solution was too expensive to him, and the second much
too dangerous. Instead the first Lord Baltimore agreed
to include in his charter a clause that would exempt
Maryland from the Statute of Mortmain, which had
made it illegal in England for religious bodies to buy or
receive gifts of land without special license from the
King. Exemption from the statute would enable the
Jesuits to acquire land and support their mission from
its profits.²³

   With the issue of support for the Jesuits settled, they
helped the second Lord Baltimore find investors. Father
Andrew White wrote the earliest promotional pamphlet
(the 1633 Declaration) and probably gave personal at-
tention to the venture in other ways. Many Catholics
who had no wish to go or take responsibility for sending
others contributed funds so that the Jesuits could fi-
nance the transportation of servants. Twenty Jesuit ser-
vants went in the Ark and over the next eight years the
order brought in about thirty more. Possibly ten per
cent of the settlers who arrived over the first eight years
came as the result of Jesuit efforts.²⁴

   Their very success, however, was to be one of the
sources of conflict that disrupted the infant colony. The
Jesuits were entitled to claim lands on a scale the second
Lord Baltimore was reluctant to allow. In the end he
reinstated the Statute of Mortmain and obtained an
agreement from the English Jesuit Provincial that the
missionaries, even as individuals, would claim no more
land.²⁵

   Two Jesuit priests, Father Andrew White and Father
John Altham, and a lay brother, Thomas Gervase,
sailed in the Ark for Maryland. Father White was the
mission leader. At age 54 he must have been the oldest