How do I find a life history of Josias Fendall, Maryland Governor from 1657-1660?

Jpere --

The most-succinct biography that I was able to find is in the
Thomson-Gale "Biography Resource Center," a fee-based database that's
actually available online at many public libraries (the Gale Group's
URL is http://infotrac.galegroup.com/menu  ).

Their biography is based on a 1936 "Dictionary of American Biography."
 Sources for that biography include:
?	Maryland History Magazine, March 1906 and September 1912
?	"History of Maryland," J.T. Scharf, 1879
?	"History of Maryland," J.L. Bozman, 1837
?	"Maryland," W.H. Browne, 1884
?	"Maryland under the Commonwealth," B.C. Steiner in 'Johns Hopkins
University Studies', vol. 29, 1911
?	and primary sources from "Archives of Maryland," vols. 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 16.


JOSIAS FENDALL (1620-1687)
=========================

Exact birth date and date-of-death are not known, but Fendall was born
in England in about 1620.  He rose to prominence in 1655 when he
assisted the colonial governor, William Stone, in a dispute with the
commissioners of the English Parliament.  Fendall seized arms and
ammunition for Stone, resulting in a grant of 2,000 acres of land in
Charles County and appointment on July 10, 1656 as governor.

This lasted until the spring of 1859 or 1860 when he attempted to
overthrow the proprietary governor appointed by the King (it was an
inherited position) and put in place a Commonwealth.  When the revolt
failed, the proprietary governor asked for the death penalty.  Instead
the courts ordered that his property be confiscated and that he be
banished from Maryland.  In Fendall's petition for mercy, the
punishment was reduced to disfranchisement from voting and banishment
from public office.

In 1678 he was nominated as a delegate from Charles County but the
governor moved to block his election.  Then, in April 1679 he was
charged with "seditious utterances" and an arrest warrant was issued,
though he couldn't be found.

Fendall became active in northern Virginia with Nathaniel Bacon, John
Coode, and Capt. John Dent in activities to overthrow the proprietary
government of Virginia.  He and Coode were arrested in 1681.  He was
fined for raising a revolt in Charles County, MD and banished.  In
1682 he was living in Virginia.  In June 1684, a warrant was issued
for his arrest on a British ship in the Potomac River -- but he wasn't
found.

There is no date for his death.  However, his wife, Mary Fendall, is
the administrator of his will in court records for 1688.


INTERNET SOURCES INFORMATION
=============================

There are some interesting tidbits of Josias' life on the Internet. 
Though one has to be careful about the accuracy and conflicts, the
Fendall page genealogy site has quite a bit of information about the
family:
Genealogy.com
"Fendall Family Genealogy Forum"
http://genforum.genealogy.com/fendall/

See also:
"Exploring Maryland's Roots," which puts the colonial issues with
Fendall in context with the Catholic-Protestant battles wracking Great
Britain at the time.  Note the bibliography here, as it may be helpful
in further searches:
Maryland Roots Library
"Philip Calvert"
http://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/philipcalvert.asp

This article, based on a book written in the late 1800s, also
concentrates on the religious affiliations of those involved in
Colonial politics:
Public Bookshelf
"Colonial History of Maryland"
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Our_Country_Vol_1/colonialh_ig.html

A very effective Google search strategy for weaving together historic
accounts of the life of Fendall is as follows.  You'll find some
archives of original Colonial documents, as well as accounts of others
who lived at the time:
"Josias Fendall" + Maryland
"Josias Fendall" + Virginia

If any aspect of this answer is unclear, please don't hesitate to ask
for a clarification before rating the answer.


Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

---

Request for Answer Clarification by jpere-ga on 21 Jul 2004 07:28 PDT

Dear Omnivorous,
I have read through your suggestions rather carefully and tried to
pursue suggested links.

I am assuming the short biography you included is the same one you
referred to as possibly available through the library connection.  Is
that correct?

Your suggestions were helpful and I think fulfilled your duty to
answer my question as posed.  I am not wanting to impose on you
further.  However, I still need help on how to do a Google search on
the Maryland Archives without blindly reading through volumes in
search of items of particular interest to me about Josiah Fendall.

Perhaps Josiah Fendall is too rare a character and I will just have to
sort more out in Archives and Libraries.  So far I have found little
available about him in the form of a comprehensive biography of any
kind.  Do you know how to track information like that down?

Scarcity of information is not always a bad thing when writing a
historical novel.  That leaves the writer more latitude.  In this case
I am including Josiah Fendall as a character in one chapter.  Would
like basic information such as the name of wife and children and more
on physical description.  Is it possible that a portrait of a former
governor of Maryland is not available somewhere?

I will be indebted to you for whatever additional help you wish to give.

Thanks,
Jpere

---

Clarification of Answer by omnivorous-ga on 21 Jul 2004 08:43 PDT

Jpere --

You're correct, I've excerpted as much of the data as possible from
the Thomson-Gale biography of Fendall.  Their biography data is
excellent: in this case carrying forward biographical material that is
more than 75 years old.

I might start with the Genealogy.com forum, particularly since
descendants of the Fendall family can explain family situation and are
so interested in the topic that land records & wills become important
(you'll see in thread there that there is some confusion over his
relationship with Capt. John Dent).  Also, if you're writing a
historical novel they'd be the first ones to complain about minor
inaccuracies!  (You could put a link in the Forum to this Google
Answer, as there are facts here that even family members may be
missing.)

There is little available on him because of the time period: indeed
you'll find comparatively little about early Americans pre-Civil War. 
Fendall obviously pre-dates the formation of the country and paper
records are far weaker (and fragile).  Note that even in the
comprehensive Gale Group biography, exact dates for birth/death (and
locations) are missing -- an indication of the weakness of the
historical record.

Note that Fendall's unwillingness to enforce certain civil
transactions (involving property) led to his removal from office in
1859 -- there may be some interesting court/property records
available, though probably not on the Internet.  However, the Maryland
State Archives captures some of those disputes.

To shorten the search in the Maryland Archives, try going to the site
and doing a Google site search for Fendall.  It brings up 549
references -- but boy is there a lot of COLOR in actions taken against
him:
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/

As I think you're aware, the context of this period is one of
religious conflict paralleling the battles of the Protestant
Reformation in England.  The following Google search homes in on that
topic well:
Fendall + Maryland + Catholic + Protestant

One final note: I did the searches either with "Josias Fendall" or
just the surname alone.  Note that family members use the modern
spelling, "Josiah," and I'm sure that some historical records will
too.  When Google searches for the name in quotes ("Josias Fendall")
it looks for the exact spelling.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Very helpful.  I especially appreciated the tips that greatly expanded
my ability to use Google and the Internet for further research .