Volume XXXV Number 3 The Maryland Historical Magazine A SEPTEMBER • 1940 Baltimore as Seen by Moreau de St. Mery in 1794 Translated and Hdited by Fillmore Nor fleet 221 George Beck, an Early Baltimore Landscape Painter . J, Hall Pleasants 241 Presbyterians of Old Baltimore John H. Gardner, Jr. 244 First Presbyterian Church Membership, 1766-1783 256 Buchanan Family Reminiscences . Amy Hutton 262 Richard Malcolm Johnston in Maryland, Continued Francis T. Long 270 The Log of the Rossie J. P. Cranwell and W. B. Crane 287 Egerton Family . Francis B. Culver 292 Book Reviews, Notes and Queries . 303 Published Quarterly by the MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY BALTIMORE $3.00 the Year Single copy 75 c. ZZS NORTH CHARLES STREET BALTIMORE Una ravers and utationers PERSONAL CHRISTMAS CARDS - That are distinctive and different. Their character, smart- ness and quality are a tribute to one's good taste. Ten percent discount for orders placed prior to October thirty- first. WEDDING STATIONERY- Fine papers including the new Petal White by Crane, careful hand engraving and correct current styles are the essentials of fine wedding stationery. They de- scribe faithfully every wedding invitation or an- nouncement that bears the name of " Downs." FOR THE WRITING DESK - Fine correspondence papers in a great variety of colors, " Engraved by Downs." Desk sets, writ- ing folios, library sets, scrap books and many other fine leather accessories that make Christ- mas gift buying a pleasure. VIEW OF BALTIMORE FROM HOWARDS PARK Painted by George Beck about 1796. From the painting owned by the Maryland Historical Society. Landmarks prominent in this view are described in J. Hall Pleasants' sketch of the artist in this issue. Courtesy Frick Art Reference Library frsn so sgg/-i-/3^ MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE VOL. XXXV SEPTEMBER, 1940 No. 3 BALTIMORE AS SEEN BY MOREAU DE SAINT-MfiRY IN 1794l Translated and Edited by FILLMORE NORFLEET 2 I. A TRIP FROM NORFOLK TO BALTIMORE BY WATER May 15, 1794. In Norfolk3 there are two packets or passenger boats that go to Baltimore, and in the latter city two with Norfolk their destination. These exceedingly fine sailing boats or schooners are not only very nicely fitted up, but have delightful cabins. The passage is eight dollars and a half (48 francs), a price that includes meals when the trip takes a short time, and they calculate the provisions in that hypothesis. On May 15, 1794, as I have already stated, we left Norfolk about ten in the morning on the schooner President, com- 1 Copyright 1940 by Fillmore Norfleet. 2 Born at Fort Royal, Martinique, on Jan. 13, 1750, Mederic-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery received his legal education in Paris, then returned to the West Indies where he settled in Cap Ftancais. Sent to France in an official capacity, he was elected a representative to the States-General when it assembled on April 23, 1789, became president of the body July 1st, played an important role in the organization of the Parisian militia on July 13th, and was charged with the distribution of arms and ammunition on the fateful day that followed. Resigning from the Commune, he became a member of the Assemblee Constituante as deputy from Martinique. When that body was dissolved, he fled to Normandy and took passage on the Sophia, an American brigantine, which sailed Nov. 9, 1793. Accompanying him were his wife, his son, and his daughter Amenaide; Mme Dupuy, his sister, her three children, and their servant; M, Baudry de Lozieres (later author of Voyage a la Louisiane, 1794-1798, Paris, 1802, 1803), Moreau's brother-in-law, and his wife (sister of Mme Moreau de Saint-Mery), their daughter and servant. The rest of the passengers made up sixteen in all. After a storm-tossed crossing of 119 days, the Sophia finally sighted the Virginia coast on March 5, 1794. Fuller data concerning Moreau de St. Miry together with his account of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Gosport, Virginia, in 1794, translated and edited by Fillmore Norfleet, appear in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January, April, and October, 1940, issues. The sources are (1) Part I of the Introduction, pp. xiii-xxix, to Moreau de Saint-Mery's Voyage aux Etats-Unis de VAmerique, 1793-1798, edited with notes and introduction by Stewart L. Mims, Yale University Press, 1913, and (2) the text itself, pp. 2-29). 8 Ibid., pp. 80-99, printed by permission of Dr. S. L. Mims. The original manuscript is in the Collection Moreau de Saint-Mery, series Fs, vol. 123, Archives Coloniales, Paris. 221 222 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE manded by Captain Gold, and owned by Mr. Moses Myers,* a Norfolk merchant. Anchored at quarantine opposite the fort5 we found a vessel from Jeremie6 with smallpox aboard, an event that did not prevent our captain from accepting several passengers for Baltimore from the boat. Among them were M. Somperat, from Jeremie, and M. Le Sassier, son of a conseiller from Louisiana, hence a compatriot of my wife. To the right a little beyond the fort is a large distillery that is being allowed to fall in ruins. Craney Island,7 which always gives the appearance of being in the middle of the river as one sails away from Norfolk, made a pretty backdrop for a long while because of the calm that fell almost as we left the wharf. We were not able to pass the island until quarter after twelve. At a quarter of two we were opposite Sewell's Point,8 and at a quarter after two we came abreast the French frigate la Concorde9 anchored in Hampton [Roads]. After another quarter of an hour we passed Point Comfort. At three o'clock Cape Henry lighthouse appeared on our right, but very far in the distance. From this location the view was ex- ceedingly beautiful, consisting, as it did, of the James River on one side, and the true entrance to Chesapeake Bay on the other. We chose this moment to have dinner. On board were thirty-nine passengers of both sexes, of all ages, and even of all colors. Several who had no right to the captain's table had already completed their meal in different parts of the ship, and for more than one the repast had been a lesson in frugality rather than an opportunity to exercise an appetite generally whetted by the roll of the boat when it is not strong enough to make one ill. So slowly did we progress that it was already four o'clock when we arrived off Back River Point.10 * 1752-1835. Jewish, originally of New York; came to Norfolk about 1786 and established the shipping business of Myers & Company; later Danish vice-consul (1812), Dutch consul (1819), and collector of customs (1828). 6 Fort Norfolk, built in 1794 under the direction of the Italian engineer, John Jacob Ulrich Rivardi. 8 A town in the Department of the South, French Santo Domingo. 7 At the mouth of the Elizabeth River on the western side. 8 On the eastern shore of Hampton Roads. 9 One of the squadron sent by famine-ravished France to act as convoy for some 130 merchant ships loaded with provisions and assembling in American ports. Under Rear- Admiral Van Stable the ships-of-line had left Brest in December, 1793, and anchored in Chesapeake Bay Feb. 12, 1794. A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812, vol. 1, pp. 122-123. 10 Near Thimble Shoal on the western side of lower Chesapeake Bay. BALTIMORE AS SEEN BY MOREAU DE SAINT-MERY IN 1794 223 The excessive heat of the day, the play of the schooner's main- boom caused by the calm, the coolness that descended with the night, and the boredom produced by the slowness of our progress, all com- bined to make us think of looking for sleeping quarters, but only, however, after the appearance of tea, the customary substitute for an American supper. The schooner's ten cabins were occupied by some fifteen people made up of a husband and wife or two children in a cabin; the remaining passengers were stretched out on the floor, on the deck, or near the hatches. 16. At five o'clock on the morning of the 16th, we were in the Chesapeake opposite the mouth of the Potomac, at this point 7 or 8 miles wide. We could even make out land to the right. The Potomac River is the boundary separating Virginia from Maryland. The calm had been so absolute we had been merely a plaything of the tides for the entire day. This annoying adversity made the captain decide to cast anchor at 7 o'clock. A favorable wind having risen in the evening at 7, we weighed anchor, and, once in our cabins, congratulated ourselves for having regained what we had lost during the past 30 hours. At eleven o'clock, however, the wind changed to the north, and it became very cool. From then on, the wind continued to increase in violence, and by 2 o'clock in the morning we were being greatly tossed about by the sea. The schooner, overloaded as it was, had lost completely its quality of good sailing ship. Huge waves that washed over the bow wet all passengers segre- gated on deck, causing them to scurry one by one into the cabins looking for refuge. The last to plead for a safe place to stay were some Negresses with their children, who were obliged, like the others, to seek protection. Moved to pity by their plight, a Colonist11 interceded not only for them but particularly for a little creature that he fondled much too tenderly for us not to notice that the color of the child's skin was mute evidence of its mother's fidelity to the gentleman.