Page 109 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

SThe Claiborne Fort on Kent Island
chool children in Maryland generally ed to Virginia in 1621 from Crayford in Coun- learn the history of the state from the ty Kent under a three-year appointment from landings of the Ark and Dove at St. the Virginia Company as a surveyor. In the ten Clement’s Island in the spring of 1634. short years between his arrival in the colony
But, shortly after crossing over the Chesapeake and the founding of his settlement on Kent
Bay Bridge to Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the sharp-eyed child will spot a small road sign announcing that they have arrived on “Kent Island — First English Settlement within Maryland — August 1631.” That was the year that William Claiborne of Virginia first plant- ed a settlement and built a fort upon Kent Island, nearly three years before the founding of St. Mary’s City. William Claiborne emigrat-
Island, he had become a member of the Gover- nor’s Council and Secretary of State.1
Already having acquired large tracts of land along the Hampton River and on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Claiborne’s ambitions turned towards the lucrative fur trade with Native Americans. At the time, the Dutch settlers of New Netherland were making major in-roads among the Indians in territories that Charles
figure A
Bellarmine sherds and bottle glass from the Craney Creek area.
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figure B
Three reconstructed sherds of a North Devon ware basin from the Craney Creek area.