Evening star., 1925-11-15

The scribe Of 1857 was good pen
man. but his ars bene scribiendi is
hard on the eyes now. He wrote in
Old English and half-Gothic charac
ters. He was 4 man of age and per
haps had lived at st. Mary's City
fifty years when he wrote the grant
to Enclosure. His was the iaw-clerk
hand and perhaps he learned that
style. let us say. in 1920 when the
reign of James l was five years from
its end and Elizabe had been dead
but seventeen years. As the Rambler
puzzled over the faded and crooked
characters he thought that the spirit
of the old clerk might stray among
the shelves and tables of the record
room at Annapolis Or, perhaps his
spirit wanders in the groves and fields
above Brome's Wharf, where st. Marys
City was. When the old clerk wrote
that grant Maryland was in confusion.
Seven years had passed since the Fen
dall-Coode disturbance. Indian trou-
bles perturbed the people and ignor-
ant or unscrupulous men used reli
eion to make men hate their neigh
bors. The prete nsion of William Penn
to a large part of north and west
Maryland was under discussion and
in 1885 Penn's claim was approved by
the English privy council. plant to
James III. who as Duke of York was
Penn's patron. The revolt, the revo-
luton, have it your own way, led
the Nehemiel Blackstone collector of
the royal customs. and John Coode.
described in a book of reference / have
just closed as "a renegade Anglican
clergyman was. probably taking
shape. William and Mary were pro
claimed King and Queen of England
February 13, 1889. Lord Baltimore.
then in England. sent a messenger
to Maryland directing the council of
the province to proclaim the new
sovereigns. The messenger died on
his way. The council refused to pro-
claim the new sovereigns without
orders from Lord Baltimore. In July
that year Blackstone and Coode, at
the head Of the Protestant Association.
overthrow the proprietary govern
ment, called on the crown to admin
lister Maryland as a royal province.
and the first royal governor, Sir Lionel
Copley, came to Maryland in 1892.
PERHAPS the old clerk of our grant
to Inclosure was full Of trouble
in 1857. Assuming that he was faith
full to Lord Baltimore, he must have
been perpleXed by the outlook. He
would lose his job. Enemies of the
government that had existed for fifty
three years were numerous and threat
ening. No doubt he had his home in
St. Marys City or near it, and over
the site of his home plows and har-
rows have passed every Spring for
two hundred years. The town of
Providence. at the confluence Of the
Severn and the Chesapeake. would be
the capital, and 1t became the capital
Fire spread through the near desert
ed city of st. Marys. Decay followed
flames and flames returned to lick
up fragments left by decay. People
living miles away hauled off debris
to build homes. line wells and lay
brick walks in gardens. Perhaps the
old clerk of our grant staggered
through his age and slumped down
with broken spirit. The grant / have
told of gives no hint as to who he
was. Perhaps a moldy, crumbling
bone of him lies in an unmarked spot
on the site of ST. Marys City. Per-
haps the old clerk was an ancestor
of you who read this ramble
But what's the use of dreamingi
This ramble is long enough and 1 be-
l1eve that with the small work 1 have
done and the much greater work
done by my friends in the composing
room, stereotyping rooms, the press
room, the circulation department and
the business off1ce. and by the forty
or fifty other best writer's on the
paper, you have got the worth of the
nickel you gave up for this CODY of
The Sunday Star. But before Won Law
the paper on the floor for your wife to
pick up will spread this letter before
you:
"Nicollet Hotel, Minneapolis, MINI.
November g.
Dear Rambler: First l want to
let you know that my greatest pleas
ure In The Star has been derived
from reading your rambles. Second,
l wonder If some day when Clio sits
on your desk again you would give
her pencil and tell her to write about
the old Queen Chapel site. the grant
etc l believe ST. Francis de Sales
church stands on the old site.
"Gratefully yours.
FRANCIS FISKE."
All right. Frank, I'm on nv way.
When L was in Annapolis 1 made a
copy of the grant of 500 acres named
Hadduck (now Haddock) Hills to Ben.
5amin Hadduck April IL, 1886. That
became the Queen tract. Dear old
Tom Queen and his brothers, French
and Forrest, who used to keep the
cigar stands in the National, st. James
and Metropolitan, were NV friends.
Tom told me years ago that he had
a scrapbook full of matter about the
queen family and the Queen land.
I will look it up.