It has only been in recent years that multiple states and regions in the U.S. pivoted from celebrating the yearly anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492, to honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day in its place. Had I written this article just a few years ago, I would have used this day to share the lore about my 3rd great-grandmother Margaret Marshall’s Native American roots. However, that family tale has since been debunked, leaving me with zero genetic ties to the indigenous peoples of America. However, although my DNA lacks this association, my extended family tree boasts an interesting connection to the Piscataway Indians, the natives living on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland before and during the development of the English colonies in the early 1600s.
The Piscataway were an Algonquian-speaking nation, thought to have close ties with the Powhatans (you know, the tribe known to us in the somewhat true, somewhat false, fairytale story of John Smith and Pocahontas). The majority of the Piscataway chose to live in peace with the invading colonists. They became their allies, bought and sold land with the colonists, used them as protection against the nearby warring Iroquois Confederacy, and traded goods. In 1634, English Governor Leonard Calvert arrived in the Chesapeake Bay determined to make his mark (he had been sent by his elder brother Cecil Calvert, who inherited the colony from their late father, the 1st Baron Baltimore, George Calvert). Calvert brought with him a Jesuit priest, Father Andrew White, who was an adventurous soul, seeking to explore the lands of Maryland and its people, and of course, wanting to convert as many of its inhabitants to Catholicism as were willing. Father White has become an invaluable resource for historians of this time period, because his written account of settling in Maryland among the native population is some of the only source material that has survived to this day with an overwhelming amount of detail regarding the Indian tribes.
In his account,
A Briefe Relation of the Voyage Unto Maryland, he wrote of their company’s initial approach by canoe up through the Chesapeake Bay:
“…here our governour was aduised not to settle himself, till he spoake with the emperor of Pascatoway, and told him the cause of his comeing (to wit) to teach them a divine doctrine, whereby to lead them to heaven, and to enrich with such ornaments of civill life as our owne country…ffrom here they went to Pascatoway, the seat of the Emperour, where 500 bowmen came to meet them at the water side, here the Emperour, lesse feareing then the rest came privately aboard, where he found kind vsage, and pceiveing we came with good meaning towards them, gave leave to vs to sett downe where we pleased; the king being aboard, his men by the water side feared some treason, till by interpretours, we assured them otherwise.”
At the time, the Tayac (Head Chieftain or Emperor) of the Piscataway people was a man named Wannas. He had rightfully ascended to the thrown by the Piscataway’s way of succession – passed down brother to brother, rather than father to son, until there were no further male siblings to inherit; at which point, a nephew would stand to inherit the title of Tayac. Wannas was believed to have inherited his title from his uncle. This system had seemingly prevailed for at least 13 generations, likely back to a time when the Piscataway were embedded among the larger Powhatan nation and there was one Tayac to rule over all of the tribes throughout the area. Wannas had one younger brother, Kittamaquund, who would one day become Tayac upon his death.
Within the same year of 1634, that day shockingly arrived. In a surprise move, Kittamaquund murdered his older brother Wannas and ascended the throne. Although Wannas had initially welcomed the colonists amongst their settlement (proved by Father White’s detailed account of their stay), Kittamaquund reportedly claimed that his older brother was secretly on the verge of waging war with the colonists and the only way to put a stop to it would be to kill him and become the new Tayac. It’s unclear whether Kittamaquund’s claims were true or only a reason to justify his actions. Either way, he was the new Piscataway ruler.
In the minutes of Maryland court proceedings in May of 1662, the following record of Piscataway tribe members was made:
“…they repleyed that Wannas theire last lawfull kinge was by Kitamaquund murthered…”
Given these statements in court were recorded about 25 years after Wannas’ murder, it may be easy to interpret what the majority opinion of the Piscataway was regarding Kittamaquund’s actions, even if the accurate history goes unknown. However, their opinions may also have been shaped further by Kittamaquund’s later choices.
Kittamaquund, now Tayac, continued to build a relationship with Governor Calvert and the English. The Piscataways also began intermarrying with the new settlers, strengthening bonds, much like was done throughout history to help grow empires and reinforce royal bloodlines.
As the years drew on, Kittamaquund welcomed many of the new customs and beliefs the English colonists brought with them, including their language, clothing, and their faith. On 5 July 1640, Kittamaquund was baptized and officially converted to Catholicism. He was also given a Christian name, Charles.
This mural depicts Kittamaquund’s baptismal ceremony performed by Father White in 1640. Unveiled on Easter Sunday 2014 above the vestibule of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Piscataway, the painting stands nearly 13 feet high and is 16 feet across. It was painted by Henry Wingate of Madison, Virginia. To the far right in blue and wearing a sash, is the Governor Leonard Calvert. Behind Kittamaquund stands his chief aide, Mosorcoques, holding the symbols of the Tayac authority, along with Mosorcoques’ young son. Both were also baptized that day, along with Kittamaquund’s wife, who took the Christian name, Mary. Two Piscataway tribe members even volunteered as models for the Native American figures at the left of the scene. A detailed account of the ceremony was included in The Jesuit Relations, an annual report from Jesuit missionaries to their superiors in Rome, which allowed Wingate to capture the full details of the event.
A year later, it’s alleged that Charles Kittamaquund attempted to name his 7 year-old daughter as the new ruler of the Piscataway as he lay dying. However, this was not the Piscataway custom. Court records in 1662 have tribal members noting:
“…that Kitamaquund left noe rightful Heire…”
Charles Kittamaquund had his daughter receive the holy sacrament. An unnamed Catholic missionary wrote of the event:
“On the 15th of February we came to Pascatoe, not without the great gratulation and joy of the inhabitants, who indeed seem well inclined to receive the christian faith. So that not long after, the king brought his daughter, seven years old, (whom he loves with great affection,) to be educated among the English at St. Mary’s; and when she shall well understand the christian mysteries, to be washed in the sacred font of baptism.”
She went on to be known as Princess Mary. She was then placed in the charge of Margaret Brent (Maryland’s first female landowner and an unmarried woman in her late 30s) and Margaret’s brother-in-law, Governor Leonard Calvert (he had married Margaret’s sister, Ann Brent) to be educated and also work to unify their two cultures.
In their guardianship, Princess Mary was introduced to Margaret’s brother, Giles Brent, and the two were married sometime between 8 May 1644 and 9 January 1644/5, when she was only about 11 years old and he was about 38.
Soon after, in February of 1645, a band of Protestants from Virginia, led by Richard Ingle, ransacked the Maryland colony of St. Mary’s City, terrorizing the local Catholic families, which included Giles Brent, Mary Kittamaquund’s new husband. It had been thought that Brent was using his new union to lay claim to Mary’s father’s land (Indian territory) in Maryland, which was likely the case. This violated Piscataway tribal customs, but back in England, it also conflicted with Lord Baltimore’s land grant, and many saw Giles’ claim as a growing threat, since it would enhance the Catholic footprint in Maryland. Ingle had Giles ousted from the city, arrested, and transported back to England. Upon his arrival in London, Giles brought suit against his captors and returned to Maryland. Meanwhile, Governor Leonard Calvert fled down to Virginia and did not return to take back the city until late 1646.
More importantly, Father Andrew White also fell victim to Ingle’s rampage. He was captured and sent back to England, imprisoned, and put on trial for the charge of illegally entering a country where Catholic priests were banned. Although he was set free, he was not allowed permission to sail back to Maryland on account of his advanced age. It’s unfortunate White was not able to return to the colonies, as he would have likely produced further records and accounts of his close interactions with the native population. In his short time in Maryland, he did write a catechism that is the only example of the Algonquin language to come down in history in written form. He also vividly captured the Piscataway people before they were nearly erased from existence. Here are some of his initial musings:
“The natives of pson be very pper and tall men, by nature swarthy, but much more by art, painting themselves with colours in oile a darke read, especially about the head, which they doe to keep away the gnats, wherein I confesse there is more ease then honesty; as for their faces they vse sometimes other colours, as blew from the nose downeward, and read vpward, and sometimes contrary wise with great variety, and in gastly manner, they have noe bearde till they be very old…”
“…they all weare beade about their neckes, men and women, with otherwhiles a haukes bill or the talents of an eagles or the teeth of beasts, or sometimes a pare of great eagle wings linked together and much more of the like; their apparel is deere skins and other furrs, which they weare loose like mantles, vnder which all their women, and those which are come to mans stature weare peizomata of skins, which keep them decently covered from all offence of sharpe eies, all the rest are naked, and sometimes the men of the younger sort weare nothing at all…”
“…their houses are built in an halfe oval forme 20 foot long, and 9 or 10 foot high with a place open in the top, halfe a yard square, whereby they admit the light, and let forth the smoake, for they build their fire, after the manner of ancient halls of England, in the middle of the house, about which they lie to sleep vpon mats, spread on a low scaffold hafe a yard from ground…”
“…the natural wit of these men is good, conceiueing a thing quick to; they excell in smell and taste, and have farre sharper sight then we have…”
“…for chastity I never see any action in man or woman tendinge to soe much as levity, and yet the poore soules are daily with vs…running to vs with smileing countenance and will help vs in fishing, fouling, hunting, or what we please…”
“…They acknowledge one god of heaven, whome they call our god, and crie a 1000 shames on those that so lightly offend soe good a god…”
Following the raid on St. Mary’s City, both the Catholic and Piscataway populations in the area around the Chesapeake Bay dwindled. The 500-600 settlers that had been in the area were cut down to only 100 after the invasion. But while the English settlements and colonies eventually grew again, the people that had been native to the land, for the most part, did not return, having been driven out into further territory, sometimes into enemy lands where they were slaughtered and sometimes dying off on account of disease epidemics that came off of the invading ships.
Princess Mary Kittamaquund is thought to have removed with her husband Giles in 1647 to Chopawamsic Island in the Potomac River when they were forced to leave Maryland under the rule of Lord Baltimore, and then the following year to the state of Virginia in present day Aquia, Stafford County sometime after 8 November 1648. Accounts of Mary Kittamaquund’s life in these years differ due to lack of primary records. It is well documented that Giles’ two sisters, Margaret (Mary Kittamaquund’s former guardian) and Mary Brent later joined Giles down in Aquia, but the story of Mary Kittamaquund is left to be pieced together like a puzzle. She would still only have been about 14 or 15 years old during this relocation.
It is also quite disputed how many children Mary Kittamaquund bore to Giles. Currently, six are alleged by some genealogists studying Mary Kittamaquund’s lineage. I am of the mindset she had at least four, if not five or six. Because no records exist concerning Mary Kittamaquund’s death, it leaves the question of maternity open as to Giles’ children. In 1654, Giles was set to marry widow Frances Whitegreave Harrison, who had emigrated to York County, Virginia from England the previous year.
This new union leads most to believe Mary Kittamaquund had died at least by 1654, if not previous to that year. Though, there are some who believe she had died much earlier, or had left Giles and returned to the Piscataway, or even had divorced Giles. Her burial place has not been found. As there are no records alluding to any of these, I am of the belief she simply passed away prior to 17 April 1654 when Giles conveyed his personal estate in Virginia and Maryland to his sister Mary,
“in trust to educate his children and allow maintenance to his wife Mary.” Mary would have been no more than 21 years of age. The last wills and testaments of Giles and his sister Margaret mention Giles’ six children
“of which four lived” but neither mention his former wife, Mary, or whether he and the widow Frances had any children. It’s likely the Brents thought of Mary Kittamaquund as not much more than a business arrangement and a way to produce the Brent legacy.
One of Mary Kittamaquund’s hotly debated offspring is Katherine Brent, who would have been born about 1649. I’m of the opinion that Katherine was the daughter of Mary Kittamaquund and Giles Brent. She married Richard Marsham about 1665 in Maryland and had two children with him. This is where my connection to this story plays a part. Marsham is my 8th great grandfather. If we are to believe Katherine was Princess Mary’s daughter, that would make Princess Mary Kittamaquand the mother-in-law to my 8th great grandfather.
As this particular story was more so to highlight the story of the Pascataway people in the mid-1600s and how they were depleted by the late 1600s, I will close the story out here. Though there is plenty more info to explain in a future blog regarding Katherine Brent’s maternity. It may just be one way to keep Princess Mary Kittamaquund’s legacy alive.
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