The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1935-01-03
Maryland'S State and County ColorS
CONTRARY TO COMMON BELIEF OUR FLAG is
NOT AN OLD ONE
W. NJ BARNES, in The Baltimore suday Sun

The common theory that Maryland
troops pranced through the Ameri-
can Revolution and subsequent distur-
Dances under the exact gold and black
and red and white banner which floats
over the State today, is disposed of
eonvincingly by Francis B. Culver in
a small book now out from the press.
The flags official rating is one genera
ton old, and its whole career is not
much older.
Confusion has come, on doubt, from
the circumstance that the present
State flag is taken from the States
Great Seal, which is a revival, after
many years of neglect, of the Great
Seal of the Lords Baltimore. But even
in the days of the Lords Baltimore, on
the occasions when the Marylanders
went out on parade or on military eX-
petitions, there is no suggestion that
they carried the four-color flag which
is now so striking part of every pub
lie ceremony.
Mr.. Culver precedes his citations
with a brief discussion of the origin
of the colors. The gold and black
stripes which make up two of the
flags four quarters, it is well known,
reproduce the arms which the London
heralds gave to Sir George Calvert in
1922, after he was made knight baro
net. Some of Sir Georges naughty &C
quaintances, whose honors were few
years older than his, apparently be-
came even laughter, and sneered
that the gold and black design was in
tended to represent the worp and
wool of fabric, this being an allu-
sion to the Calverts' reputed descent
from Flemish weavers. Mr.. Culver
says there is no knowledge of Flemish
origin.
By 1913, Cecil Calvert, the second
Lord Baltimore, had adopted seal in
which were combined the black and
gold of the Calverts and the colors of
the Grassland family from which had
come Sir Georges mother, Alicia.
The Grassland arms were the now
familiar red and silver pattern with
"cross bottony," i. e., a cross whose
tips form a sort of clover-leaf design.
The heraldic silver today is generally
conventionalized into white, because of
the difficulty of reproducing silver sat
isfactorily in either ink or fabric.
~**
Probably the first Great Seal of
Maryland was very much like that of
1913, for Cecil said as much. Yet the
exact appearance of the original,
which was lost or stolen in 1914 (ne-
cessitating the second one), is not on
record.
But the seal and the flag were two
very different things. After many
years of research by number of au-
thorities Mr.. Culver finds nowhere any
suggestion that the Grassland colors
were employed in any Of the early
flags, despite their presence in the
seal. The earliest mention of any flag
at all he concludes to be that of Leon
ard Calvert in reporting to his brother
the march against the Kent Islanders
in 1887 with your ensigne display
ed" There is no description of the
"ensigne." In 1865, however, is Com
mander Rogers Heamans' report of
the Battle of the Severn" in which
his ship, The Golden Lion, took part.
His narrative is quoted as mentioning
Captain Stone with his whole body
(of troops) drawn out and coming
toward the waterside, marching
with drums beating, colors flying.
The colors were black and yellow.
The author concludes that anything
so conspicuous as the red and white
of the present flag, had they been
present, would surely have caught the
sailors eye. He ventures the belief
that square flag of black and yellow
may we'll have been brought over by
Leonard Calvert in 1884.
In 1741, and thereafter, are refer
ences to "black and yellow flag"
sent over from England for the Mary
land colonials engaged in England's
current war. In 1850 the Council of
Maryland ordered from England
"black and yellow flag with the Brit
ish Union in the canton" Queen
Anne's 1707 proclamation had in fact
prescribed the use of the Union Jack
in the canton of all British flags.
1t is not certain that the black and
yellow flag was carried by the Mary
landers under Braddock, but Mr.. Gull
yer finds that possible assumption.
He is positive that the red and white
never appeared at any time through
the tenure of the sixth and last Lord
Baltimore. And although the Great
Seal was kept in emergency official
use down to 1894, he expresses a con-
fident belief that no such reminder of