Grievance known to the Supream Authority of England which with all readiness we shall endeavor to do by the first opportunity and from whom we do hope and shall expect by God's blessing to have a gracious Answer and sutable Redress And your Petitioners hereunto Subscribed shall pray c. Dated in Patuxent River in the Province of Maryland the first of March 1653. Subscribed Richard Preston and 60. more of the House-keepers and Freemen An Answer to the Petitions lately Received from the Inhabitants of the Rivers of Severn and Patuxent Gentlemen VVE have lately Received from you a Petition and Complaint against the Lord Baltamore his Governor and Officers there who upon pretence of some uncertain Papers and Relations to be sent out of England but no way certified or authenticated have presumed to recede from their Obedience to the Common-wealth of England to which they were reduced by the Parliaments Commissioners to the contrary whereof nothing hath been sent out of England as far as is yet made appear unto us But Duplicates and Confirmation of the Commissioners Power and Actions were sent from the Parliament since the Reduction of Virginia and Maryland Now whereas you Complain of real Grievences and Oppressions as also of the Imposition of an Oath upon you against the Liberty of your Consciences which you say you cannot take as Christians or as Free Subjects of the Common-wealth of England We have thought good to send you this Answer That because we nor you have not as yet received or seen sufficient order or directions from the Parliament and State of England contrary to the form to which you were Reduced and Established by the Parliaments said Commissioners Therefore we advise and require you that in no Case you depart from the same but that you continue in your due Obedience to the Common-wealth of England in such manner as you and they were then appointed and engaged And not to be drawn aâ—ide from the same upon any pretence of such uncertain Relations as we hear are divulged among you To which we expect your real Conformity as you will answer the contrary notwithstanding any pretence of power from the Lord Baltamore's Agents or any other whatsoever to the contrary Virginia March the 12 1654. Your very loving friends Richard Bennet Will. Claibourn A DECLARATION Published in MARYLAND IT cannot be unknown to the Inhabitants of Maryland that about two yeers since this Province was Reduced and Settled under the Obedience of the Common-wealth of England by the Parliaments Commissioners sent thither with special Commission and Instructions to that purpose And that Captain William Stone Mr. Tho. Hatton and others re-assuming the power and place of Governor and Councel here undertook and promised to continue in their said Obedience and to issue out all Writs Process and proceedings in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberty of Englaâ—d as was Commanded by the said Instructions by which Maryland was Reduced which said Commission and Instructions have been since renewed and the proceedings of the said Commissioners owned by the Committee of the Councel of State as by their Order and Report drawn up for the Parliament may appear wherein the Lord Baltamore's Agents are taxed for refusing to issue out Writs in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England Notwithstanding all which appearing so clear and evident The said Captain Stone and Mr. Hatton though they continued and exercised the Government for some time and for divers Courts in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England yet have they since upon no good ground falsified their said trust and engagement though acted publickly and after long Advice and Consideration And having rejected and cast off their said Obedience to the Common-wealth of England have further refused to Govern this Province according to the Laws of England but declare and assume a power and practise contrary thereunto and contrary to the late Platform of Government of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions thereof As namely by the Governors Negative Voice in Assemblies and his chusing and removing Counsellors at pleasure and the like is manifest And whereas we have lately received Commands from his Highness the Lord Protector to publish the said Platform of Government and that all Writs and Proceedings should be issued in the Name of his Highness to which though we desire this Government should be conformable yet the said Captain Stone and Mr. Hatton having lately Associated unto them divers Counsellors all of the Romish Religion and excluding others appointed by the Parliaments Commissioners have and do refuse to be obedient to the Constitutions thereof and to the Lord Protector therein And have in the name and by special direction of the said Lord Baltamore made Proclamation and exacted an Oath of Fidelity from all the Inhabitants of the Province contrary and inconsistent to the said Platform of Government which said Oath nevertheless and the Law here commanding the same and many other Laws are likewise by the Report of the said Committee of the Councel of State declared to be contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the English Nation which is an express breach of his Patent And whereas the said Oath in many particulars is distasted by all the Inhabitants of Maryland and especially out of tenderness of Conscience by all Northern Plantations of Patuxent and Severne who having lately engaged to the Parliament of England do say and declare they cannot take the said Oath to the Lord Baltamore to be absolute Lord and Proprietary of Maryland and to the utmost of their power to defend and maintain all his Rights and Royal Jurisdictions Prerogatives Dominion c. Upon which their refusal of the said Oath the said Captain Stone by the said Lord Baltamore's especial direction hath set forth a Proclamation declaring That all such persons so refusing shall be for ever debarred from any Right or Claim to the Lands they now enjoy and live on And that the said Captain Stone as his Lordships Governor is thereby required to cause the said Lands to be entred and seized upon to his Lordships use By
mens Estates and of Widows and Orphans to the destruction of many Families there especially his seizure of Captain Claiborn's Estate though out of his Patent because planted to the value of 6000 pounds with the great tyranny and wrong done there although the then King Declared and Commanded the contrary but was disobeyed by the Lord Baltamore's Agents are too long to be inserted here Many Inconveniences and Losses hath Virginia suffered by Maryland of which the continual Invitation and Entertainment of run-away servants and protecting fugitive persons and indebted is not the least But above all it is easie to be made appear that the Lord Baltamore hath continually ever since their seating there interposed in the matters of Government in Virginia by the potency of his friends in the late Kings Court both by placing and displacing the Governours Counsellors and Supream Officers as they stood affected or were displeasing to him Mr. Bennet and Captain Claiborn being two of the Commissioners that were imployed by the Parliament to reduce Virginia and Maryland are strangely taxed by Lord Baltamore for being his declared enemies indeed it seems for their service to the Parliament he is become implacable towards them though Captain Curtis another Commissioner now in England and all Maryland can testifie how unwilling and how tenderly they did any thing there and how much they desired and endeavoured to have declined any alteration if either Captain Stone the Governour or the Councel would here issued out Writs in the name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England and have promised to govern according to the Laws of England both which they refused under their hands and the Commissioners being sent to Maryland is since owned by the Report of the Committee of the Councel of State and the Lord Baltamore taxed and blamed for not issuing out Writs as they required them and therefore seems a bold aspersion for the Lord Baltamore to publish that Maryland being struck out of their commission was afterwards by some mistake put into the Commission the second time and as strange it seems that now since the reduction of Maryland the Lord Baltamore in opposition and contempt of the Supream Authority of England should cause his Governor and Councel most falsly and rebelliously to revolt and recede from the same and give instructions under his own hand as he had lately done to issue out all Writs and Proceedings in his own name onely which they have accordingly done and not the least mention of the Lord Protector's name in all their Government This the said Commissioners though they received confirmation of their Commission from the Parliament under the Seal the Original the first time miscarrying yet bore with a long time onely by â—etters out of Virginia admonished Captain Stone and that Councel of their error and protested against their actings but they continued obstinate The Commissioners were desirous still to expect and attend a settlement and determination out of England and to intermeddle as little as they could But about a yeer since Lord Baltamore sends over Instructions and Commands to Captain Stone and his new made Councel all or most Papists or indifferent to seize the Lands and Estates of all such as would not take the Oath of fidelity as he stiles it before specified But the people of Maryland generally abhorred this Oath and justly as is conceived especially those of Patuxent and Severn declined to take it as being against their Engagement incompatible with their subjection to the Commonwealth of England and inâ— congruous to swear to serve two absolute Superiors whereupon Captain Stone and his Counsel proclaim them seditious and rebels to Lord Baltamore and forget not to include the two Commissioners though in Virginia under the same name with other opprobious terms whereupon the people of Patuxent Sovern and Kent often and earnestly apply themselves if possible to have relief from those Comissioners yet they still desirously forbore to intermeddle hoping it would be done out of England until after many solicitations Mr. Bennet and Captain Claâ—boâ—â— with onely two men in July last went thither in a Boat yet using all â—air means but how ill they were treated for their moderation and intended to be surprised by night and made Prisoners and how they were necessitated to prevent greater mischief the present ruine of hundreds of Families to interpose to have that Oath suspended and the Government managed in the Lord Protector's name which being denied to avoid bloodshed they re-assumed the Government out of those hands that so ill-managed it and placed it in others for the time being under his Highness the Lord Protector until he should please to signifie his further pleasure will appear in a Declaration then and herewith published together with the peoples Petition the Commissioners answer thereunto and an Order for setling the Government in the hands of Captain William Fuller and others The Lord Baltamore also since gives particular Commission and Command to seize the persons of those Commissioners under his Hand and Seal dated in November last and for their service to the Lord Protector to proceed against them as abettors in mutiâ—y and sedition chides and upraid Captain Stone for cowardise provokes him to fighting and bloodshed a course too often acted in Maryland appoints another Governor in case he decline it and yet sends no revocation of the Commissioners reducement though he acknowledges he sought it earnestly of the Lord Protector but could not obtain it yet to bliâ—de and delude Captain Stone and his Counsel there came over 〈◊〉 Letter of Recommendation from his Highness of one Captain Barbar and by what practise or mistake is not known a subscription thereon to Captain Stone Governour of Maryland And by this together with a Copy of that Petition of the Merchanâ—s and others trading to Virginia brought in by Mr. Eltonhead and sent over by Lord Baltamore Captain Stone and all Maryland fall to arms and disarm and plunder those that would not accept the aforesaid Oath A part of them at last stood upon their guard onely sought to Captain Stone to shew his Commission and they would submit he caused to imprison their Messengers and being of far greater number assaulted them at their houses threatens to have their blood calls them Round-head Rogues and Dogs brought whole bagfuls of chewed Bullets rolled in powder saying The Devil take him that spares any and so falls on upon the day dedicated to the Virgin Mary with the word Hey for St. Mary but the Protestants commanded their men not to shoot upon pain of death until some being slain by a volly of shot from the Marylands they defended themselves and God confounded Capt. Stone and all his Company before them there were near double the number in Prisoners to the Victors twenty slain many wounded and all the place strewed with Papist beads where they fled but the Proceedings thereof and how the arm of the Lord was revealed and his