Papist Devils
Catholics in North American
British Colonies
6. Maryland Catholics
in the Early Penal Era
© 2016 George E. Blanford Jr.
Transformation
 As the 18th century began, Maryland was undergoing major changes in
politics, in religion, in demographics and in economics
 Population went from ~32,000 in 1701 to ~43, 000 in 1711 to ~62,000 in 1720
 Most were native born and not immigrants
 Growth spread geographically north and east
 Fewer were property owners; more rented, share-cropped or worked
for wages
 The tobacco market plateaued
 Led to more diversification in crops
 Lack of European immigrant workers led to the growth of the slave
trade
 ~4000 slaves were being imported annually, 4x the number of
indentured servants
 Only ~¼ planters owned slaves; only ~2% of these had 20 or more
Catholic Planter-Merchant Cohort
 Catholics were only ~10% of the population
 Despite penal laws designed to marginalize Catholics,
two Catholics without political power nevertheless
attained great economic power
 Charles Carroll the Settler (1661–1720)
 Immigrated from Ireland in 1688 as attorney
general for Maryland
 He lost almost all in 1691, but he remained as
Lord Baltimore’s legal advisor for Maryland
and to Col. Henry Darnall
 He regained property by marriage: 1st to a rich
widow, who died in childbirth, and 2nd to
Darnall’s daughter
 In 1711, when Darnall died, Carroll assumed
his proprietary offices
 In 3 decades, he became the largest
landholder and the wealthiest person in
Maryland
Charles Carroll the Settler (1661 – 1720)
by Justus Englehardt Kühn, ~1712
Catholic Planter-Merchant Cohort
 Richard Bennett III (166? - 1749)
 Grandson of the Richard Bennett who fought against Ingle’s
Rebellion and brought ~500 Puritans from Virginia to Maryland
 He inherited a substantial legacy from his grandfather
 He shrewdly invested and speculated in land on a larger scale than
Carroll
 By 1744, he had accumulated ~52,000 acres, ~4x what Carroll had had
in 1720
 He was a prolific money lender and supplier of credit
 He had two mills in Talbot County
 He profited greatly by acquiring the right to collect quitrents for the
proprietor
 When he died in 1749, he was the richest man in Maryland
 Other rich and powerful Catholic families were: Blakes, Heaths, Sayers,
Neales, Darnalls, Diggeses, and Fenwicks
Catholic Slaves and Slave Owners
 Slaves were more numerous in southern Maryland and the
Eastern Shore where agriculture dominated the economy
 These were also the regions were most of the Catholics
lived, so Catholics were more likely slave owners than
other Marylanders
 Many slave owners did not own land themselves, but
worked the land of others
 Wealthy merchant-planters had hundreds of slaves
 The Society of Jesus had well over a hundred slaves
 Catholic owners looked after the religious lives of their
slaves more than Anglicans did including days off for
“holy days”
Catholic Demographics
 Despite the intent of the penal laws to repress Catholicism, the Catholic
population remained stable
 Catholics exhibited a greater commitment to their faith
 Conversions were greater to Catholicism, especially among the gentry
 Only 3 notable Catholics converted to Anglicanism during the 8 decades
of the penal age
 In 1708, Catholics were ~3000 or 7% of the total population
 Because of conversions and of many Irish servants migrating to Maryland,
growth of the Catholic population kept pace with the general growth in
population
 Catholics were concentrated in 3 counties: St. Mary’s, Charles and Prince
George’s
 St. Mary’s County was 40% Catholic and had a third of Maryland’s
Catholic population
 Out migration of Catholics from these counties was mostly by the gentry
Expansion of the Jesuit Mission
 In 1703, there were 11 Jesuits in Maryland: 8 priests and 3
brothers
 Lord Baltimore gave them an annual stipend of £1000 each
 In 1704, they founded a mission in Baltimore County in
response to the large number of Irish indentured servants
Charles Carroll brought to work on his extensive land
holdings in the region (~15,000 acres)
 In 1706, the Jesuits acquired land known as Bohemia Manor
in the most northeastern county in Maryland
 It served as a center for circuit missions into the Delmarva
peninsula
Catholic Struggle Against Royal Government
 The Catholic political struggle continued throughout Seymour’s administration
 At his death in 1709, Edward Lloyd, with close Catholic connections, was
appointed governor of Maryland giving Catholics hope
 Queen Anne died in 1714
 The Old Pretender, Prince
James Francis Edward
Stuart, son of James II, was
defeated in Scotland
 Parliament invited George,
Elector of Hanover, a
descendent of James I, to
become king
King George I (1660 – 1727) (r. 1714-1727)
from the Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller, ~1714
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (1688 – 1766)
by Alexis Simon Belle
Calvert Restoration
Lord Benedict Calvert (1679 – 1715),
4th Baron Baltimore
 In 1713, Benedict Calvert, heir to the
Barony of Baltimore, decided that he
would be better off restoring family
control of Maryland by converting to
Anglicanism
 By doing so, the crown gave him a
stipend of £ 300 annually and the
right to appoint the governor of
Maryland
 He appointed John Hart
 In 1715, Charles Calvert died
 Maryland was again a proprietary colony
 Seven weeks later, Benedict, Fourth
Baron Baltimore, also died
Calvert Restoration
 Lord Guilford became the guardian of Benedict’s 16
year old son Charles and, in effect, acting proprietor of
Maryland
 Maryland Catholics thought their fate was looking up
 Charles Carroll was called to England to settle
Charles Calvert’s estate
 He brought with him a petition to restore Catholic
rights
 He was going over John Hart’s authority
 Lord Guilford refused to intervene
 However, he enhanced Carroll’s position with 3
lucrative proprietary offices
 For his part, John Hart believed that Catholics
supported the pretender
 He sought more penal legislation
Lord Charles Calvert (1699 – 1751), 5th Baron Baltimore
Carroll Blunders
Lord Francis North, 2nd Baron Guilford
(1673-1729)
by circle of Thomas Murray-Bonhams
 On June 10, 1716, a surreptitious canon salute was fired
early in the morning to celebrate the pretender’s
birthday
 The perpetrators were friends of Carroll; he was
thought to have ordered the salute as a provocation
 The culprits were fined and it was Carroll’s duty to
collect the fine; Carroll refused
 Hart ordered Carroll to take the oath of allegiance
required of all office holders
 Carroll argued that he did not have to take it
 Hart refused to turn over revenues to Carroll
 Carroll countered by not granting any land patents
 Hart appealed to Lord Guilford
 Guilford withdrew Carroll’s commissions in 1717
Status of Catholics Worsens
 In lower house elections of 1716, many legislators sympathetic to
Catholics lost their seats
 The new Assembly passed a law requiring an oath of allegiance
of all office holders, provincial and proprietary
 Catholics became completely excluded from government
 Hart began enforcing penal laws
 Catholics complained to Guilford that the governor was
usurping the proprietors power
 Guilford rejected their claim
 In 1718, the Assembly effectively disenfranchised Catholics by
repealing Maryland penal laws and declaring that Maryland was
governed by Parliamentary penal laws which were harsher
Status of Catholics Plateaus
 In May 1720, Hart resigned and sailed for England; 2 months later
Charles Carroll died; in September, Charles Calvert reached his
majority
 As Lord Baltimore, Calvert appointed governors more
sympathetic to Catholics
 He asked Maryland Catholics to submit to existing laws
 The Assembly announced, as a sign of good will toward
Catholics, that they would not enforce penal laws if
Catholics lived quietly
 Catholics began to accept the Hanover kings and sent best wishes
to George II when he acceded to the throne in 1727
 This status quo would exist for several decades
 Prominent Catholics did not regain proprietary offices
 Catholics could not vote nor hold public office
 The penal laws, though unenforced, always hung over their
heads
King George II (1683 - 1760)
(r. 1727 - 1760)
by Thomas Hudson, 1744