The Founding of Maryland

The Founding of Maryland. .

"From this we went to Piscataway, where all flew to arms. About five hundred men, equipped with bows, stood on the shore with their chieftain. Signs of peace given them, the chief, laying aside his apprehensions, came on board the pinnace, and having understood the intentions of our minds to be benevolent, he gave us permission to settle in whatever part of his empire we might wish." , -Father White, a Jesuit priest, reporting on the reception given to Leonard Calvert by the Piscataway Tayac, 1634

, Maryland was created at the request of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. A Catholic convert, he dreamed of a colony where both Protestants and Catholics could prosper together. His first colony in Newfoundland proved unpleasantly cold, and in 1628 Calvert petitioned the English King for land near the Chesapeake Bay. He died before the charter was granted, leaving the task of establishing the new colony of Maryland to his 26 year-old son Cecil Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore., Cecil Calvert shared his father's commitment to religious toleration, urging both Catholics and Protestants to sail to "Terra Mariae" in 1633 to establish the new colony. He sent his brother Leonard Calvert on the voyage as the colony's first Governor. Upon landfall, in March 1634, Governor Calvert sailed up the Potomac River and met with the "emperor" or Tayac of the Piscataway Indians at his village on Piscataway Creek. Returning south down the river, another Indian group, the Yaocomacoes, sold the settlers a village complete with living quarters and cleared fields. There they established Maryland's first settlement, Saint Mary's City. The colony flourished and grew. In 1696, Prince George's County was established., Founding of Maryland , Original painting by H. Sander, etching by Xavier Le Sueur, The Acts of Toleration, presented here by the Catholic Second Lord Baltimore, Cecil Calvert, to the Protestant Governor of Maryland, William Stone, were laws passed in 1649 which outline a policy of punishments and fines for intolerant behavior. , Acts of Toleration to Gov. William Stone , Oil painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson, 1853, Two ships, the Ark and the Dove, carrying approximately 140 passengers, set sail from England to found the new colony in Maryland. During the crossing, they encountered bad weather, rough seas and even pirates. At one point, the smaller Dove was separated from the Ark and had to return to England, meeting up again in Barbados. In early March 1634, the ships sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, bound for the Potomac River. The passengers came ashore on March 25, a day now celebrated as Maryland Day.