Charles
II of England married Catharine of Braganza (Portugal) on April 23,
1662. By this marriage England acquired from Portugal, Tangier, located
in the northwest corner of Morocco in north Africa, where the Mediterranean
Sea joins the Atlantic Ocean.
The
Queens regiment of Foot, existent 1661 to 1831, generally known as
"Kirke's Lambs," had as its distinguishing badge the Paschall Lamb
which was also the distinguishing badge of Portugal. Piercy Kirke,
the celebrated general of Tangier renown, belonged to the Kirkes of
Norton, England and married Lady Mary Howard, daughter of Searge,
the 4th Earl of Suffolk. Piercy Kirke was Colonel of "Kirke's Lambs"
in Tangier from November, 1680 to April, 1682.
Extracts from the "Calendar of State Papers - Domestic, October 1663
to April 1684" in the files of the British Museum in London and copied
out by Donald V.L. Downs, "Aspendale," Downs Chapel, Delaware on April
16, 1959 as follows:
April
17, 1684
"Lord
Dartmouth appointed by King Charles II, Admiral and Commander-in-Chief
of the fleet to be employed for withdrawing inhabitants and garrison
of Tangier with arms and stores thereto belonging and for destroying
the said city arid mole the said service being now performed to the
King's satisfaction."
March,
1684
"Mary,
wife of Captain George Talbot, now under certain Command of Colonel
Piercy Kirke, Governor of Tangier, to the king a petition stating
that she understands that six of the youngest companies of that
regiment are to be disbanded, etc., etc."
April
9, 1684
The Earl of Sunderland to Colonel Kirke, "I have received your letter
of the third with an account of those Companies of your regiment that
are already arrived, wherewith I have acquainted His Majesty who is
very well pleased and gives you leave to repair hither (to
England) as soon as you have taken all necessary care that your absence
be in no way prejudicial to his Service." (S.P. Dom Entry Book 56
p. 53 British Museum)
In the winter of 1938, Donald V.L. Downs visited for two months James
Wyllie, Esquire, a cousin through his Scotch forbears of the present
Queen Mother of England. Mr. Wyllie had a house in the Kasbah in Tangier
and still occupies that house each winter. While a guest of Mr. Wyllie,
Donald Downs met the then Agent and Consul General of the U.S.A.,
Mr. Maxwell Blake, and dined with him at the American Legation in
Tangiers It was on these occasions that Mr. Maxwell Blake, considered
an outstanding historian of Tangier and to whom several historical
books have been dedicated, told Donald Downs the following:-
"When
England decided to give up Tangier and did so in 1684, a number of
the younger companies of "Kirke's Lambs" decided to go to America
and set sail in that year and took with them Moorish women. They landed
in America on an island in the Chesapeake Bay and named it "Tangier
Island," for the country from which they had come. However, these
so-called "Moors" remained a very short time on Tangier Island but
moved to Sussex County and Kent County
, Delaware."
From the above verbal report by Mr. Maxwell Blake, the "Moors" were
descended from the English members of "Kirke's Lambs" and the Moorish
women they brought to America. This explains the predominating English
names of the "Moors" of Kent County
-- Morgan, Ridgway, Beckett, Moseley, Dean, Durham, Carney, Carey,
Seeney, etc., etc.
Some
of the Moors who went to Sussex County intermarried with the Nanticoke
Indians, as some of the ones who came to Kent County
may have also married with Indians but predominantly they intermarried
among themselves as they still do today. There have been very few
marriages with Negroes.
The Moors have for a century been farmer tenants on farms owned by
my grandfather, father and myself and excelled farmers they are. My
grandfather, Charles Brown of Philadelphia, when be bought considerable
acreage of land in Delaware in l851 moved to Dover in that year to
look after this land. Soon afterward he built the first school house
for the Moors between Cheswold and Moore's Corner in Kent County
, Delaware.
The present tenant farmer at "Aspendale," Lawrence Ridgway married
to Glendora Durham, is the grandson of Edgar and Em Ridgway who ran
"Aspendale" farm and the great grandson of John and Mary Morgan who
also ran "Aspendale" farm for many years.
These "Moors" in looks are like the "Moors" of Morocco and have many
traits and a few customs of the "Moors" of Morocco.
I would like to be able to obtain an actual written record of the
"Moors" and their coming to America and also of their being here immediately
after their landing on Tangier Island, but I feel quite sure Mr. Maxwell
Blake was accurate in his verbal history as told me in 1938.
I returned to Tangier in 1959 but was unsuccessful in finding any
record there at that time. Unfortunately the British Minister was
in England and while I was in Tangier, all the flags were at half
mast on February ? 1959 the day Mr. Maxwell Blake, the much revered
historian died. Mr. Blake had left Tangier fifteen years ago and retired
to his native state Indiana, but had always kept in touch with Tangier,
particularly in historical studies.
I shall continue to endeavor to find records relating to the Moors
both here in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware and also in Tangier and
England.
(Signed)
Donald VanLear Downs
"Aspendale"
Downs Chapel
Delaware.
August 10, 1960
