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Anthony Stewart…
In the era when colonists were revolting against the rule of Britain, Stewart remained a Loyalist to the British Crown. As the co-owner of a Maryland shipping company with his father-in-law, James Dick, he found himself at odds with the freedom-hungry people of Annapolis. The Peggy Stewart, a merchant ship owned by Stewart and Dick, returned to the Port of Annapolis from England with cargo that contained hidden boxes of “detestable weed tea”. As a Loyalist, Anthony Stewart paid the British-imposed taxes on the tea, an act considered treasonous by the colonists. The anger and actions of the vocal mob culminated in Anthony Stewart rowing out to his anchored brig and setting it ablaze with the goods still on board (the indentured servants also brought from England were safely off of the brig). His attempt to quell the attacks likely spared the safety of his family, but he remained a vocal loyalist and ultimately was run out of town.
