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| The Thomas House, previously known as Araby. |
To Mr. Thomas Beatty, Sheriff of Frederick County.
SIR,
I Acquainted you, last time you called here, that I intended to be with you about the end of last week, to pay you my part of the public dues, for that I expected, by that time, the Assembly would reconsider their late act, imposing a treble tax on those who had omitted to take the oath they prescribed to be taken by the inhabitants of this State, by the first of last March, and make such alteration as justice and the nature of the case require.
My judgment on that act is, that it is unreasonable, oppressive, and destructive of such peaceable inhabitants as have omitted to take that oath, and therefore unjust, supposing no Bill of Rights had been first made to guard them from such destruction; but as the act in question manifestly violates and destroys that Declaration of the People’s Rights, if the Assembly do not rectify it, this Bill of Rights, which ought to have been sacred, is a dead letter—a mere nothing!
As you are an officer, it is not your business to judge of laws, but to execute them; nor do I write this to interfere with your office and duty, it rather flows (by the bye) from a sense of oppression, and of injustice. It is a forfeiture expressly guarded against by the declared rights of the people at large, and which the Assembly ought carefully to have preserved.
I have only now to desire of you to be under no uneasiness on account of the extent of what the present law requires you to collect from me, for if no alteration is made, I shall pay it (if I live) before the end of this month. My equal assessment and levies come to 591, which I have now in readiness to pay; but the treble assessment. I have not, in money, at present, but will take care to raise it in time, to prevent you from any further trouble on account of
Sir, your humble servant,
June 16, 1778. JAMES MARSHALL. June 17, 1778.—I do hereby certify, that the above is a true copy of a letter directed to me as sheriff of Frederick County.—Witness my hand, THOMAS BEATTY1
I found the above letter while doing some research on James Marshall in advance of our Open House event for the Thomas farm. When C. K. Thomas purchased the farm in 1860, it was known as Araby, a portion of a much larger estate originally created by James Marshall. Marshall emigrated to the colonies from Glasgow, Scotland in 1747 and in 1758 began purchasing the land that would eventually become the Araby estate. There is some uncertainty about exactly when the brick manor house was built, but "is believed to have been about 1780."2
Since it would be impossible to talk about the Thomas house without talking about James Marshall, I wanted to know who he was. I haven't found the wealth of newspaper articles I've found about some of the estate's later owners, so I was especially thrilled to find the above article.
Most of us learned in school that not everyone living in the colonies was for independence: a third was for, a third was against, and another third was just waiting it out to see who would win. In 1777, Maryland's political leaders were struggling to tamp down chaos and insurrection from having voted for independence before Maryland's citizens were truly on board. That's a gross oversimplification, and if you're interested in learning more about this time in Maryland history, I recommend the first two articles published in the Summer 1973 edition of the Maryland Historical Magazine.3,4 To make a long story very short, the new government passed the Security Act, which basically required that all free men sign the Oath of Fidelity and Support, or face some difficult consequences.
The first of those consequences were that Marshall would have to pay triple taxes on all personal and real property for the rest of his life. He was barred from many professions, not allowed to vote or hold office, and couldn't bring a suit to court. This last bit is especially important because as a businessman, you sometimes need courts to implement consequences if, for example, your tenants fail to pay rents.
Those consequences of not complying with the law were not enough to coax Marshall to sign the oath. As you can read from his letter, he did not see how the government could enact a law that was so contrary to everything against which it was supposed to be rebelling. He gambled that the legislature would see reason and repeal the law before the consequences kicked in, and he lost.
More research is needed to know if he is one of the many who applied to the legislature for relief, or if he waited them out.4 Fortunately, many of the consequences for not signing the oath were gradually relaxed over the next decade, and when he died in 1803 he was still a very wealthy man.5
1 Marshall, James (1778, Jul 23). To Mr Thomas Beatty, Sheriff of Frederick County. Maryland Journal, p. 4. Retrieved from www.genealogybank.com.↩
2 Beasley, Joy, editor (2010). Archeological Overview, Assessment, Identification, and Evaluation Study of the Thomas Farm, p19-20.↩
3 Hoffman, Ronald (Summer 1973). Popularizing the Revolution: Internal Conflict and Economic Sacrifice in Maryland, 1774-1780. Maryland Historical Magazine, p125-139. Retrieved from http://msa.maryland.gov.↩
4 Richard A. (Summer 1973). A Patriot Dilemma: The Treatment of Passive Loyalists and Neutrals in Revolutionary Maryland. Maryland Historical Magazine, p125-139. Retrieved from http://msa.maryland.gov.↩
5 "Maryland Register of Wills Records, 1629-1999," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-24294-37509-50?cc=1803986 : 20 May 2014), Frederick > Wills 1794-1803 vol 3; image 306 of 332; Hall of Records, Annapolis.↩
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