The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-07-16
The Story
of Cecil
County
For the Past
Two Hundred
Years.


shot, not as a common malefactor, blind.
folded and kneeling on his coffin, hut as a
knightly gentleman mounted on his horse.
This was granted, and he was led to execu-
tion within the enclosure of the fort. But
no sooner was he in saddle than with reck-
less daring he forced his horse at the stock
AIDES. The spirited animal took them at a
leap. Away went Hermen, nor did his
noble horse flag till, blown and dripping,
he reached the western marge OF the Della
ware; then, striving to ascend the bank,
lie fell headlong, dead.
Taking a great fancy to the rich lands of
the Eastern Shore OF the Chesapeake, Her
men made map of Maryland which so
gratilied Lord Baltimore that in 1862 he
granted to Hermen domain of several
thousand acres, lying on the bay, under
the title of Bohemia Manor. To Hermen,
not only does the county of Cecil owe it's
name, for he suggested it, but it was
through his creative effort that the land
was first opened to considerable, permanent
settlement. BY him were made the first
roads, and the first mills and court houses,
OF which record remains, were erected
either by him or his colonists. AS the lens
collects the scattered and enfeebled rays of
light into one powerful focus, so Hermen
drew to his manor men. commerce, ma.
teral and moral force, thence difrusing
them over the land; and thus it is that
the Lord of Bohemia Manor is looked up
to and honored az the founder of the county
of Cecil
As Hermen may be considered the
creator of a large part of Maryland, so
George Talbot may be looked upon almost
as the destroyer of the whole province, for
it is evident that by his rashness of temper
and far too Jealous effort not only to serve
Lord Baltimore, but even in season and
out of season to force his supremacy in the
land over every obstacle, Talbot over
reached his mark and brought upon the
lord proprietor great and perhaps decisive
addition to that royal and popular dis
|
to the proprietary interests.
The story of George Talbot is one of adj
venture and romance. kinsman to Lord
Baltimore and Richard, Duke of Tyrconnel
and Viceroy of Ireland by birth a gentle
man of the Irish branch of an ancient
Norman house, his veins contained the
blood of arstocracy, his heart the fire of
ambition. Enfeoffed of vast manor on
the disputed boundary of the province he
became border chieitain, enforcing order
or disorder, as the case may seem, at the
point of sword and pike. Soldier, states
man, judge, president of the governing
council, he was in the Lord Proprietarys
absence supreme in the land.
Naughty and arrogant, full of the pride
of ancient, dominant race, he must have
scorned men of mere official position: and
so when one of these arbitrarily detained
him on board one of the kings ships he
CHANGED to visit, he drew his dagger and
stabbed the royal officer to the heart.
This rash act ended Talbot's efforts at
escape from the vessel. Orerpowered by
its officers he was borne from his province
to the dominion of Virginia. Cast into
prison, thence rescued by an expedition
led over land and water at midwinter by
his heroic wife, Talbot wandered an outlaw
through the land of which he was but
lately the lord. At length prob
ably being assured of pardon through
the influence of his noble relatives
he surrendered to the legal authorities,
was again conveyed to Virginia, there tried
and convicted but Immediately pardoned
by royal favor. But his day of power and
his manor, but we hear no more of him as
one in authority. Oblivion shrouded his
subsequent history until, latter laborious
and patient investigation, Mr.. Johnston
discovered that he returned to Ireland,
fought for King James in the war of the
revolution, and, after the downfall of that
monarch, repairing to France, served in
the Irish Brigade and was slain in one of
its numerous battles.
So ended the career of George Talbot,
Lord Of the Manor of Connaught, in the
New World, representative Of a great old
Norman house, the most romantic figure of
his day IN the annals of Maryland.
But time sped on, and in the succeeding
century the genius of mystery and romance
wove another web and threw her glamour
around another, brave soldier Of the
revolution. Michael Rudulph, native Of
Cecil and a captain under Henry Lee,
fought with such dashing bravery through
out the war that he gained the sobriquet
of the Lion Of the Legion. The circum-
stances of an unhappy marriage and the
killing of brother volunteer forced
Rudulph to flee the county. From this
time he is lost to mortal ken; yet, if truth
could in this instance speak, it is likely
that the goddess would tell of his engult-
ment in the Atlantic Ocean; but, since she
is herein dumb, the fairy romance babbleth
with bewitehing tongue Of Michael Ru-
duluh and Michael Nov hIendiu, into ma