2AARYLAND
756
MARYLAND
He had power of life and death over the inhabitants
as regards punishments for crime. He could erect
manors, the grantees of which enjoved all the rights
and privileges belonging to that kina of estate in Eng-
land. Many of them were created. He could confer
titles of honour and thus establish a colonial aristoc-
racy. Of all the territory embraced within the boun-
daries clearly set out in the charter, *' the grantee, his
heirs, successors and assigns, were made and consti-
tuted the true and absolute lords and proprietaries*'.
Sir George Calvert (q. v.), having become a convert to the Catnolic faith in 1625, witn his son Cecilius, then nineteen years of age, withdrew from public office, and sailed for Avalon in Newfoundland, a charter for which province had been granted him by King James. He carried with him a secular priest to attend to the spiritual wants of the Catholic colonists, and also a Protestant minister to supply those of the Protestant members of the expedition. In this act Sir George gave practical evidence of his recognition and accept- ance of the principle of religious frecKlom and of the rights of conscience, of which his son Cecilius was to be ^o illustrious and shining a supporter. After a year's residence in Avalon, Su: George sailed south in quest of a more genial climate and a more kindly soil. He reached Jamestown, Virginia, but the authorities of that English settlement refused him permission to land unless he would take the oath of supremacy as well as that of allegiance. The latter he was willing to take, the former, as a Catholic, he declined . Returning to England he sought and obtained from Charles I the charter of Maryland. Dying before it passed the great seal, the charter was issued to his son Cecilius, the second Lord Baltimore and the first Lord Pro- prietary of the Province of Maryland.
The charter to Cecilius was opposed by the agents of the Virginia colonists, on the ground that the grant was an encroachment on the territory of Virginia. This contention was untenable. For. by the judg- ment of the King's Bench in 1624, eight years before the issuing of the Baltimore Charter, in certain quo warranto proceedings instituted in the King's Bench, the Virginia colony was converted into a royal colony, and the king revested with the title to all the territory embraced in the charter of the London or Virginia Company, with full power and authority to grant all or anv part of it to whomsoever he pleased, which he subsequently freely exercised without question in the cases of the grants of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas and the northern neck of Virginia. The question was only raised as to the grant of Maryland, and that solely and avowedly because it was a grant to a Catholic nobleman for the purpose of establishing a Catholic colony. The committee of the Privy Coun- cil on American plantations, after a full hearing of both parties, unanimously decided "to leave the Lord Bal- timore to his charter, and the Protestants to their remedy at law ". Not having any such remedy, they did not, as they could not, resort to it. Aft«r numer- ous delays and detentions caused by its enemies, the expedition sailed from Southampton, 22 November, 1633. By an arrangement previously made by Lord Baltimore the expedition stopped at Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, and took on board the Jesuit Fathers Andrew White and John Altham {alias Gravenor) with some lay brothers and servants. The general description of the personnel of the expedition is that it consisted of "twenty gentlemen adventurers", all of whom, with perhaps one exception, were Catholics and of good families. With tne.se were associated a number of artisans, mechanics, and labourers estimated at 250, the greater part of whom, it is said, were Protestants.
Cecilius Calvert carefully prepared and delivered to his brother Leonard ( q. v.), whom he appointed governor, and to the two commissioners, Hawley and Coniwaleys, associated with him in the government of ^is province, a body of insti uctions for their conduct
while on the voyage, and when and after they should
reach their destination. In this first article he enjoins,
both on shipboard and on land, an abstinence from all
religious controversies, " to preserve peace and unity
amongst all the passengers and to suffer no scandal or
offence, whereby just complaint mav be made by them
in Virginia or in England : . . ancf to treat the Prot-
estants with as much mildness and favour as justice
will require ". During the voyage, among the piassen-
gere, embracing men of opposite creeds and separated
by widely different social conditions, confined for four
tedious months on the crowded decks of the Ark and
the Dove, there occurred nothing to mar and disturb
its harmony. On landing, the colonists were kindly
received by the Indians. Governor Calvert pur-
chased from the tribe of the PLscataways, who occu-
pied this land, the possession of a considerable tract.
The aborigines cave to the colonists as a temporary
shelter one of their principal villages. The wigwam
of the chief was assigned to the two priests as a resi-
dence and a chapel, and they immediately began their
apostolical labours, first among the Protestant colo-
nists, most of whom in a short time accepted the true
Faith. Father White prepared a grammar, a dic-
tionary, and a catechism in the language of the Pis-
cataways which was destroyed at the time of the Ingle
invasion (see below). Tayac, the chief of this power-
ful tribe, was converted, with his wife, his family, and
many of his tribe, as well €ts a princess of the Patux-
ents, a neighbouring tribe, and a number of her people.
The genial climate, the fertile soil, the liberal con- ditions of plantation promulgated by the lord pro- prietary, the security and safety enjoyed by the colonists, the religious freedom and equality secured to the members of every Christian denomination, soon attracted a numerous immigration, and the colony grew apace.
But a change came. The inhabitants of Virginia had abated none of their hostility to a Catholic colony in their neighbourhood and of their determination if
Eossible to break up and destroy it. William Clai- ome, a member of the Council of Government of that colony, had, under a hcence he had obtained from Governor Harvey of Virginia to trade with the In- dians, and a licence from Sir William Alexander, the Secretary of State for Scotland, to trade with the Dutch at Manhattan and the people of Newfound- land, established a trading post on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay within the boundaries of Lord Balti- more's grant, for the purpose of carrying on his busi- ness as a trader. He had never obtained a grant of any lands whatever. He was a mere squatter on the island, without a title to a single acre of it. He re- fused to acknowledge Lord Baltimore's charter and rights, and to submit to his authority, referring the matter to the Council of Virginia whicn upheld him. Governor Calvert thereupon proceeded to reduce the island to submission. Claiborne, \^ith the aid of some of the Virginians, but without any authority of the Vir- ginian government, organized an expedition to re- capture the island. He was met by a force of Gover- nor Calvert, commanded by Captain Comwaleys, and defeated, but escaped capture, to be for the rest of his lawless and incendiary career a thorn in the* side of Calvert and the unrelenting foe of the Catholic colo- nists.
In 1644 Richard Ingle, instigated and aided by Claiborne, made a sudden descent upon the province in a vessel named the Reformation, compelled Gover- nor Calvert and some of the principal persons of the colony^ including two of the Jesuit Fathers, to fly to Virgima, captured and burned St. Mary's, destroyed valuable records, plundered and destroyed the resi- dences of many of the inhabitants, especially the houses and chapels of the missionaries, and took Father VVhite a prisoner in chains to London, where he had him indicted as a returned Jesuit priest, an offence
