The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate

Book excerpt: The actual settlement of the Province of Maryland in 1634 was undertaken by Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's second son, and the group of 200 adventurers who accompanied him on the Ark and the Dove. In addition to a succinct history of the Calvert family and the area in which they flourished in England, this work describes the life and times of the 200 passengers, their part in the founding and settlement of the colony, and the development of the feudal manorial system. In addition to a succinct history of the Calvert family and the milieu in which they flourished in England, The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate describes the lives and times of the 200 adventurers who participated in the original expedition ot Maryland, their part in the founding and settlement of the colony, and the development of colonial Maryland's distinctive manorial system. The bulk of this volume, of course, consists of biographical and genealogical sketches of the 200 adventurers, each developed in meticulous detail from surviving documents by the famous Maryland genealogist, Harry Wright Newman. From contemporary court records, letters, and miscellaneous papers, Mr. Newman has wrought a definitive history of these early Marylanders and has accomplished, single-handedly, for the passengers of the Ark and the Dove, what has taken a legion of researchers to do for the passengers of the Mayflower