taking the keys to the chapel away from the Protestants and re-
moving their books from the building. He was fined 500 pounds of
tobacco, and the tobacco was to be used to support the first Protestant
minister to arrive in the colony.
It is no wonder, then, that not only the Act of Religious Toleration,
but the colonization itself of Maryland has been acclaimed, as it was
by the historian McSherry, as "a mighty undertaking; standing out, in
history, as an era in the progress of mankind. " The spirit of tolerance
and freedom of religious worship, so firmly implanted in the soil here
in St. Mary's, spread throughout the colony.
My area of the Eastern Shore, directly across our beautiful Bay from
this place, was an early benefactor of the tolerant attitude of the Cal-
verts. In an era of considerable upheaval, Lord Baltimore was greatly
disturbed by threats of encroachments upon his dominions lying across
the Bay, which he called "The Eastern Shore below the Choptank. "
To meet these threats, he encouraged the settlers living in this city and
the areas west of the Bay to settle on the Eastern Shore to protect his
rights there. The emigration movement was not successful, but Lord
Baltimore received support from a source that was unexpected. In
March of 1660, the General Assembly of the colony of Virginia met in
Jamestown and passed a harsh law against the sect of Quakers that
had settled there, describing these devout people as "an unreasonable
and turbulent sort of people, teaching lies, miracles, false vision, proph-
ecies and doctrines tending to disturb the peace. " The drastic law
forbade the immigration of Quakers to Virginia and ordered into
exile those already there, exacting heavy penalties for violations,
including, so it is written, "the boring of the tongue with a red-hot
iron. "
Confronted with this act of oppression, Quakers living in Northhamp-
ton and Accomack counties, the two Virginia counties on the southern-
most extreme of the Eastern Shore peninsula, petitioned Calvert for per-
mission to settle in Maryland. On November 6, 1661, Philip Calvert,
the Governor of Maryland, issued a proclamation granting the peti-
tion. In all probability, these Quakers, being banished from their
homes for religious beliefs and practices, had heard of the law on re-
ligious toleration which their neighbors in Maryland had enacted. The
first settlement of Quaker refugees was on the south bank of the Great
Annemessex River, near its mouth. Shortly afterward, another settle-
ment was made on the Manokin River. This latter group was com-
prised of Church of England people, who apparently had had no con-
flict with Virginia's restrictions on religious nonconformists and came
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