William Claiborne's Flight

During eight and forty hours nothing was heard concerning those people who would hold possession of Kent Island regardless of the king's command, even at the cost of human life, and then one of the Patuxent Indians came in with the news that William Claiborne had taken refuge in Jamestown, fearing lest our Captain Cornwallis should make him prisoner.

Now you must understand that we of St. Mary's claimed that this same William Claiborne should be charged with all the mischief that had been done, since even though he was one of the officers of the Province of Virginia, he had acted in open rebellion to his king's commands, and had, like a thief, tried to steal the rights and privileges which belonged to the Baltimores.

As soon as these tidings had been brought in, Governor Calvert sent my father and my uncle in the Dove  to Jamestown, that they might demand from Governor Harvey, as rebel and traitor, the person of William Claiborne.

Those who were of authority in Virginia refused thus to deliver a member of their council who had fled to them for protection; but agreed, however, that he, together with the witnesses against him, should be sent to England, and there tried for the offense he had committed.

This, as can readily be supposed, much the same as ended the war, and perchance those who read may say, with a smile, that I am striving to make too much out of little, in speaking of the quarrel as real warfare, yet to us of St. Mary's it was a most serious matter, and even though you judge by the loss of life as to what name shall be given this outbreak, then may you say it was in fact a bloody war, because out of three hundred and fifty people no less than four had been killed; moreover twenty-two had been taken prisoners, and one of the leaders made a fugitive.

That which to my mind caused the bloody affair to seem the more pitiful, was that it need not have come about had soft words first been spoken.

It is not pleasant to dwell upon such matters when everywhere around us is so much of beauty which the good God has permitted us to enjoy, and therefore is it with great relief of mind that I put aside all of sorrow and of pain, and tell you how we of Maryland throve, and how our city of St. Mary's grew until it was a town as fair to look upon as any you might find of its size in England.