Maryland ET a Historical Magazine X 0 n crc N 5' o .0 CO GO o Published Quarterly by the Museum and Library of Maryland History Maryland Historical Society Fall 1993 THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 1993-94 L. Patrick Deering, Chairman Jack S. Griswold, President Dorothy Mcllvain Scott, Vice President William J. McCarthy, Counsel A. MacDonough Plant, Secretary William R. Amos, Treasurei- Term Expires 1994 Tenn Expires 1997 Forrest F. Bramble, Jr. Gregory H. Barnhill Stiles T. Colwill Gerry L. Brewster George D. Edwards II Charles W. Conley Bryden B. Hyde Stanard T. Klinefelter Mrs. Leonard C. Crewe,Jr. Mrs. Jay Katz Mrs. Timothy E. Parker G. Do well Schwartz, Jr. Richard H. Randall, Jr. Edwin Warfield IV Truman T. Semans M. David Testa Trustees Representing Baltimore City and Counties H. Mebane Turner Baltimore City, Kurt L. Schmoke (Ex Offlcio) Term Expires 1995 Allegany Co.,J. Glenn Beall, Jr. (1996) James C. Alban III Anne Arundel Co., Robert R. Neall (Ex Officio) Baltimore Co., Roger B. Hayden (Ex Officio) H. Furlong Baldwin Calvert Co., Louis L. Goldstein (1995) P. McEvoy Cromwell Carroll Co., William B. Dulany (1995) Arthur J. Gutman Mrs. Bradford McE. Jacobs Frederick Co., Richard R. Kline (1996) Harford Co., Mignon Cameron (1995) Mrs. Walter G.Lohr, Jr. Howard Co., William T. Reynolds (1997) Milton H. Miller, Sr. Kent Co.,J. llursi Pumellji. (1995) William T. Murray III James O. Olfson Montgomery Co., George R. Tydings (1995) John D. Schapiro Prince George's Co., John W. Mitchell (1995) Washington Co., E. Mason Hendrickson (1996) Tenn Expires 1996 Worcester Co., Mrs. Brice Phillips (1995) Gary Black, Jr. Chairman Emeritus Glarence W. Blount Samuel Hopkins E. Phillips Hathaway J. Fife Symington, Jr. Louis G. Hecht Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. President Emeritus J.Jefferson Miller II Leonard C. Crewe, Jr. (Deceased) Walter D. Pinkai d, Sr. E. Mason Hendrickson Howard P. Rawlings John L. McShane Jacques T. Schlenger Brian Topping Orwin C. Talbott Frank H. Weller,Jr. David Mclntosh Williams COUNCIL, 1993-94 Phyllis A. Bailey, Education Richard H. Randall, Jr., Galleiy Robert J. Brugger, Publications Cynthia H. Requardt, Libraiy George D. Edwards, II, Membership M. David Testa, Finance Fred W. Hopkins, Jr., Maritime Collection H. Mebane Turner, Building and Grounds Frank H. Weller, Jr., Antiques Show Mrs. Reid FannlLeRoy Women's Mary K. Meyer, Genealogy Committee STAFF William R. Amos, Acting Director Penny Z. Catzen, Head Librarian Jennifer F. Goldsborough, Chief Curator Jay A. DeFranco, Controller Elizabeth B. Gordon, Registrar Paula A. Dozier, Public Relations JohnJ. McHale, Building Seivices/Security Helaine B. Frankel, Membership & Deborah A. Morris, Public Programs Development Judith R. Van Dyke, Education Director Barbara G. Gainse, Museum Shop Manager Mary Ellen Hayward, Grants Coordinator RECEIVED Maryland Historical Magazline Si 1994 MARYUNO STATE AftOWyES VOLUME 88 FALL 1993 HALL OF RECORDS LIBRARY ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND CONTENTS The Baltimore Merchants' Warships: Maiyland and Patapsco in the Quasi-War with France 261 by Frederick C. Leiner Murder in Western Maryland: The Life and Death of George Swearingen, Sheriff of Washington County 286 by Peter H. Curtis Research Notes & Maryland Miscellany 297 The Tilghman Papers, hyfennifer A. Bryan The Family Papers of Maj. Gen. Robert Ross, the Diary of Col. Arthur Brooke, and the British Attacks on Washington and Baltimore of 1814, by Christopher T. George Race, Power, and Money in Antebellum Baltimore: Mary Ridgely's Thousand-Dollar Note, by Frank Towers Maryland's First Political Convention by and for Its Colored People, by C. Christopher Brown Dearest Braddie: Love and War in Maryland, 1860-61, Part 2, edited by Anna Bradford Agle and Sidney Hovey Wanzer Book Reviews 359 Eisenberg, Maiylanders Who Served the Nation: A Biographical Dictionary of Federal Officials from Maryland, by Bradford Jacobs Rollo, Your Maryland: A History, by Christine Daniels Mallonee, Bonny, and Fessenden, Minute by Minute: A History of the Baltimore Monthly Meetings of Friends, Homewood and Stony Run, by Samuel Hopkins Craig, The 1693 Census of Swedes on the Delaware: Family Histories of the Swedish Lutheran Church Members Residing in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Newfersey & Cecil County, Maryland, 1638-1693, by Robert Barnes Yates, Forged by Fire: Maryland's National Guard at the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, by Dean Esslinger Farrell, et al.. History of Baltimore's Streetcars, by Kenneth Rucker Lemay, Did Pocahontas Save Captain John SmitM, Pendergast, The Massawomeck: Raiden and Traders into the Chesapeake Bay in the Seventeenth Centwy, and Rountree, Powhalan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, by W. Stitt Robinson Berlin and Morgan, eds.j Cultivation and Culture: Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas, by Steve Whitman Lemay, ed.. Reappraising Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspective, by Thorn M. Armstrong Miller, The Business of May Next: James Madison and the Founding, by David B. Mattern Books Received 377 Letters to the Editor 378 Notices 382 Maryland Picture Puzzle 383 Acting as an editorial board, the Publications Commillee of the Matyland Historical Society ovefsees and supports the magazine staff. Membeis of the commillee include: JEAN H. BAKER, Gouclier College JAMES H. BREADY, Baltimore Lois GREEN CARR, St. Mary's City Conimission RICHARD R. DUNCAN, Georgetown University JACK G. GOELLNER, Johns Hopkins University Press CHESTER W. GREGORY, Coppin State College GILBERT GUDE, Bethesda DAVID HEIN, Hood College JOHN HICHAM, Jolins Hopkins University RONALD HOFFMAN, University of Maryland SAMUEL HOPKINS, Baltimore WILLIAM S.JAMES, Havre de Grace CHARLES MCC. MATHIAS, Chevy Chase ROLAND C. MCCONNELL, Morgan State University WILLIAM E. MILLER, JR., Bowie ROBERT T. OESTE, Johns Hopkins University Press EDWARD C. PAPENFUSE, Maryland State Archives ROSALYN M. TERBORG-PENN, Morgan State University ROBERT J. BRUCCER, Editor CHRISTINE BATEMAN, Managing Editor MARY ELLEN HAYWARD, Production Editor Assistant Editors ELIZABETH CADWALADER, ROBIN DONALDSON COBLENTZ, and JANE GUSHING LANGE Regional Editors JOHN B. WISEMAN JANE C SWEEN PEGRAM JOHNSON III JOHN R. WENNERSTEN Frostburg Montgomery County Accoceek, Maryland University of Maryland State University Historical Society Eastern Shore Editor's Comer: With this fall issue we welcome as our newest regional editor the Reverend Mr. Pegram Johnson III, history Ph.D. and rector at Christ Church, Accoceek, Maryland. Mr. Johnson has agreed to scout articles for us on Southern Maryland. He is a devoted student of turf-sports history and will be a contributor to a special issue on that subject next spring. We also thank Elizabeth Cadwalader, one of our volunteer copyeditors and proof readers, whose keen eye and professional devotion have measurably benefited the magazine (and therefore readers) over the past several years. We can only hope to find a replacement for her. Cover design: Detail, "Capture of the City of Washington," from Rapin's History of England (Library of Congress/Francis De C. Hamilton.) ISSN-0025-4258 Copyright 1993 by the Maryland Historical Society. Published in March, June, September, and December. Articles appearing in thisjouriial are abstracted and indexed in HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS and/or AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE. Second Class postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland, and at additional mailing offices: POSTMASTER please send address changes to the Maryland Historical Society, 201 West Monument Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, which disclaims responsibility for statements, whether of fact or opinion, made by contributors. Composed by Publishing Concepts, Baltimore, Maryland and printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania 17331. 260 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE Capt. John Rodgers, by Costantina Coltolini, c. 1803. (U.S. Naval Historical Center. The Baltimore Merchants' Warships: Maryland and Patapsco in the Quasi-War with France FREDERICK C. LEINER The launching of the citizen-built sloop oi vi^x Maryland on 3 June 1799, from William Price's shipyard in Fells Point, "drew together an immense con- course of spectators, who filled the adjacent wharves, and occupied a number of vessels, which were moored in the channel for that purpose." At six o'clock, the 114-foot long Maryland slid down her ways and splashed into the water. Armed merchant ships in the harbor—and most merchant ships mounted cannon against the threat of French privateers in the state of Quasi-War between the two republics— the Channing Betsy, the Isabella, the Industrious Maty, the David Stewart, the Olive—aW fired off "Federal salutes." Other cannon fired salvoes from the wharves and from the defensive entrenchments at Whetstone Point, just beginning to be called Fort McHenry. Not since the navy launched the frigate Constellation nearly two years before had Baltimore beheld such a scene: The steady and majestic movement of the ship, the immense crowd of spectators which occupied the surrounding wharves and eminences, the continued roar of cannon, and repeated huzzas, which seemed to rend the circumambient air, formed a tout ensemble. ... In the evening, several splendid entertainments were given on board different vessels in the harbor, and the Select Company were munuficently entertained, with a number of other citizens, at Mr. Price's house. The spectacle at Fells Point had its sequel less than three weeks later. On 20 June 1799 the citizens of Baltimore launched a second sloop of war into the harbor, this one from the shipyard of the French emigre shipwright Louis de Rochbrune. Called the Chesapeake (but renamed the Patapsco after the navy recalled that a frigate building at Norfolk was to have the bay's name), she too slid down the ways from Fells Point into the harbor "amidst the loud acclamations of a large concourse of spectators, the discharge of cannon from the new bvigjohn Bnckwood, and a ship at the fort, seconded by vollies from the volunteers and marines on board." De Rochbrune repaid the "patriotic gentlemen" who subscribed to and built the Mr. Leiner, a lawyer in Baltimore, has published several articles on the American sailing navy. MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE 261 VOL.