PREFACE.

The author, in offering this volume to the consideration of the public, does not desire that it shall be looked upon as a history of the Church in Maryland through the period which it covers, but rather as one among many aids to the writing of that history which is yet to be. He is aware of the existence of a considerable body of materials which he has not been able to utilize, and he has been made very conscious through all his labor in this connection, that both the engrossing nature of his parochial duties and the remoteness of his residence from all literary centers, would render him unfit for the ambitious plan of the history of the church in this province. The title of the work expresses its object, Church Life in Colonial Maryland; for the writer's purpose has been, by the blending of parochial records with documentary and other evidence of a more gen-. eral character, along with a continuous glance at the world outside the colony, to give as near as may be, both a peculiar and also a relative insight into the condition of the Church of our fathers. How far he has succeeded in this purpose he must leave it to others to determine.

The author feels, however, that he has some special qualifications for this work. A Maryland Churchman by birth, he is proud of her traditions, and proud of her eminent position. He also feels the heartiest sympathy with that tone of Churchmanship which permeates all parts of the commonwealth, which had its origin in those days when the Church was the Church in the minds and mouths of all, when dissent was a small faction worshipping in its chapels, and when the parson was the generally accepted presentation of Christ's duly ordained minister. That is Maryland Churchmanship; and it has been fostered and preserved through all the older rural districts of Maryland, where the old temples still stand, and where the children of a long line of fathers still occupy the soil.

Another qualification also, he feels that he has in being the rector of one of the first parishes in Maryland; first, principally because it was created along with those that were laid out under the earliest act of establishment; first, because from that earlier day it has been blessed, almost without exception, with a long line of ministers who have furthered the kingdom and done no dishonor to their holy calling, the parish thus enjoying an even life of high tenor; first, because those who worship within its sanctuary, love the Holy Name, and are thankful for their Churchly inheritance; and among the first, because though resources have been severely crippled, and numbers sadly reduced by untoward circumstances, their is a willingness to help build up Zion, to repair the waste places, to make the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose.

Presenting, therefore his claims for attention, he prays for consideration, and trusts that the effect of his labor may be to correct misapprehension, and to reveal to many the true historical position of their church in this diocese, fostering thereby their zeal in its behalf.

CHAPTER I.

THE CHURCH BEFORE 1692.

INTRODUCTORY.

The history of a parish in Maryland cannot properly go back beyond the year 1692 when the first act of the Colonial assembly was passed for the establishment of the church of England. in the now royal province. Still it would be erroneous to suppose that there had been no existence of the church in the colony before. Rather the evidences are various that from the foundation of the colony there had been many members of that church among the settlers, some of them very influential, while also in the Virginia settlement on Kent Island, which had been established in 1629, years before Lord Baltimore's emigrants had arrived in the colony, the church of England services were conducted by a duly ordained minister. Lord Baltimore's endeavors had been strenuous to secure a large body of colonists, as the "Account" published with the Father White papers shows, and his invitation was in no way limited to the members of his own church, as in the nature of things it could not have been.