INTRODUCTION.

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KENT COUNTY justly claims the honor of being the most ancient settlement, and of inheriting the oldest organized government, in the State of Maryland, and as such was represented by Captain Nicholas Martin in the Legislative Assembly of Virginia, several years before the first settlement at St. Mary's, and before the grant of Maryland was made by Charles I to Lord Baltimore. The settlement was made on Kent Island by a Protestant Colony, from Virginia, under the leadership of William Clayborne and his Chaplain, Rev. Richard James, of the Church of England, who was the first one who preached the Gospel of Christ in Maryland. They were both (Clayborne and James) driven from Kent Island, and their property confiscated by the Lord Proprietary.

The Kent settlement, i. e. Kent county, originally embraced and included the whole of the Eastern Shore, and was under the government of an officer styled the "Commander of the Isle of Kent." The present limits of the county were, from time to time, defined by the boundaries of new counties carved out of her ancient domain; thus, Talbot was taken from it in 1661, Somerset in 1666, Cecil in 1674, Dorchester in 1669, Queen Anne's in 1706, Worcester in 1742, and Caroline in 1773. In 1695 Kent Island was attached to Talbot. In 1706 it was divorced from Talbot and given to a younger sister, Queen Anne's, who values the "Isle of the Olden Time" as the most precious jewel in her dowry-the borrowed pledge of her royal descent.

When James I ascended the throne (24th March, 1603), Virginia was the name applied by the English to the whole Continent of North America. A patent was granted to "The

London Company," in 1606, for lands between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude. This company received a new charter in 1609, with the title of "The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers of the City of London for the First Colony of Virginia," and the grant of all lands north and south of "Cape Comfort," to the extent of two hundred miles in both directions, which embraced the territory of the present State of Maryland. A third charter, in 1611, made no change in the boundaries on the mainland. In 1623 a quo warranto was issued, and all these charters were annulled. From that time Virginia ceased to be a "Proprietary," and became a "Royal Government," subject to the pleasure of the King, to be dealt with as he saw fit. This decision was distasteful to the proud Virginians, and they did not snubmit to it cheerfully.

Charles I granted to Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, the charter for Maryland, bearing date 20th day of June, 1632, embracing lands which once formed part of the lands granted by the Virginia charter, which had been annulled, as we have seen, by the judgment on the writ of quo warranto in 1623. (Vide "The History of Maryland," by John Leeds Bozman, Vol. II, pp. 9-21; "A Relation of Maryland, reprinted from the London Edition of 1635;" McMahon, p. 5, et sub.)

At the time of this grant of Maryland no settlement had been made within its prescribed limits, except upon the "Isle of Kent," by one William Clayborne, an influential and prominent colonist of Virginia, who had previously, the 26th day of August, 1624, been nominated by King James "one of the Council," in a commission issued to Sir Francis Wyat and others. When King Charles I renewed the charter for the government of Virginia, Clayborne was continued of the council and assigned to be the Secretary of State in Virginia. In 1627, the 26th day of March, Clayborne was again, for special reasons, reappointed Secretary of the State. It is fair to presume that he was a man of liberal education and of unusual ability. During the years 1627-228-29 the Governor of Virginia authorized William Clayborne, "the Secretary of State of this Kingdom, to explore and discover the source of the

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Chesapeake Bay, from the thirty-fourth to the forty-first degrees of north latitude." Under this authority, it appears, Clayborne made his settlement on the Isle of Kent. After this, Charles I, in May, 1631, gave Clayborne a license "to trade in all the seas, coasts, harbors or territories, in or near to those parts of America, for the sole trade with which there had been no former grant from the crown."

Under such circumstances, was the charter of Maryland granted to Cecilius Calvert, the 20th day of June, 1632. Lord Baltimore did not accompany the colonists to Maryland; "hee appointed Leonard Calvert to goe Governour in his stead, with whom he joyned in commission Mr. Jerome Hawley and Mr. Thomas Cornwallis (two worthy and able gentlemen)." They arrived at "Point Comfort, in Virginia," the 24th day of February, 1634, and were treated with much "courtesie and humanitie" by the Governor of Virginia. William Clayborne welcomed them, also, with a grim salutation. "At this time one Captaine Cleyborne (one of the Council of Virginia), comming from the parts whether they intended to goe, told them that all the natives were in preparation of defense by reason of a rumor some had raised amongst them that six shippes were to come with many people, who would drive all the inhabitants out of the country." This was a polite declaration of war, for the wish was father to the thought, and Clayborne never took back the gage which he then threw down.

Clayborne was fully acquainted with the scope and objects. of the expedition. He had come to Virginia in 1621 as surveyor, and soon became a councillor. When George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, visited Virginia, in 1628-'29, and landed at Jamestown, the Governor (West) and Council, composed of William Clayborne and others, called him before them and demanded what his purpose was, being Governor of another plantation (New Foundland), to abandon that, and come thus to Virginia. He replied that he came to plant and to dwell. "Very willingly, my lord," they answered, “if your lordship will do what we have done, and what your duty

is to do." Upon his refusal to take the oath of supremacy, they ordered him to depart. Clayborne soon followed him to England, and was prompt, with his partners, William Cloberry, John de la Barre and David Moorhead, to remonstrate against the grant of Maryland to Lord Baltimore, on the ground that it embraced the Isle of Kent, which he had purchased from the "kings of that country." When the charter was granted, his rage was great, and his complaints loud and deep. He exerted, with some success, his utmost efforts to excite the ire of the Virginians. Many of them proclaimed, and made it their familiar talk, that they would rather knock their cattle in the head than sell them to Maryland. His friend, Captain Samuel Matthews, scratching his head and stamping his foot, cried out, "A pox on Maryland!"

It was on the Feast of the "Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin," being the 25th day of March, 1634, the "Pilgrims" first landed in Maryland, on an island called St. Clement by McSherry, but now called Blackistone's Island. The occasion was a solemn one, and was celebrated with such religious ceremonies as were becoming to an event so important to mankind.

A fixed settlement two days afterwards, i. e. the 27th day of March, 1634, was made at St. Mary's, and this latter day must be considered as the true date of the actual settlement of this colony. (Vide "History of Maryland," by McSherry, pp. 30 and 32.)

From this time until the year 1650, when the erection of new counties curtailed the limits of St. Mary's, the whole of the Western Shore was called "St. Mary's," to distinguish it from the Eastern Shore, or Kent.

The grant to Lord Baltimore created great dissatisfaction among the colonists of Virginia, and they petitioned the King to restore to them their former possessions. The petition was finally acted upon, in the Star Chamber, in July, 1633, when it was adjudged by the Privy Council "that Lord Baltimore. should be left in possession of this grant, and the petitioners to heir remedy at law, if they have any such." The Governor

and Council of Virginia received the decision sullenly, and not in the spirit of acquiescence. They did not surrender, “rescue or no rescue," but bided their time. It never came.

Clayborne did not remain idle. In March, 1634, he petitioned the Governor and Council of Virginia, asking for advice as to the course he should pursue, informing them that he and his colonists had been required to renounce their dependence upon and subordination to Virginia. The Governor and Council archly expressed surprise that such a question should be propounded. They said they saw no reason why he should surrender the Isle of Kent, and "as the right to my lord's patent is yet undetermined in England, we are bound in duty, and by our oaths, to maintain the rights and privileges of the colony. Nevertheless, in humble submission to his majesty's pleasure, we will keep a good correspondence with them, not doubting that they will not entrench upon the rights of his majesty's plantations." (Vide McMahon, p. 12.) They kept themselves quiet, and Clayborne chafed like an untamed tiger in leading-strings until the headstrong Harvey was removed, and Sir William Berkeley became Governor, in 1639.

Clayborne refused to submit to the Lord's Proprietary's demand, and in September, 1634, he was forced to withdraw, and fled to Virginia; he was attainted and his property confiscated. Governor Harvey refused to surrender him to the authorities of Maryland or to protect him, but, under the pretense of high respect for the King's license, sent him to England, with the witnesses, to await the royal pleasure. Clayborne never forgot or forgave this conduct of the authorities of Virginia, and brought it bitterly to their remembrance in 1652.

Clayborne went to England a bitter, vindictive and unrelenting enemy to the Lord Proprietary. He petitioned the King for a confirmation of his former license to trade, for a grant of other lands adjoining Kent Island, and the power to govern them. The King, influenced by Sir William Alexander, his Secretary for Scotland, and one of Clayborne's associates in the license, issued a favorable order. The matter was