A Legend of the Chesapeake - New Connaught and St. Mary's File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Charmaine Riley Holley. Arkivemom@aol.com USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. _________________________________________________________________________ A Legend of the Chesapeake by John P. Kennedy article from "Southern Literary Messenger, A Magazine Devoted To Literature, Science and Art" VolXXIV-11 March, 1857. New Connaught In this region Talbot himself held a manor, which was called New Connaught, and here he had his family mansion, and kept hospitality, in rude woodland state, as a man of rank and command, with his retainers and friends gathered around him. This establishment was seated on Elk river, and was, doubtless, a fortified position. I picture to my mind a capacious dwelling -house, built of logs from the surrounding forest - its ample hall furnished with implements of war, pikes, carbines, and basket -hilted swords mingled with antlers of the buck, skins of wild animals, plumage of birds, and other trophies of the hunter's craft; the large fire-place, surrounded with hardy woodsmen, and the tables furnished with venison, wild fowl and fish, the common luxuries of the region, in that prodigal profusion to which our forefathers were accustomed, and which their descendants still regarded as the essential condition of hearty and honest housekeeping. This mansion I fancy surrounded by a spacious picketted rampart, presenting its bristling points to the four quarters of the compass, and accessible only through a gateway of ponderous timber, studded thick with nails - the whole offering defiance to the grim savage who might chance to prowl within the grown of its midnight shadow. Here Talbot spent the greater portion of the year with his wife and children. Here he had his yacht, or shallop, on the river; and often skimmed this beautiful expanse of water in pursuit of its abundant game - those hawks of which the tradition preserves the memory, his companions and auxiliaries in this pastime. Here, too, he had his hounds and other hunting dogs to beat up the game for which the banks of Elk river are yet famous. This sylvan lodge was cheered and refined by the presence of his wife and children, whose daily household occupations were assisted by numerous servants chosen from the warm-hearted people who had left their own green isle to find a home in this wilderness. Amidst such scenes, and the duties of her station, we may suppose that Mrs. Talbot, a lady who could not but have relinquished many comforts in her native land for this rude life of the forest, found sufficient resource to quell the regret of many fond memories of the home and friends she had left behind, and to reconcile her to the fortunes of her husband, to whom, as we shall see, she was devoted with an ardor that no hardship or danger could abate. Being the dispenser of her husband's hospitality, the bread- giver- in the old Saxon phrase- the frequent companion of his pastime, and the bountiful friend, not only of the families whose cottages threw up their smoke within view of her residence, but of all who came and went on the occasions of business or pleasure in the common intercourse of the frontier, we may conceive the sentiment of respect and attachment she inspired in this insulated district, and the service she was thus enabled to command. St. Mary"s, And What Happened There. In the summer of 1684, the peaceful little port of St. Mary's was visited by a phenomenon of rare occurrence in those days. A ship of war, of the swallow cast, and the Cross of St. George sparkling on her broad flag, came gliding to an anchorage abreast the town. The fort of St. Inigoes gave the customary salute, which I have reason to believe was not returned. Not long after this, a bluff, swaggering, vulgar captain came on shore. He made no visit of respect or business to any member of the Council. He gave no report of his character or the purpose of his visit, but strolled to the tavern - I suppose to that kept by Mr. Cordea, who, in additon to his calling of keeper of the ordinary, was the most approved shoe-maker of the city - and here ragaled himself with a potation of strong waters. It is likely that he then repaired to Mr. Blakiston's, the King's Collector,- a bitter and relentless enemy of the Lord Proprietary - and there may have met Kenelm Chiseldine, John Coode, Colonel Jowles and others noted for their hatred of the Calvert family, and in such company as this indulged himself in deriding Lord Baltimore and his government. During his stay in the port, his men came on shore, and, imitating their captain's unamiable temper, roamed in squads about the town and its neighborhood, conducting themselves in a noisy, hectoring manner toward the inhabitants, disturbing the repose of the quiet burghers, and shocking their ears with ribald abuse of the authorities. These roystering sailors - I mention it as a point of historical interest - had even the audacity to break into Alderman Garret Van Swearingen's garden, to pluck up and carry away his cabbages and other vegatables, and - according to the testimony of Mr. Cordea, whose indignation was the more intense from his veneration for the Alderman, and from the fact that he made his worship's shoes - they would have killed one of his worship's sheep, if his (Cordea's) man had not prevented them; and after, this as if on purpose more keenly to lacerate his feelings, they brought these cabbages to Cordea's house and boiled them before his eyes, he being sick and not able to drive them away. After a few days spent in this manner, the swaggering captain whose name, it was soon bruited about, was Thomas Allen, of his Majesty's Navy, went on board of his ketch - or brig, as we should call it, The Quaker - weighed anchor and set sail towards the Potomac, and then stood down the Bay upon the Coast of Virginia. Every now and then, after his departure, there came reports to the Council of insults offered by Capt. Allen to the skippers of sundry bay craft and other peaceful traders on the Chesapeake; these insults consisting generally in wantonly compelling them to heave to and submit to his search, in vexatiously detaining them, overhauling their papers, and offending them with coarse vituperation of themselves, as well as of the Lord Proprietary and his Council. About a month later, the Quaker was observed to enter the Patuxent river and cast anchor just inside of the entrance near the Calvert shore, and opposite Christopher Rousby's house, at Drum Point. This was - says my Chronicle- on Thursday, the 30th of October, in this year 1684. As yet Captain Allen had not condescended to make any report of his arrival in the Province to any officer of the Proprietary. On Sunday morning, the 24th of November, the city was thrown into a state of violent ebullition - like a little red hot tea- kettle - by the circulation of a rumor that got wind about the hour the burghers were preparing to go to church. It was brought from Patuxent late in the previous night, and was now whispered from one neighbor to another, and soon came to boil with an extraordinary volume of steam. Stripping it of the exaggeration natural to such an excitement, the rumor was substantially this: That Col. Talbot, hearing of the arrival of Capt. Allen in the Patuxent on Thursday, and getting no message or report from him, set off on Friday morning, in an angry state of mind, and rode over to Patuxent, determined to give the unmannerly Captian a lesson upon his duty. That as soon as he reached Mattapony House he took his boat and went on board the ketch. That there he found Christopher Rousby, the King's Collector, cronying with Capt. Allen, and upholding him in his disrespect to the government. That Colonel Talbot was very sharp upon Rousby, not liking him for old grudges , and more moved against him now; and that he spoke his mind both to Captain Allen and Christopher Rousby, and so, got into a high quarrel with them. That when he had said all that he desired to say to them, he made a move to leave the ketch in his boat, intending to return to Mattapony House; but they who were in the cabin prevented him and would not let him go. And thereupon the quarrel broke out afresh and became more bitter; and it being now in the night, and all in a great heat of passion, the parties having already come from words to blows, Talbot drew his skene, or dagger, and stabbed Rousby to the heart. That nothing was known on shore of the affray till Saturday evening, when the body was brought to Rousby's house; after which it became known to the neighborhood, and one of the men of Major Sowell's plantation, which adjoined Rousby's, having thus heard of it, set out and rode that night over to St. Mary's with the news which he gave to the Major before midnight. It was added that Col. Talbot was now detained on board the ketch as a prisoner, by Captain Allen. In defiance of an earnest protest on the part of the official authorities of Maryland, Talbot was carried to Virginia, and by order of the Governor, Lord Effingham, confined in Gloucester jail. A fruitless correspondence ensued, which finally ended in a peremptory refusal, on the part of Lord Effingham, to deliver up his prisoner. At this point we will resume the thread of the narrative. [Continued in Chesapeake6.txt]