From “Some Early Colonial Marylanders”

From “Some Early Colonial Marylanders”

McHenry Howard, Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. XVI. P. 312

William Claiborne of Virginia, who had established trading posts of Kent Island in the upper Chesapeake Bay prior to the grand of the Maryland Charter to Lord Baltimore, was indignant at what he considered invasion of his rights and for years nourished a spirit of bitter hostility to the new colony under the Calverts. Taking advantage of the unrest in the contest between the King and Parliament and aided by Captain Richard Ingle, master of an armed vessel which traded between England and Maryland, he in 1645 stirred up what is known as Claiborne’s and Ingle’s Rebellion, in which first Kent Island and then the whole Province was seized and a temporary government set up, compelling Governor Leonard Calvert to take refuge in Virginia. But the Governor raised a force there for the restoration of his authority, with which he came up the Bay in the latter part of 1646.

In this force John Jarbo, as the name is written in the earlier pages of the Maryland Archives, enlisted. He was a native of Dijon, France, and according to a deposition made by him 67 Aug 1657 and my another made 31 June 1659, was born about 1619. In a deposition 25 Jan 1647-48 he says he was with Governor Calvert at Kicotan (afterwards Kecoughtan, then Elizabeth City) then at York, Virginia, when the Governor was organizing his expedition. When and under what circumstances he came to Virginia does not appear. On 29 Dec 1646 Jarbo and others made affidavit as to the terms which Governor Calvert had made with his soldiers, vis: that “if he should find the inhabitants of St. Mary’s had accepted his pardon for their former rebellion and were in obedience to his Lordship, the soldiers were to expect no pillage there but he would receive the inhabitants in peace and only take aid from them to the reducing of Kent.” He found no opposition in lower Maryland, but had some difficulty in reducing Kent Island, Claiborne’s stronghold.

Coming thus into the Province, a soldier and an alien, John Jarbo took the oath of fealty to the Lord Proprietary 2 January 1646/47. A suit brought in the Provincial Court the following year by John Garbo against Mrs. Marg. Brent, his Lordship’s Attorney, for “salary this yeare” and settled, was probably his pay as a soldier when or after so coming from Virginia. And he held rank in the military service afterwards. In the organization of the militia of the Province by the Council in 1658 commissions were ordered to Capt. Wm. Evans and Lt. John Jarbo “of all forces from Poplar Hill inclusively to Wicomomace River” and Lt. Jarbo’s commission (which was used as the form for commissions afterwards) from Gov. Josias Fendall as Captain General was dated 15 June. On 31 Oct. 1660 Cecilius Lord Baltimore, acting by his (half) brother Gov. Phillip Calvert, commissioned Wm. Evans Colonel and John Jarbo Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment of trained hands in St. Mary’s County. He is always afterward styled Lt. Colonel in the Archives.

ON 10 Feb 1667/8 he was ordered to “press” 23 men out of his company and conduct them to East St. Mary’s, the rendevous for an expedition against the Nanticoke Indians on the Eastern Shore. Whether he took any further part in the expedition is not known. He probably (certainly) participated in the conflict at Providence (Annapolis) 25 March 1654/55 between Gov. Stone’s forces and the government which had been set up for the “reduction” of Maryland. For in October 1655 he was, by the Provincial Court, fined 1000 pounds of tobacco for “acting with Capt. Wm. Stone in the late Rebellion against the present government.” The lightness of the penalty is said by the Court to be because of his having been drawn into that engagement not willingly, as he pleaded.

He seems to have given offense in some way soon after his coming to Maryland, for on 6 Aug 1650 Cecilius Lord Baltimore writes to Gov. William Stone and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly (with other matters) censuring John Jarbo, “one unto whom we wished well” and “who hath formerly well-meritted of us and our deare brother, deceased” for some disrespectful conduct to the Governor. But he was evidently soon received into favor again.

By the first “Conditions of Plantations” declared by Lord Baltimore in 1636 the Governor was authorized to grant land, subject to a quit rent, to every Adventurer into the Colony, but in the Second Conditions of 1641, and the third 8n 1648, the fourth in 1649, this right of immigrants to take up land was restricted to persons of British or Irish descent. But in a Commission annexed to the third Conditions, Baltimore reciting that as well divers French men as some people of other nations who were not capable of having any lands, are already seated or may hereafter with permission seat themselves there, he authorized the Governor to grant to such persons of French, Dutch or Italian descent lands on the same terms as if of British or Irish descent.

Shortly after coming into the Colony and before Lord Baltimore’s above authorization, Jarbo and Lt. Wm. Evans (under whom he had probably served in the expedition and with whom he was closely associated afterwards) on 19 Nov 1647 demanded 200 acres of land for transporting themselves into the Province at their own charges in 1646, and 200 acres “applied to them by the right of Walter Peake, planter”—probably an assignment of Peake’s right as an immigrant to take up land—and a warrant was issued to lay out for them 400 acres in the Isle of Kent “sometime in possession of John Abbotte.” On 28 Aug 1649 Baltimore writes from London reciting a letter to him from Jarbo and the warrant to Evans and Jarbo who had rendered faithful service. . . and were in danger of the land being taken away from them, and directing that a grant of it be passed to them.

This land on Kent Island which Lord Baltimore says in his letter had belonged to John Abbot but had been forfeited by the rebellion, was sold by Evans and Jarbo 20 Nov. 1660.

Whether because of an insecure possession of their Kent Island tract, or of a preference to settle in the more congenial and predominately Catholic community of Southern Maryland, Evans and Jarboe had, on 1 Dec 1648, demanded 100 acres for each for the same day a warrant was issued to the Surveyor to lay out 100 acres for (each of) them on Bretton’s Bay (St. Mary’s Co.) which warrant was returned executed 16 March 1648-49 by the laying out of 100 on the west side of that bay. And subsequently Jarbo had several warrants for tracts of land for bringing persons into the colony or acquiring the rights of others, all of which seem to have been located in the lower part of the County. His will indicates other dealings in lands. As early as 20 Oct 1648, in the acknowledgment of a deed of gift of a cow to a child of Walter Peake, to advance hera portion, John Jarboe is said to be of Newtown, and he probably lived in that neighborhood for the rest of his life. [Newton’ . . . was on or near Bretton’s Bay below Leonardtown and the county court was held there some years. In November 1661 William Bretton gave 1 ½ acres for the building of a Catholic Church there, and it is probably that Lt. Col. Jarboe, with other Catholics of the community, was buried there.

On 30 July 1661 Lord Baltimore, by Gov. Philip Calvert, declared John Jarboe, “subject of the Crowns of France” to be a “free Dennizen” of Maryland, with the same rights as if born in the Province. On March 22, 1663/64 he was commissioned a Justice of the Peace for St. Mary’s Co. and appears so acting afterwards in 1664, 1665, 1666. The office was an important one in Colonial times. The justices composed the county court, a certain number being designated as of the quorum, without the presence of one of whom a sitting of the court could not be had, unless a member of the Council be present.

ON 24 April 1667 he was, by Cecilius Lord Baltimore, acting by Gov. Charles Calvert his son (afterward 3rd Lord Baltimore) commissioned High Sheriff and was reappointed in 1668. He appears as Sheriff as late as 16 Feb. 1668/69.

On 19 May 1674 or soon thereafter, he appears as a Delegate for St. mary’s County to the Lower House of Assembly, having been elected at some time before, and he is also present at the next February session 1674/75. He died before 19 May 1676.

There is no reasonable doubt that he married Mary Tattershall, probably sister of William Tattershall, both of whom, Catholics, came from Wiltshire, England in 1648 and took up land in Jarboe’s neighborhood. In his will Tattershall calls Jarboe his brother and while it is sometimes difficult to determine from early Maryland wills which of two brothers-in-law (often called brothers) married the other’s sister, it can hardly be supposed that the French adventurer, Jarboe, had a sister in the Colony.

All references from Maryland Archives

A Tragedy at Newtown

(Walter Peake was the father-in-law to John Jarboe’s oldest son, John. Our direct ancestor is Henry Jarboe)

John Jarboe’s first son, another John, would grow up to marry a daughter of the Peake family. John and Walter Peake were good friends.

Walter Peake was the Jarboe neighbor and there were land transactions involving the two of them. Peake’s plantation was known as St. Lawrence’s and was located on Bretton Bay. Peake was among the early settlers of Newtown Hundred, was a successful planter, an innkeeper and a member of the Assembly in 1649.

Historian Davis, writing in 1855 in his “Day-Star of American Freedom” claimed that more estates were surveyed for Walter Peake than for any other colonist in the whole of Maryland. Among Davis’ many listings of land taken up by Peake was one: for Colonel Jarboe, St. John’s in Charles County.

Let author Davis tell of the tragic end of Walter Peake, “upon whose memory is cast the shad of sin and shame under the stern laws of the period that led to the forefeiture of all his lands. And, about his 60th year, to suffer a felon’s death.”

In 1668 sat the High Provincial Court, Charles Calvert the Governor and later 3rd Lord Baltimore, presiding. Before the court appeared Peake, indicted for the murder of William Price by piercing him with a sword in the right side and then cutting his throat. No attorney spoke in behalf of Walter Peake, no testimony was offered in his defense. In no way was he cross-examined. The jury retired and shortly returned with the verdict, “guilty of the ddeath, but was drunk and knew not what he did.”

At the moment after his sentence, Peake desired as a favor that he might suffer death before his own house, where he had committed the act.

Historian Beitzell in “The Jesuit Missions of St. Mary’s County” adds, “The fact that Peake was drunk at the time and that Price had a somewhat unsavory reputation, apparently carried no weight with the Court.” Regarding Peak’s choice of site for his execution (hanging) Mr. Beitzell also remarks, “It would appear from the record that his dramatic action may have been a last lesson to impress an unfaithful wife, as there are strong indications that this unfortunate state of affairs existed.”

A familiar name on the list of trial jurors is that of Peter Joy, whose sister, Monica, will one day marry Henry Jarboe, John Jarboe’s son.