William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: “the most capable in all Respects” o r “Blockhead Booby”? b y C. Ashley Ellefson Copyright © 2007 b y C. Ashley Ellefson All rights reserved Not to be reproduced, in whole or in part, manually, mechani- cally, electronically, or by any other method that might be invented, without the permission of the author or his proxy. For Phebe Jacobsen 24 March 1922 - 19 April 2000 “No man can judge what is good evidence on any particular subject, unless he knows that subject well.” George Eliot Middlemarch “Brack: But it has been very much praised, I hear. “Lövborg: That was what I wanted; so I put nothing into the book but what every one would agree with. “Brack: Very wise of you.” Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler Tomb & Inscription of William Bladen St. Anne’s Church, Annapolis MD Courtesy of Historic Annapolis Foundation Contents Title Page i Copyright Page ii Dedication iii Quotes iv Bladen’s Tomb v Table of Contents vi Acknowledgments vii A Note on Use of Dates xi Foreword xii Notes: Forward xiv Chapter 1. Introduction: The Turbulent Seventeenth Century 1 Notes: Introduction 21 2. Jump-Start to Fortune 42 Notes: Jump-Start 45 3. Placeman 49 Notes: Placeman 74 4. Publisher 103 Notes: Publisher 107 5. Contractor 112 Notes: Contractor 134 6. Attorney General 152 Notes: Attorney General 184 Appendix to Chapter 6: William Bladen as Defense Attorney 219 Notes: Bladen as Defense Attorney 231 7. Bladen the Man 240 Notes: Bladen the Man 255 Appendix A: William Bladen’s Birth and His Arrival in Maryland 265 Notes: Bladen’s Birth and Arrival in Maryland 267 Appendix B: William Bladen and Letitia Loftus: A Voyage in Search of a Wife and an Exercise in Genealogy 269 Notes: William Bladen and Letitia Loftus 274 Tables: William Bladen’s Offices 72 William Bladen’s Prosecutions of Thomas Macnemara 182 Index on William Bladen and Thomas Macnemara 279 Index on Selected Items 283 Acknowledgments I owe thanks to a number of people for their help during the many years I have been doing research for this essay. Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, State Archivist and Commissioner of Land Patents, and his staff at the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis are following the outstand- ing precedent that Dr. Morris L. Radoff and Gust Skordas established during their many years at the Hall of Records. Unless otherwise noted, all of the records I have used are at the State Archives. Also at the State Archives, Patricia V. Melville, former Director of Appraisal and Description, was always patient in answering my questions about the records. Dr. R. J. Rockefeller, former Director of Reference Services, helped me by checking the wording of three entries in the published Archives of Maryland against the wording in the original records. I appreciate also the help of the other archivists in the Search Room over the years. Special thanks must go also to the hard-working and often unappreciated people in the Search Room at the State Archives who invariably have been untiring and courteous in lugging the often heavy records from the stacks to the desks and back to the stacks again. Outside the Search Room, Dr. Papenfuse has always responded promptly to my enquiries and requests. Lynne MacAdam, former Webmaster and Director of Electronic Publications, went out of her way for me to get information I needed before I could order some records and to check the files on William Bladen and Thomas Bladen in the Legislative History Project for citations on William Bladen’s death. Emily Oland Squires, Director of Biographical Research, provided me with information on the price of land in eighteenth-century Maryland and sent me the files Acknowledgments viii from the Legislative History Project on William Bladen and Philip Lynes. Dr. Papenfuse, Emily Squires, Richard Richardson, Personnel Officer and Deputy Commissioner, and Michael McCormick, Director of Reference Services, were instrumental in providing me with information from the land records on some of Bladen’s purchases of land. I also thank Joshua Mason, formerly of Reference Services, for actually pulling this information from the records. Dr. Papenfuse, Dr. Jean Russo, Research Archivist and Associate General Editor of the Archives of Maryland Online, and Lynne MacAdam have given me encouragement when I needed it most, and I thank Dr. Papenfuse and Dr. Russo for providing me the opportunity to include this manuscript on the Archives of Maryland Online. Diane Evartt, Director and Editor of the Maryland Manual, has been a good friend to both my bride Beverly Ann and me and, in the tradition of the late Phebe and Bryce Jacobsen, is one of the very good people in the world. At the Historic Annapolis Foundation, Dr. Gregory A. Stiverson, former President, and Patricia Blick, Vice-President for Preservation and Education, pro- vided me with the photographs of Bladen’s tomb, and Alecia Parker, former Research and Interpretation Coordinator, speedily responded to my inquiry about Bladen. The photos of William Bladen’s tomb are reprinted courtesy of the Historic Annapolis Foundation. An exchange of e-mails on Oliver Cromwell with Jane McWilliams, of Annapolis, helped me to clarify some of the wording in my chapter on the seven- teenth century. At the Maryland Historical Society, Jennifer A. Bryan, former Curator of Manuscripts and Archives, took time to answer my questions, and Francis O’Neill, Reference Librarian, checked the “Supplement to His Lordship’s Patronage” for the source of Donnell M. Owings’ use of 7 August 1718 for the date of Bladen’s death. I also thank Dr. Robert I. Cottom, Editor of the Maryland Historical Magazine, for his permission to quote from that journal and from the published Archives of Mary- land. Getting acquainted with Beth Alvarez, Curator of Literary Manuscripts at the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland in College Park, has been a pleasure, and she also put me in touch with Douglas P. McElrath, Curator of Marylandia, Rare Books, and the Collection of the National Trust for Historic Preservation there, who Acknowledgments ix in turn alerted me to the work of Calhoun Winton. At the Library of Congress, Michael J. Klein, former Manuscript Reference Librarian, and Jeffrey M. Flannery, Acting Assistant Chief of the Manuscript Divi- sion, provided me with information from the photocopies of the Colonial Office Papers to fill in some voids in the information I got when I went through the appro- priate photocopies many years ago. The original Colonial Office Papers are of course in The National Archives in London. In England Pam Flynn, Copyright Administrator in Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, Norwich, England, provided me with information on copyright; John Brook- er, Special Collections Assistant, J. B. Priestley Library, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, informed me of the distance between Steeton and Wad- worth; and Susan Caton, Customer Support Assistant in the Department of Arts, Heritage & Leisure: Libraries, Archives & Information Service, Bradford, West Yorkshire, sent me a very helpful map of that area. At the Binghamton University Libraries, Binghamton, New York, Colleen Hailey, Business and Cinema Librarian, and Ronnie Goldberg, Assistant Director for Access Services, checked on some items for me. I also thank Professor John J. McCusker, Ewing Halsell Distinguished Profes- sor of American History and Professor of Economics at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, for his information and advice on current money of Maryland in the eighteenth century, and Professor Marc Harris of Pennsylvania State University, Professor Russell Stoermer of George Washington University, Professor L. H. Roper of the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Professor Michael Bellesiles for their responses to my query about the competence of English officials in colonial America. At Cortland, Eileen Williams, Gretchen Gogan, Laurie Pepper, and Beverly Ann have gone beyond anything that could be expected of them to get me the sources I have needed on interlibrary loan. Also in the library, Dr. Mary Bielby, Thomas Bonn, David Kreh, and especially Margaret Anderson have been helpful. Our friend and former colleague Frank Ray read an early copy of the manuscript, and another friend and former colleague, Dr. Harry Dahlheimer, gave me some good advice on revision. A conversation with my neighbor and friend Ron Sickmon about architectural Acknowledgments x terms relating to the chapter on William Bladen as a contractor has made me feel more secure about the obscure. Beverly Ann has spent many a stressful hour helping me to cope with comput- ers. She also spent dozens of hours tracing the genealogy of Letitia Loftus, whom many historians identify, we believe mistakenly, as William Bladen’s first wife, and she has spent many hours in searching other things as well. She is also my most important advisor. Finally, we have to say something about Phebe Jacobsen, to whom this manu- script is dedicated. Phebe was a good friend from the time I started doing research at the old Hall of Records in Annapolis in the fall of 1961 or the spring of 1962, and she quickly became a good friend of Beverly Ann when she started working at the Hall of Records in 1966. She had a sensitivity, a compassion, and a decency that one seldom finds in people. Always courteous and helpful, as an archivist she had a broad knowledge for which not every researcher gave her proper credit. She accepted the condescension with patience and humor and went on with her job. C. Ashley Ellefson Cortland, New York May 2007 A Note on Use of Dates Until 1752 England continued to use the Julian Calendar, which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B. C.