href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@26958@[email protected]#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[50] This was the first part of the determined effort to deprive the great Cecil Calvert of his charter of Maryland, which Richard Ingle continued so vigorously in after years. He was probably in England at that time, for he refers to the action of the Lords in regard to the settling of the Maryland government, in his petition of February 24th, 1645/6, to the House of Lords. To this petition was appended a statement on behalf of Cornwallis, which will explain it. Cornwallis said that on Ingle’s return to England, to cover up his defalcation in the matter of 200 pounds worth of goods, he had complained to the committee for examinations against Cornwallis as an enemy to the State. The matter was given a full hearing, and when it was left to the law and the defendant was granted the right of having witnesses in Maryland examined, Ingle had him arrested upon two feigned actions to the value of 15,000 pounds sterling. Some friends succeeded in rescuing him from prison, and then Ingle sent the following petition to the House of Lords, which had the effect of stopping for the time proceedings against him.[51] Having done so he carried the prosecution no further. The petition is somewhat lengthy, but it should be read as it is eminently characteristic of the man.[52]

“The humble petition of Richard Ingle, showing That whereas the petitioner, having taken the covenant, and going out with letters of marque, as Captain of the ship Reformation, of London, and sailing to Maryland, where, finding the Governor of that Province to have received a commission from Oxford to seize upon all ships belonging to London, and to execute a tyrannical power against the Protestants, and such as adhered to the Parliament, and to press wicked oaths upon them, and to endeavor their extirpation, the petitioner, conceiving himself, not only by his warrant, but in his fidelity to the Parliament, to be conscientiously obliged to come to their assistance, did venture his life and fortune in landing his men and assisting the said well affected Protestants against the said tyrannical government and the Papists and malignants. It pleased God to enable him to take divers places from them, and to make him a support to the said well affected. But since his return to England, the said Papists and malignants, conspiring together, have brought fictitious acts against him, at the common law, in the name of Thomas Cornwallis and others for pretended trespass, in taking away their goods, in the parish of St. Christopher’s, London, which are the very goods that were by force of war justly and lawfully taken from these wicked Papists and malignants in Maryland, and with which he relieved the poor distressed Protestants there, who otherwise must have starved, and been rooted out.

“Now, forasmuch as your Lordships in Parliament of State, by the order annexed, were pleased to direct an ordinance to be framed for the settlement of the said province of Maryland, under the Committee of Plantations, and for the indemnity of the actors in it, and for that such false and feigned actions for matters of war acted in foreign parts, are not tryable at common law, but, if at all, before the Court and Marshall; and for that it would be a dangerous example to permit Papists and malignants to bring actions of trespass or otherwise against the well affected for fighting for the Parliament.

“The petitioner most humbly beseecheth your Lordships to be pleased to direct that this business may be heard before your Lordships at the bar, or to refer it to a committee to report the true state of the case and to order that the said suits against the petitioner at the common law may be staid, and no further proceeded in.”

It is not known how this matter was settled, but in 1647, September 8th, Ingle transferred to Cornwallis “for divers good and valuable causes” the debts, bills, &c., belonging to him, and made him his attorney to collect the same. Among the items in the inventory appended to the power of attorney were “A Bill and note of John Sturman’s, the one dated the 10th of April 1645 for Satisfaction of tenn pounds of powder the other dated the 4th of April 1645 for 900 l of Tob & Caske,” and “an acknowledgem^t of Cap^t William Stone dated the 10th of April 1645 for a receipt of a Bill of Argall Yardley’s Esq, for 9860 l of Tobacco and Caske,”[53] which show that the mercantile interests of Ingle were not subservient to his supposed warlike measures. A consideration of the statements by Cornwallis and of those by Ingle, proves that the latter must have had considerable influence in the Parliament, and that he was prepared to stand by and defend all his actions, and the similarity to his petition of ideas and even of words in certain places, would safely allow the conjecture that Ingle had something to do in the report of 1645 already mentioned. It is curious also to compare his reference to the ill-treatment of the Protestants, and the mention of the hardships of Baltimore’s adherents, made by the Assembly of 1649. There is no record of the presence of Ingle in Maryland after the spring of 1645, though the rebellion which he was accused of instigating continued some months longer.[54] For continuity, a rapid sketch of the history of Maryland during the next two years must be given.

For fourteen months the province was without a settled government. In March, 1645/6, the Virginian Assembly in view of the secret flight into Maryland of Lieutenant Stillwell, and others, enacted that “Capt. Tho. Willoughby, Esq., and Capt. Edward Hill be hereby authorized to go to Maryland or Kent to demand the return of such persons who are alreadie departed from the colony. And to follow such further instructions as shall be given them by the Governor and Council.”[55] After Hill had arrived in Maryland he was elected governor by the members of the council, who, notwithstanding Ingle’s rebellion, were in the province. The right of the council to elect Hill was afterwards disputed, but one word must be said in regard to this. The reason for disputing the right was that the councilors could elect only a member of the council to be governor. In the commission to Leonard Calvert in 1637, no such restriction was made,[56] in the commission of 1642 the restriction occurs, and in the commission of 1644, which has been preserved in two