The Battle of Great Severn

Contemporary Review, March, 1999 by Radmila May

Now Heamans began to get more closely involved. He was informed of a plot to kill all inhabitants of Providence, to fire The Golden Lyon, and to kill all the officers and crew. In fact, it seems that the rumours, if true at all, were greatly exaggerated. The women and children of Providence were sent on board The Golden Lyon for their protection. A War Council, led by William Fuller of the Providence Puritans, was appointed. On 23 March it issued a warrant to Heamans to serve under the War Council. Governor Stone also issued orders to Heamans who declared, however, that he was bound to serve under Fuller.

On 24 March there was a further order from the War Council to Heamans: 'you are not to fail as you will answer to the contrary at your peril.' That evening various sloops and boats were seen making their way towards The Golden Lyon. Heamans fired at them and they retreated into a creek for the night. Heamans then ordered a small armed sloop to block the creek thus effectively barring any escape by Stone's forces.

The next day, Sunday 25 March, was the day of the battle of Great Severn. Actual hostilities were delayed while Fuller sent Heamans to The Golden Lyon for the Commonwealth flag, the only Commonwealth flag in the whole of Maryland.

The battle took place at Horn Point opposite Providence. Fuller's forces drove Stone's forces to the end of the point. In less than half an hour all was over. Of Stone's forces, 17 were killed, including Thomas Hatton, secretary of the province, and 32 wounded. Among these last was Stone himself. Only 5 escaped. Of the Puritan forces two were killed.

The War Council sentenced 12 of the prisoners, including Stone, to death. Four, including Eltonhead, were actually executed: the others, after the women and soldiers of Providence asked for mercy, were reprieved.

Following the battle Baltimore complained to Cromwell that he had been 'interrupted in his rights'. A pamphlet war broke out in England in which each side justified its own conduct and vilified that of the other.

After the battle the Puritans ruled in Maryland. But Baltimore never lost his title to the colony. In 1657 Bennett and Claiborne signed a peace agreement with Baltimore: in return for an amnesty the Puritans recognised Baltimore's proprietorship and restored religious toleration.

Cromwell died in 1658. In 1660, Charles I's son, Charles II, was restored to the throne. But there was never to be another attempt in England at absolute rule by a monarch.

Although the events leading up to the Battle of Great Severn and the battle itself are inextricably linked to the English Civil War and its aftermath, their context is very much that of Maryland itself. It may well have been Greene's proclamation of the young Charles II as King in 1649 which precipitated the appointment of Bennett and Claiborne as Parliamentary Commissioners. But both were hostile to Baltimore, and it was Stone's loyalty to the Lord Proprietor which caused the friction and eventual breakdown which led to the battle. In spite of it all, Baltimore managed to keep both his lands and his head through all the political upheavals in England. It was a remarkable balancing act; it seems that some Roman Catholics in England were not totally opposed to Cromwell. They may have hoped for a degree of religious toleration that outright opposition and fervent support of the monarchy would have lost. And Cromwell himself had no wish, whatever the situation was at home, to allow too much turmoil in the colonies. It was during the Commonwealth and Protectorate that England's maritime expansion, supported by a strong navy, began to grow. Cromwell saw the usefulness of the colonies to the mother country.