The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-04-20
K ERINE SCARBO ROU GH
I'm the Baltimore Sunday Sun, April 2, 1881
LEONARD CALVERTS SUCCESSOR
UTTERED TROUBLE AT TIL OUTSET

With the three hundredth anniver-
sary of the establishment on the
banks of the Potomac of Lord Balti-
more's palatinate now but year in
the distance, Marylanders are becom-
ing increasingly aware that, inter-
woven with the sober dates and facts
of history, a great romance took
place on their soil during the century
and quarter which interviewed be.
tween the foundation of the colony
and the Revolution.
To hold a mirror up to those distant
days is to see reflected on its shining
surface a strange, fantastic caval-
cade. Mobiles and villains, pirates and
Puritans, artisans and adventures,
swashbucklers and sophisticates
emerge from the mists, glimmer for a
moment and vanish again into the
past. All of them were players III
the drama.
During the course of the play
strong men appear and are torn to
shreds by those whom they endeavor
to serve. Weaklings rise up and are
destroyed by fate of its instruments,
self-appointed. Serving girls in linsey
woolsey captivate gentlemen in lace
ruffies and are united with them in
holy wedlock. Cavalier joins issue
with Roundhead and goes down to de-
feat in a world of change.
Before the first decade of Lord Bal
timore's experiment had been rounded
out there was dissatisfaction and dis
content in Maryland. Savage hostil-
ity menaced the white settlements and
there were murmurings and incipient
sedition among the colonists. Clai-
borne. ousted from his holdings on
Kent Island, developed into a perpet-
nal firebrand and religious agitations
clutched the little city of st. Mary's
by it's collective throat. Governor
Leonard Calvert, wise and able ad-
ministrator, went first to England to
confer with his brother, the proprie-
tary, and then to Virginia, finding it
inadvisable to set foot on Maryland
soil when he returned to America. Ul-
timately he regained the upper hand,
but he did not live long to enjoy the
fruits of his success. His death took
place at st. Mary's on the ninth OF
June, 1647.
During his last illness Governor
Calvert was attended devotedly by
two of his kinswomen, Mary and Mar
garet Brent, the latter of whom ne
made executrix of his estate. ut was
their brother Giles Brent whom Gov
ernor Calvert had once named acting
Governor for a short period.) Or
Governor Calvert's deathbed ne usec
his prerogative to name his successor
Thomas Green, also referred to a.
"Captain." Shortly afterward Mary
and Margaret Brent made affidavit Of
Governor Calvert's selection, ant
Green, accordingly, was acknowi
edged the titular head of the colony
It would have been better, dlspas
sionate historians seem to thinK' /
the Governor had named Green as hi
executor and Margaret Brent as ex
ecutive of Maryland, but that is as i
NAV have been. Governor Green
first official act was an effort to pre-
vent the return to the palantinate O.
Capt. Edward Hill or any of his ad
herents who had taken refuge acros
the Potomac after the quelling o
Claiborne and Ingle's rebellion o
1916. AS the session of the Provin
cial Court was approaching he issue'
a proclamation prohibiting any OF tn
refugees from claiming the assistanc
or judgment of the court in any cas-
in their favor until they had take