page_title: History of St. Mary's College of Maryland
section_title: Seventeenth century
hierarchical_section_title: History of St. Mary's College of Maryland / Background / Seventeenth century
context_page_description: St. Mary's College of Maryland, originally known as St. Mary's Female Seminary, began in 1840 as a secular state-sponsored boarding school for women. Since 1966 it has been a four-year public liberal arts college. Since 1992 it has been a designated public honors college. One of only two in the nation to hold such a distinction at the time.
  The history spans from the early colonial days of St. Mary's City through to the present, including the establishment of religious tolerance and its later loss, long periods of oppression followed by the expansion of freedom as the result of the American Civil War, and through the 19th and 20th centuries to the modern day public honors college.
  In its special research capacity, the school also researches and studies the following historic events and periods as they relate to the local area:
context_section_description: St. Mary's College of Maryland is located on the original site of Maryland's first colony, St. Mary's City,  which was also the first capital of Maryland and is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in America.
  Colonial St. Mary's City was actually only a town and at its peak had between 500 and 600 residents. However, as the colony quickly expanded and settlements spread throughout the Eastern part of what is now Maryland, the town remained the capitol and representatives would travel from all over the colony to participate in the Maryland General Assembly, the colony's first legislative body.
  The Colony was founded under a mandate by the colonial proprietor, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore of England, that the new settlers engage in religious tolerance of each other. The first settlers were both Protestant and Catholic during a time of persecution of Catholics. This mandate was unprecedented at the time, as England had been wracked by religious conflict for centuries.
caption: The first Lord Baltimore, George Calvert, a Catholic during a time of persecution of Catholics who won the original grant for the Maryland Colony and who also envisioned it as a place of religious tolerance.[3] 
  Small painted icon, dating to between circa 1615 and circa 1620, Walters Museum, Baltimore.
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