The Minor Family of Somerset

Talbot County Free Library
The Worthies of Talbot

PHILEMON LLOYD (II)
THE SECRETARY
1672-1732
The second son of Philemon (I) and Henrietta Maria (Neale, Benne
tt) Lloyd was Philemon (II) who may be distinguished from his fa
ther, the Indian Commissioner by the agnomen, the Secretary, fo
r the reason that formany years he held the office of Secretar
y or Deputy Secretary of the Province of Maryland. He is though
t to have been born at Wye House in the year 1672,the precise d
ate being unrecorded. What was said of his elder brother Edwar
d must be said of this more dis- tinguished personage, with refe
rence to hisearly education and those surrounding influences wh
ich tend to mould the character namely, that he had for a mothe
r a woman of strong as well as amiablequalities, and that the l
arge wealth of his parents was such as justified thebelief tha
t he enjoyed the best tuition from competent masters. Like his b
rother he was probably sent to England, where under the care o
f his grandfather, Edward Lloyd (I) the Puritan, he was traine
d in the best schools of letters and law. It need not be said th
at this statement is based upon pure conjecture, for no record e
xists nor family tradition of his academic or professional educa
tion; yet his many positions of civil trust is sufficient to ind
icate that he enjoyed advantages of instruction superior to thos
e possessed by amajority of young men growing up in a wild, unc
ultivated country, such as Maryland was during his youth. In th
e absence of honors which only the favor ofroyalty could bestow
, employments in the public service of the province werethose w
hich were sought by the ambitious of distinction; nor were the e
moluments that accompanied these honors despised, as insignifica
nt as they E;eerned when measured by the standards accepted in t
he old country, or even by the standards now established in ou
r own. A seat in the General Assembly was then sought after wit
h as much eagerness as a seat in the Commons of England orin th
e Congress of America is now; while the commission of a Councill
or was regarded as a sort of patent to nobility. It may be menti
oned incidentallythat many of these provincial honors acquire
d a kind of hereditability; for certain it is that succeeding ge
nerations enjoyed many of them, as we find inthe case of the fa
mily whose history is now reviewed. The first authentic informat
ion we possess of Philemon Lloyd, the second of the name, afte
r his arrival at manHood, is of his having been elected, June 29
th, 1699, one of theBurgesses or Delegates from Talbot county t
o the General Assembly, in the place of Mr. William Hemsley, wh
o had then recently died. His colleagues from Talbot in the Lowe
r House at this period were Major Thomas Smithson, who was Speak
er, a gentleman then of much prominence, but subsequently much d
istinguished in Maryland history; Col. Edward Lloyd his brother
, and Mr. Richard 'nlghman, of the Hermitage. We see in this ho
w nearly at this date in Maryland, honors and political contro
l were hereditary. Major Smithson was not of the provincial patr
iciate, but was elevated by his conspicuous ability and high per
sonal character. Mr. Lloyd continued to hold his seat until 1702
, at least,and probably longer. It is to be noted that the peri
od of his service in theLegislature was that of the final settl
ement of the controversy respecting the Church establishments co
ntroversy of much warmth and not a little bitter feeling, in whi
ch the Quakers, who were numerous in the county, and Roman Catho
lics, united against the adherents of the Church of England. Th
e parties to this dispute were not ranged upon political lines
, for the Friends were probably all Whigs, the Romanists were ma
inly, if not wholly, Jacobites. At a Court held at the town of Y
ork, Nov. 13th, 1701,