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Maryland Manual, 1950
Volume 163, Page 12   View pdf image (33K)
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12 MARYLAND MANUAL

of the Five Nations.Senecas and Iroquois. Later history
records raids by other tribes of Indians, accompanied by
violence and massacres, generally in western Maryland.

The "Ark" and the "Dove"

The Maryland colony was planned by the first Lord
Baltimore.George Calvert, a Yorkshireman whose devo-
tion to James I had first made him Secretary of State, later
Baron of Baltimore (1624), and finally given him a grant
of land for a colony in Newfoundland. This unpropitiously
cold territory Calvert called "Avalon" or "Ferryland"; but
intense cold and invading French made continuous resi-
dence untenable. In 1627 Lord Baltimore attempted to live
in Avalon with his family; then he left for the warmer
climate of Virginia. His intention was "to plant himself
to the southward", but on his return to England, Lord
Baltimore persuaded Charles I, James' successor, to give
him a charter of his own composition. On presentation to
the King, blanks were left for the name of the colony and
the date. It is said that Charles filled in the name Terra
Mariae to honor Henrietta Maria, his French queen.

Before June 20,1632 when the charter was dated, George,
the First Lord Baltimore, died and was succeeded by his
son, Cecil. It was the Second Lord Baltimore who organized
the expedition to Maryland in two vessels, the Ark of 360
tons and the Dove of 60 tons. Assisting him was the Jesuit
priest. Father Andrew White, for Cecil, as his father had
been since 1624, was a Roman Catholic. Father White,
with two members of the Calvert family (not including the
Proprietor), sailed from Cowes on the Isle of Wight on
November 22, 1633. How many took passage and how
many were Catholics we do not know. We do know that
one hundred and twenty-eight took the oath of supremacy
which Catholics normally refused to accept. However, the
Ark alone was twice the size of the May/lower, which had
carried over one hundred passengers.

January 1634 saw the two vessels at the Barbados where
they delayed for twenty days. On February 24th Leonard
Calvert, as lieutenant-general, put in at Point Comfort,
Virginia. The first stop within the limits placed by the
charter."from Watkin's Point unto that part . . . which
lieth under the fortieth degree of north latitude".was at
St. Clement's Island. The celebration of mass here on An-
nunciation Day has fixed for tradition March 25th as the
date of arrival of Maryland's first settlers, as well as the

 

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Maryland Manual, 1950
Volume 163, Page 12   View pdf image (33K)
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