![]() ![]() Swedish colonists occupied some of this territory in 1638, establishing Fort Christina (present Wilmington) on the western shore of Delaware Bay. Maryland's northern boundary under the 1632 charter ran through the present city of Philadelphia, including a substantial swath of territory later included in Pennsylvania and Delaware and leading to a long-lived boundary dispute. In practice, Maryland benefited from the experience of Virginia, avoiding some pitfalls, and generally following patterns already established in the Old Dominion. The Calvert family, as Proprietors of Maryland, granted land to whom they pleased, drawing an income from their generosity in annual quitrents, and filled the offices of government with their relatives. In theory, and to some extent in practice, Maryland was a family affair. The southern bank of the Potomac was the boundary between Baltimore’s domain and Virginia as far as Chesapeake Bay the line crossed the bay to bisect the Eastern Shore between Watkins Point and the Atlantic. The northern boundary ran westward from Delaware Bay along the fortieth parallel to the "first fountain" of the Potomac River. This tract of some 12 million acres included a considerable part of the grant made to the Virginia Company of London in 1609. On JKing Charles I granted land on the upper reaches of Chesapeake Bay to his son Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, as sole proprietor. Sir George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore in the Irish Peerage, died before completing negotiations. Maryland was intended as a refuge for English Catholics, but Leonard Calvert, the first governor, had explicit instructions to "suffer no scandal nor offence to be given to any of the Protestants." To maintain this balance, Maryland authorities embraced a broad religious tolerance from the beginning. ![]() They then sailed up Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Potomac River and began a search for an appropriate spot for their settlement. In 1634 two ships, the Ark and the Dove, arrived in Virginia from England with settlers for a new colony to be called Maryland. The Maryland Colony and Religious Freedom In the seventeenth century Ulster Scots chose the Chesapeake colonies, the goal for most emigrants from the British Isles, and most of them migrated to Maryland. history, specializing in Colonial America. in American history from Georgetown University he taught U.S. He is affiliated with the Center for Scotch-Irish Studies and the Department of History at the University of Florida. Richard MacMaster is co-editor of The Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies. ![]()
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