St. Mary's City, Maryland

St. Mary's City (also known as Historic St. Mary's City) is a former colonial town that was founded in March 1634, as Maryland's first capital. It is now a state-run historic area, which includes a reconstruction of the original colonial settlement and a designated living history venue and museum complex. Half the area is occupied by the campus of St. Mary's College of Maryland. The entire area contains a community of about 933 permanent residents and some 1,400 students living in campus dorms and apartments.

The city is an unincorporated community under Maryland state law and is located in southern St. Mary's County, which occupies the southernmost tip of the state on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. The community is bordered by the St. Mary's River, a short, brackish-water tidal tributary of the Potomac River, near where it empties into the Chesapeake.

St. Mary's City is the historic site of the founding of the Province of Maryland, where it served as the colonial capital from 1634 until 1694 — in 1695, Annapolis became the location of the legislature. The original settlement is the fourth oldest permanent English settlement in the United States. as it is the first North American colonial settlement established with a specific mandate of providing haven for people of both Catholic and Protestant Christian faiths.

It is also an internationally recognized archaeological research area and training center for archaeologists, and is home to the Historical Archaeology Field School. There have been over 200 archeological digs in St. Mary's City over the last 30 years.

Historic St. Mary's City: Reconstructed colonial town and living history

thumb|220px|A journal book containing translations from English to Latin to the Piscataway Indian language, believed to be written by [[Father Andrew White, a Jesuit missionary in St. Mary's City]]

Historic St. Mary's City is a large public access historic interpretation area with four public museums and is a re-creation of the original colonial capital of Maryland and also the original settlers village.

It has several living history museums, and the entire complex is staffed by period dressed actors who recreate history theatrically, as well as archeologists and archeology students who provide scientific and historical interpretation,

History of St. Mary's City

Beginnings

George Calvert

Colonial St. Mary's City was first envisioned by an English Lord, George Calvert. Calvert had been born in Yorkshire to a Catholic family, but when he was twelve, the local authorities compelled his parents to send George and his brother Christopher to a Protestant tutor. From then on George conformed to the established religion and had a successful career in service to the crown. His first attempt at establishing a colony was in 1621 in the Province of Avalon on land he purchased in Newfoundland, but after a few years, Calvert decided a warmer climate would be a better location.

After his wife's death in 1622, and a shift in his political fortunes, in 1625 Calvert resigned his position as a secretary of state and returned to the religion of his childhood, at a time of continued religious persecution of the Roman Catholics in England. In 1631, Calvert obtained a grant from King Charles I in recognition of his services to king and country. It had been a dream of George Calvert to establish a colony in North America and to also make it a haven for persecuted Catholics.

Cecil Calvert

thumb|[[Leonard Calvert, the first governor of the Maryland colony.<br />Maryland Archives, 1914. Painted by Florence Mackubin.]]

George Calvert died shortly before the Maryland charter received the royal seal; however, the King continued the grant to his eldest son and heir, Cecil.

Leonard spent the rest of his life there, leading the settlers through many trials and tribulations, as well as to great successes in the farming and selling of tobacco back to Britain. Leonard, more than anyone else in his family, became the actual founder of colonial Maryland.

The Ark and the Dove

270px|thumb|left|Full-sized working replica of the [[Maryland Dove|Dove,<br> St. Mary's City Historic District,]]

Led by Leonard Calvert, in November 1633, two ships, The Ark and The Dove, set sail from the Isle of Wight, loaded with settlers, Jesuit missionaries and indentured servants. After a long, rough sea voyage with a stopover to resupply in Barbados, they arrived in what is now Maryland in March 1634. They made their first permanent settlement in what is now St. Mary's County, Maryland choosing to settle on a bluff overlooking the St. Mary's River, a relatively calm, tidal tributary near the mouth of the Potomac River where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

thumb|290px|right|"The Founding of Maryland", 1634. Colonists are depicted meeting the Piscatawy Indians in St. Mary's City. Jesuit missionary, [[Father Andrew White, is believed to be on the left. In front of him the colonists' leader Leonard Calvert is clasping hands with the paramount chief of the Yaocomico.]]

The site had been occupied by members of the Yaocomico branch of the Piscataway Indian Nation, who had abandoned it as being vulnerable to attack by the Susquehanna. The settlers had with them a former Virginia colonist who was fluent in their language and they met quickly with the chief of the region. The Tayac Kittamaquund, paramount chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation, sold thirty miles of land there to the English newcomers. He wanted to develop them as allies and trading partners (especially because of their advanced technology, such as farming implements, metal-working, gunpowder and weapons, types of food and liquor, etc.). For some time, the Piscataway, their tributary tribes, and the English Marylanders coexisted peacefully.

Naming of St. Mary's City

St. Mary's City was officially named and founded on the site of the new settlement on March 27, 1634. St. Mary's City became the capital of the new Maryland colony,

First colonial town

thumb|220px|Period dressed [[living history actor playing the role of Leonard Calvert in the colonial State House in St. Mary's City.

Growing religious tensions

During and after the English Civil War, fights between Protestants and Catholics developed in the colony. who, contrary to the mores of the time that discouraged women from managing their own estates, although this was legal, insisted on managing her own business affairs. She had also traveled to the colony as a single, unmarried woman which was contrary to expectations of the time.

The law, in writing, had always been on Brent's side, but the common practices and beliefs of the day did not always guarantee enforcement, especially in the male-dominated frontier environment of the colonies, far away from the courts of England. As a woman, she had to defend her legal rights in order to be sure they were respected.

Brent defended her right to run her own estate in common law court before the assembly in St. Mary's City, making a spirited case, and won, making her the first woman in English North America to stand for herself in a court of law and before an assembly. She also demanded the right to vote in the assembly.

Despite appeals on her behalf by the Maryland assembly, Cecil Calvert had demanded by letter that she and her brother and sisters leave the Maryland colony. Consequently, Brent left the colony with her sister. By copying the letters and the processes of her husband, Dinah was able to continue the printing business following her husband's death in 1695. The English Crown took over the Maryland colony and appointed royal governors, replacing the Calverts. Catholics were also no longer allowed to worship in public

Relocation of Maryland Capital

The new Protestant Maryland governor Sir Francis Nicholson relocated the capital from St. Mary's City to the more central Annapolis The colonial statehouse in St. Mary's was turned into a Protestant church the same year.

1700–1865: Antebellum slave plantation era

Early 18th century: Consolidation of farms

The small remaining farms in St. Mary's City were consolidated into a large antebellum-style slave plantation by the Brome-Howard family, which operated through a majority of the 19th century. The main plantation house was built over the ruins of one of the Calvert residences.

Civil War

During the Civil War, Union troops occupied St. Mary's County, which like a large part of Maryland at the time, had Southern sympathies. Piers and wharfs in St. Mary's County were burned by Union forces in order to stop trade with the confederacy which was only across the Potomac River. and at least two of them then joined the Union Army.

thumb|180px|Medal issued for valor in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm (also known as the "Battle of New Market Heights") to members of the [[38th United States Colored Infantry Regiment that inspired Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler to order the creation of this medal. for valor in the Battle of Chaffin's Farm (also known as the "Battle of New Market Heights") in the American Civil War.

The United States Colored Troops Memorial Statue, in Lexington Park, Maryland, seven miles north of St. Mary's City, honors and memorializes African American soldiers from St. Mary's County, including the men of the 38th United States Colored Troops Regiment, who served as soldiers or sailors in the Union cause during the American Civil War. An educational plaque at the site specifically mentions Barnes and Harris and how they received the Medal of Honor.

Post-Civil War farming

The Civil War ended slavery on the plantation and the area remained mostly under a large farm, The book opens with a poem that Kennedy selected as a re-attribution to describe St. Mary's City long after its abandonment as the capital of Maryland. on the grounds of old St. Mary's City, in response to Kennedy's call for a monument; its founders described it as a "living monument" to the beginnings of religious tolerance and established it to meet the educational needs of young women in the county and the state. (effective in 1968)

1969: St. Mary's City declared a National Landmark

St. Mary's was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1969.

The plan "recommends acquisition of 1200 acres" and suggests a museum, visitor center, working tobacco farm, public transportation, and reconstruction of the Ark and Dove as first steps in the reconstruction of the historic city.

After four years of intensified archeological digging, most of the original town layout had been discovered. in addition to approximately 25,000 other tourists per year with the creation of the St. Mary's City Historic Commission, a state institution tasked with discovering and preserving archaeological remains in St. Mary's City,

The Historical Archaeology Field School

In conjunction with St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Historic St. Mary's Commission (formerly the "St. Mary's City Commission") runs the Historic Archeological Field School every summer

Notable discoveries

Some important archeological discoveries in St. Mary's City include:

The site of the first printing house in the Southern colonies;
A 1645 fort with a surrounding moat, claimed to be the only structural remains of the English Civil War in the American Colonies
Discovery of the St. John's house/freehold, where Maryland's citizen government was instituted
Façon de Venise glassware
A set of Kütahya ceramics, one of only two known examples found in the United States
19th-century slave quarters from St. Mary's City's later plantation period
Three 17th-century lead coffins. One of these is suspected of being the coffin of the former colonial chancellor and also judge, Philip Calvert.
The foundation of a Jesuit chapel
Discovery of the site of St. Peters Freehold, the former home of Maryland Chancellor Philip Calvert. St. Peters freehold was destroyed in a violent explosion in 1695 when 900 pounds of gunpowder stored in its cellar were set off. a 17th-century inn founded by Garret Van Sweringen an Innkeeper
Extensive artifacts from successive Native American occupations
The 18th-century house of merchant and planter John Hicks, with an extensive ceramic assemblage
Former slaves quarters and living area discovered on current campus grounds of St. Mary's College of Maryland, monument in honor of enslaved people erected by college

These findings come along with thousands of artifacts and bone fragments that have been cataloged and processed into St. Mary's City historical museums and storage archives. The structure was built in 1634 by the first English colonists, to be their fourth colony in the New World after Jamestown (1607), Plymouth (1620), and Massachusetts Bay (1630). Moreover, a silver coin was discovered there, dated back to the reign of King Charles I.