$21003 T PEABODY PUBLICATION FUND. COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION. 1882-83. J. W. M. LEE, HENRY STOCKBRIDGE, BRADLEY T. JOHNSON. PRINTED BY JOHN MURPHY & Co., BALTIMORE, 1883. PREFACE. THE investigation, of which the following paper is the result, was commenced under the decided bias toward the opinion that Cecil Calvert had prosecuted his enterprise of colonization actuated solely by material motives, and that the Act concerning Religion was, in fact, only the echo of the liberal sentiments of the Separatist or Independent section of the Puritan sect in England. The records have forced me to the conclusions herein set forth. It is possible that newly discovered evidence, hereafter attained, may require some modification of them. I do not consider that probable, but, on the contrary, think it will strengthen them. Materials for fuller information exist and are within reach. The State of Maryland has undertaken the publication of our Archives, which are voluminous, under the supervision of the Maryland Historical Society as a Record Commission. The papers in the British State Paper 'office are becoming accessible through the Calendar, now being edited and published by the British Record Commission, so that in a few years a great mass of historical material will be open to the student. The Maryland Historical Society has a Calendar of Maryland Papers in the State Paper office at London, prepared by Mr. Stevens, and presented by Mr. Peabody. 1 It also has a Calendar of Maryland Archives prepared by the Rev. Ethan Allen under the direction of Dr. Alexander, containing a summary of the contents of six thousand manuscript pages of our Records. But besides these sources of information, there is an immense mass of material, valuable and interesting, which has never been available to Maryland historians, or students of Maryland History. The Archives of the Society of Jesus, and of the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith at Rome, of the Province of the Society in England at Stonyhurst, of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and of the Bishopric of London and of Zion College, contain invaluable information, as do the papers of the British Museum. In the autumn of 1839, Dr. Alexander saw in one of the rooms of the British Museum, in one of the rooms on the ground floor, two considerable chests marked "CALVERT PAPERS." In 1861, when he instituted search for them and their contents, they had disappeared. The custodians of the Museum had, in the meantime, changed, and those then in charge supposed that they must have been sent there for sale, and being refused, were taken away. So we have lost trace of them. But they must still exist, in private hands, or in some public collection. An intelligent and energetic inquiry would recover them. All these materials for our history ought to be collected and published. The State might well charge itself with this duty. But it is not too much to hope that some Marylander of wealth and culture will come forward, and entitle himself to the thanks of this and future generations, by instituting measures by which all of the valuable material above indicated may be recovered, collected and given to the public. Such an undertaking is worthy the ambition of those who, in this age, as patrons of culture and of art, succeed those merchant princes who led the Italian Republics in the renaissance of literature, science and thought. The paper herewith submitted, prepared for and partly read before the Maryland Historical Society, has been prepared and revised under the constant pressure of professional engagements, and hence its many imperfections. But it is an honest effort to contribute something toward the illustration of the early history of my native State, a history which the impartial observer accepts as an epoch in the development of civilization, and is the glorious heritage of every Marylander. |