Philemon Lloyd (II)

The Secretary

1672-1732

The second son of Philemon (I) and Henrietta Maria (Neale, Bennett) Lloyd was Philemon (II) who may be distinguished from his father, the Indian Commissioner by the agnomen, the Secretary, for the reason that for many years he held the office of Secretary or Deputy Secretary of the Province of Maryland. He is thought to have been born at Wye House in the year 1672, the precise date being unrecorded. What was said of his elder brother Edward must be said of this more dis- tinguished personage, with reference to his early education and those surrounding influences which tend to mould the character namely, that he had for a mother a woman of strong as well as amiable qualities, and that the large wealth of his parents was such as justified the belief that he enjoyed the best tuition from competent masters. Like his brother he was probably sent to England, where under the care of his grandfather, Edward Lloyd (I) the Puritan, he was trained in the best schools of letters and law. It need not be said that this statement is based upon pure conjecture, for no record exists nor family tradition of his academic or professional education; yet his many positions of civil trust is sufficient to indicate that he enjoyed advantages of instruction superior to those possessed by a majority of young men growing up in a wild, uncultivated country, such as Maryland was during his youth. In the absence of honors which only the favor of royalty could bestow, employments in the public service of the province were those which were sought by the ambitious of distinction; nor were the emoluments that accompanied these honors despised, as insignificant as they E;eerned when measured by the standards accepted in the old country, or even by the standards now established in our own. A seat in the General Assembly was then sought after with as much eagerness as a seat in the Commons of England or in the Congress of America is now; while the commission of a Councillor was regarded as a sort of patent to nobility. It may be mentioned incidentally that many of these provincial honors acquired a kind of hereditability; for certain it is that succeeding generations enjoyed many of them, as we find in the case of the family whose history is now reviewed. The first authentic information we possess of Philemon Lloyd, the second of the name, after his arrival at manhood, is of his having been elected, June 29th, 1699, one of the Burgesses or Delegates from Talbot county to the General Assembly, in the place of Mr. William Hemsley, who had then recently died. His colleagues from Talbot in the Lower House at this period were Major Thomas Smithson, who was Speaker, a gentleman then of much prominence, but subsequently much distinguished in Maryland history; Col. Edward Lloyd his brother, and Mr. Richard 'nlghman, of the Hermitage. We see in this how nearly at this date in Maryland, honors and political control were hereditary. Major Smithson was not of the provincial patriciate, but was elevated by his conspicuous ability and high personal character. Mr. Lloyd continued to hold his seat until 1702, at least, and probably longer. It is to be noted that the period of his service in the Legislature was that of the final settlement of the controversy respecting the church establishments controversy of much warmth and not a little bitter feeling, in which the Quakers, who were numerous in the county, and Roman Catholics, united against the adherents of the Church of England. The parties to this dispute were not ranged upon political lines, for the Friends were probably all Whigs, the Romanists were mainly, if not wholly, Jacobites. At a Court held at the town of York, Nov. 13th, 1701, Mr. Vincent Hemsley, the High Sheriff, read a "new commission for the Peace dated Nov. 7th, which constituted these gentlemen the Justices for Talbot County: Mr. Robert Goldsborough, Mr. William Coursey, Mr. Richard Tilghman, Mr. Philemon Lloyd, Mr. Thomas Robins, Mr. John Coppidge, Mr. Robert Ungle, Mr. Thomas Emerson, Mr. Phile- mon Hemsley, Mr. Robert Grundy, Mr. Matthew Tilghman Ward, Mr. John Needles. The seven first named were of the Quorum without the presence of one of whom no court could be held. It may be well to note here that the county records state that these gentlemen were required to subscribe oa:ths of the most rigid character, called the "Test" and the "Association "-such was the jealousy of Jacobitism and Roman Catholicism, which were thought to be politically synonymous. In Aug. 1705, a Court of Oyer and Terminer was held in the county of which Mr. Lloyd was one of the Justices designated for this purpose. He seems to have kept his seat upon the bench until the year 1707. The causes for the changes in the constitution of the Court are not evident from any record. In the year 1709 as has been related in the sketch of his life, Gen. Edward Lloyd (11) became by virtue of his position as President of the Council the acting Governor of Maryland, Gov. Seymour having just died. He soon after appointed his brother, Mr. Philemon Lloyd,

Secretary of the Province. This office he held during the continuance of the royal rule, yielding it up when Gov. Hart was appointed and the Proprietary restored to the Government of his Palatinate in 1714; yet in 1715 we find him mentioned in the records as being Deputy Secretary, he performing the duties of the office while another enjoyed the chief emoluments. In 1717 he was appointed to the office of Judge of the Land Court. In 1721 we find that he was elevated to a seat in the Governor's Council. How long he continued in this position the means of determining are not at hand, but probably for the remainder of his life. In 1728 his name appears in the records as the Secretary of the Province, in 1731 as Deputy Secretary, and in 1732 as again Secretary, thus holding this office at the date of his death.²⁸

The regret that has often been expressed and more frequently felt, that so little pains have been taken to preserve the memories of con- spicuous citizens of Maryland during the colonial period may again be repeated, as it is again experienced when an attempt is made to recover the incidents of the life and the traits of character of Mr. Philemon Lloyd-a person who held many of the most eminent stations in the province, in which there is, at least, no reason to doubt he bore himself with a befitting dignity and of which he conducted the affairs with honor and ability. Those lines of his mental portrait which are discoverable, through the dust and smoke of years, are so faint that we receive from them no clear impression of his character. An attempt to fill in those lines with the lights and shades that are necessary to give a true representation of the subject, would probably result in a picture largely illusory and deceptive. At least the artist could give but a family likeness in which the traits of the Lloyds of the past and present should be portrayed; but some of these traits are among the best of those that dignify men.

Mr. Secretary Lloyd married a Mrs. Freeman of Annapolis, and though he was not so fortunate as to have a son, one daughter, Henrietta Maria, was born to him, who marrying Samuel Chew has transmitted his blood, though not his name to some of the most prominent families of Maryland, such as the Dorseys, the Bordleys, the Tilghmans, the Pacas and the Dulaneys, with members of which her children intermarried. Dying in 1732 he was buried at Wye House where a stone is erected to his memory bearing this inscription:

Here lieth
interred the
body of Philemon Lloyd
son of Col. Philemon Lloyd
and Henrietta his wife who de-
parted this life 19th March 1732
in the 60th year of his age.
He was one of the coun-
cil and Secretary
of this pro-
vince.

28. An examination of the records of the council now in the possession of Md. Hist. Society, discovers his name among the members as late as 1729 at least.