The Lost Capital of Maryland, III
Reilly, Louis W.
542 THE COMMONWEAL March 24, 1926 THE LOST CAPITAL OF MARYLAND III. THE PASSING OF ST. MARY'S By LOUIS W. REILLY A FTER passing vexatious laws against the Cathor\ lies, banning them from...
...and also to keep constantly on hand a dozen horses at least, with suitable furniture, for any person or persons, having occasion to ride post, or otherwise, with or without a guide, to any part of the province on the western shore...
...Mary's Seminary—that it may not be called even a hamlet...
...But its very fidelity to the institutions that had been overthrown and its persistent attachment to the Proprietary, were now become unpardonable offenses—punishment...
...The ninth reason stated that: Upon which encouragement given, several of the inhabitants of the said city had launched out, disbursed considerable estates to their great impoverishment and almost utter ruin, if they should be defeated of such, their promised encouragement...
...They say that they do not hold themselves accountable to the Mayor and his brethren for what they do for their country's service, nor by what measures they do the same, nor what time they shall take to do it in, nor for what reasons...
...In conclusion, they offered an apology to the Governor for their freedom in putting him in mind of a matter which they knew was his "chiefest care to preserve...
...The eleventh reason, alleged that the capital should be at St...
...Although we conceive the motives there laid downe are hardly deserving any answer at all, many of them being against the plain matter of fact, some against reason, and all against generall good and wellfaire of the province...
...and principally from the bottom of their hearts...
...When St...
...The petitioners implored the Governor to continue: their ancient franchises, rights and privileges, granted them by their charter, with such other benefits and advantages as hath been accustomed and generally allowed, and, from time to time, continued to them by your predecessors, rulers and governors of the province, humbly offering and proposing to Your Excellency these following reasons as motives inducing thereto: Imprimis: as that it was the prime and original settlement of the province, and from the first seating thereof for above sixty years hath been the antient seat of government...
...The second reason was that Lord Baltimore had conferred on it, in consideration of the above fact, especial privileges...
...The fourth reason showed that the capital should not be removed because land was bought by an act of the legislature of 1662...
...Many of its buildings, deserted and neglected, fell into decay...
...Mary's as to its convenience for masters of vessels and others coming in and going out of the province, for the dispatch of letters and expresses, its accessibleness from Patuxent and Potomac Rivers, and the "Main Bay," and the colony of Virginia "with whom mutual intercourse and correspondence is most undeniably necessary and material...
...It had been made a city in 1671, and it had the privilege of sending two delegates to the Assembly...
...Mary's, it is noe rule nor guide to their Majesties, Your Excellency, nor this house...
...But they say, and can make appeare that there has been more money spent here, by three degrees or more, than this city and all the inhabitants for ten miles round is worth, and say that having had sixty odd years experience of this place, and almost a quarter part of the province devoured by it, and still, like Pharaoh's kine, remain as at first, they are discouraged to add any more of their substance to such ill improvers...
...The twelfth reason made the point that "scarce any precedent can be produced of so sudden a change as the removal of the antient and chief seat of government upon the careless suggestion and allegation of some particular persons for their own private interest and advantage...
...The eighth reason declared that, to encourage the people of St...
...The petitioners "humbly conceive that House did well consider all difficulties and outlays, losses and expenses to be incurred in moving the capital, besides the hazards and casualties of removing and transporting the records from one place to another, of which already some experience hath been had...
...Mary's, against removing the courts and Assembly of, from this corner and poorest place in the province, to the centre and best abilitated place thereof...
...They repeated that it was a royal prerogative to change a capital and when that authority is invaded, "the state is in confusion...
...and almost all other, their Majesties' American plantations...
...and are, and will be as carefull of the records and properties of the people, as the Proprietary...
...Mary's is very unequally rankt with London, Boston, Port Royall, etc...
...Its antagonism was based ostensibly on the remoteness and inaccessibility of the city, but its real objection was that the inhabitants were mostly Catholics...
...Mary's to provide accommodations for persons called to the town by public business, Lord Baltimore had promised that the seat of government should not be taken away from St...
...Mary's...
...Mary's so neare Virginia, is not so great an advantage to the province, as the placing the courts in the centre and richest part of the same, which is no great distance from thence of Virginia either, and nearer New York and other governments which we have as much to do with as Virginia, if not more, and the place a9 wellwatered and as commodious in all respects as St...
...and not only so, but divers others the inhabitants for several miles about contiguous and adjacent to the said county, upon the same encouragement of His Lordship, have seated themselves upon mean and indifferent lands, and laid out their estates, and made improvements thereon, barely for the raising of stock wherewith to supply the said city for the end and purpose aforesaid, which is now become their whole and only dependence for their future support and maintenance...
...The fifteenth reason offered to meet the objections of inconvenience of travel by providing: a coach, or caravan, or both, to go at all times of public meeting of Assemblies and provincial courts, and so forth, every day, daily, between St...
...where are still kept and continued in their first antient stations and places, the chief seat of government and courts of judicature...
...The sixth and seventh reasons recounted the removal of the Assembly and courts to the ridge in 1683, and the inconveniences that had brought them back to St...
...It had been created a town and port of entry in 1683...
...After signing their names, the petitioners made a last appeal to the Governor and council not to assent to the proposed removal...
...and an act passed in 1674 to build a state house and prison which cost the province 300,000 pounds of tobacco...
...yet, because Your Excellency has been pleased to lay them before us, we humbly returne this, our sence of the same, that as to the . . . reasons, relating to what his Lord Proprietary has thought fitt to doe to the city of St...
...MARY'S By LOUIS W. REILLY A FTER passing vexatious laws against the Cathor\ lies, banning them from public office, forbidding priests to say Mass, to exercise among the faithful the spiritual functions of their office, or to act as school-teachers, and harassing the representatives of the Proprietary, the royal government struck a fatal blow at St...
...Mary's in this province ; Boston, in New England...
...As to the tenth and eleventh: We conceive the being of St...
...it was identified with the gentle and benevolent administration that had brought them peace and plenty...
...Mary's because Governor Copley had been sent there to conduct the government...
...The people of St...
...On the reception of the reply of the House of Delegates, the council tersely approved it, saying: "This board concur with the said answers made by the House of Burgesses...
...Mary's was no longer the capital, its modest prosperity began to wane...
...Yet it is situated on a beautiful plateau and possesses a noble harbor capable of sheltering a fleet...
...The Governor sent the petition to the lower House of the Assembly, which made to it this jeering reply: By the Assembly, October 11, 1694: Thi9 House have read and considered of the petitions and reasons of the Mayor, Aldermen and others, calling themselves Common Council and Freemen of the city of St...
...At present, the place contains so few buildings— including a state-assisted "non-sectarian" Protestant academy for girls, called St...
...Mary's had contributed 100,000 pounds of tobacco to build Lord Baltimore a residence adjacent to the town...
...Mary's had then about sixty dwellings, a fine state house, a printingoffice, stores, warehouses, and other buildings...
...It claimed also that the removal of the capital was invested with the Governor as their majesties' representative and uat His Excellency's feet," and the petitioners continued: We humbly cast ourselves for relief and support against the calamities and ruin wherewith we are threatened, and wholly relying upon your Excellency's grace and favor therein, with whom, we also conceive, should be good manners in all persons first to treat and interceed, before they presume to make any peremptory result, in case of so high a nature as this may be...
...They therefore drew up a lengthy petition to "His Excellency," which began: The Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, Common Councilmen, and Freemen of the city of St...
...If it had not been despoiled of its dignity as the capital of the colony, it would now, with shipping and railroads facilitating approach to it, be a great metropolis...
...Mary's and Patuxent River, and at all other times, once a week...
...It had been their first home in the new world...
...Mary's saw that the change meant the decline of their city and the ruin of most of the citizens who had made permanent investments in it...
...The new capital was a village at the mouth of the Severn River, and had first been called Providence, and later, the Town at Proctor's...
...Mary's in the said province...
...March 24, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 543 The tenth reason was based on the advantages of St...
...It became a city in 1708...
...As to the ninth: This House say that it is against the plain matter of fact, for we can decerne noe estate, either laid out, or to lay out, in or about this famous city comparable with other parts of this province...
...This House conceive that the city of St...
...Mary's as the capital was that: The situation in itself is most pleasant and healthful, and naturally commodious in all respects for the purpose, being plentifully and well-watered with good and wholesome springs, and almost encompassed around with harbor for shipping, where 500 sail of ship, at least, may securely ride at anchor before the city...
...The House say the petitioners offer faire as they have done formerly, but never yet performed any, and this House believes that the generall wellfaire of the province ought to take place of that sugar plum of all the Mayor's coaches, who, as yet, has not one...
...The third reason for the continuance of St...
...Jamestown, in Virginia...
...The removal was completed in the winter of 1694 and 1695, when the archives were all transferred to Anne Arundel...
...But, effaced as are the edifices that once entitled it to the rank of a city, and overgrown and forgotten as are its boundaries, it still survives, imperishable, in the history of America and in the honor of mankind as the cradle of civil and religious liberty in the United States...
...They begged the Governor to reject the bill, until, at least, leave be obtained from the King, "lest the province may be so blamed as to have it said that it was the first of the American plantations that offered violence to the prerogative of so worthy a prince...
...the foundations of a Protestant church had been laid—the only brick church then in Maryland...
...they rejoice in Your Excellency's happy accession to this, your government...
...At the next session it was called the Port of Annapolis...
...it had been the seat of their government for more than half a century...
...Port Royal, in Jamaica...
...They were convinced that the contemplated law was "an apparent encroachment upon their Majesties' prerogative...
...Some of its inhabitants who depended on the trade of visitors, moved to Annapolis...
...and sincerely pray for your peaceable and quiet enjoyment thereof and long and prosperous continuance therein, for the glory of God, their Majesties1 service, the good and benefit of their subjects, and your own particular comfort and satisfaction...
...Mary's as long as he lived...
...Mary's were a grievance or not, and carried in the negative...
...The new government wished to cut away from the old, to destroy cherished traditions, to alienate the people from all affection toward the founders of the colony, and to obliterate memories that were hostile to itself and its narrow ways...
...Mary's City...
...The fifth reason was that the inhabitants of St...
...for which meant destruction...
...The thirteenth and fourteenth reasons referred to the fact that in 1692 "it was put to the vote of a full House whether the holding of the courts and Assembly at St...
...The sixteenth and final reason argued that the objection to St...
...Mary's alleging that because it was not in the centre of the province it was not suitable for the capital, was conspicuously untenable from the fact that the imperial court is held in London, "as far from the centre of England as St...
...It seems in some parts to reflect on his Lord Proprietary, more than this House believes is true, or deserved by his Lord Proprietary...
...All which we humbly offer to Your Excellency's consideration...
...Accordingly, the Assembly that convened in 1694 resolved, with the connivance of Francis Nicholson, the third royal governor, to move the capital to "the Town at Proctor's...
...The town had, moreover, excellent points of land on which to erect fortifications to defend the said shipping and for the preservation of the "public magazine and records of the province...
...Its handsome and wellbuilt state house, after being used for many years as an Episcopalian house of worship, was iconoclastically leveled to the ground in 1831, and a Protestant church erected on or near its site...
...Four or five years later, it had forty dwellings, a state house, and a free school that was built of brick...
...Mary's, which has only served hitherto to cast a blemish upon all the rest of the province in the judgment of all discerning strangers who, perceiving the meanness of the head, must rationally judge proportionably of the body thereof...
...The very landing on the river in front of it does not go by its name, but is known as Brome's...
...In 1694, previous to the removal, it was named Anne Arundel Town, and was made the residence of the district collector, the naval officer, and their deputies, "for the dispatch of shipping...
...It has been practically wiped out of existence...
...The ancient capital was dear to the original settlers and to their descendants...
Vol. 3 • March 1926 • No. 20
