own expense in the first expedition five able men with
equipment for a year could obtain a grant of 2,000 acres
in return for a small annual quit rent. The estimated
cost was £100—£20 per man—which brought the price
of the land to 1 shilling per acre. In parts of England at
this time the value of farm land—improved, to be sure,
not wilderness—was nearly fifty times as much.⁵

   To these large investors Lord Baltimore offered addi-
tional attractions. The 2,000-acre parcels were to be
granted as manors "with all such royalties and priviledges,
as are usually belonging to Manners in England."⁶ The
investor-leader was to be the lord of the manor, with
rights to hold courts baron and courts leet for settlement
of disputes and conservation of the manorial peace. The
Maryland charter, written by the first Lord Baltimore,
explicitly allowed the proprietor to grant manors with
these rights. The second Lord Baltimore undoubtedly
expected the newly created manor lords to exercise these
privileges.

   The plan was to recruit men of wealth and high social
position by grants of both land and power. These lead-
ers were to finance the transportation of settlers who
were to improve the lands of the manor lords, attend
their courts, and pursue prosperity as their tenants. The
lords would serve Lord Baltimore's interests (as well as
their own) by populating and developing their lands,
organizing the production of commodities for trade,
and providing community leadership. Lord Baltimore,
as proprietor, to whom the lords paid rents and owed
loyalty, was meant to be at the apex of this new society.
With this plan he expected not only to attract investors
and settlers but to create a stable social order in a wil-
derness thousands of miles from England. But such a