Papist Devils
Catholics in North American
British Colonies
4. Maryland and New York
Under the Restoration
© 2016 George E. Blanford Jr.
Restoration
 The restoration of Charles II as king together with Lord Baltimore as proprietor of
Maryland resulted in 20 years of opportunity and peace
 Economic mobility
 Political serenity
 Peopling the province remained a major concern that led to steady growth
 The population of Maryland in 1660 was ~2,500
 In 1675, ~13,000
 In 1688, ~25,000
 About 60% of newcomers were indentured men
 Freemen were mostly merchants rather than landed gentry; some were wealthy
 Protestants dominated both groups
 Quakers avidly responded to Baltimore’s promise of religious tolerance
 By the 1680’s, they were the largest Protestant denomination in Maryland
 More families immigrated to Maryland
Growth
 The situation of a typical immigrant Catholic family
 Husband in the mid twenties
 Wife might be younger or possibly older with children from a previous
marriage
 Some children, some old enough to do farm work, and a few servants (slaves?)
 Capital: ~£ 50
 Land acquired: ~300 acres, cultivating: ~100 acres in tobacco
 Built up of a livestock herd over time
 Real and personal property quadrupled in ~10 years
 Premature death
 Extraordinarily high death rate from dysentery, typhoid, malaria and local
diseases
 ~23,500 persons immigrated between 1634 and 1681
 But, the population remained below ~19,000
 The few rich Catholics, e.g. the manor lords, became very rich
Women and the Building of Community
 Typically, Catholic and Quaker families banded together with others of their own
religion to create informal networks
 They had had to do this as persecuted minorities in England
 The networks attended to both recurring and special needs: building
construction, illness and death
 Group members were sensitive to each others economic well-being with
assistance given to the poor
 Orphans were taken into other families
 The result of this seems to have led to most marriages taking place within the
group creating dense family interconnections
 Women were the glue that held these communities together in England and
colonial Maryland resulting in a higher status than in the population as a whole
 Their roles in marriage, community activity, inheritance, farm management,
child rearing and religious education were essential for cohesiveness
 4/5 of widows were executrix’s of their husbands’ wills and they had
control of his estate for life and sometimes in freehold
The Church
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The Jesuits almost abandoned Maryland again in 1661
 They wanted to take their limited resources and concentrate them
on England
 Their inertia proved providential because they experienced their
greatest expansion in Maryland during the ensuing 20 years
 There were never many priests and they experienced a high
death rate
 St. Inigoe and St. Thomas manors were well managed and
supported their ministries; later Newtown Manor was formed
 The priests rode circuits to minister to the spread-out families
 Nine Catholic chapels were built from 1661-80
 They converted many to Catholicism, especially from the
upper-class
Their was no Church presence on the Eastern Shore in the 17th century
despite quite a few rich Catholic landholders there
 They built “Mass houses” on their property and had sporadic visits
from the priests from Southern Maryland
Non-Jesuit priests entered the Province in the late 17th century, notably
Franciscans
Newtown Manor House in 2009
Interior of St. Inigoe Church
St. Mary’s City
 In 1667, Lord Baltimore incorporated St.
Mary’s City as the first city in Maryland
 He had it designed as a Baroque city
 Symbolically, he placed the chapel and
the state house at extreme corners of
the town to represent separation of
church and state
 Thirty years later, when Protestants
laid out Annapolis as a Baroque city,
they placed the church in a circle
adjoining the circle of the state house
implying that they acted as one
Great Brick Chapelle at St. Mary’s City
 In 1667, the “Great Brick Chapelle”
was built in St. Mary’s City
 It was the first brick Catholic
Church built in what is now the
United States
 In 1990, 3 lead coffins were
found buried in the church
which proved to be those of
Phillip Calvert and his family
 There are many other burials in
the church and around it
 In 2009, a reconstruction was
completed at the original site
Maryland State House at St. Mary’s City
 A brick state house was built
in St. Mary’s City in 1676
 When the capital was
moved to Annapolis, the
bricks from the state
house were used to
construct Trinity
Episcopal Church on the
original site
 A replica was built
nearby to celebrate
Maryland’s tercentenary
in 1934
Other Reconstructed Buildings at St. Mary’s City
Reconstructed 17th century settlers farmhouse (a "Planters House") typical of
colonial St. Mary's City. Located in the Historic St. Mary's City living history
area. St. Mary's City Historic District.
Full sized reconstruction of the original
Schweringen's Inn that originally stood in St.
Mary's City. Located in Historic St. Mary's City
living history area. St. Mary's City Historic District,
July 2009
Charles Calvert, (1637-1715)
Third Baron Baltimore
 In 1661, Cecil Calvert named his son Charles as
governor and his brother Phillip became
chancellor of Maryland
 They made the government more efficient ,
created new counties and devolved more
responsibilities on the county governments
 This effectively de-Catholicized governance
because there were fewer than 10% Catholics
among local officials
 In 1675, Cecil Calvert died and his son Charles
succeeded him as Third Baron Baltimore and the
Second Lord Proprietor of Maryland
 In 1676, Charles returned to England to defend
Maryland’s border with Pennsylvania
Lord Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Religious Faith of the Majority
of the Inhabitants
Religious Unrest
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Conspiracy-obsessed anti-Catholicism began to develop in England
 It began over the fact that Charles II’s mother and wife were Catholic
and his brother James converted to Catholicism
 It was fueled by Titus Oates’ fantastic story of an organized “Popish
Plot”
 In 1673, Parliament began to enact new test acts to stem the “Growth
of Popery”
 These sentiments spread to America and found a home especially in
Maryland where Catholics continued to wield considerable power
Actions by the Calvert’s were perceived by Protestants as arbitrary and
Catholic-dominated
 They introduced restrictive laws on tobacco growing to improve the
economy distressed by tobacco over production
 They instituted measures to disenfranchise small farmers
 They tried to reduce representation to the provincial assembly
 They appointed too many Catholics and Quakers to office
In 1676, armed rebellion was instigated but it was suppressed
In 1681, another attempt to overthrow the government was stopped
In 1684, a Calvert family member murdered a customs collector
Titus Oates (1649 – 1705)
New York and New Jersey
 Land between the Connecticut river and the
Delaware river (New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania and also Nantucket and Martha’s
Vineyard) was claimed by the Dutch based on
Henry Hudson’s discovery of New York harbor
and the Hudson river
 England captured this territory from the
Dutch in 1664
 Charles II gave this land as a proprietary
colony to his brother, James, Duke of York
 James in turn ceded New Jersey to two
English noblemen to pay debts owed
them
 When James converted to Catholicism in
1668, New York became the second
proprietary colony with a Catholic
proprietor
James (1633 – 1701), Duke of York
by John Riley
Religious Toleration in New York and New Jersey
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Although the Dutch Reformed Church was the established church of New Netherland, Dutch religious
tolerance continued under the English
 Catholics were few, but disproportionately represented in official positions
 There was a governor and a council, but no assembly which would have been dominated by the
Dutch
 Laws and taxes were imposed without popular representation which was resented in particular by an
English minority living on Staten and Long Islands
The Dutch regained the colony from 1672-74
The English got it back for good in 1674
In 1674, the Duke of York formally introduced a policy of religious toleration
 This ill served the Dutch majority because it meant no government support for Reformed ministers
which resulted in many of them going back to Holland
 He also tried to anglicize the Dutch which rebounded by increasing their ethnic consciousness
 French Huguenots settled in the colony for religious freedom
New Jersey’s proprietors also adopted a policy of religious tolerance
 This attracted skilled Catholic workers from Ireland and France
 Catholics rose to become officials, but with an understood “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about
religious beliefs
 Catholicism had only an ephemeral institutional presence in New Jersey occasioned by visiting
Jesuits from New York during the 1680’s
Thomas Dongan
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Thomas Dongan (1634– 1715)
5th Colonial Governor of New York
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In 1681, the Duke of York appointed Thomas Dongan, an Irish Catholic, as
governor of New York
As it had in Maryland, the anti-Catholic fervor came from England to New
York and was fueled by Dongan’s actions
 He began to fill leading political and military positions with Catholics
 He gifted land and gave financial support to Jesuits
 Faced with a war with the French, he imposed a loyalty oath to a Catholic
proprietor on New Yorkers
 He led an expensive military expedition to defend Albany which resulted
in increased taxes
Dongan requested the annexation of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New
Jersey to get a larger tax base.
 England responded by merging New York, New Jersey and the New
England colonies forming the Dominion of New England with a new
governor
Charles II died without an heir in 1685
 The Duke of York succeeded his brother becoming King James II
 The Dominion of New England became, like Virginia, a royal colony
In 1689, after revolts in Boston and New York and the accession of William and
Mary, the Dominion was dissolved and the original colonies were restored