Page 66 - Maryland Historical Trust - Archaeology Colonial MD

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Locations of plantation settlements referred to in this chapter.
plantations were the places where settlers not only spent most of their time carving out farms, they also experimented with new practices and new identities, reconstructing social relations as they adapted to a new world. These new relations are reflected in the architecture, material culture, and landscape of the early plantations and where changing notions about difference can be charted. Furthermore, plantations, at least in Maryland, also served as important political centers, both for governance and, less happily for the Calverts, those plotting against them.8
The Early Decades
In 1634, when English colonists under the di- rection of Governor Leonard Calvert arrived in Maryland, they made the decision to settle on the St. Mary’s River, a small tributary providing a sheltered harbor and easy access to the Potomac. This was an informed decision. With their experi- ence in Newfoundland and their study of colonial ventures in Virginia and elsewhere, the Calverts actively minimized opportunities for conflict with Native groups. They selected a beachhead that would place them at some distance from in- digenous population centers and situated along waterways close to Atlantic markets. Almost immediately, however, colonists eager to estab- lish plantations spread along the colony’s major rivers, including (initially) the Potomac and the Patuxent. By 1636, Jesuit missionaries had estab- lished a home plantation at St. Inigoes Manor south of St. Mary’s City, a second mission at the mouth of the Patuxent by 1637, and a third at the mouth of the Port Tobacco River by 1641. Henry Bishop was at St. Leonard’s, on the north bank of the Patuxent by 1641. Along the Potomac in 1640, William Bretton had received a patent for what today is known as Newtown Manor and Thomas Gerard took possession of St. Clement’s Manor. That same year, Thomas Cornwallis was at Cross Manor near St. Inigoes Manor.25
This spread of settlement was briefly inter- rupted in 1642 when raids by the Susquehannock Indians spurred Governor Calvert to call settlers back to St. Mary’s. Native warfare, however, was not the only or even the primary threat to colo- nial settlement. In 1645, a privateer by the name of Richard Ingle seized control of the colonial settlement at St. Mary’s City, forcing Gover- nor Calvert to flee to Virginia. Calvert was able to regain control of the colony in 1647. Ingle’s
IMAGE BY SCOTT STRICKLAND