The Maryland Branch

The Spalding Memorial was published in 1896 by Charles Warren Spalding, in dedication to the numerous family members whose names are Spalding, also spelled Spaulding. An earlier version, of the Spalding Memorial was published by Samuel Spalding in 1872. The following excerpt is taken directly from Appendix Three of the Spalding Memorial (1896), recently republished in 1996.

After 100 years of research into the Maryland branch, evidence seems to show that "Edmund Spalden," presumed to be Edward's brother, was not the progenitor of this branch of this family.

The late Right Rev. Martin-J.-Spalding, Archbishop of Baltimore, said that it is certain that the Spaldings of Maryland were fully established in St. Mary's County before the year 1650, for deeds and other papers of that date, in their name, are still found in Leonardtown, Md.

Charles-Warren Spalding [12153], after patient research, thinks that the progenitor of the Maryland Branch of the Spalding family was "Edmund Spalden," probably a brother of Edward the progenitor of the New England family.

The name of "Edmund Spalding" appears in a Virginia State Document (Senate Report) entitled "Virginia Colonial Records, 1619- 1680." On page 53 of that work, in a "Liste of the Livinge," in Virginia, Feb. 16, 1623, and under the caption of "More at Elizabeth Cittie," appears the name of

The supposition is that Edward and Edmund Spalding were brothers, and emigrated from England to Virginia in 1619; that some years later Edward went to the Massachusetts Colony, while Edmund joined the Maryland Colony, under Lord Baltimore, and became the progenitor of the Maryland Branch of the Spaldings.

It is known that there was constant communication between the Virginia Colony and the Maryland Colony; and in 1634, a short time after the landing of Leonard Calvert in Maryland, Sir John Harvey, governor of Virginia, visited him at St. Mary's.

No expense has been spared in tracing the origin of the Maryland Branch of the Spaldings, and to secure a full record of that family; and success would ultimately have crowned our efforts had there been time in which to complete the work. It would, however, be a work of years of investigation to fully connect the various branches that belong to the main stock of the Maryland Spaldings. A visit was made to Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, Md., but it was found that about fifty years ago the principal documents of the court house were destroyed by fire.

We shall therefore give whatever records we have secured in the following pages. They are given in separate groups or families. There is no doubt but that they all belong to the Maryland Branch, and it is to be hoped that in some future edition of the SPALDING MEMORIAL they will be fully connected with each other.

The following letters from the late Most Rev. Martin John Spalding, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore, furnished information in regard to the Maryland branch of the Spaldings, which was the basis of the greater part of the valuable family records collected and given in the following pages.

DEAR SIR: Yours of the 30th ult. reached Louisville while I was absent, and it could not be attended to sooner. I regret that it is not in my power to furnish you with much information, especially in regard to the New England branch of our family, of whom I may say I know nothing definite. I will give you some information in regard to the Maryland or Catholic branch, which is that to which I belong, though even in this my sources of information are by no means abundant. In a country where ancestry is so little regarded, and where every one is the artificer of his own fortune, our acquaintance with our forefathers is limited.

The ancestor or ancestors of our family came out to Maryland either with Lord Baltimore, or very soon afterwards. The family settled originally in St. Mary's County, Md., from which it branched off into Charles and the neighboring counties, and afterwards spread into Pennsylvania and Virginia. That the family is one of the oldest in Maryland, I infer from the fact that my grandfather had an uncle, Thomas Spalding, who, I believe, was born in Maryland, and who died more than fifty years ago at the advanced age of one hundred and twenty years. The family is still very numerous in Maryland; though all my more immediate relatives are in Kentucky or in the West. For more particulars in regard to the Maryland branch, I beg to refer you to Basil-R. Spalding, Esq., North Charles Street, Baltimore; also to James Spalding, Esq., Richmond, Va. You might also probably gain information by conferring with Mr. Davis, of Baltimore, author of the "Day-Star of Freedom," a work vindicating the Maryland Pilgrim Fathers, written by Mr. Davis, a Protestant lawyer.

My grandfather, Benedict Spalding, came with his family to Kentucky, in the spring of l791. He had a large family of twelve children, all of whom, except three, are now dead, most of them leaving large families. My own father, the oldest son of my grandfather, Richard Spalding, died in 1850, leaving fourteen living children, I being the third son, having been born May 23, 1810. I was educated partly in Kentucky and partly in Rome, where I remained four years to complete my theological course, and where I was ordained priest in 1834. I was consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of Louisville on the 10th of Sept., 1848; and succeeded to the title of Bishop of Louisville on the death of my venerable principal, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Flaget, Feb. 11, 1850. 1 have at different times published five works, of which I will take pleasure in presenting you copies, should you require them, and conclude to go on with your work.

It is almost needless to add, that all the members of our branch are Roman Catholics. They came, no doubt, originally from Spalding, in England; and I believe that the original orthography of the name is that which we adopt. The family was originally German or Saxon; and Spalding is the name of a German philosopher of some standing, but tinctured, I believe for I never saw his works with infidel or rationalistic opinions. There was also an English Spalding, who was the author of a history of English literature, which is often quoted, but, from the account I have of it, it is not very reliable or unprejudiced.

From intimations which I have received from some of the older members of the family, I infer that our ancestors came over to America from Wales, to which principality a branch of the family had probably removed from the English town of Spalding. This town was originally one of the great abbacies, which were suppressed under Henry VIII or Edward VII. See 2d volume of Cobbett's History of the Reformation in England, where it is numbered among the suppressed abbacies.

My relative, Basil-R. Spalding, of Baltimore, to whom I referred above, has the coat-of-arms of the family, which he obtained many years ago from an English Professor of Heraldry. If he has returned from Europe, whither he went more than a year ago, he will take pleasure in showing you, or allowing you to copy, this curious piece of heraldry, in which the mitre, probably that of an abbot, crowns the escutcheon.

These meagre details contain almost all that I am able to say on the subject concerning which you ask information. I shall, however, take great pleasure in giving you any further aid or information which you may require, and which I may be able to furnish.

DEAR SIR: I must commend you for your zeal in making genealogical researches in regard to the family of Spaldings; the more so, as in our own country and generation, men are so much taken up with current events and the present - and, I may add, with themselves - as to forget the past, especially their ancestors, proceeding apparently on the trite adage - alas, too true! - "out of sight, out of mind." In addition to what I wrote some years ago to E.-W. Spalding, so far as I can recollect what I wrote, I beg to make the following remarks concerning the Maryland branch of the family.

1. It is certain that the Spaldings of Maryland were fully established in St. Mary's Co. before the year 1650; for deeds and other papers of that date, in their name, are still found in Leonardtown; though, if I mistake not, an accident of fire destroyed some of the documents. I incline to think that they came some years before this date, probably in the early commencement of the colony, very shortly after the arrival of the first ship of emigrants.

2. As you very correctly spell your own name, no doubt Spalding is the correct orthography; it is that of England, Scotland, and of Germany, whence the name originally came into England, probably with the Anglo-Saxons, in the fifth or sixth century. A great German writer, though far from orthodox, bears the name of Spalding, an infidel philosopher. All other spellings are simply barbarisms, to be eliminated.

3. I believe that the head-quarters of the family in England was Lincolnshire, where one of them, at a very early period, founded and gave his name to the great Abbey of Spalding, one of the thirteen great abbies of England spared by Henry VIII, but confiscated under his son Edward VI. I think, from my researches and whatever knowledge I may have in such matters, that the present town of Spalding grew up around and under the fostering influence of this abbey (not priory). Such is the origin of many flourishing European towns. The monks made desert places smile, and agricultural and population followed them.

4. In order that you may have some further clew as to the origin and relations of your branch of the family, I will mention to you: 1st, that my grandfather, Benedict Spalding, had twelve children to survive and raise large families, all except one, who had no children. 2d. His sons were named Richard, Thomas, Benedict, Joseph. Lewis, and William; and the oldest, my own father, Richard, had twenty-one children, of whom fifteen were raised to become men and women. He married Henrietta Hamilton, whose father was Leonard Hamilton, the same who emigrated to Kentucky with my grandfather in 1790. The names of my brothers were Leonard, Richard, Benedict, Clement, William, Joseph, Henry, and Thomas. The most current names of the family itself - not borrowed from side alliancesÑare still George, Samuel, Basil, Henry, John, Thomas, Richard, Edward, James, etc.

5. In Kentucky alone, I know of no less than five branches of the family from Maryland, all Catholics, evidently from the same stock, but little related; and as they are all prolific, the number must now be very great throughout the West.

6. I have little doubt that all the Spaldings came originally from Lincolnshire, in England; and that first the abbey, and then the town of Spalding, was their alma mater and nursery.

These are a few of the many things which occur to me. If there be anything else in which I can serve you,

The late Rt. Rev. Martin-J. Spalding, Archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland, is of the opinion [see letters from him on the foregoing pages] that the ancestors of this family came out to Maryland, either with Lord Baltimore or very soon afterwards.

The settlement of Maryland had its origin in the exertions of Sir George Calvert, a catholic, afterward called Lord Baltimore. He had been a secretary of state under King James I, and was made a lord on account of his services to the crown Ñ one of which services, it is said, consisted in bringing about a marriage between the king's son and a Spanish princess.

Lord Baltimore visited Virginia in person in 1628-29. In 1629 Calvert obtained a charter for domains beyond the Potomac. The nature of the document leaves no room to doubt that it was penned by the first Lord Baltimore himself, although it was finally issued for the benefit of his son.

In 1632 the country (the ocean, the 40th parallel of latitude, the meridian of the western fountain of the Potomac, the river itself from its source to its mouth, and a line drawn east from Watkins Point to the Atlantic) was given to Lord Baltimore, his heirs and assigns.

Sir George Calvert deserves to be ranked among the most wise and benevolent lawgivers of all ages. He was the first in the history of the Christian world to seek for religious security and peace to advance the career of civilization. Before the patent could be finally adjusted and pass the great seal Sir George Calvert died, and his son succeeded to his honor and fortunes. At a vast expense he planted a colony in 1632. Lord Baltimore who for some unknown reason abandoned his purpose of conducting the emigrants in person, appointed his brother to act as lieutenant; and on Friday, Nov. 22, 1633, Leonard Calvert and about two hundred emigrants, most of them Roman Catholic gentlemen, with their servants, arrived at the mouth of the Potomac River, and leaving the vessel, ascended in a pinnace as far as Piscataway, an Indian village, nearly opposite Mount Vernon.

The sachem of Piscataway gave Calvert full liberty to settle there if he chose; but it was not deemed on the whole safe, and in February, 1634, they arrived at Point Comfort, Va. In March, leaving Point Comfort, Calvert sailed into the Potomac and with the pinnace ascended the stream. A cross was planted on an island and the country claimed for Christ and England. The settlement was at an Indian town, Yoacomoco, and called St. Mary's. The province was named Maryland, by King Charles I, in the patent, in honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria, daughter of the king of France. A part of the province appears to have been included in the grant made some time afterward to William Penn, and to have given rise to much contention between the successors of Penn and Baltimore.

To gain the good-will of the Indians, Calvert made them presents of clothes, axes, hoes and knives. Their friendship was easily secured; and their women, in return for the kindnesses of the Enlish, taught them how to make corn-bread. This, perhaps, was the first knowledge which the settlers had of "hoe-cake," or "johnnycake."

The colony of Maryland met with few of the troubles which had been experienced by its sister colonies. The settlers arrived in time to cultivate the soil for that year, and the seasons for several of the succeeding years were all favorable. They had the Virginians, moreover, for near neighbors, who furnished them with cattle and many other necessaries, and also protected them from the Indians. In addition to all this, they enjoyed good health.

In February, 1635, in less than one year from the date of the settlement, the freemen of the colony assembled to make the necessary laws. The charter which had been granted them was exceedingly liberal. They were allowed the full power of legislation, without the reserved privilege, on the part of the crown, to revoke or alter their acts. The government underwent some changes in 1639; and, in 1650, they had an upper and lower house in the legislature, like their neighbors. Ten or twelve years of peace having passed away, a rebellion broke out in Maryland, headed by one Claiborne. Having formed a little colony before the arrival of Calvert, he refused to submit to his authority. Convicted, at length, of murder and other crimes, he fled from the province, but returned with a large mob and broke up the government. Order, however, was in a little time restored, and things again went on prosperously.

When every other country in the world had persecuting laws, the Catholics of Maryland raised the standard of civil and religious liberty, where their co-religionists, who were oppressed in England and Ireland, were sure to find a peaceful asylum, and where religious freedom obtained a home at the humble village which bore the name of St. Mary's.

The Maryland family settled originally in St. Mary's County, Md., from which it branched off into Charles and the neighboring counties, and afterward spread into Pennsylvania and Virginia. They are very prolific, and their number is now very great throughout the West. In religious belief they are principally Catholics.