fW'-'. '.Ar # i^^ .«»^ :^A , ^ta/vL2?e.nze^rit^ of j/ieJu'i^ntffonoiurwtc Ccvcilius Couw/'t ^Kinatu?7ne ofT^viand ^o/o/utc Lofxl and Jrapttetafyoft/Pt-cmnceKf ofjia/yiana ojuf^/ivalen in ^-^nterica II<»ii f, Co. Li<h . Buhl THE CALVERT PAPERS. NUMBER ONE. 3fun&-1Pub(tcatvo«, ^o. 38. THE CALVERT PAPERS NUMBER ONE With an account of their recovery, and presentation to the Society, Deceniljer lotti, 1888. Together with a Calendar of the Papers recovered, and Selections from the Papers. JaHiiiiora, 1889. rEA]]ODY rUBLICATIOX FUXD. Committee on Publicatiox. 1888-89. HENRY STOCKBRIDGE, JOHN W. M. LEE, BRADLEY T. JOHNSON. Printed b v John M i k p u v X Co. I'H INTERS TO THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Baltimore, I S S !( ^-,cr\ CONTENTS PAGE. - Address of Mr. Albert Ritchje, - - - - t 9 Remarks of Mr. John H. B. Latrobe, 22 Report of Mr. Mendes Cohen, 22 Remarks of Dr. William Hand Browne, . - - 32 Exemplification of the Arms of Sir George Calvert, - - 38 The Patent of Nobility of George, Lord Baltimore, - 41 The Will of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, - - 48 The Inventory of the Estate of the same, - - - - 50 Tender by Cecilivs, Lord Baltimore, of the first year's Rent, 54 Receipt for the first year's rent, 54 A Calendar of the Calvert Papers, by Mr. John W. .^L Lee, 57 The Calvert Papers. First Selection, 127 PREFACE. At a meeting of the Maryland Historical Society, at their rooms, on December 10, 1888, the Calvert Papers were for- mally presented to the Society. An account of the search for, discovery, and acquisition of these papers is given in the following addresses, made by Mv. Albert Ritchie on behalf of the donors, and by the President on behalf of the Society, together with the Report of the Committee on the Calvert Papers, made by Mr. Mendes Cohen ; and some remarks on their character, accompanied by the reading of Extracts, were made by Dr. William Hand Bro\yne ; and to these have been added a Calendar of the Papers prepared by Mr. John W. M. Lee. THE CALVERT PAPERS. Address of Mr. Albert Ritchie. M7\ President,— 0]^ behalf of those who have recently secured possession of a valuable collection of histor- ical papers from an immediate descendant of the Calverts, I am here to-night to perform a most agreeable service. The papers referred to lie on the table before you, and I am instructed to present them to the Society of which you are the beloved and honored Pres- ident. During the supremacy of the Lords Proprietary, they resided, as you know, at their homes abroad, and were represented here by their Governors. They, however, to a large extent, themselves exer- cised the ample powers which they possessed, and maintained an active participation in the govern- ment of the province. 2 9 lu Frequent and full reports of the condition of affairs were from time to time transmitted to them, as were also many important official papers requir- ing their consideration and action. Thus, much of our history got upon the other side of the water ; some in the original, some in duplicate ; the original forming its own part of the record, and that in duplicate serving in some degree to supply the place of original material lost on this side. This collection was received from the possession of Col. Frederick Henry Harford, of Down Place, near Windsor, the great-grandson of Frederick, the last Lord Baltimore, and embraces all that is posi- tively known still to exist of those papers that were sent over to the Lords Proprietary in the manner stated. You will remember that in his Calendar Index of 1861, Dr. John Henry Alexander states that in the year 1839 he saw, in the British Museum, two large chests, marked "Calvert Papers," but that, on inquiry made by him many years afterward, all trace of them had disappeared. The acquisition of the papers in those two chests has been an object of which the members of this Society have never since lost sight. Whether these are they or not, it is impossible yet to say. They may, or may not be. But much as we desire to possess those papers, it is rather to be liojied that 11 the records we now have secured are not the ones referred to by Dr. Alexander, because, if it be de- termined that they are not, we will then be stimu- lated by the knowledge that there are other histori- cal treasures in the same line of search still to be looked for and found. The character of these papers will be told to you more in detail during the evening, but I may say in a word that it is believed that they will prove to be a historical treasure trove such as it has not been the good fortune of any other of the States to tind, and that they will add much value to the collec- tions already possessed by this Society. They will enable us to replace some of the lost leaves of the history of our State, to revise others, and to illumi- nate many more. Without anticipating what will be better told you by another, I may, in passing, give a suggestion of the contents of these papers by referring to one or two of them. You know, sir, that the princely grant of lands and waters which comprised the province of Maryland, was given on the condition prescribed in the Charter, that the Lord Proprietary should in every year on Tuesday in Easter week yield and pay therefor the rental of "two Indian arrows of those parts." We are able to assure you to-night that at least the first year's rent was duly paid, for lying before you is the receipt of " W. Thomas, keeper of his ^lajesty's 12 Wardrobe," for two Indian Arrows " tendered and left at and within the Castle of Windsor," for "one year's rent due to the King's Majesty" for "a ter- ritory or continent of land called Maryland," and dated on "Tuesday, the xxiiird day of April, 1633." For how many years the prompt payment of this rent continued we may not know, but we may pre- sume that it was well kept up, because, fi'om the failure of the native population to appreciate the principle of public law, that the discovery of the fact of their existence, gave the discoverer a claim to all their possessions, it was many years before Indian arrows became scarce in Maryland. Ulti- mately, however, about the 4th of July, 1776, we know that this rent was docked. All that we pay now is the annual levy of $2.07 on every one hundred dollars worth of our property. Another paper of this collection, while not so unique, is of more historical value. It is a copy in his own handwriting of the instructions given by Cecilius Calvert to the immigrants before the Ark and the Dove left the Isle of Wight. These Calvert papers, after much search and eifort, which will be more fully detailed by Mr. Mendes Cohen, were finally secured by a few of the members of this society, aided by some prominent citizens, and also, it is a great pleasure to add, with the gracious co-operation of several ladies who are with us to-nii>ht. 13 There is no need now to make special mention of the names of those for whom I speak, but I feel that I ought at least to say that, more than to any- thing else, we are indebted for the possession of these papers to the intelligent and persistent efforts of Mr. Cohen. He will not, in his account of them, say this for himself, and I therefore say it, because it ought to be said by some one. The circumstances warrant the mention of one other name in this connection. Always an inter- ested member of this Society and in sympathy with its work, one of the last acts of his life was a gen- erous contribution to the fund for the purchase of these papers by Mr. T. Harrison Garrett. The acquisition of these Calvert papers and the interest manifested in them to-night, are an assur- ance that our State has reached the age of historic research. This, of course, is a development of a somewhat advanced period, for the forces of moral evolution will not produce the historic sentiment until there is a. history to be written. The condi- tions are—a story to be told, and also the appropriate time for telling it. Unlike the observation of mate- rial objects the atmosphere is cleared by distance, and the truth of history is better discerned as we get above and beyond the motives, the partialities and mists which obscure a closer view. These con- ditions, like experience and good wine, come oidy by age. There is no improved method of hastening 14 them, and we must wait until the State has a past. The process may be going on, but we can simply stand by while seed time is ripening into harvest. But when the times have ripened for the pen of the historian, and existing conditions have created the want, the same forces which created the conditions will supply the want. Almost exactly two hundred years from the date of the charter had passed before the full period for writing the history of Maryland came, and then the great pen of McMahon was applied to the task.