Maryland Colony (March 25, 1634) was founded by Leonard Calvert (1606-1647), who arrived in the Chesapeake Bay area with two ships, the Ark and the Dove. Commissioned by his brother Cecilius Calvert (1605-1675), Second Lord Baltimore, to lead the expedition and serve as its governor, Leonard Calvert, along with over 230 emigrants, founded the first capital, St. Mary's City, on Saint Clement's Island.
In 1634, Cecilius Calvert gave voyage instructions to his brother, Governor Leonard Calvert:
<To preserve peace and unity amongst all the passengers and to suffer no scandal or offense, whereby just complaint may be made by them in Virginia or in England...and to treat the Protestants with as much mildness and favor as justice will require.> 1634MC001
In the Narrative of the Voyage of the Ark and Dove (Relatio Itineris in Marylandian), March 25, 1634, Jesuit Father Andrew White recorded:
<We celebrated Mass for the first time in the island (St. Clement's). This had never been done before in this part of the world. After we had completed, we took on our shoulders a great cross, which we had hewn out of a tree, and advancing in order to the appointed place, with the assistance of the Governor and his associates...we erected a trophy to Christ the Savior.> 1634MC002
The Assembly of Maryland, in eulogy of Leonard Calvert, passed in a vote this proclamation three years after his death:
<Great and manifold are the benefits wherewith Almighty God hath blessed this colony, first brought and landed within the province of Maryland, at your lordship's charge, and continued by your care and industry, in the happy restitution of a blessed peace unto us, being lately wasted by a miserable dissension and unhappy war.
But more estimable are the blessings poured on this province, in planting Christianity among a people that knew not God, nor had heard of Christ. All which, we recognize and acknowledge to be done and performed, next under God, by your lordship's pious intention towards the advancement and propagation of the Christian religion, and the peace and happiness of this colony and province.> 1634MC003
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1634MC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Maryland Colony, March 25, 1632, Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore, in Father White's account of founding the Colony of Maryland. Joseph Banvard, Tragic Scenes in the History of Maryland and the Old French War (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1856), p. 32. J. Moss Ives, The Ark and the Dove (NY: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1936, 1969), p. 119.
1634MC002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Jesuit Father Andrew White, March 25, 1634, In the Narrative of the Voyage of the Ark and Dove (Relatio Itineris in Marylandian).
1634MC003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore, 1650, in a vote passed by the Maryland Assembly in eulogy of Leonard Calvert. Spark's Library of American Biography, Vol. XIX, pp. 178, 227. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 69.