Evening Star Newspaper, May 10, 1931, Page 81

»» - until there appeared an extensive poem an_unknown author, in the Maryland Ga , in which it was said: “That, late in century the last, By private bounty, here was placed. My sacred walls, and tho’, in truth, Their stile and manner be uncouth; Yet, whilst no structure met mine eye That even with myself could vie, A goodly edifice I seemed, And pride of all Saint Anne’s was deemed. How changed the times, for now, all round Unnumbered stately piles abound, - Al better built, and looking down ©On me, quite antequated grown. Left unrepaired, to time & prey, 1 feel my vitals fast decay; And often have I heard it said That some good people are afraid. Least I should tumble on their head. ©Of which, indeed, this seems & proof— They seldom come beneath my roof, The stadt-house, that, for public good, With me co-eval long bad steod; With me full many a storm had dared, Is now at length to be repaired, Or, rather, to be built anew, An honour to the land and you. L 2 . A mite to duty, pray bestow. @ay, does my rival boast the art One solid comfort to impart, With mine, were want to sense or shame. climes, ‘Where, spite of many a host of foes, To God a mighty temple rose? Why point t0 every land beside ‘Whose honest aim it is, a pride, However poor it be, yet still, T i ; T j z or, but the Revolutionary War coming on, pilding operations were delayed, and the church not completed until some time subsequent b the end of the war. During the meantime, it milies throughout the State; such, for in- ce, as Calvert, Mackubin, Randall, Steele, furray, Maynadier, Steuart, Shaw, Nicholson, yo, Brewer, Harwood, Grammar and Mun- oe. The oldest date is 1763.” Gradually, so we are told, the piéce of land ven by Elizabeth Bordley to the vestry of Anne’s parish, and which was for years tnown as St. Anne’s Cemetery, lost its early e and, due to its ineorporation with grave- polis, having paseed her ninety: en she died. She was the writer's wife’s lrandmother, the daughter of William Cadle, ho died a few months after the bombard- hent cf Fort MeHenry from wounds received hile valiantly defending the Star-Spangled [E oldest record book preserved of burials around St. Anne’s Church, dated 1707, nakes mention of “His Excellency John Sey- hour, Capt. Gen., also Governour of the ovince and Vice -Admiral,” August 5, 1709; ohn Hart Governour,” September, 1716; of [Madam Margaret Lasonby, sunt of His Ex- llency Charles Calvert Governour,” August 1 5 date back to 1694, when it was con- s town, port and place of trade under the name of “Anne Arundel Town,” or to an even earlier date, when # was known as by the Puritans, and subse- 1607 and who, in 1626, was granted 100 acres of land on the “northerly” side of James River, Va, and who, together with his wife, Alice, was buried at Archer’s Hope, James City, Va. The New England branch of this family, of which the late Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont was a member, are descendants of John Proctor (age 40) and his wife Martha (age 28), who arrived at Ipswich, Mass, from London, in 1635, with their son, John (age 3), and daughter, Mary (age 1). John, the son, born 1632, married Elizabeth Thorndike, daugh- fer of John Thorndike, who is buried in West- S T The present State House at Annapolis, from an early view. from Cecil County, and it stood where the present State House stands. Apparently no plans for building were comsidered in the act of 1694, but as it neared completion the As- sembly passed an“act on Jume 11, 1697, which provided as follows: ““The Great Room below Stairs, for Courts and Assemblies to sit in: The Little Room below the Stairs, to be for a Magazine for every thing but Powder to lie in: The two Rooms on the Right hand above Stairs, for July and Land-office Records to be kept: And the Fore-Porch to be for Commissary’s Office, and Records of Probat of Wills and Granting Administrations, etc., to be kept in: The two Rooms on the Right Hand, in the Upper Lofts, One for the County Clerk to keep the County Oourt Records in, and the other for Annapolis Town Clerk to keep his Papers in; and the other two Rooms on the Left Hand, One of First Maryland State House at S¢. Marys, 1674. minster Abbey. It was this John Proctor who, in 1602, was hanged with others at Salom, Mass., a8 & witch, due to a of several young girls of that town. It is said he was “a man of most decided religious character and though impulsive, he was considered to have been & most honest, upright, honorable and sin- cere Christian.” ICHARD PROCTOR, weaver, bormn 1733, resident of Lancaster County, Pa., and a native of Lancaster, England, is the ancestor of a large number of descendants bearing this 4 ! R § 2 H 1 § 2 § 1 ¥ i L i 7 g ! 23 ¥ | 3 i them for keeping the Records of Chancery the Records i ] £ : | ERR gady § Eggg il i E E . ¥ it i i ; E : 2 A . ] ; JEge i sifitl E!izs !if”' it it g H g i fl i- H EE £y : i 5 : | ; i HHE !é;?l gjes il e ; i g - By the following year a copper roof had been over the building. The first session _ of the Assembly in the new building was held in October, 1775. The architect of the build- ing was Joseph Clark, but much of the interior decoration and certainly that of the Council chamber, now known as the old Senate cham- bez, to the right of the entrance, was committed to William Buckland, an architect-builder, who had recently come to Annapolis from Virginia and had built the Harwood House, the Chase or d home and possibly White Hall, Gov. Sharpe’s country residence, 6 miles away. Joseph Clark, the architect of what is rightly termed the most ambitious of colonial public buildings of its day, styled himself in advertisements in the Maryland Gazette, ‘architect and surveyor.’” § TO those who will come to Washington dur- ing the Bicentennial, this building will be of particular interest in comnection with the life of Washington, and especially in conmec- tion with his activities during the period of the Revolutionary War. PFrom November 26, 1783, ‘to June 3, 1784, the Continentnal Con- gress met here, and it was during this tlme— on December 23, 1783, that the illustrious close this last act of my official life by com- mending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them to His holy keeping. “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the theater of action, and bid- ding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here cffer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.” We are told: “He then advanced and de- livered to the President his commissicn, with a copy of his address.” It was upon this occasion that a ball was given by the General Assembly in the State House, “at which a very numerous and bril- liant company of ladies was present,” and where Washington opened the ball with Mrs. James Maccubbin of Annapelis, and one of the most beautiful women of her day. ASHINGTON visited Annapelis at ether times—upon one oeccasion, in 1781, when he was cn his way North, right after the sur- render at Yorktown. Again, in 1784, he visited there with Gen. Lafayette, and the following remarkable naturalization law was enacted by the Maryland Assembly, as follows: “Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the Marquis de la Fayette, and his heirs male forever, siall be, and they and In this old State House was also ratified, on January 14, 1784, the treaty of peace with Grest Britain which brought the war to a After the death of Washington memerial services were held for the illustrious dead In S¢, Ann‘e-'s Church on February 22, 1800, at 10:30