s offence, upon his knees, before Colonel Hill and
the assembly. This Hatcher appears to have been a burgess of Henrico
County in 1652. More than twenty years afterwards, in his old age, he
was fined eight thousand pounds of pork, for the use of the king's
soldiers, on account of alleged mutinous words uttered shortly after
Bacon's rebellion.

Upon the dissolution of the Long Parliament and the establishment of the
Protectorate, Lord Baltimore took measures to recover the absolute
control of Maryland; and Stone, (who since June, 1652, had continued in
the place of governor of Maryland,) in obedience to instructions
received from his lordship, violated the terms of the agreement, which
had been arranged with Bennet and Clayborne, acting in behalf of the
Parliament, and set them at defiance. These commissioners having
addressed a letter to Stone proposing an interview, he refused to accede
to it, and gave it as his opinion, that they were "wolves in sheep's
clothing." Bennet and Clayborne, claiming authority derived from his
Highness the Lord Protector, seized the government of the province, and
entrusted it to a board of ten commissioners.[229:A]

When Lord Baltimore received intelligence of this proceeding, he wrote
to his deputy, (Stone,) reproaching him with cowardice, and peremptorily
commanded him to recover the colony by force of arms. Stone and the
Marylanders now accordingly fell to arms, and disarmed and plundered
those that would not accept the oath of allegiance to Baltimore. The
province contained, as has been mentioned before, among its inhabitants
a good many emigrants from Virginia of Puritan principles, and these
dwelt mainly on the banks of the Severn and the Patuxent, and on the
Isle of Kent. They were disaffected to the proprietary government, and
protested that they had removed to Maryland, under the express
engagement with Governor Stone, that they should enjoy freedom of
conscience, and be exempt from the obnoxious oath. These recusants now
took up arms to defend themselves, and civil war raged in infant
Maryland. Stone, to reduce the malecontents, embarking for Providence
with his men, landed on the neck, at the mouth of the Severn. Here, on
the 25th of March, 1654, he was attacked by the Protestant adherents of
Bennet and Clayborne, and utterly defeated; the prisoners being nearly
double of the number of the victors, twenty killed, many wounded, and
"all the place strewed with Papist beads where