History 1629

When George Calvert of London converted to Catholicism around 1625, he resigned from government service since he could no longer recognize a Protestant king.   In consideration of Calvert’s years of loyal service, King Charles granted him the land along the Chesapeake, north of Virginia. George Calvert had already invested in various colonizing companies, but he also wanted a colony of his own – both as a financial investment and as a haven for English Catholics. He was granted land by King Charles 1.

George did not live to see this beautiful and bounteous colony that was named Maryland in honor of Charles 1’s wife, Queen Henrietta Maria.  The grant passed to Calvert’s eldest son, Cecil, who became the first Proprietor of Maryland and the second Lord Baltimore upon his father’s death in 1632. Charles, Cecil’s son, followed his father as proprietor in 1675.  It is in his lordship’s rent books that the Merryman’s Lott entry is found.

Successive Lords of Baltimore collected a token “quit rent” from landholders.  Hence Charles Merryman received title to his lot and paid a yearly rent.