I posted this last year in a response to someone's email and since there seem to be new folk on the list, I'm reposting these scans of stuff I found about Colonel Ninian Beall--the big cheese-- >From Pillars of Maryland, F. Sims McGrath: McGrath, Francis Sims, 1877-, Pillars of Maryland.: Richmond, Dietz Press [1950] My ancestor, Colonel Ninian Beall, took an active part in the downfall of Lord Baltimore throughout the Protestant revolution. He is sometimes referred to as the father of Pres byterianism not only in Maryland but in America, so he naturally nourished a hatred for Roman Catholics. Born in Scotland in 1625 he fought against Cromwell at Dunbar in 1650, was captured, sent to Maryland and sold for a term of service to Richard Hall of Calvert County. When his term was up he became a surveyor, acquired large land holdings, estab lished a flour mill and iron works, was elected to the Assembly, and in general became a prosperous and leading inhabitant, but his great service to the Province was as an Indian fighter. A huge man six feet seven inches tall, he established an ascendancy over the Indians and in fighting the unfriendly tribes won a reputation unequalled in colonial times. In the beginning Thomas Cornwallis, a Catholic, was the patriarch and protector of the settlers, but then came Ninian Beall the Covenanter, who saved the outlying inhabitants from being tomahawked and scalped, or else punished the savages who made unexpected forays. The Council often called on him for aid and thanked him as in its letter to Major Beall of March 25, 1688: "Wee have thought fit to let you know That wee highly approve and commend what you have done and very well like your prudent way of goeing with ten or twelve men to try and discover the truth of the matter and further doe assure you that your good services to this governmt shall never be forgot But the same shall be rewarded with all the favour and Recompense this Government is or ever shall be capable of And wee hope all good men will imitate your fedelity and prudence in the mannage of the present disorders." In 1699 the Assembly and Council passed an Act of Grati tude to Colonel Beall for his services against the Indians, saying: "Whereas Colonell Ninian Beall has been found very Service able to this Province upon all Incursions and Disturbances of Neighbouring Indians and though now grown very Aged and less able to performe, Yet Continues his Resolution even beyond his Ability to do the like Service att this Juncture of Affaires it is therefore thought fitt in Point of Gratitude, for Such his good Service done and towards his Supporte & Reliefe now in his Old Age to make him an Allowance out of the Publick Revenue of this Province" It was then enacted that "three good serviceable Slaves" should be bought for his use for life. I am sorry to say he worked earlier in life with the villainous John Coode to dis lodge Lord Baltimore, his Scotch blood and faith being funda mentally at war with papacy. I am sorry because it was said even before Beall's day that he that lies with a dog riseth with fleas, but his association with Coodes was brought about by Baltimore himself, who, in 1676 appointed him lieutenant to Captain John Coode, commander of the vessel Loyall Charles of Maryland, to protect the province from pirates and anyone threatening the security of the Province. Above the direct services of Ninian Beall to the people of Maryland should be placed his contribution through gene rations of distinguished descendants. He lived to the great age of 92 and gave to ten children his splendid physique. His sons and grandsons fought in the French and Indian War, or the Revolution, and no other family is known to have furnished so many officers to the Revolution. General Samuel Beall, a grandson, was outstanding in Revolutionary days and his son Brooke Beall was noted for his hospitality and attractive wife when in the days of Washington, who often visited them. Of Ninian Beall's children, nearly all married into families that contri buted to the history of Maryland. Ninian Beall, Jr. married Elizabeth Magruder, George Beall married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Colonel Thomas Brooke and his wife Barbara Dent who was the great-granddaughter of Robert Brooke of De La Brooke and his wife Mary Baker, all names that are of the fiber of Maryland Colonial History. Colonel Beall's daughter Mary married Andrew Hamilton, who will be referred to later, and another daughter Margery married first Thomas Sprigg and then my fourth great-grandfather Colonel Joseph Belt, to whom a boulder may be seen in the Chevy Chase Club of Washington with the inscription: "Col. Joseph Belt, 1680-1761, Md., patentee of Chevy Chase, trustee of the first free schools in Maryland, one of the vestry of Rock Creek Parish, member of the House of Burgesses, colonel of the Prince Georges county militia during the French and Indian war: erected by the Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia, November 12, 1918." There is a tradition that Georgetown outside of Washington was named for Colonel Beall's son George who owned the land on which it was built. He was also to be connected with the Washington family as his granddaughter married George C. Washington and became the mother of Lewis Washington. Ninian Beall's plantation, Rock of Dumbarton, was near his son's property. In his will he gave it to his son George, and mindful of what was valuable in his own young days, he also gave "his choice of one of my feather beds, bolster and pillow and other furniture thereto belonging, with the cows and calves and half my sheep from off this Plantation I now live on." To his son-in-law Andrew Hamilton he gave "my negro woman Allie, unto him and his heirs forever", and to his son in-law Joseph Belt he gave part of a tract of land called Good Luck and made him an Executor. But he had much better things to give. When unable to inherit the blood of Daniel Boone, it is just as helpful when on the warpath to be de scended from Ninian Beall. Those of us who rise only to the second story like to believe that "often the cockloft is empty in those whom Nature hath built many stories high" but this was not true of Ninian Beall. He was shrewd and capable in worldly affairs and in public life was one of the outstanding men of his long period. At this point let me condemn Sir William Osler's suggestion that every man should retire from business and professional activi ties at the age of sixty. Throughout these pages the reader will be impressed with the great age of important men of the colonial period. The contribution of Ninian Beall, Benjamin Tasker and many others to the welfare of colonial Maryland after they had reached three score years was notable and as a culminating rebuke to Dr. Osler I will invoke the poets. Ac cording to Longfellow, "Cato learned Greek at eighty! Sophocles Wrote his grand Oedipus, and Simonides Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers, When each had numbered more than fourscore Chaucer, at Woodstock with the nightingales, At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales; Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last, Completed Faust when eighty years were past." Even the flutter of a heart is understood by venerable poets who still fashion divine phrases. In Pearsall Smith's graceful words, "Most of all I envy the octogenarian poet who joined three words- 'Go, lovely Rose'- so happily together, that he left his name to float down through Time on the wings of a phrase and a flower." >From the account of Ninian Beall it will be seen that the prisoners of war sold into serfdom in Maryland for a period of years were not always a burden to the Province and that the prisoner could quickly overcome his early handicap and become a useful and respected member of his colonial group. ------------------------------------------------- As early as 1692, it had been considered wise to establish a chain of fortifications in our colony, from Piscataway in Charles County on the south to the Pennsylvania line on the north. The sites of these forts, and the lists of their officers and rangers may be followed today, and under the leadership of the canny Scot, Col. Ninian Beall, and the discipline of Col. John Addison, the people were ready to encounter "the copper-colored cannibal, or the wily French savage". Captain John Risteau, one of the earliest investors in Baltimore Town lots, was in command of the Garrison, nearest Baltimore, at the fort which has left its name in "Garrison Forest." He proved himself to be a worthy descendant of his people, who had left France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. from Old Baltimore, Sioussant, Annie Leakin, Macmillan, New York, 1931, p 41. Undoubtedly there were some good men enlisted on the side of the revolutionists. These had become greatly alarmed over the attitude and actions of James II, who appeared to be aiming at a greater measure of autocratic rule than that which had characterized the reign of James I. They feared that under the Catholic James prosecutions would be begun in the name of the Roman church, and that the freedom which was enjoyed by all faiths under the Calvert regime would be curtailed. The ablest representative of this group was a Presbyterian layman, Colonel Ninian Beall, who had risen from a condition of indenture to one of influence and affluence. In the Johns Hopkins University Studies of His torical and political Science of I890, No. 3, the Rev. J. Wm. McIlwaine wrote, in "Early Presbyterianism in Maryland," that Beall may claim to be called the father of Presbyterian ism not only in Maryland, but also in America. Be this claim as it may, Colonel Beall gave powerful support to Coode's cause, whilst openly expressing his condemnation of the slanders concerning Lord Baltimore and the alleged alliance between the Maryland Catholics and the French and Indians.3l It is worth interpolating that Beall had been driven from Scotland by religious and political persecution. In Maryland, after working out a term of service to Richard Hall, he not only acquired and developed large landholdings, but estab lished an iron works, together with a flour mill. He also was a professional surveyor. Because of his strong opposition to James II, it was natural for him to unite with Coode's "Association in Arms for Defense of the Protestant Religion and for Asserting the Rights of King William and Queen Mary." On the other hand, it is doubtful whether he approved the wholesale disfranchisement that followed, when soldiers relpresenting the Associators controlled the polls. >From The Founding of Maryland, Andrews, Matthew Page, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1933, pp328-9. Moved by reports of Indian raids on the frontiers of New York and by the uncertainty as to the intentions of near-by ncwcomers, it was resolved by the Council in February, I692, to erect forthwith three forts on the frontiers of the colony, in each of which a dwelling house sufficient to retain and accommodate a Captain and nine soldiers, together with a small cabin for four Indians to be found and sent thither by the Emperor of Nanticoke, the Emperor of Pas cattoway, and the King of Choptico,-the said three forts to be erected and built one in Charles County by the direction and appointment of Captain John Addison, one in Anne Arundell County at the direction and appointment of Col. Nicholas Greenberry, and the other about the Falls of Patapsco towards or near Susquehannock River in Baltimore County. These forts were carefully located, and it was stipulated that "white soldiers were to keep continually ranging between one another." There was a small library provided for these Rangers when they be Required to Range out of Public Service for the better dis covery of any approaching Enemy, viz:-2 Holy Bibles, 2 bool~es of the Whole Duty of man, 2 Books of Catechism, a Brief Discourse on the Whole Duty of Man. Later we learn that half of the Rangers, clad in green, were to leave the fort on Monday morning and range the frontier for est from the Patapsco to the Susquehanna along a trail they had cut for the purpose until Saturday evening, after which they were to spend Sunday together at the Fort, the other half going forth in the following Monday morning to their week of rang ing. The range had on it two cabins at fifteen miles interval toward the Susquehanna and two at ten miles interval toward the Patapsco. from pp. 197-8, History of Maryland: Province and State, Andrews, Matthew Page Doubleday, 1929.