STONE, William, colonial governor, born in Northamptonshire, England, about 1603; died in Charles county, Maryland, about 1695. He emigrated to the eastern shore of Virginia, where he settled Northampton county. There was a settlement of Puritans in Nansemond county, and, their condition becoming uncomfortable from the attitude and treatment of the Episcopalians of Virginia, Stone arranged with Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, to remove 500 settlers to Maryland. On 8 August. 1648, Baltimore appointed Stone governor of his province, and he arrived there as early as 1649. His Puritan emigrants from Virginia settled at a place on Severn river, which they called Providence and which is now Annapolis. In 165:1 Stone was removed from the governorship by William Claiborne and Richard Bennet, parliamentary commissioners. But on 2,5 March, 1655, at the head of the Cavalier forces of the province, he attacked the Roundhead forces under Captain William Fuller at Severn, where he was routed, taken prisoner, and condemned to death by court-martial. His life was spared at the entreaty of the men of the victorious party. After this he does not appear to have taken part in public affairs, but lived and died on his manor of Avon on Nanjemoy river, in Charles county, Maryland In consideration of his faithful services to the proprietary, he was granted as much land as he could ride around in a day.--His great-grandson, Thomas, signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Charles county, Maryland, in 1743; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 5 October, 1787, daily rode ten miles to school in order to acquire a classical education, borrowed money to enable him to study law in Annapolis, began practice in Frederick about 1770, and two years later removed to Charles county, purchasing a farm near Port Tobacco. He early espoused the cause of his country in the disputes with the British government, and was elected to the Continental congress, when two members were added to the Maryland delegation, 8 December, 1774, taking his seat on 15 May, 1775 In July he was reelected for a year longer, and again on 21 May, 1776, till the end of the next, session of the convention. The Maryland delegates, notwithstanding their instructions in favor of reconciliation, voted for the resolution of 15 May, 1776, declaring" that the authority of the crown had ceased. Late in June the instructions were recalled, leaving them free to vote for the Declaration of Independence on 4 July. On the same day Stone and his colleagues were re-elected without restrictions on their action. Although he bore no active part in the debates of congress, he served on committees that were intrusted with important matters, such as the augmentation of the flying camp, the failure of the Canada expedition, the consideration of some of General Washington's letters, and the elaboration of a scheme of a confederacy. Of the committee on confederation, which was appointed on 12 June, 1776, he was the only member from his province. Being re-elected to congress in February, he labored in this committee till the articles of confederation were finally settled on and agreed to by the vote of 1,5 November, 1777. The Maryland convention refused to enter the confederacy, and expressed a hope that the "unhappy difference" with the mother country might yet be accommodated. Stone declined a re-election to congress, and entered the Maryland senate, where he could be more useful to the patriotic cause. In 1783 he was again elected to congress, and in the session of 1784 he served on most of the important committees. Toward its close he acted as president pro tern-pore. He declined re-election, and devoted himself thenceforth to his profession and to his duties as a member of the state senate, in which he opposed in 1785 a proposition to establish a paper currency. After the death of his wife in June, 1787, he abandoned his large legal practice in Annapolis, sank into a settled melancholy, and died when he was about to embark on a sea-voyage.--Another great-grandson, John Hoskins, governor of Maryland, born in Charles county, Maryland, in 1745; died in Annapolis, Maryland, 5 October, 1804. On 2 January, 1776, the convention of Maryland elected him captain in Colonel Smallwood's battalion, and in December of the same year he was promoted to the rank of colonel. He served with credit in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Princeton, and Germantown, received in the last-mentioned battle a wound that maimed him for life, and on 1 August, 1779, resigned his commission. In 1781 he was clerk in the office of Robert R. Livingston, secretary of state, and afterward was one of the executive council of Maryland. He was governor from 1794 till 1797.--Another great-grandson, William Murray, P. E. bishop, born in Somerset county, Maryland, 1 June, 1779; died in Salisbury, Maryland, 26 February, 1838. He entered Washington college, Maryland, was graduated in 1799, and studied theology, preparatory to taking orders in the Episcopal church. He was ordained deacon in St. Paul's church, Prince George County, Maryland, 17 May, 1802, by Bishop Claggett, and priest in the same church, 27 December, 1803, by the same bishop. In 1803 he became rector of Stepney parish, Somerset (now Wicomico) county. This position he held for twenty-three years, and he was very diligent and successful in his pastoral work. In 1829 he accepted the rectorship of St. Paul's church, Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland The following year, at the convention in Ma, y, after a failure to elect either of two prominent clergymen, he was nominated and elected bishop by a nearly unanimous vote. He was consecrated in St. Paul's church, Baltimore, Maryland, 21 October, 1830. The same year he received the degree of D. D. from Columbia. Bishop Stone's publications were "A Charge to the Clergy and Laity of Maryland" (1831); " A Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of Maryland" (1835); and "The Sermon before the General Convention of the P. E. Church" (1835). --Thomas's brother, Michael Jenifer, jurist, born in Charles county, Maryland, about 1750; died there in 1812, received a classical education. He was a member of the Maryland convention that ratified the Federal constitution, and was elected to the 1st congress, serving from 8 June, 1789, till 3 March, 1791. Under the state government he was a judge of the general court, and continued on the bench till the judicial system was reorganized in 1806.--Michael Jenifer's grandson, Frederick, congressman, born in Virginia, 7 February, 1820, was graduated at St. John's college, Annapolis, and studied and practised law at Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland He was elected by the general assembly in 1852 one of the commissioners to simplify the rules of pleading and practice in the state courts. He was elected to the Constitutional convention to form a new constitution for the state in the spring of 1864, but declined to take his seat. In the following November he was elected to the house of delegates from Charles county and served for that session. He was elected to congress in 1866, and re-elected in 1868. In 1871 he was again elected to the house of delegates, and served his term. He was chosen judge of the court of appeals in 1881, which place he now (1888) occupies.