nate of Lord Baltimore. It appears on record that one Robert Holt was married to one Christiana Bonnefield by the Rev. William Wilkinson in the year 1658, and in the trial that ensued it transpired that Robert Holt had a wife still living, from whom the Rev. Mr. Wilkinson had released him from all claim of marriage by drawing and signing a paper to that effect upon his wife's refusal to be reconciled. The result of the rector's action fully confirms the sacredness of the marriage vow at that date in Maryland. Robert Holt was indicted for bigamy and Rev. William Wilkinson as an accessory. The indictment against Holt is for marrying Christiana Bonnefield during the lifetime of his "lawful wife;" that of Rev. Mr. Wilkinson "for feloniously joining the parties after he had divorced ye said Robert Holt." The impossibility of a legal divorce in the province is confirmed by the investigations of the late George Lachlan Davis, who, referring to Rev. William Wilkinson's guilt, says the Bishop of London had no power under the English law to dissolve the bond. The Parliament was without any practical or real jurisdiction over the case, and the Provisional Assembly never granted a divorce a vinculo for any cause whatever; and the English Church having no higher representative or depositary of her authority in the province than the clergyman indicted. CHAPTER XLIX QUAKERS NOT PERSECUTED IN MARYLAND IN LOOKING backward upon her early history, there is nothing which should excite more gratification in Maryland today than the knowledge that there were no persecutions of any moment for conscience sake in provincial Maryland. In tracing our lineage to Colonial governors or councilmen, to members of the Assembly or of the provincial courts, we find none of their hands stained with the innocent blood of those who worshipped God in a manner different from their own. And while for a brief term a law banishing Quakers from Maryland was in force in the province, it soon was repealed and Maryland became the haven of rest to the persecuted from other colonies. As we recall the fact that this new religion was first brought across the seas by two gentle-hearted women, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, we are more than glad that the annals of our State have preserved no harrowing tales of cruelty in connection with these early Friends. These first two missionaries arrived in Boston in the year 1656 and, according to Sewall, after much harsh treatment and persecution were compelled to return to England. In the same year Elizabeth Harris evidently visited Maryland, as Bowden quotes a letter to her from Robert Clarkson, dated "From Severn, the 14th of the eleventh month, 1657," and underneath is written, "this is in Virginia." The references to Herring Creek, Roade River, South |