CD 3281 
 .A15 
 1859 
 Copy 1 
 
 
 REP OUT 
 
 OF THB 
 
 AGENT OF THE STATE 
 
 UNDER AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
 
 OF MARYLAND, PASSED AT JANUARY 
 
 SESSION 1858, CHAPTER 27. 
 

 z> 
 
 
 
 V\ 
 
 %\ 
 
 6°\ 
 
 2 DEC1S05 
 D.ofD. 
 
REPORT. 
 
 His Excellency, T. H. HICKS, 
 
 Governor of Maryland. 
 
 Baltimore, Dec'r 16, 1859. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor herewith to make Keport of the Corn- 
 mission, as Agent of the State under an Act of the General 
 Assembly of Maryland, passed at January Session, 1858, ch. 
 27; with which your Excellency was pleased to charge me. 
 
 The documents relating to this, only reached me after I had 
 been for sometime at Kome — one of the places indicated in the 
 Act aforesaid; and when, in fact, my arrangements for de- 
 parture had been already made. This was of the less mo- 
 ment since some of the MSS. papers contemplated by the Act — 
 and especially the Journal of Father White, ("who accompa- 
 nied the first of the Colonists of Lord Baltimore,) expressly 
 referred to in a former Kesolution of the General Assembly, 
 (Dec. 18?>6, No. 56,) of which the Act in question was, among 
 other things a revival, had been otherwise acquired. A copy 
 of this Journal, as well as of some letters relating to Jesuit 
 Missions in Maryland, are in possession of the Historical So- 
 ciety in Baltimore ; having been derived from the collections 
 of the College of the Order at Georgetown, D. C, either di- 
 rectly, or through the liberality of individuals. 
 
 The only other Document of whose existence at Kome I had 
 any memorandum, was a MS. Vocabulary of the language of 
 the Linni-Lenape, that great Indian Tribe better known to Eu- 
 ropeans under the appellation of Delawares, families of which 
 were in occupation of the territory of Maryland at the time of 
 the earliest Colonist's arrival. This, I had been informed, 
 many years ago, by the Rev. Mr. McSherry, Provincial of the 
 Jesuits in Maryland, and perhaps elsewhere, was to be found 
 
among the archives of the Congregation (or Committee) de 
 Propaganda Fide in the Collegio Urbano, or, as it is com- 
 monly termed, the College of the Propaganda : and it was one 
 of the objects (though not mentioned expressly) of the Keso- 
 lution aforesaid, whose introduction had been originally sug- 
 gested by myself with a view to this very document. 
 
 I made a point, then, of remaining sufficiently long in 
 Kome to explain to His Eminence, Cardinal Bamabo, the 
 Prefect of the Propaganda, a letter introductory to whom had 
 been courteously transmitted to me by the Most Kev. the 
 Archbishop of Baltimore — the interest attaching to the object 
 of my research ; and of obtaining permission to examine the 
 Archives for the purpose. 
 
 In point of fact, a similar examination had previously 
 taken place on application made, at my private instance, by 
 His Excellency, Mr. Cass, the U. S. Minister resident at the 
 Pontifical Court ; any request from whom, the Kector of the 
 College emphatically stated to me, deserved and would meet 
 with the promptest and utmost attention. 
 
 I learned, on my arrival at Kome, the fruitlessness of the 
 search which had been thus instituted ; but as this might 
 have been owing to an obscure indication of the document 
 sought for or to want of familiarity with the matter by those 
 who conducted the search, I did not hesitate to gratify the 
 interest I felt, by devoting the time necessary to satisfy my- 
 self; and I spent, therefore, besides what had been taken up 
 in the preliminary visits mentioned and in two ineffectual 
 ones to Msgr. Bedino, titular Archbishop of Thebes and Sec- 
 retary to the Congregation of the Propaganda, an entire 
 morning in exploring the places where the Archives were 
 kept. 
 
 The papers here are not arranged with the precision and 
 sort of classification that their number and variety appear to 
 deserve, and that would be very desirable for any one attempt- 
 ing to gain a knowledge of their contents ; nor is there any 
 list, even — at least known to the Archivist who accompanied 
 me (who, however, I believe was not the regular official) — of 
 the names of Missionaries, indicating where their labors had 
 been bestowed ; such as in the absence of a strict geographical 
 distribution of matters, would considerably economize an ex- 
 aminer's time. I found two or three references to Maryland 
 among the papers I looked over; but none of any importance; 
 and as to the special MS. sought for, I came reluctantly to 
 the conclusion that it does not exist there. 
 
 Mr. Cass had already followed up a suggestion that it might 
 have been transferred, along with some other things, to the 
 
Vatican ; and another that it might even be at Bologna ; but 
 with the same ill-success. 
 
 And, in order to omit nothing, I procured, through Father 
 Angelo Secchi, the illustrious Astronomer and Director of the 
 Observatory at Koine, access to the Jesuit's Convent — the 
 principal seat of the Order ; and learned there from the Ar- 
 chivist that recent examinations with a view to certain re-ar- 
 rangements of papers, authorized him to affirm with cer- 
 tainty the non-existence there of a document like the one in 
 question . 
 
 I regret this termination very sincerely ; not only on ac- 
 count of the wasted time and effort in reaching it ; but also, 
 because it takes away the hope I had for a long while che- 
 rished, of a valuable addition to philology as well as to our 
 scanty knowledge about our immediate predecessors in the 
 Territory we occupy. 
 
 The other aim of the Act — to obtain documents from the 
 State-paper Office and Sion College in London — is capable of 
 a more satisfactory and complete attainment; and the MS. 
 Library of the British Museum, not enumerated among the 
 resorts of the Act, contains also matter of Historical interest, 
 not to be found in either of the other repositories. But so 
 full is the former of the two, that I am inclined to think a 
 History of Provincial Maryland may be composed upon the 
 materials it contains, quite as exact as, and probably more 
 faithful than co-temporaneous history, had it been attempted. 
 
 The contents of Sion College, in this respect, are not very 
 copious, and none of the MSS. are of older date than the sev- 
 enteenth century. But, as some of them are very interesting, 
 and are to be found no where else, I devoted the time neces- 
 sary not only for their complete perquisition, but also for 
 making out (what did not exist before) a Calendar i. e. an 
 Index of the title with brief notices of the contents of each 
 paper. A copy of this Calendar I caused to be made and 
 presented to the College; as a return for the courtesy which 
 had allowed me to compile the original. And I also had a 
 transcript made, and brought it away with me, of some of the 
 documents; as well because of their intrinsic interest as for 
 the purpose of experimenting on and establishing a reliable 
 resort for future transcription, there. These and also some 
 others, which from the same motives, and in a similar man- 
 ner I procured from the State-paper Office, are ready to be 
 deposited in the State Library according to the provisions of 
 the Act. 
 
 The collections of this latter repository, the State-paper 
 Office, are, as might be anticipated, much more extensive. 
 
The portions relating to Maryland constitute the entire mass 
 of nine record-folio volumes, in which the originals have been, 
 not always with entire chronological accuracy, hound, and in 
 some instances copied; and form, besides, a greater or less 
 part of one hundred and eighty-five similar volumes, in which 
 they have been mixed with similar documents from other 
 Plantations and Proprietory ships. Fifty-eight other bundles 
 of sheets spread out, as if ready for binding, but not fastened 
 together, nor arranged according to any system, and en- 
 dorsed America and West Indies — contain under various titles 
 of Maryland, Governors, Orders in Council, Proprietaries, 
 Plantations, Memorandums, etc., documents relating to Mary- 
 land. Such documents are quite numerous in some of the 
 bundles I examined, and they are probably mingled in all. 
 
 An accidental connection that I had with the Foreign 
 Office, allowing me to communicate directly, and not as usual, 
 through the medium of the Legation at London, procured me 
 larger facilities than ordinary ; and, in particular, opened the 
 documents subsequent to 1688 (which are only accessible by 
 special permission) ; besides giving the privilege of taking 
 copies, from time to time, of such papers as I might desire. 
 Of this last privilege, I have availed, as yet, only to a small 
 extent, and with the prospective aim I just spoke of. 
 
 For the Maryland Historical Society possesses a voluminous 
 MS. Calendar, presented to it by Mr. Peabody, formerly of 
 Baltimore, but now resident in London, which was presumed 
 to indicate all the documents in the State Paper office ; and 
 the verification of which appeared to me to be the first step 
 proper to be taken. I, therefore, spent more days than I an- 
 ticipated would be necessary, in calendaring the contents of 
 sundry of the volumes and bundles, taken at random ; to be 
 afterwards compared with the titles in the Society's Library ; 
 and I should have continued farther, had I not at last met 
 with a party, now holding an official station of trust in the 
 State Paper office, by whom or under whose direction then, 
 in another capacity, the Peabody Calendar had been made 
 out, and from whom I received such assurances as satisfied 
 me that the list was accurate and complete. I have, besides, 
 compared my own titling with the other, and find no dis- 
 crepancies greater than what might be expected in indexes of 
 the same matter, constructed by different persons. 
 
 We may assume, then, that we know now what is to be 
 found in the State Paper Office. 
 
 Next, we have ourselves in the State Library, the Council 
 Chamber, and probably the Archives of the Court of Appeals, 
 a considerable mass of State Papers ; some, or all of which, 
 are identical with those in Great Britain, and copies of which 
 
therefore are not needed. The second step, then, has been to 
 cause to be made out a Calendar of what we already possess 
 in this respect. 
 
 Upon receiving, through the Secretary of State, your 
 Excellency's approval of this step, I caused it to be entered 
 upon : and engaged the Rev. Dr. Allen, whose private His- 
 torical researches had made him more familiar than any other 
 person with the documents in question, to compile such a 
 Calendar. His work is partly completed, and a volume is 
 presented along with this Report ; indicating, document by 
 document, the contents of all the Historical Records which 
 he has been able to find in the Council Chamber, Land Office 
 and State Library, as well as of three volumes in the tempo- 
 rary possession of the Historical Society at Baltimore. The 
 Archives of the Court of Appeals are yet unexplored by him, 
 as well as some other possible accidental places of deposit in 
 the State House. 
 
 We may, however, assume, in the second place, that we do 
 or shortly shall know and have a written list of what exists 
 in our own repositories. 
 
 The comparison of this list with that of the office in Lon- 
 don, will enable us to make out a third, which will indicate 
 our deficiencies, and allow us to designate precisely the par- 
 ticular documents to be copied. 
 
 If the interest felt in the subject by the Legislature of the 
 State, having control of the necessary funds, should be equal 
 to my own or that of a good many other persons, or if it 
 should amount only to the conviction that Maryland herself 
 should possess a complete collection, original or transcribed, 
 of all existing documents relating to her own past history, or 
 at least as complete a collection as is possessed by any other 
 party, of course the best thing after ascertaining our deficien- 
 cies, would be to order them to be supplied, and to take 
 measures accordingly. 
 
 In that event, the provisional arrangements which I have 
 made in London, are adequate; and an appropriation by the 
 Legislature of 500 dollars per annum for the next two years, 
 with the balance of the existing appropriation, (two-fifths of 
 which only have been used) would be sufficient to be expended 
 judiciously until the next session. 
 
 If such an appropriation be made, and the disposition of it 
 left under my control, I should advise the application of a 
 portion of the existing balance to the preservation and 
 arrangement of the papers we already have. 
 
8 
 
 The condition of these papers, I am sorry to say, is not at 
 all creditable to the pride which we may justly have in our 
 antecedents, nor is it in accordance with the estimate of value 
 which the general sense of mankind places upon authentic 
 historical documents ; and I, for one, would very cheerfully 
 contribute money, (were it becoming) as I am now contribu- 
 ting time and valuable labor, to remove the reproach which 
 will otherwise be justly brought against us by succeeding gen- 
 erations. 
 
 _ Thirty years ago, or just about the life-time of one genera- 
 tion, the mass of such documents in our possession was con- 
 siderably larger than I have reason to believe it is now ; and 
 if we do not arrest the atmospheric decay to which parts of 
 that mass have always been and still are liable, as well as the 
 more active destruction of material which apparent careless- 
 ness is always sure to engender, and real neglect to encourage, 
 we are likely in another generation to have little left besides 
 regret at wasted opportunities. 
 
 At the epoch I speak of, viz : 1826-27, I was myself fami- 
 liar with a portion of these documents, three large boxes of 
 which were deposited in the wood-house of the Treasury office; 
 and I used to employ my spare time in examining and arrang- 
 ing them chronologically. A genial interest was created 
 among those then in authority, at the exposition; and I flattered 
 myself, that the very unpretending plan I had formed, would 
 be systematically prosecuted to completion. But the sympa- 
 thy which I had solicited for it in the beginning, soon outran 
 my anticipations: more magnificent, and doubtlessly more 
 suitable ideas, were entertained; until the estimate of 5,000 
 dollars, stipulated for by an eminent judicial functionary, 
 who contemplated the execution, effectually stopped (as I dare 
 say it would now) any further progress. I do not disguise, 
 and need hardly ask to be excused for, the disappointment I 
 felt, or for subsequently leaving these unhappy papers to their 
 fate, as some of them, I have no doubt, met in being used as 
 kindling material. 
 
 The effort was, however, though abortive, not entirely 
 fruitless ; for mainly out of, or along with it, grew, in the 
 next year, the establishment of the present State Library : to 
 which the papers in question were shortly removed. What 
 they underwent there, I had not the means of knowing : some 
 examinations, I was told, were made, and certain documents 
 were copied into a book or books, which I have seen : but 
 under peculiar impressions, entertained by the copyist, after 
 transcription, the originals were destroyed. And this is 
 another of the processes by which the mass of such papers 
 
9 
 
 has become less than it was at the time I first made their ac- 
 quaintance. 
 
 Indeed, the Bev. Dr. Allen assures me that he has not yet 
 come across any such bundled or detached papers of originals, 
 or quasi-originals, at all. But, as he also informs me, that 
 he has been desired by your Excellency to make a particular 
 communication upon the actual condition of these Archives, 
 (to which I have suggested that he should add an enumera- 
 tion or some estimate of the quantity and character of the 
 documents that exist) I need not dwell further on this topic 
 here. 
 
 As to the use to be made of these papers, after they shall 
 have been recovered and suitably arranged, it would be pre- 
 mature to speak now. Other States and nations have uni- 
 formly found it advisable to make their contents public in 
 some convenient way , and different ways have been adopted 
 at different times, and in various places. It is now under 
 consideration in England, as to what would be the most suit- 
 able method there ; in connection with which topic, I have 
 the honor to transmit a printed letter, which was communi- 
 cated to me by Sir Francis 5*algrave, the Deputy Master of 
 Rolls, whom I had occasion to converse with during the ex- 
 amination I was making. 
 
 At present, I believe, the actual steps in that country are 
 confined to the ; publication of the Calendar of the various 
 documents ; with the view, I suppose, of ultimately taking 
 the advice of scholars as to the mode of selection, &c., of 
 those documents which deserve publication in extenso. And, 
 in illustration of this point, also, I have the honor of trans- 
 mitting to your Excellency, to be deposited in the State Li- 
 brary, four volumes of what are termed Domestic Calendars 
 from 1603 to 1626, which were presented to me through the 
 courtesy of the Foreign Office, but which I consider should 
 belong properly to the State I represented. There are two 
 other volumes in continuation, which I shall shortly receive, 
 and to which I shall give the same destination. 
 
 Distinction is made in the epithet, between those documents 
 which are Domestic, and others, which like those that concern 
 Maryland, would be termed Colonial Calendars. Finding 
 that the State Paper office was confining itself entirely to the 
 former class, and not seeing the propriety of the same work 
 of examination and calendaring with regard to the latter, (in 
 which I had a concern) being done over twice, I took occasion 
 to propose, in the very outset, that a Calendar of all the 
 Maryland papers, should be forthwith set about, under tho 
 authority of the office, and that a copy of it should be com- 
 
10 
 
 municable to the State of Maryland, upon its bearing a fair 
 proportion of the expense — which I offered to meet on my 
 own responsibility. But it is one of the features (and, not 
 seldom, a most valuable feature,) in English methods of doing 
 business, to be averse to changing any part of a plan, which 
 has been adopted after consideration. And this habitual con- 
 servatism, as well as perhaps some local and temporary con- 
 venience of the force at disposal of the office itself, prevented 
 the proposition from being acceded to — though it was ad- 
 mitted by the Deputy Master of the Kolls. Sir Jno. Kemilly, 
 was absent at the time, I understood — that had such a pro- 
 posal been made earlier, it would probably have led to the 
 making out of the Domestic and Colonial Calendars, co-tem- 
 poraneously. 
 
 The nearer acquaintance which I afterwards had with the 
 documents themselves, would, if it had existed at the time, 
 have furnished me with a stronger argument in behalf of such 
 co-temporaneous prosecution, than any which I was then able 
 to urge. The discrimination in the actual partition of the 
 two classes of papers, has not been (perhaps could not be) 
 exercised with the precision that enables either to stand dis- 
 tinctly and alone. Some of the papers that are now ranged 
 under the Colonial head, are important in their relations to 
 the so-called Domestic documents ; while divers classed under 
 this latter are absolutely indispensable for us to have in com- 
 pleting our own collections. 
 
 From some correspondence, had since my return, I incline 
 to believe that there would be a greater disposition to adopt 
 the method I had the honor to suggest, were it to be again 
 proposed ; but I do not see any necessity for renewing it at 
 present. Our own course appears very clear and easy, viz : 
 to compare the lists of what we have with what exists else- 
 where, so as to ascertain what we have not ; and then to pro- 
 ceed with supplying our deficiencies by selecting, in order, 
 those whose titles indicate them to be of the greatest impor- 
 tance, and so on in our convenience, until we shall have col- 
 lected all. It might be advisable, if it shall be found not to 
 involve too serious an expenditure, to print the Calendar of 
 Papers which we already have — a step that would materially 
 facilitate and econom ize their subsequent arrangement. 
 
 Such are the details which appear proper to be reported to 
 you, Sir, as to what has been done in the matter committed 
 to my agency, and such the suggestions in relation to what 
 remains to be done. Should these last receive, as I hope they 
 may, the approbation of your Excellency, and of the General 
 
11 
 
 Assembly, I need only add, that I am ready to continue the 
 same gratuitous co-operation as heretofore, in giving them 
 effect. 
 
 I have the honor to offer assurances of the respect with 
 which I remain 
 
 Your Excellency's most obedient servant, 
 
 J. H. ALEXANDER. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 027 211 121 2 i