English Revolution in The Colonies - The Chesapeake Colonies

The Chesapeake Colonies

The colonies of Virginia and Maryland had strong Royalist sympathies, owing to their origins and demographics. Virginia, the oldest and third most populous colony, was turned into a crown colony in 1624 and was mostly High Church Anglican in religion. The much smaller Maryland was a proprietary colony founded by Roman Catholic gentry, supported by a Protestant underclass.

In April 1643, aware of the problems besetting the home-country, Governor Leonard Calvert departed Maryland to consult with his brother, Proprietor Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore. During this time, St. Mary's City was visited by Captain Richard Ingle, a Roundhead, who led a rebellion upon Leonard Calvert's return. In September 1644, Ingle captured St. Mary's City, and William Claiborne captured Kent Island, forcing Calvert to seek refuge in Virginia. What followed became known as the Plundering Time, a nearly two-year period when Ingle and his companions roamed the colony, robbing at will and taking Jesuits back to England as prisoners.

Meanwhile, Virginia was battling for its survival in a war against the Powhatans (1644–1646) which saw a tenth of the colonial population killed in the initial massacre. Royalist propaganda accused the Roundheads of stirring up the natives and Governor William Berkeley expelled all the Puritans from the colony in 1647. After Virginian victory, Calvert returned to Maryland in 1646 and recaptured St. Mary's City.

Following the death of Leonard Calvert in 1647, in 1649 Cecilius Calvert named William Stone, a Protestant, as governor. By choosing Stone, Calvert could avoid criticism of Maryland as a seat of Popery, where Protestants were allegedly oppressed. Stone and his council, however, were required to agree not to interfere with freedom of worship. In 1649, the colonial assembly passed the Maryland Toleration Act, ensuring freedom of religion within Maryland.

After the regicide, Virginia remained faithful to the House of Stuart, although Parliament had decreed that support for Charles II was treason. Berkeley also invited the king to Virginia. The issue of which side Maryland stood was finally settled, at least in appearance, when Thomas Greene, deputy to Stone and a Roman Catholic, declared on November 15, 1649 that Charles II was the "undoubted rightfull heire to all his father's dominions". All acts taken by the Maryland Assembly would further require an oath of fidelity to Baltimore as "Lord Proprietor".

In March 1652 the Rump Parliament removed Stone and Berkeley as governors of Maryland and Virginia, Richard Bennett replaced Berkeley but Stone was reinstated in June. On March 2, 1654, Stone decreed that although he was faithful to the Commonwealth, all writs should "run in the Proprietary's name as heretofore". On January 3, 1654, the exiled Virginian Puritans who had settled at Stone's invitation in Providence objected to the oath as Baltimore was a Catholic. On July 20, 1654, Stone resigned as governor under duress and fled to Virginia. Parliamentary commissioners became de facto governors of the colony, and the first general assembly under their authority was held on October 20, 1654. Roman Catholics and any other individuals who had borne arms against the Parliament could not be members (effectively limiting the membership to Puritans), and among the 44 Acts passed by this group was a repeal of the Toleration Act, and another that forbade Roman Catholics from practicing their faith.

On January 31, 1655, The Golden Lion, a merchant ship commanded by Captain Roger Heamans, arrived in Maryland, and Stone reported to the Captain that he was no longer Governor of Maryland. At about that time, another ship, The Golden Fortune arrived in the colony with a letter from Oliver Cromwell, by this time Lord Protector, addressed to Captain Stone, Governor of Maryland.

Using this as a form of recognition, Stone challenged the authority of the commissioners, seized back the records of the colony, and mustered his troops to deal with the Puritan settlers allied with them. Recruiting from St. Mary's County, Stone recaptured the Assembly records located on the Patuxent River, and sailed with a small fleet up the Chesapeake Bay north towards Providence.

Heamans was informed of a plot to kill the inhabitants of Providence, as well as to burn his ship and kill his crew and officers. Following the removal of the women and children of Providence to The Golden Lion, a war council was convened, and appointed William Fuller of the Puritan settlers of Providence as its leader. On March 23, 1655, the council issued a warrant to Heamans to serve as a counselor, with Heamans relating to Stone that he was bound to do so, ignoring his contrary orders. Virginia's Richard Bennett also lent support to the Puritans.

On March 24, 1655, Heamans fired on sloops and boats heading toward his ship, forcing their retreat. Heamans then ordered an armed sloop to bar their escape by blocking Spa Creek, the inlet of the Severn to which Stone's forces had retreated. On March 25, after Fuller retrieved the only Commonwealth flag in the colony for use as his colors in battle, the forces met on Horn Point, with Fuller's forces driving Stone's small force to the end of the peninsula. In less than one half hour, the battle was over, with 17 of Stone's forces being killed and 32 wounded, including Stone. Only two of Fuller's force were killed. This event was marked as the Battle of the Severn.

Stone surrendered after he was promised mercy. Following hostilities, however, the war council issued death sentences for Stone and nine others. Four of the prisoners were executed, but the remainder were saved when the women of Providence begged that their lives be spared.

The primarily Puritan assembly retained powers until April 27, 1658, when proprietorship was restored to Lord Baltimore, religious freedom was ensured, and an agreement of general amnesty was entered into. Thus, in the end, Lord Baltimore not only retained his lands and powers, but was able to avoid the grisly fate of many of his contemporaries in England during this time. The proprietor appointed Josias Fendall to succeed Stone as governor for his loyalty during the battle.

Governor Fendall soon had a falling out with Lord Baltimore and led a bloodless revolution in 1659 known as Fendall's Rebellion whereby he and Fuller reorganized Maryland's government to resemble the Commonwealth's. The proprietorship and the assembly's upper house was abolished. However, the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 forced Fendall into exile and restored the proprietorship.

After the death of Governor Samuel Matthews, Virginia's House of Burgesses reelected the royalist William Berkeley in 1659. Thus, in the view of historian Robert Beverley, Jr. writing in 1705, Virginia colony "was the last of all the King's Dominions that submitted to the Usurpation, and afterwards the first that cast it off." Many of the First Families of Virginia trace their founding to this time period and not the actual first days of the colony. As a reward for its loyalty, Charles II gave Virginia the epithet "Old Dominion". He awarded a group of his faithful supporters the rights to found a new colony just south of Virginia, to be called Carolina after his father (its capital would be called Charleston).