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Description of The Great Seal of Maryland
The Great Seal and Flag of Maryland are so intimately connected
the one with the other that their history is inseparable. The flag of
the State bears the escutcheon of the Great Seal—the Calvert and
Crossland arms quartered. Maryland is unique in her Great Seal,
and presents a marked contrast with those of the other States of
the American Union, in that it consists of Armorial bearings of a
strictly heraldic character, while the others bear "emblems indicative
of agriculture and commerce, plenty and prosperity, or kindred sub-
jects represented in a more or less pictorial or allegorical manner."
The first Great Seal brought over by Governor Leonard Calvert, in
1643, was "Treacherously and violently taken away by Richard Ingle,
or his accomplices, in or about February A. D. 1644, and hath ever
since been so disposed of it cannot be recovered." In 1648, Baltimore
sent to the province, through Governor William Stone, a second Great
Seal cut in silver. The escutcheon bore the Calvert and Crossland
arms quartered. The first and fourth quarters consisted of "six
pales" or vertical bars, alternately gold and black with a bend dexter
counter charged—that is, a diagonal stripe on which colors are
reversed—being the Calvert arms; the second and third quarters
consisted of a quartered field of red and silver charged with a Greek,
or equal-limbed cross, classified as "Botany"—its arms terminating in
trefoils—and also counter-charged, that is, with the colorings re-
versed, red being on the silver ground and silver on the red—the latter
quarterings being from the Crossland, Baltimore's maternal arms—
Alicia Crossland having been the mother of the first Baron of Balti-
more, George Calvert. These quarterings were surmounted by an
earl's coronet and full-faced helmet, which indicated his rank in
America as that of a Count Palatine—his.rank in England being that
of a Baron only—a distinction which no other American Colonial
charter conferred. On the helmet rested the Calvert crest, a ducal
crown, with two half bannerets, one gold and one black. The escutcheon
was supported on one side by the figure of a Jafmer, and the other
by that of a fisherman—symbols of each his*two estates, Maryland
and Avalon. Below them was a scroll bearing the Calvert motto:
"Fatti maschii Parole Femine"—manly deeds, womanly words, or
more strictly, deeds are males, words, females. Behind the escutcheons
and coronets was engraved an ermined-lined mantle, and surrounding
all, on a border encircling the seal, was the legend: "Scuto Bonae
Voluntatis tuae Coronasti Nos"—with favor wilt thou compass us as
with a shield. The heraldic terms used in describing the colors in the
Calvert arms are "Or" and "Sable," meaning gold and black.
The Obverse of The Great Seal
The obverse of the Great Seal represents Baron Baltimore as a
Knight in full armor, with drawn sword and helmet decoration with
feathers. He is mounted on a richly caparisoned charger in full
gallop, adorned with his paternal coat of arms, below which are
engraved a strip of seashore, grass and flowers; around the whole is
an inscription containing his name and titles, "Cecilius Absolutus
Dominus Terrae Mariae et Avaloniae Baro de Baltimore."
The Great Seal of the State, or Nation, stands as her symbol of
honor, and the signet by which her official acts are authenticated and
accredited. In colonial Maryland to every deed granting lands by the
Proprietary, who held the fee therein, to the colonist settlers, was
suspended by a piece of linen"rtztpe, a large wax seal, with the impres-
sion of both the obverse and the reverse of the Great Seal thereon.
Upon the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England,
Maryland became a Royal Province and the Church of England became
the established church of the Province. During the sway of the Royal
Governors, from 1692 to 1715, other seals came into use, but upon the
restoration to Lord Baltimore in 1716 of the Province, "The Greater
Seal at Arms" was again used. The convention of 1776 adopted the
Great Seal of the Province as the Great Seal of the State, until a
new one could be devised. Later, notably in 1794, and in 1817, many
changes were made in it, but in 1876 a joint resolution of the Mary-
land Legislature was passed restoring the seal to the exact descrip-
tion given of it in Lord Baltimore's Commission to Governor Stone on
August 12, 1648. (From booklet entitled Annapolis, History of Ye
Ancient City and Its Public Buildings, by Oswald Tilghman.)
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Maryland Manual, 1939
| Volume 158, Page 494b View pdf image (33K) |
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