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When Virginia became crown property (1624), the king could do with it what he pleased.
King Charles I accordingly cut off a piece and gave it to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore
Maryland was the first proprietary colony, second tobacco colony in the Chesapeake.
In the 1630s, Sir George Calvert and his son Cecilius, the Lords Baltimore (Catholic artistocrats), acquired a royal grant @ 12,million acres from King Charles I in order to settle a colony north of Virginia, which was named in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.
Before settlement began, George Calvert died and was succeeded by his son Cecilius
In March 1634, the first English settlers--a carefully selected group of Catholics and Protestants--arrived at St. Clement's Island aboard the Ark and the Dove.
Settlement of Maryland began in 1634 and grew rapidly due to ample land.
Lord Baltimore planned for Maryland (Terra Maria) to serve as a haven for English Catholics who suffered political and religious discrimination in England, but few Catholics actually settled in the colony.
Protestants were attracted by the inexpensive land that Baltimore offered to help him pay his debts.
Baltimore granted his friends the large estates, which resembled medieval manors and paved the way for the plantation system.
The original design = 6,000 acres manors for his relatives and 3,000 acre manors for lesser aristocrats, each to be ruled by provincial nobles and worked by flocks of servant-like tenants.
Calvert's heirs found it impossible to carry out the scheme as newcomers took up their free land and imported as many indentured servants as they could afford.
In time, they created their own social hierarchy in which status was determined by the ability of some to rise above the others in the competitive tobacco economy.
The second Lord Baltimore insisted on religious toleration of all Christian religions but this proprietary colony still faced much sectarian trouble during its early days.
The Civil War that broke out in England soon spread to Maryland.
Religious conflict was strong in ensuing years as the American Puritans, growing more numerous in Maryland and supported by Puritans in England, set out to revoke the religious freedoms guaranteed in the founding of the colony
Protestants overthrew Lord Baltimore's regime several times between 1642-1660, but the English state always sided with him even when the Protestants were in power.
In 1649, Maryland Governor William Stone responded by passing an act ensuring religious liberty and justice to all who believed in Jesus Christ.
The Toleration Act was the first law in the colonies granting freedom of worship, albeit only for Christians.
Religious squabbles continued for years in the Maryland colony.
In 1650, the Puritans revolted against the proprietary government. They set up a new government prohibiting both Catholicism and Anglicanism.
In March 1655, the 2nd Lord Baltimore sent an army under Governor William Stone to put down this revolt.
By 1654, however, with Maryland's Protestants in the majority, Catholics felt threatened.
In 1654, the Toleration Act was repealed after Puritans seized control of the colony
Lord Baltimore lost control of propriety rights over Maryland in March 1655.
The Puritan revolt lasted until 1658, when the Calvert family regained control (granted by Oliver Cromwell) and re-enacted the Toleration Act.
In 1661, soon after the Restoration in England, Lord Baltimore sent his only son, Charles Calvert, to be governor of his colony. Charles served fourteen years when in 1675 his father, Cecilius, died and he became the lord proprietor.
The manorial system did not survive the upheaval, Protestant servants after their indentures expired acquired their own land rather than become tenants under Catholic lords.
Maryland's unrest ended around 1660
1664 - Slavery allowed by law in Maryland
This period, from the Restoration to the English Revolution in 1688, was one of relative quiet in Maryland.
John Coode is best known for leading a rebellion that overthrew Maryland
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