the crew thereof to carry her to Bristol, then
in hostility against the Parliament, but also tendered them an oath
against the Parliament; the committee under these circumstances
recommended that the province should be settled in the hands of
protestants.[50] This was the first part of the determined effort to
deprive the great Cecil Calvert of his charter of Maryland, which
Richard Ingle continued so vigorously in after years. He was probably
in England at that time, for he refers to the action of the Lords in
regard to the settling of the Maryland government, in his petition of
February 24th, 1645/6, to the House of Lords. To this petition was
appended a statement on behalf of Cornwallis, which will explain it.
Cornwallis said that on Ingle's return to England, to cover up his
defalcation in the matter of 200 pounds worth of goods, he had
complained to the committee for examinations against Cornwallis as an
enemy to the State. The matter was given a full hearing, and when it
was left to the law and the defendant was granted the right of having
witnesses in Maryland examined, Ingle had him arrested upon two
feigned actions to the value of 15,000 pounds sterling. Some friends
succeeded in rescuing him from prison, and then Ingle sent the
following petition to the House of Lords, which had the effect of
stopping for the time proceedings against him.[51] Having done so he
carried the prosecution no further. The petition is somewhat lengthy,
but it should be read as it is eminently characteristic of the
man.[52]

"The humble petition of Richard Ingle, showing That whereas the
petitioner, having taken the covenant, and going out with letters of
marque, as Captain of the ship Reformation, of London, and sailing to
Maryland, where, finding the Governor of that Province to have
received a commission from Oxford to seize upon all ships belonging to
London, and to execute a tyrannical power against the Protestants, and
such as adhered to the Parliament, and to press wicked oaths upon
them, and to endeavor their extirpation, the petitioner, conceiving
himself, not only by his warrant, but in his fidelity to the
Parliament, to be conscientiously obliged to come to their
assistance, did venture his life and fortune in landing his men and
assisting the said well affected Protestants against the said
tyrannical government and the Papists and malignants. It pleased God
to enable him to take divers places from them, and to make him a