A political fight in Maryland highlights the colony’s new state of affairs – Lord Baltimore may own the colony, but he has virtually no power there.
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Transcript
After Cromwell’s death, Puritans made one last significant attempt to assert control over Maryland, and the aftermath of that event would put the finishing touches on the sociopolitical form Maryland took during the Restoration, and beyond.
Introduction
In our story, Maryland has had a rough little existence so far. Even its most peaceful years were marred by conflict. During the wars, its government was violently overthrown not once but twice, with massive amounts of chaos and destruction following each revolt. In 1658, Oliver Cromwell had finally stated unequivocally which Maryland government England would accept as legitimate, that of Lord Baltimore, and that put a stop to questions of legitimacy. Maryland’s government and society had been forever changed, but the acute conflict would at least stop.
And in 1659, Baltimore went to work re-re-rebuilding his colony, and chose as its new governor a man who had stuck by him throughout the colony’s deepest, darkest days, Josias Fendall. Fendall had joined William Eltonhead as leader of the party sent to retrieve colony records, weapons and ammunition prior to the Battle of the Severn. And, he had been one of the prisoners illegally sentenced to death afterwards, though of course he was one of the ones who was reprieved at the last minute. He wasn’t a Catholic, but he was close to leading Maryland Catholics like Thomas Gerard, so he seemed to be one of the ever-fewer Marylanders who could reliably be expected to govern in a way that adhered to Baltimore’s vision for the colony, and to protect rather than undermine his interests there.
And just in case he didn’t, Baltimore’s illegitimate younger brother, Philip Calvert, would act as the colony’s secretary, who would have veto power over anything that might happen in the colony.
So, Fendall had returned to Maryland as governor, but the first thing that the puritans there had done was arrest him, force him to all-but-eliminate the oath of allegiance to Baltimore, and only release him when he signed an oath that they’d written promising not to disturb the Commonwealth. It took him a month to agree to the second part, but he’d been released, and he went about planning for the next meeting of the colony’s General Assembly, appointing the sheriffs who needed to be appointed, calling for the elections that needed to take place, etcetera. It’s kind of shocking that no one really addressed this as the rebellion that it was, but Baltimore and Fendall acquiesced to their requests and moved on. The fact that they didn’t call them on this, but rather let the puritans win, is actually a really good demonstration of just how fragile Maryland was at this point in time.
Fendall would have to play a balancing game, and perhaps an impossible one. He’d need to advocate for Baltimore’s interests as well as he could without prompting action from the colony’s Puritans. Puritans were overwhelmingly more powerful within Maryland, and by now they’d imprisoned him at least twice and sentenced him to death once. It’s more than possible, though not recorded, that he was also exiled once before that. The extent to which he could advocate for Baltimore’s interests would rely on one thing, and that was how much external support he got.
Of course, at the exact same time in England, Richard Cromwell was being forced to abdicate his position as Lord Protector. Oliver had died just months after restoring Baltimore’s proprietorship, and his son had only managed to stay in power for eight months after that. And this raised puritan hopes yet again. Baltimore was a Catholic who had ultimately thrown his lot in with the Commonwealth, so whatever the new government, it was possible that it would bear some ill will toward him. And, this meant that whatever that government ended up being, it could conceivably reverse Cromwell’s decision.
This time, though, the revolt wouldn’t be violent. They would simply push for the political reforms which would allow them to dominate the colony by virtue of their strength and population within the colony.
Fendall’s instructions for the election for the General Assembly called for each county to send four delegates to the House of Burgesses, which should have meant that 24 delegates were sent. Instead, though, Anne Arundel county sent seven delegates, headed by the old Puritan governor, William Fuller. It was a flagrant breach of protocol, but Fendall let it happen.
Then, when St. Mary’s County sent its four delegates, perhaps the only four delegates in the county who could be expected to be on the side of Lord Baltimore, the House of Burgesses immediately contested the election of three of them. One man was defeated in this spat, but he was replaced by another person loyal to Baltimore.
So already, things were looking hostile. Of the 27 delegates, only 4 seemed to have been loyal to Baltimore, while at least 20 had played an active role in Maryland’s old Puritan government, which had overthrown his authority.
That was to be expected, but what’s surprising is that the Governor’s Council, which formed the Assembly’s Upper House, and which consisted of people appointed by either Baltimore or the governor, was split about 50/50 between people who supported Baltimore and those who were either neutral or antagonistic toward him.
In theory, the way that any of these General Assemblies should have worked, New England excepted, was that the lower house represented the colonists, while the upper house represented the owners of the colony, whether a lord proprietor or joint stock company, or in Virginia’s case the king. Then, in theory, whatever the colony did would have to serve the interests of both parties. Baltimore’s interests really couldn’t be served by a split Upper House. The fact that it was split meant that the only real protection for Baltimore’s interests fell on Fendall and Philip Calvert. That meant the entire onus of advocating the unpopular political opinion in an already tumultuous colony fell on two individual people.
And, it was Fendall who had appointed the neutral or antagonistic parties to the Upper House. That’s just something to note before we progress in this story.
So, the first thing on the schedule for this Assembly meeting was taxes. Under laws that had been operating since 1647, Baltimore had been financially responsible for all military affairs in the colony. In exchange, he was owed a duty of 10 shillings on every hogshead of tobacco exported from the province, and a hogshead was a 66 gallon or 250 liter barrel. Obviously, though, that had not gone well for him, financially speaking. Between exorbitant military expenses, puritans who made a point of not paying the taxes they owed, and conflict leading to years of economic nonproductivity, plus how many lawsuits? And all that on top of the already crippling costs of colonization in the best of times – well, Baltimore was hurting for money. Badly.
So Baltimore wanted to revise the system and proposed a new plan. He wouldn’t be financially responsible for any of the colony’s military defense, and in exchange, he’d take only two shillings of tax on hogsheads of tobacco exported to England. On tobacco exported to non-English countries, though, like the Netherlands, he’d still take the full 10 shillings. And the House of Burgesses refused the proposal.
Instead, they took inspiration from Virginia’s recent history and sent their own declaration to the Upper House, demanding that they acknowledge the Burgesses as a legislative body independent from any other power in Maryland, and the highest authority in the colony. This meant that Maryland would become a colony governed exclusively by popular rule, with Baltimore given no say in his colony, and that, of course, meant that the puritans would be back in control. Baltimore would keep his official title, but have virtually no say in how the colony governed itself, nor how much money he received from colonists, nor indeed the extent to which Catholics would be tolerated in the colony.
The Upper House asked for clarification of exactly what the Burgesses were asking for here, and the Burgesses responded by requesting a conference to be held the next day, and the Upper House agreed. And at the conference, the Burgesses clarified that they wanted no one in the colony to have any power except for them. They point blank stated that there was no nuance to be found in their proposal. They would have all the power, and Baltimore would have none, and that was their plan. The Upper House would be dissolved completely, and the Burgesses would be in complete control of the colony, end of story. It’s brazen, but I mean look at what they’ve gotten away with in this episode alone, imprisoning the governor for a month? Sending extra delegates to the elected assembly? They could clearly be as brazen as they wanted.
And the Upper House was split 50/50 in its willingness to agree to the plan. Calvert and two other people stood alone in speaking out in favor of Baltimore’s interests. He didn’t even speak out against it, per se, just said what would need to happen for it to work. For this to be an acceptable proposal, the Governor would need to replace the Speaker of the House as president of the Assembly, so that he’d be the person with the power to adjourn or dissolve it. And the Burgesses said no. No compromise, no common ground, just no.
Calvert pointed out that this would completely eliminate Baltimore’s influence in the colony, and I suppose it’s worth noting that no one told him to his face, on the record that that was the point. He asked to have his reasons for opposing the plan put on the record, and again the response was, “no,” and that no came from Fendall, which is also a bit odd. Calvert refused to agree to any of this, asked for permission to leave along with his two allies, and granted it, did. His refusal to agree to the proposal meant that legally the conversation should have ended there, but it didn’t.
After Calvert left, Fendall gave the House of Burgesses his commission, and got a new one from them, in their name. Like in Virginia, this was an acknowledgment of the Burgesses as being the ultimate authority of the colony, with total control. The governor owed his power and authority to their blessing, rather than that of Lord Baltimore. Maryland would be a direct democracy under puritan control, severed from any kind of realistic control from England, just as autonomous as any of the New England colonies, but with no balance of political forces, nor protection for Maryland’s Catholic and Anglican minority, even though they were the people who had actually founded the colony and offered the Puritans a safe place to live in the first place. And now, Fendall was clearly allied with their movement, as was Thomas Gerard. Both had stayed in the negotiations when Calvert had left. Fendall hadn’t dismissed the meeting or the Assembly, but instead, he had submitted himself to the authority of the Burgesses. And indeed, Fendall was the one responsible for appointing both Gerard and the other Councilmember who stayed, while Baltimore had appointed the three people who had left in protest. They agreed so readily and seemingly enthusiastically with the demands that they quickly came to be seen as the leaders of this movement, and in fact it’s gone down in history as Fendall’s Rebellion.
And that’s odd, because like I said, Fendall had been unshakeable in his loyalty to Baltimore before, and for that matter, so had Gerard.
The standard interpretation has been that Fendall led this, but the standard interpretation gives virtually no discussion of Fendall’s motivation for doing so. Some argue that it was the tax issue. Some simply feel he had a political change of heart, or maybe that he saw this as being the best way to stabilize the colony. Most don’t really discuss motivations, just the effects of the rebellion.
For me, though, the more logical explanation would lie in the same factors that had pushed Governor Stone to behave weakly before. The puritans were too powerful, and there was too little backup for anyone opposing them on Baltimore’s behalf. The only repercussions for a governor’s decisionmaking would come from the puritans, at the end of th ebay. In the months before the rebellion, Gerard had gotten in a bit of legal trouble for saying that Fendall would yield to anything requested by the people of Anne Arundel.
I don’t necessarily see how someone would get through the Battle of the Severn, followed by a month’s illegal imprisonment, only to turn around and lead a puritan revolt in Maryland, but I can easily see how someone would get through the Battle of the Severn, followed by a month’s illegal imprisonment, too tired and too intimidated to fight back.
Was he a traitor? Or just a burned out guy who didn’t want to fight a battle that he ultimately couldn’t see winning?
We’ll never know the answer, but regardless of why, the Restoration is what brought an end to Maryland’s direct democracy. Against Puritan hopes, Charles II did confirm Baltimore’s power in the colony, and then he went even further. He ordered Virginia to use its militia to help Baltimore retake control of Maryland if it came to that, and Berkeley agreed to the idea with the kind of enthusiasm you would expect from him. Maryland had 12,000 inhabitants in 1660, while Virginia had 40,000, so this wasn’t a battle that Maryland’s puritans were going to win.
Baltimore named Philip Calvert the new governor of the colony, and ordered him to try Fendall for treason and execute him. If it was possible without risking the colony’s safety, Baltimore said, he’d also like to see Fuller executed, along with as many of the other puritan leaders responsible for the illegal killing of prisoners after the Battle of the Severn. He even authorized Calvert to use martial law if necessary. The top priority, though, was Fendall who should be executed no matter what.
Contrary to his orders, though, Calvert was pretty lenient. He confiscated some estates and banished Fendall, Gerard, Hatch, Fuller, and some others, but he didn’t execute anyone. And, apart from Fuller’s, all the sentences ended up being remitted after a few years.
In the month of this trial, a similar rebellion was again led by the Burgesses, and when Calvert charged them with sedition, the courts simply refused to find the Burgesses guilty. Calvert protested, and ordered the people who had nullified the laws to be charged with sedition, but of course the Burgesses simply found them not guilty, too.
When Baltimore created a process for how foreigners could become legally recognized residents of the colony, with rights almost as great as English citizens, the Burgesses simply did whatever they felt like on the issue.
And then they pushed yet again for control of the Upper House. This time, their proposal was that the Burgesses present a list of potential nominees for any appointed office, with the governor forced to choose from that list. That would mean that the Burgesses had ultimate control of the types of people put on the Governor’s Council, meaning puritans, while the governor would have little more than symbolic authority in appointing someone.
And the Assembly now repealed the 1647 customs duties, and replaced them with a flat tax of 12 pounds of tobacco per taxable person per year, in other words, two shillings per taxable person per year. In other words, virtually nothing. And for maintenance of the colony, they gave themselves the power to tax all ships trading on their shores.
So again, governor Philip Calvert’s power was tenuous at best, and he was really trying. He established a mint, and kind of got people to use it, and passed a Pension Act to take care of the people injured protecting the colony. And he resisted their advances as best as he could, but he also wasn’t able to govern even according to Baltimore’s minimum requirements, and that’s the ever-moderate Baltimore’s minimum standards. The population boomed, the economy improved, but Baltimore was going to see none of the benefits, either financially, or in terms of actually having his vision for the colony realized.
And it seems like at this point, Baltimore realized the finality of the state of affairs. He wasn’t going to have some idealistic experiment in the wilderness, that was dead. He wasn’t going to have power over it, he wasn’t going to move there, none of those original aspirations were going to happen. And he wasn’t going to recoup his financial losses, either.
And at this point, we see Baltimore take a turn for the more cynical. He started simply appointing his own family members and their friends to all the lucrative positions in the colony. If there was an easy way for a Calvert to make a buck, he didn’t hesitate to let them. What Catholics still lived there would be left alone, and meh to the rest.
And in a lot of ways, Maryland’s change of course is a good representation of the direction the broader English world would take during the Restoration. Next week, that’s exactly what we’re going to look at.
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