more's commission to him, which he showed them; thus getting the commission in their hands, they detained it, and removed him and his lordship's other officers out of their employment in the province under him, and appointed others to manage the government of Maryland, independent of his lordship.

Thus was the province of Maryland completely reduced to obedience to the parliament of the commonwealth of England, and all authority and power of the Lord Baltimore within the colony which he had planted at so much cost, and reared with so much care, entirely taken out of his hands, with the probable prospect, that it would never again be restored to him.

After the commissioners had made a temporary settlement of the government in Maryland, they returned to Virginia, of which province Bennett was made the governor, and Claiborne the secretary of state.

Bennett and Claiborne having thus provided for themselves honorable, and perhaps profitable stations in Virginia, returned to Maryland about the latter end of June, to make a more satisfactory settlement of the government of that province also. Finding that governor Stone had acquired, by his highly correct conduct in his office, great popularity with the inhabitants of the province, and moreover that it was the manifest 'desire of the inhabitants, that governor Stone should re-assume his former place of governor;' arrangements were accordingly made, and he was reinstated by proclamation of the commissioners, bearing date the 28th of June, 1652.

1653.

Contrary to the common usage of the colonial trade to the Chesapeake, 'no English shipping,' it seems, had arrived within the province of Maryland

during the spring and summer of this year. Consequently, as governor Stone states, he had received no instructions or intelligence to direct him in the government of the province, no act by the colonial government was passed, directly affecting the interests of the settlement at Providence.

In 1654, receiving certain intelligence of 1654. Cromwell's elevation to the protectorate, governor Stone recognized and proclaimed him as protector, on the 6th day of June, in this year."

This same year, governor Stone, by proclamation, charged the commissioners, Bennett and Claiborne, and indeed the whole puritanic party mostly of Anne Arundel, with 'drawing away the people, and leading them into faction, sedition and rebellion against the Lord Baltimore."

Induced by this proclamation, the commissioners again returned to Maryland, and with the assistance of the puritans at Providence, by force of arms, turned out governor Stone and the Lord Baltimore's other officers, and put others in their places.

After a short resistance, governor Stone, in July of this year, again submitted to the authority of the commissioners' government.

1655.

Early in 1655, it appears that governor Stone received written instructions from Lord Baltimore, in which he blames him for 'resigning up his government into the hands of the lord protector and commonwealth of England, without striking one stroke.'

Being thus instigated by the Lord Proprietary, to attempt the recovery of the proprietary government, he now re-assumed his office of governor under his former commission.

After such a rebuke from his lordship, governor Stone determined to resist the authority set up by the commissioners; and to make one more struggle for that power and authority which he had held from, and exercised under the Lord Proprietary's commission. In virtue of his official authority, he proceeded to issue military commissions to officers, and to organize an armed force in the county of St. Mary's, for the purpose of taking possession of the govern

ment.

Of these he despatched a party to the house of Mr. Richard Preston, situated on the river Patuxent, where the provincial records had been deposited on the revolution in July last, and caused them to be seized and brought to St. Mary's. On the information of this seizure of the records arriving at Providence, (now Annapolis,) captain Fuller and his council, in whom the government of the province had been invested, sent two messengers with letters to governor Stone, 'in a way of peace and love,' desiring him to make it known by what power he surprised the records, and desiring an answer thereto. Governor Stone returned only a verbal answer-that he would shew no power, but affirmed that he acted by a power from Lord Baltimore; and that the Lord Protector had confirmed the Lord Baltimore's power.' The messengers were thereupon dismissed and went home.

Soon after this, governor Stone issued a proclamation for the purpose, it would appear, of quieting the minds of the people of Patuxent, on his resuming the government of the province, and his seizure of the records, protesting therein, that it was not his intention to use any hostile proceedings either against them or

the people at Providence. As Mr. Preston's house on the Patuxent had been used since July last, as the seat of government for the province, where the provincial records had been kept, a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition, as it appears, had been there also deposited. Governor Stone, as a further precautionary measure, thought it proper to secure these arms and ammunition, and accordingly sent an armed party of twenty men for that purpose, under the command of William Eltonhead and Josias Fendel. They seized upon such arms, &c., as they could find, not only in Preston's house, but in others in the neighborhood, which it is stated they searched, and brought the same to St. Mary's.

Soon after these transactions, governor Stone began to make preparations for reducing the puritans of Anne Arundel to a submission and obedience to Lord Baltimore's government. Having collected together and armed about two hundred of the yeomanry of St. Mary's county, who were willing to follow him, he set out with his little army, about the 20th of March, 1654, O. S. towards Providence. He had collected, also, about eleven or twelve vessels, probably such as are now called bay craft, for the transportation of some of his forces, part of them marching along the bay coast, and the vessels serving to ferry them across the mouths of the rivers.

Before they had arrived at Herring creek, (sometimes called Herring bay,) in Anne Arundel county, they were met by messengers in a boat, who had been sent by the government at Providence with a letter to governor Stone, remonstrating against his proceedings, and desiring to be informed not only of his authority and power

in so doing, but whether 'he were resolved to come to no parley or treaty,' protesting, in the said writing, 'that, by the help of God, they were resolved to commit themselves into the hand of God, and rather die like men, than live like slaves.' No answer to this message appears to have been given by the governor, as may be inferred from the fact that 'these messengers were apprehended, and their boat seized;' but three out of the six persons on board the boat, contrived to make their escape, and carried back to the government at Providence the intelligence that Stone and his army were on their march towards them in hostile array.

On the arrival of governor Stone and his troops at Herring creek, they found there, it seems, one of the commissioners, to whom the government had been intrusted in July last, by Bennett and Claiborne. This gentleman they caused to be kept under guard: and either at this place or at a little further on his march, governor Stone deputed Doctor Luke Barber and Mr. Coursey to go on before them to Providence, with a proclamation addressed to the people of Anne Arundel. Of the contents of this proclamation, thus sent by Doctor Barber, we are not informed, except so much of it as is given by Doctor Barber, subsequently, to wit: that, 'in the end of this declaration, the governor did protest, as in the presence of Almighty God, that he came not in a hostile way, to do them any hurt, but sought all meanes possible to reclaime them by faire meanes, and to my knowledge, at the sending out of parties, he gave strict command that, if they met any of the Ann Arundel men, they should not fire the first gun, nor upon paine of death, plunder any.'