Evening star., 1925-11-22


cil Burnes. daughter o (
David Burnes. owner of the farm
Rcalls Levels on which much of
central Washington is built married
John Peter Van Ness. of whose prom
inence in shnEton from 1900
till his death in 1St6 you have been
Told. In following the story of Mar
cta Burnes. the Rambler was led to
The first burial place of her father,
David. and her mother, Ann Wight
Rurnes. on the Wight farm named
Enclosure, on which Brookland was
founded in 1887.
John Wight, presumably a brother
Of Mrs. David Burnes, willed Inclo-
sure in So7 to John Magruder Wight,
his son. John Magruder Wight mar
ried Cary Queen and 1919 bequeathed
the farm to his widow and to Nellie
G. Queen, whose relation to the widow
Is not shown by any public record.
At the death OF the widow and Nellie
G. Queen. the farm should go to
Henry, Mary. Ann and Eliza bet h
Queen. children of Nicholas l.. Queen.
Ann Queen married Col. Jehiel Brooks
and l34.acre farm. part of Wig HIT s
Enclosure. came To lie called the
Brooks farm and later Brookland.
We will take mp the story of the
Queen family and the Queen lands.
The Queen family lived in what is
now the District of Columbia before
the Districts creation in 1871. and is
related to a large number of families.
In writing Of the Queens and their
Ia nds difficulties are to he overcome
and they cannot he met today. but
the Rambler believes that he will
straighten knottv questions as this
story goes along.
The Queen family is commemorated
in Washington by Queens Chapel and
Queen Chapel road. and we will con-
slider first the chapel. That Catholic
chapel bears the name of the family
on whose land il was built. indicates.
hut does not prove. that the Queens
owned the land and that cha pei was
there two hundred years ago.
As A base for this inference. | will
recall "A time when Protestants per-
secuted Catholics in Maryland. Per
seCution' is a harsh word. and | will
show You the Maryland statutes in
support of my use of the word Prot
estants outnumbered Catholics in
Maryland at an early time-proba bly,
before the outbreak of the English
civil war in l642. The head of the
missionary priests in Maryland sent
an annual letter in the nature of
report on religious affairs in the colony
to superiors in England. Copies O.
those letters are in the archives of
the Maryland Historical Society. and
| have read them in the Library of
Congress. In the letter of l645 it is
written:
The civil war cruelty raging in all
the English counties has extended
even to Maryland, where some
fanatics. TO curry favor with Parlia
ment, have carried off two of our
fathers. namely. Philip Fisher and
~ 10 aria
taken to England. imprisoned AT Lon
don and. after some time. were re-
leased. X
A BLOT CLAUDIUS AGRETTI. q
canon of Bruges on a special
mission to England in 1869. visited
Cecil Calvert. second Lord Baltimore.
then at his English home. | have read
that Lord Baltimore complained that
there were only two priests in Mary
land to serve . 900 Catholics scattered
from the southern part of St. Marys
County to the northern edge of the set
tlement. which was then on line from
Washington to Baltimore. | have
statement made by Cardinal Gibbons
that when Maryland had a population
of 10000 there were not quite 5000
Catholics in the province" | do not
XIV when il was that Maryla nd S
population was 40 1000. but ii was no
doubt in the last half of the seven
teenth century.
on the overturn of the proprietary
government, after the crowning of
King William and Queen Marv. anti
Catholic laws were made in Maryla nd.
The Maryland Legislature in 1904 pass
ed an act called An act to prevent
the growth of popery within this
province" 1t provided that a Catho-
liz priest should he fined 80 pounds
and imprisoned six months for saving
mass. and that no Catholic should be
competent to buy or inherit lan nds. etc,
etc. You can read the laws if you
want. Because of these laws there
was no public Catholic service in the
province and private worship was at
Tended with danger. though it was
carried on in number of Catholic
homes.
That part of the Maryland law of
1S04 providing fine and imprisonment
for saying mass was undone by Queen
Anne soon after it's passage and the
modified law allowed the mass to he
said lin A private family of the Ro-
man communion" Here we come to
he time when a Maryland Catholic
would set apart room in his house
as chapel Neighbors gathered
there TO pray and priest. ira Yelling
horseback or afoot, came to celebrate
the ma SIS and hear confession
AS anti-Catholicism relaxed, which
assume to have been at the time of
the restoration of the proprietary gov
ernment in 1.715. some of those Cath.
olics who had chapels within their
houses built small Chapels on their
farms. These chapels served their
neiGhhorhoods, and generally each
bore the name of the ma on whose
land it was. Queens Chapel may
belong TO that period. but l doubt it..
though a. we go along we will eX-
anime all available documents
1t happened. long after the period
7 have BEEN writing of. that a pious
man would build chapel on his farm
Perhaps he would give the land and
Catholic neighbors would contribute
brick. timber. labor or money. The
reason might he that the people of
the Observation-Disclosures ''neighbOr-
hood might mean an area 10 to 20
miles Square-needed a place Of
pray yer. The nearest church of their
faith might be 80 miles away. Some
times these chapelS were named for
the men who had given The land for
them. or had paid the whole cost Of
building. The Ramhler's guess is tha t
Queens Chapel was a chapel of that
kind.
have n record loaned me by the
District Title Company, that Rich
ard Queen by his will dated p April.
1873 devised all his estate in inclosure
containing 1928 acres, except two acres
given to Bishop Carroll. to he sold
rnd the proceeds divided among his
Eeven children" John Carroll was
ordained to the priesthood at Liege.
1859 conseCrated at London in 1890.
bishop of the first Catholic diocese in
The United States, and became the first
American archbishop in 1908. The