"MARYLAND HISTORY"
Together with Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, Maryland ranks as one of the foremost contributors to the American heritage of religious liberty, a heritage which traces its origins to the early Stuart era in England. When George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore, forfeited a promising political career to become a Roman Catholic in 1625, he began almost at once to dream of a New World haven for persecuted English Catholics. Although George Calvert did not live to see this dream materialize, his sons benefited from their father’s influence with the Stuart rulers when in June, 1632, King Charles I granted Cecil Calvert a generous charter making him First Lord Proprietor of the Maryland colony.
Colonists set sail on November 22, 1633 on the ships Ark and Dove. The four month’s voyage carried between 200 and 300 passengers. The leader of the colonists and first Governor of Maryland was the brother of Cecil, Leonard Calvert.
The colonists landed first on an island in the Chesapeake Bay which they named St. Clement’s on March 24, 1634. This gave Maryland a unique place in the history of English colonization.
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