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L. H. J.
Liber No. 47
October 29
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was to be in Part of the Consideration for building the Chapel afore-
said, but that there wanted One Thousand Pounds of Tobacco more,
which was the Reason he did not undertake the Building aforesaid :
That, to the best of his Knowledge, in the Neighbourhood where he
lives, there are two Papist Families for one Protestant one, and in
the Time this Deponent has lived there, which is Forty Years, has
known many perverted from the Protestant Religion, by the Indus-
try, and artful Endeavours, of the Jesuits, and Romish Laity, that
the general Opinion of the Catholics is, that whoever converts a
Heretic will save his Soul alive, and that the Protestants ought to be
destroyed, that he believes if the Protestants were not well secured
by good English Laws, the Papist would soon cut off all that they
call Heretics; and this Deponent further saith, that Margaret, the
Widow of one John Greaves, deceased, who were Protestants, hath,
since his Decease, married one Peter Pain, of Saint Mary's County,
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p. 303
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a Roman Catholic, that she the said Margaret, and many other
credible Persons, have told him, this Deponent, that she is constantly
applied to, in order to pervert her from the Protestant Religion, and
that although her said Husband hath many Horses to spare, he will
not suffer her to have one to go to the Church of England, the Parish
Church of which is about five Miles distant from his Plantation, that
the said Margaret, to his Knowledge, has walked twice to the Parish
Church aforesaid, for Want of a Horse; and this Deponent, likewise,
further saith, that all or most of the Servants that come into Saint
Mary's County, that are bought by Papists, are generally secured, by
the Jesuits or Papists, to become of their Religion, by Means of
which, and other artful Contrivances, he is convinced, the Papists
greatly increase in their Numbers. That chief of the Schoolmasters
where he lives are Papists, and teach the Children of Protestants
publicly, and that one of the Magistrates, in the said County, sends
his Children to the School of such Papists, and that he has known
three Papist Schoolmasters in his Neighbourhood, within the Space
of three or four Years last past; and further saith not.
October 26, 1753. Thomas Greaves.
Taken before me, Robert Jenckins Henry.
Thomas Reader, of Saint Mary's County, Gentleman, aged forty
one Years, or thereabout, being sworn on the holy Evangelists of
almighty God, deposeth and saith, that he had an Overseer who was
a professed Roman Catholic, who, having been at Mass, told this
Deponent, when he came home, that the Priest had now secured the
Protestants that married Roman Catholic Women, by an Oath,
before he would marry them, (only making them promise before,
which promise was often broke) , that he saw and heard Richard Ellis,
a Priest, marry a certain Thomas Radford, a Protestant, to Elisabeth
Joseph, a Roman Catholic, and before he would marry him, made
him take an Oath, to abide and practice the Roman Catholic Faith
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