HISTORICAL SKETCH. 89

left undetermined. He also obtained from the Duke of York
(afterwards James II) a grant of the land bounding on the
west side of the Delaware Bay, south of Cape Henlopen,
land which the Duke had no power to convey, as it was
already included in the Maryland charter. Of this also Penn
kept a firm hold.

The Protestant revolution, as it was called, which de-
throned James and gave the crown to William and Mary,
strongly stirred men's minds, even in distant Maryland. Bal-
timore had sent out orders to have the new sovereigns pro-
claimed, but the messenger unfortunately died on the way,
and the delay thence resulting was used to alarm the ignorant
and timid. Although the Protestants outnumbered the Cath-
olics eleven or twelve to one, the credulous people were easily
persuaded that a plot was on foot to bring down a force of
hostile Indians, who, joining with the Catholics, were to
make a general massacre of the Protestants. The terrified
people hastily took up arms in various places, and the lead-
ers of the sedition, headed by John Coode, a man of infam-
ous character, placed themselves at their head and seized the
government. This done, they wrote to King William, assur-
ing him that they had acted from motives of purest
patriotism, and to preserve the Protestants from destruction,
and begging him to take the government into his own hand.

Accordingly, William, without waiting for a legal investi-
gation, assumed the government, and in 1692 sent out Sir
Lionel Copley as the first Royal Governor. The Proprietary's
property and personal revenues were not confiscated, but the
whole proprietary government was superseded.

One of the first acts of the new government was to make
the Church of England the established church of the
province. Hitherto all worship had been free, and all the
churches had been supported by voluntary contributions, but
now all taxables had to contribute, to the extent of forty
pounds of tobacco per poll, to maintain the establishment.
Protestant Dissenters and Quakers were allowed their sepa-
rate meeting houses, if they paid the tax.

During the administration of Francis Nicholson the seat
of government was removed from St. Mary's to Annapolis
(1694), and a beginning was made toward a system of free
schools by the foundation of King William School, at the
latter city.

Charles, the third Lord Baltimore, died in 1715, and his
title and estates went to his eldest son, Benedict Leonard,
who had become a Protestant. He, however, died the same
year, and his son Charles, a minor, and also a Protestant,
succeeded. As the charter had never been rescinded, but only