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34 MARYLAND MANUAL
The downfall of Charles I and the rise of the Common- wealth were more serious events for the Maryland resi- dents than for other colonists in America. But Oliver Cromwell left Lord Baltimore in undisturbed charge of the Province until 1652. Emboldened by this, Governor William Stone attempted to reduce the Puritan settlements at Providence on the Severn (near present-day Annapolis) but came close to losing his life by execution after a decisive victory for the Puritans. Growth and Expansion The newcomers to other parts of the geographical charter limits of the Province, Proprietary, or Palatinate (as it was sometimes called) were not so bellicose as those in Providence. Settlement soon went far afield from the old Yoacomaco village. By the end of the seventeenth century eleven counties had established themselves, each with its court and complement of officials. The towns were few; great estates abounded, whose river fronts were centers of trade and traffic. The chief commerce was in tobacco, which even substituted for currency during much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Until customhouse centers were set up (1683), there was nothing to challenge the power of the landed gentry. Gradually, what Indian troubles had existed were smoothed out by treaties, such as the one of 1652 when the Susquehannocks submitted under the "Liberty Tree" (said to be the tulip poplar still to be seen on the St. John's College campus in Annapolis). The Proprietors were always a line of Calverts with the title "Lord Baltimore" until the death of the sixth and last baron in 1771 when Henry Harford, the natural son of Frederick Calvert, became the seventh Proprietor. In the time of James II, who desired to have all lands under the Crown, and again in the "Eng- lish Revolution" (before William and Mary held the throne securely), the Calverts had difficulties, but these were not reflected in any disadvantage to the Province. Neither Crown rule, 1689 to 1715, nor the establishment of the Church of England as the "official" religion proved too disturbing. If Puritanism waned, there was certainly room made for the settlement of other dissenters, notably Quakers. Several noteworthy developments in the Seven- teenth Century were the establishment of a printing press— William Nuthead's—the departure of the Governor and As- sembly from St. Mary's to Annapolis, and the passage of the "Act for the encouragement of Learning" (October 18, |
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Maryland Manual, 1971-72
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