Newsletter of
The Maryland State Archives
September 13, 1999
Vol. 13, No. 17
www.mdsa.net
THE CAREER OF RENALDO MONK, CONVICT
by Robert Barnes 

Renaldo Monk was born c.1702, giving his age as 52 in a 1754 deposition, and died in Baltimore County in 1769. He came into Maryland as a convict and died a man of considerable property. In 1742 Rinaldo Monk of Wiltshire was given a sentence of 14 years and transported to Virginia. He was living in Prince George's County, Maryland (near the Patuxent Iron Works) by August 1747 when he advertised for a runaway mulatto in the Maryland Gazette. Almost a year later he was still in Prince George's County, living near Mr. Snowden's Iron works at Patuxent, when he reported a runaway servant from the Baltimore
Iron Works. 

Ten years after his arrival in America Monk had prospered enough to be listed on 10 March 1752 as a creditor of the estate of John Prather of Prince George's County. On 19 October 1756 he was named a creditor of Thomas Finley of Baltimore County, on 19 July 1757 creditor of Mr. Stephen Onion, and in November 1758 creditor of  Richard Rutter. Monk moved to Baltimore County and married Rachel Riston, executrix of Edward Riston, some time before January 1755 when they and Edward Stevenson were summoned to show cause why they had not filed a complete inventory and passed an account on Riston's estate. By the 18th of July they  had submitted the documents.

Monk died in Baltimore County, leaving a will dated 20 September 1768 and proved 14 August 1769.  To sons Renaldo and William he
left 1 shilling each. Daughter Sarah Carreck 

and grandson George Carreck were given £30 and £20 respectively. His daughter Mary was bequeathed 125 acres of Cooks Adventure 
Resurveyed, 26 or 27 acres of Angels Fortune, 20 acres of Monks Discovery, and the residue of his personal estate. Daughter Mary Monk and Henry Reaston were named co-executors. Richard Gott, Anthony Gott and John Adam Beard were witnesses. An administration bond on the estate was posted 14 August 1769 by Henry Reaston with Richard and Anthony
Gott as sureties. An inventory of the estate was taken on 2 June 1770 by George Risteau and William Randall, who valued Monk's personal property at £182.15.7.  Mary Monk and Sarah Monk signed as two of the nearest kin. A list of debts filed in 1770 showed  £63.4.11 due the estate. Shortly thereafter Mary Monk renounced the executorship. Administration of the estate was completed on 13 February 1775. 

Mary, daughter of Renaldo Monk, "late of the City of london in that part of Great Britain called England, by Rachel his wife ...," married William Jacob on 19 July 1772 at Rangers Forest. Over the next few years they filed suits against Henry Reaston, claiming amounts of money due from the estate of Renaldo Monk. In 1782 Reaston went before the Chancery Court in an attempt to stop execution of the judgments Jacob had obtained against him and his sureties. Extant chancery records do not indicate the resolution of this dispute. 

Sources: Henry C. Peden, Jr., More Maryland Deponents; Peter Wilson Coldham, Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage; Bill Reamy and Martha Reamy, Records of St. Paul's ParishMaryland Gazette [MSA SC2731];
Prerogative Court (Accounts) [MSA S531] 


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found in the imposition practiced upon the men drafted, and substitutes, by Agents or Middle Men engaged in the traffic of furnishing substitutes. Drafted men coming to the City unable to find substitutes apply to these agents, who have men secured for the purpose, and to avoid delay and vexation are induced to pay them large prices for a substitute, while the substitute in turn receives but a small portion of the price paid." 

On November 17 the system was amended so that the fee was paid to the camp commander who then paid the substitute in installments. Anyone deserting forfeited future payments due him. The number of desertions after November 17 declined dramatically. Brig. General E. Shriver, commander at Camp Bradford, reported on the rendezvous through March 1, 1863.  4,114 men from the Western Shore should have reported for duty by then. Of the 1,786 (43%) that did report 181 (10%)
were mustered into service, 759 (42%) furnished substitutes who were mustered into service, 425 (24%) furnished substitutes who deserted, and 421 (24%) were exempted for various reasons. 83% of the desertions had taken place before the rule change about paying substitutes. 

Blacks as a source of manpower for military service remained out of the question in Maryland until later in 1863 when federal
orders regarding the enlistment of free blacks and slaves changed this scenario. As far as can be determined, the Adjutant General's records of the civil war period do not contain materials from blacks themselves. Reactions of white men are abundant, however. When slaves were emancipated in the District of Columbia, slave holders in the southern counties of Anne Arundel, Prince George's, and Calvert were quite upset and appointed a committee to meet with Gov. Bradford regarding the slaves escaping into the district. According to the slave holders "large and organised bands of slaves
are now daily marching forcibly from said


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counties into the said District, in an armed and threatening manner; and ... this proceeding, if not arrested, is likely in a short time to deprive the people of these counties all their slave property; ... the said slaves after reaching the District, are protected by persons representing themselves to be Federal Officers, so that they cannot be reclaimed by their owners under civil process." 

Citizens wanted their property rights upheld. Dr. J.H. Miles refused an appointment as examining surgeon in St. Mary's County's County for that reason. "[T]he government under which we live does not protect our property.... [T]he people well know that if the rebellion was permitted to succeed, ruin and desolation would follow. The protection the laws afford to life and property would be swept away with the destruction of the Government. The rebellion has not succeeded; but the protection which the laws afford to property has been swept away, by the establishment of the Point Lookout Hospital.... Negroes
belonging to Citizens, as loyal, as any in Maryland, have gone there...." 

Not all sentiment was so negative. 1st Lieutenant H. Thomas Burrows had heard that black troops were being recruited in Maryland for federal service. He commented to the governor, "This rumor no matter how groundless it may be has had a good effect, in removing from the minds of many of our good loyal citizens & soldiers, a prejudice which has long existed against negroes being used by the Government in a military capacity, to assist in crushing this miserable Rebellion, it has caused our men to look at the question in its proper light, and they have come to the conclusion that we must stand by the Government in all its lawful undertakings to mete out punishment to traitors and their sympathysers." 

Sources: The documents cited in this series of articles come mostly from the (Civil War Papers) series [MSA S935] of the Adjutant General.   These
miscellaneous administrative files concern 

enrollments, drafts, troop returns and reports, officers' commissions, orders, and bounty vouchers and rolls. I used this series of records heavily because the content is so rich, or, to put it another way, the other records do not tell such interesting stories. Yet these other, perhaps more mundane, materials, are equally important for a full understanding of the enrollment and draft in Maryland. They include (Draft Proceedings) [MSA
S341] which lists all the local enrollment officials and their financial accounts, (Draft Record) [MSA S340] which names the men received at Camp Hicks and those drafted in 1864, (Order Book) [MSA S350] which contains the general and special orders regarding enrollment policies and procedures, (Quotas and Credits) [MSA S331] which records the federal calls for troops, Maryland's quotas and her credits toward these quotas, and (Enrollment Record) [MSA S352] which shows the registration of each person subject to military duty under federal orders in 1862 and under state orders in 1864. There are over 400 enrollment record volumes, arranged by county election districts and Baltimore City wards in 1862 and by military districts in 1864. The information for each enrollee includes name, address, age, occupation, and remarks, usually about exemptions. Draftees are indicated by the letter D. 

SPECIAL COLLECTION ACQUISITIONS 
by Nancy Bramucci 

MSA SC 5104: Ferrell Collection, 1774 ca. - 1949 ca. "The Ferrells of Bushwood Lodge, Bushwood, Md., St. Mary's County." Genealogical information relating to the Ferrell family. 

MSA SC 5105: Day Collection,  var. d. Preston Lockwood Day, Jr. "Matthias Day of Kent County, Maryland and Descendants," August 1998. 

MSA SC 5107: Chicago Tribune Collection, 1936. Newspaper, Chicago Daily Tribune. Collection contains one issue, February 24, 1936, with headline announcing death of Governor Albert Ritchie. Restricted. 

MSA SC 5109: Revolutions de Paris Collection, 1789-1793. Serial, Revolutions de Paris (Paris, France), Jul. 1789-Aug. 1793. Restricted. 

MSA SC 5110: Maryland State Archives Large Format Video Collection, 1984-1990. Thirteen large format promotional videotapes used by the State House Visitor's Center. Restricted. 

MSA SC 5122: Louis L. Goldstein Statue Competition Collection. Photographs and documentation submitted for the Louis L. Goldstein Statue Competition. Restricted.