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18 HISTORY OF MARYLAND.
the time of which we write. Beneficed clergymen were exempt from taxation
and military duty, and judges and magistrates had their grandeur and dignity
protected by a chevaux-de-frise of pains and penalties for contempt. Yet
Eddis remarks the democratic manners of the people, and that they paid but
little obeisance to their superiors, and seemed to be pervaded with a general
sense of equality. They were more shrewd, he says, quicker of apprehension,
and more inquisitive than the same classes in England. They were versed in
the affairs of State, and held to their opinions firmly. Their sturdy independence had been manifested from the first, in the incessant combats between
the General Assembly and the Lord Proprietary. Probably the redemptioner,
just set free, with his axe in one hand and his gun in the other, about to go
to Frederick County to take up land, felt as free, and was more inclined to
assert his feeling, than the gentleman on his baronial domain, with his English education, his polished manners, and his manly ways of life. But all
classes had a proud spirit of personal independence and were steadfast in
maintaining their rights. The old aristocracy seldom took the Tory side in
the Revolutionary War; and the Tory Party in the State was almost entirely
made up of the office-holding class, with the shop-keepers and Englishmen
who had recently come over.
The Maryland colonists were not a well educated people, and it must
be confessed they thought more of horse-racing and cock-fighting than
they did of books. The first Catholic settlers were indeed men of high
culture. Lord Baltimore and Father White were scholars in the fullest
sense of the word; and the gentlemen who founded Saint Mary's were
well-read. But the people who had so much forest to cut down had little
time to spare for the school-master, and the earlier generations of Marylanders
grew up in ignorance. People who wanted an education and had the means,
went to England to get it.1 But the greater part of the young Marylanders
were more like Harry Warrington than like his brother George. Foxhunting in the morning, and cards or dancing at night, left them little
time for books. And, indeed, the libraries were few and meagre, even at
Annapolis and on the great estates. John Beale Bordley had one, and so
1 Stephen Bordley, elder brother to John bacco, substituting wheat for it, in consequence
Beale Bordley, and one of the most prominent, of the Stamp Act, and established a brewery in
wealthiest and best educated men in the colony, order to escape buying wine in the London
had one of the best libraries and kept one of docks) was forced to send his sons "home," to
the best tables in Annapolis. His correspon- Eton, for an education which was not to be had
dence shows him frequently ordering a " pipe in the colonies. In 1766, we find him writing
of your best Madeira, cost what it will," or a to his London correspondent, Edward Jen-
cask of champagne, or a cask or two, or a few nings, as follows: " A good school for useful
dozen of Burgundy. His library went to John learning is scarcely to be found on this conti-
Beale Bordley, so long the prothonotary of nent. They have a college at (Williamsburg ?)
Baltimore County, the proprietor of a lordly that spoils many a man—most of their youth
estate, an extensive and intelligent planter, and are turned out in a hurry, with a smattering of
one of the most generous and noble Maryland pretty stuff; and without a solid foundation,
patriots. No man better knew the colony or pertly set themselves up as the standards of
loved it more. He was educated in England, wit, and what is most impudent, of superior
and, patriot as he was (he ceased raising to- judgment."—Memoir of the Bordleys.
| Title | History of Maryland - 2 |
| Creator | Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas) |
| Publisher | J. B. Piet |
| Place of Publication | Baltimore |
| Date | 1879 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000041 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 18 HISTORY OF MARYLAND. the time of which we write. Beneficed clergymen were exempt from taxation and military duty, and judges and magistrates had their grandeur and dignity protected by a chevaux-de-frise of pains and penalties for contempt. Yet Eddis remarks the democratic manners of the people, and that they paid but little obeisance to their superiors, and seemed to be pervaded with a general sense of equality. They were more shrewd, he says, quicker of apprehension, and more inquisitive than the same classes in England. They were versed in the affairs of State, and held to their opinions firmly. Their sturdy independence had been manifested from the first, in the incessant combats between the General Assembly and the Lord Proprietary. Probably the redemptioner, just set free, with his axe in one hand and his gun in the other, about to go to Frederick County to take up land, felt as free, and was more inclined to assert his feeling, than the gentleman on his baronial domain, with his English education, his polished manners, and his manly ways of life. But all classes had a proud spirit of personal independence and were steadfast in maintaining their rights. The old aristocracy seldom took the Tory side in the Revolutionary War; and the Tory Party in the State was almost entirely made up of the office-holding class, with the shop-keepers and Englishmen who had recently come over. The Maryland colonists were not a well educated people, and it must be confessed they thought more of horse-racing and cock-fighting than they did of books. The first Catholic settlers were indeed men of high culture. Lord Baltimore and Father White were scholars in the fullest sense of the word; and the gentlemen who founded Saint Mary's were well-read. But the people who had so much forest to cut down had little time to spare for the school-master, and the earlier generations of Marylanders grew up in ignorance. People who wanted an education and had the means, went to England to get it.1 But the greater part of the young Marylanders were more like Harry Warrington than like his brother George. Foxhunting in the morning, and cards or dancing at night, left them little time for books. And, indeed, the libraries were few and meagre, even at Annapolis and on the great estates. John Beale Bordley had one, and so 1 Stephen Bordley, elder brother to John bacco, substituting wheat for it, in consequence Beale Bordley, and one of the most prominent, of the Stamp Act, and established a brewery in wealthiest and best educated men in the colony, order to escape buying wine in the London had one of the best libraries and kept one of docks) was forced to send his sons "home," to the best tables in Annapolis. His correspon- Eton, for an education which was not to be had dence shows him frequently ordering a " pipe in the colonies. In 1766, we find him writing of your best Madeira, cost what it will," or a to his London correspondent, Edward Jen- cask of champagne, or a cask or two, or a few nings, as follows: " A good school for useful dozen of Burgundy. His library went to John learning is scarcely to be found on this conti- Beale Bordley, so long the prothonotary of nent. They have a college at (Williamsburg ?) Baltimore County, the proprietor of a lordly that spoils many a man—most of their youth estate, an extensive and intelligent planter, and are turned out in a hurry, with a smattering of one of the most generous and noble Maryland pretty stuff; and without a solid foundation, patriots. No man better knew the colony or pertly set themselves up as the standards of loved it more. He was educated in England, wit, and what is most impudent, of superior and, patriot as he was (he ceased raising to- judgment."—Memoir of the Bordleys. |
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