"Hand Book for Infantry."

Five editions, 55 plates.

Philadelphia, 1813.

"Explanation of Plates of the System of Infantry Discipline." 1814. Not printed.

"The System of Infantry Discipline; According to the Regulations Established for the Army of the United States." March 19, 1818. Philadelphia, 1814.

"American Military Library or Compendium of the Modern Tactics." Two volumes, Philadelphia, 1819. "A Visit to Colombia in 1822 and 1823." Philadelphia, 1826.

The Duane papers are valuable pamphlets, very numerous; they were purchased by the United States and are lodged in the Library of Congress.

THE RISE OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL

CHURCH IN THE DISTRICT OF

COLUMBIA.

BY ARTHUR S. BROWNE.

(Read before the Society, March 14, 1905.)

The century in which the English colonized America witnessed the final ascendancy of Protestantism over Roman Catholicism in England. During the reign of Elizabeth England was apparently definitely committed to the Protestant religion, but the unhappy divisions of those united only in opposition to Rome, almost destroyed the results of the Reformation under the reign of the House of Stuart. The conflicts between Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Independents, between Cavaliers and Roundheads, drove Charles the First to the block, placed Cromwell in the seat of kings, and only when all sides were exhausted was the Stuart dynasty restored. The truce between the warring factions of Protestantism was the opportunity of Rome. A Benedictine monk administered the last sacraments to Charles the Second, and it took the tyranny of the bigoted and fanatical James the Second, coupled with his open adherence to the Papacy, to arouse Protestant England to rebellion. Under the wise conduct of that great prince and statesman, William of Orange, religious toleration was established, and Great Britain was definitely won for Protestantism when Marlborough, on the field of Blenheim, defeated the allied armies of Bavaria and France.

These great events, which fixed the principle of religious liberty in England and northern Europe and

destroyed the last vestiges of feudalism, also established the Church of England in the colony of Maryland.

Into Maryland alone, of all the English colonies, were transplanted the religious dissensions which determined the course of events in England during the seventeenth century. In New England the Puritans, in Vinginia the Churchmen, were too dominant for the creation of political parties divided by religious views. To Maryland alone came Roman Catholics, Churchmen and Independents, who brought with them the conflicting sentiments which divided the parties at home.

I shall not dwell upon the first settlements in Maryland under the Roman Catholics, Lord Baltimore, nor upon the strife between the Puritans and Roman Catholics, which resulted in the promulgation of the Religious Toleration Act in 1649, under Cecilius Calvert, who thereby saved his charter from cancellation by Cromwell, but will pass at once to the events that led to the act of June 6, 1692, which made the Church of England the established church in the province of Maryland, although at that time there were but four clergymen of the Church of England in the province.

Although the Calverts were an English family, their peerage was Irish, and Ireland alone remained loyal to James after the rebellion which seated William and Mary upon the English throne. The ensuing war in Ireland, which ended in the defeat of James and his French allies at the Boyne, sufficed to render the government suspicious of everything Irish. England was full of plots and conspiracies, having in view the restoration of James and of Roman Catholicism, and William narrowly escaped assassination. When public feeling was at its highest with suspicions against all things of Jacobite, Irish, French or Romanish origin, the report came that in Maryland there was a plot be

tween the Roman Catholics, the French and the Indians to massacre all the Protestants in the colony. History now knows that this was an idle canard, but the prevalent sentiment in England was such as to render such a story credible. As the result the charter to Lord Baltimore was revoked; his powers in Maryland were taken away, and it was converted from a proprietary into a crown province. The first royal governor was Lyonel Copley. An assembly was brought together under such conditions as to insure its Protestant character. Its first act was to recognize William and Mary, and its second was "An act for the service of Almighty God, and the establishment of the Protestant religion in this province." This act made the Church of England the established and official church of the colony. Under its provisions a tax of tobacco was levied upon every poll in the colony for the support of the established church, and commissioners were appointed in each county for the purpose of dividing it into parishes. Under this act the entire colony was divided into thirty parishes. St. Mary's county was divided into two parishes, Calvert into four, and Charles into four. At that time Charles county included what is now Prince George's county (excepting a small portion then belonging to Calvert), the District of Columbia, Montgomery county, and all the territory lying north and west of Montgomery. The influence of English politics is shown in the nomenclature given to parishes and places at that time, exhibiting the loyalty of the dominant element in the colony to the prevailing sentiment in England. The two parishes into which St. Mary's county was divided were called "William & Mary" and "King and Queen." Charles county had a "William & Mary" parish, and in 1704 "Queen Anne's" parish was created. When in 1695 a new county was

created from parts of Calvert and Charles it was named "Prince George's," after the heir presumptive of the British throne, the young Prince George, eldest son of Anne, afterward Queen, and the principal town of Prince George's county was named after the victor of Blenheim.

Of the four parishes created in Charles county in 1692 the one upon which our present interest centers is Piscataway parish, since within its bounds was the present territory of the District of Columbia. The limits of Piscataway parish at its organization were defined by the Charles county commissioners as follows:

"Beginning at the mouth of the Mattawoman Creek on the Patowmack & running up said Creek, & the Branch thereof, to the utmost limits of the County, & thence running with the County line to the line of the Province separating it from Pennsylvania, thence Westward with that line to the Patowmack River, and down that river to the mouth of the Mattawoman Creek, its beginning" (Liber R, folio 457, Charles County Records).

Mattawoman creek flows into the Potomac river below Indian Head, and the parish included substantially all of the territory of the colony north of this creek and west of the Patuxent river.

The first record of Piscataway parish reads as follows:

"By a Sufficient Power and Lawful authority the Inhabitants of Piscataway Parrish having matte att the House of John Addison Esq" in the said Parish and elected and chosen the said John Addison foreman; Mr. William Hatton, Mr. William Hutchison, Mr. William Tannehill, Mr. John Emett and Mr. John Smallwell to be Vestry men for the said Parrish It was appointed that the said Vestry should meet the 30th Day of January and accordingly the said Vestry Did meet the