Andrew White

The title of this article is ambiguous. For more meanings see Andrew White (disambiguation) .

Andrew White baptizes the Indian chief Chitomachon. Woodcut in Mathias Tanner's Societas Jesu apostolorum imitatrix , Prague 1694

Andrew White (born presumably 1579 in London ; died presumably 27 December 1656 on the Julian calendar in Hampshire ) was an English Jesuit who played a leading role in the founding of the colony of Maryland . For American literature and history he is important as a chronicler of the first years of the colony, for church history for his efforts for the Indian mission . He is often given the nickname "Apostle of Maryland".

Life

Europe

Little is known about his early years. Like many English Catholics, he was educated in mainland Europe. In 1593 he matriculated at the University of Douai , in 1595 at the English seminary of St. Alban in Valladolid, Spain, and later in Seville. After returning to Douai, he was ordained a priest in 1605. He returned to England, where he was arrested and expelled from the country as a result of the wave of arrests following the Gunpowder Plot . He returned to the mainland and joined the Jesuits in Leuven on February 1, 1607 . Although he faced the death penalty if he returned illegally, he went to England more often in the following years, but preached and taught mostly in France and the Spanish Netherlands. In Leuven and Liège he was the seminary prefect and emerged there as a dogmatic Thomist .

White was closely associated with George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore , who converted to Catholicism in 1625 , and thus became an advocate of his efforts to obtain a royal patent for a Catholic colony on the Chesapeake Bay coast . From Mutio Vitelleschi , the general of the Jesuits, he was affirmed in a letter dated March 3, 1629 in the plan to ensure the right faith in the colonies in North America. Calvert died two months before the royal charter for the Colony of Maryland was drawn up; the project was subsequently driven forward by his sons and Cecil and Leonard Calvert .

In order to persuade more English people to emigrate, White had a first advertising pamphlet printed in which he praised the advantages of the area to be settled and expressed the need to convert the Indians to Christianity. The eight-page script, dated February 10, 1633, was entitled A Declaration of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Maryland ; it was apparently written by White and revised by Cecil Calvert; In 1832 a Latin version was discovered in Rome, which White had made for the Jesuit general (Declaratio Coloniae Domini Baronis de Baltamoro in Terra Mariae prope Virginiam.) . In the Declaration , Maryland appears as an almost paradisiacal land with majestic forests, fertile soils and rich mineral resources; Beaver furs are in abundance and the Indian trade is already in full bloom. The writing was aimed primarily at born-after nobles and wealthy bourgeoisie; the Lord Baltimore promised 2,000 acres of land to every emigrant who could provide suitable equipment and five men fit for work . The declaration closes with the announcement that the settler ship Arke of Maryland would hoist anchor in Portsmouth on September 8, 1632.

Maryland

In fact, the ship did not set sail with White, another Jesuit, and the first settlers until November 22, 1633; on March 25, 1634 it reached the American coast. As early as July 1634, White's second work appeared in London: A Relation of the Sucessefull Beginnings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Maryland. In addition to the one printed in London, there are two other versions of this font; again a Latin version (Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam) for the Jesuit general and the original manuscript version which was sent to England for printing. Some details of the manuscript version, such as unpleasant details about the arduous sea voyage, did not make it into the print version, as it was designed as advertising pamphlet for the new colony.

The relation is the most important source about the beginnings of the colony of Maryland. White describes how the settlers first met English colonists from Virginia , then also Indians from the Paschattowayes ( Piscataway ) tribe . They first set up a fortified camp on St. Clement Island (now Blackistone Island ) and explored the area in the days that followed. In the end they bought an area on the right bank of the St. George's River from the chief of the Yaocomico for an unspecified number of axes, hatchets and clothes and founded the city of St. Mary's City there ; the yaocomico were reportedly happy to get rid of the property as they were often exposed to attacks by the Susquehanna there. The settlement was fortified and the first fields were laid out and tilled. Again White praises the advantages of American nature, which he had now got to know from his own experience. His judgment of the Indians is also quite benevolent.

Prayers in the Piscataway language , written by Andrew White, circa 1635

The next writing about the beginnings of the colony appeared in London in 1635. Cecil Calvert, the governor and owner of the colony, is given as the author, but it is certain that the majority of the work was written by White. A Relation of Maryland begins with a report on the founding of St. Mary's City, which goes beyond the first relation in some details . In the next three chapters there is again a catalog-like listing of the natural treasures that await their exploitation in America. Of particular interest is the fifth chapter, Of the Naturall disposition of the Indians which inhabite the parts of Maryland where the English are seated , in which White describes the customs and traditions of the Indians with a thoroughly modern, anthropological look. White praises their calm mind, their sense of justice and their manners, calls for humane treatment of the Indians and notes that it would be good for the Christians to emulate them in many ways. He also gives a brief outline of what he was able to find out about the religion of the Indians in a short time: they worshiped “a god” of heaven, but also fire and corn, and believed in the existence of an evil spirit called Ocher . They also have a myth that the world was once destroyed by a great flood to punish the sins of mankind; it is obvious that White saw in this evidence for the factuality of the biblical flood . The sixth and final chapter of the book, probably written by Cecil Calvert himself, contains a list of those who have emigrated to Maryland so far and the terms of the contract for possible newcomers.

White had taken a total of nine "servants" with him to Maryland, who were probably debt servants . One of them, Mathias de Sousa, was a mulatto; With the expiration of his contract in 1638 he became the first free black man in the colony, whose economy was to be based on slavery as a result . White helped de Sousa "start his business" as a free citizen, for example by lending him a boat for trading trips to the Indians. In March 1643, de Sousa was even elected a member of the lower house of the colony.

White is currently devoted to the conversion of the various tribes of the Chesapeake region to Christianity and founded Jesuit missions in St. Mary's, Mattapany and Kent Island. The successes were mixed: in the meantime he was able to persuade the chief of the Patuxent to convert, but he soon fell away from the faith again. On the other hand, the conversion of Chitomachon ( Kittamaquund ), the most powerful chief of the region, was permanent . White had been able to cure him of a disease with bloodletting and English medicine against which the medicine man of the tribe had been unable to do anything. Chitomachon was baptized in the Christian name Charles on July 5, 1640 - probably in memory of the English king - his wife was henceforth Mary, his daughter Ann; His most important advisor, Mosocoques, suddenly became John and his son Robert. The baptism and a wedding according to the Catholic rite were performed in a solemn ceremony in the presence of Cecil Calvert. In 1642 White also baptized the chief of the Potomac tribe.

White also learned the language of the Indians. According to the Florus Anglo-Bavaricus , White also created a grammar, dictionary and catechism in the Piscataway language. These writings were probably discovered in Rome in 1832 with the Latin Relatio , but are now lost. They may have been lost when the Italian government confiscated the Jesuits' archives in 1873. In 1971, some handwritten notes on the blank pages of a liturgical book printed in 1610 were attributed to White. These are translation sketches of Latin and English prayers into the Piscataway. They are the only contemporary evidence of this now extinct language.

Return to Europe

With the outbreak of the English Civil War , the American colonies also got into political and military turmoil; Puritan and royal militia fought a proxy war in Virginia as in Maryland. When a group of Puritans led by Richard Ingle raided St. Mary's City in the winter of 1644/45 from Virginia, White was arrested, chained and deported to England, where he was charged with serving the Catholic priesthood in England. Arguing that he had not come to England of his own free will, he evaded execution but was expelled from the country. Meanwhile, Leonard Calvert made use of White's writing skills again. Faced with growing demands from the Puritans to revoke the royal charter for Maryland, he published a pamphlet in his defense in 1646. There is an eloquent chapter in it, entitled Objections Answered touching Maryland , in which the arguments of the Puritans are discussed and debunked. It is believed that the text comes from White's pen, but was written as early as 1632 to justify the controversial granting of the charter to Lord Baltimore at the time.

White spent the next few years in Antwerp, where he apparently exerted a great spiritual influence on the famous Carmeliteess Margaret Mostyn . His repeated requests to the Jesuit general to send him back to Maryland were denied. In 1650 he was able to return to England, where he was chaplain to a noble family in Hampshire . There are contradicting information about White's place and date of death; most likely, he died on December 27, 1656 in Hampshire.

Works

• A Declaration of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Maryland, nigh upon Virginia: manifesting the Nature, Quality, Condition and rich Utilities it contayneth. London 1633. Facsimile ed. by Lawrence C. Wroth, Baltimore 1929.
  • Declaratio Coloniae Domini Baronis de Baltamoro in Terra Mariae prope Virginiam. qua ingenium, natura et conditio Regionis, et Multiplices Ejus Utilitates Ac Divitiae Describuntur . First printed in Woodstock Letters 1, Bethesda 1872.
• A Relation of the Sucessefull Beginnings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Maryland. Being an extract of certaine Letters written from thence, by some of the Aduenturers, to their friends in England. To which is added, The Conditions of plantation propounded by his Lordship for the second voyage intended this present yeere, 1634. London 1634. Incomplete reprint in John DG Shea: Early Southern Tracts 1, New York 1965. The original manuscript version (the so called Lech Ford version) first printed in The Calvert Papers , 3 volumes, Maryland Historical Society Fund Publications 28, 34-35, Baltimore 1899th
• A Relation of Maryland . London 1635.
• Barbara Lawatsch-Boomgaarden, Josef IJsewijn (ed.): Voyage to Maryland (1633). Relatio itineris in Marilandiam. Original Latin Narrative of Andrew White, SJ Bolchazy-Carducci, Wauconda 1995, ISBN 0-86516-280-8 (Latin text and English translation)
• Objections Answered Touching Maryland . In: A Moderate and Safe Expedient to Remove Jealousies and Feares, of Any Danger, or Prejudice to This State, by the Roman Catholicks of This Kingdome, and to Mitigate the Censure of Too Much Severity towards Them, with a Great Advantage of Honor and Profit to This State and Nation. London (?) 1646.

White's lines on the Piscataway language are in the Georgetown University Library (MSA SC 2221-17-8). They are available as a PDF document at http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc2200/sc2221/000017/000008/pdf/d005003a.pdf .

literature

• Thomas A. Hughes: History of the Society of Jesus in North America. 4 volumes, London and New York 1907–1910.
• JA Leo Lemay: Men of Letters in Colonial Maryland. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville 1972.
• David S. Arch: Mathias de Sousa; Maryland's First Colonist of African Descent. In: Maryland Historical Magazine. 96: 1, 2001, pp. 68-85.
• Norbert M. Borengässer:  White, Vitus Andrew. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 1534-1536.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 15, 2007 .