Captain Richard Ingle: The Maryland "Pirate and Rebel," 1642-1653Ingle, Edward
History
Captain Richard Ingle: The Maryland "Pirate and Rebel," 1642-1653
Ingle, Edward
Ingle, Richard, 1609-1653; Maryland -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Pirates
Beane stated also that sometime before Ingle came, he paid six
hogsheads of tobacco to Fenwick for Cornwallis, and that Ingle, upon
his arrival, sent eleven men to fetch the hogsheads and other tobacco;
that when Beane refused to give them up, Ingle was notified, and sent
a note threatening extreme measures, and Beane was thus forced to give
up the tobacco. Does it not seem curious that Ingle should give a
receipt for one batch of tobacco, and within a short time have other
tobacco forcibly seized? Of course the authorities of Maryland might
have considered such acts piratical. But they were not. Ingle had a
commission from Parliament, to relieve the planters in Maryland, by
furnishing them arms, &c. He found the government of Maryland at
enmity with Parliament, which was the actual government of England at
that time, and assisted the friends of Parliament in Maryland. Even if
he exceeded the provisions of his letter of marque he was responsible
to Parliament alone.[84] That the English authorities did not
disapprove of his conduct is shown by the weight attached to his
statements, and by the fact that he was afterwards in the service of
the Commonwealth.
As to Ingle's having been a "rebel," the facts all point to his
participation in the beginning of a rebellion, caused probably, by
those dissatisfied with Leonard Calvert's rule, more probably by the
influence of William Claiborne, who in spite of condemnatory acts by
the Maryland Assembly, and the vacillating measures of Charles I.,
insisted for many years upon his right to Kent Island. But rebellion
is viewed in different ways: by those against whom it is made, with
horror and detestation; by those who make it, with pride and ofttimes
with devotion. If Ingle led on the rebellion, he was acting in
Maryland, only as Cromwell afterwards did on a larger scale, in
England, and as Bacon, the brave and noble, did in Virginia, and to be
placed in the same category with many, who will be handed down to
future generations as rebels, will be no discredit to the first
Maryland rebel.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Spotswood Letters, Brock, p. 12.
[2] Rev. Edw. D. Neill, to whom I am indebted for valuable references,
was the first to attempt any kind of a defence of Ingle, but Dr. Wm.
Hand Browne, who also has greatly aided me, has omitted the pirate and
rebel clause in the history which he is preparing for the Commonwealth
Series.
[3] Assembly Proceedings, 1638-1664, p. 120, Land Office Records, Vol.
I., p. 582. In the Maryland records the name is spelled Cornwaleys,
but in this paper the rule has been adopted of spelling it Cornwallis,
as it is known to history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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