Historical Time Line: When Did Our Ancestors Come to the Colonies?
1634 5th March - Ark & Dove entered Potomac River carrying 134 settlers to found Maryland.
1634 25th March - Maryland Colonists celebrated first mass in Md. on St. Clement's Island.
1636 29th August - Official notice of laying out of town of St.
Mary's from Lord Baltimore to Gov. Calvert.
1639 - First grant of St. Clement's Island to Dr. Thomas Gerrard included St. Clement's Manor.
1639 - "Green's Rest" later "Saint Ann" patented by Gov. Thomas Green.
1639 - "Town Land" on St. Andrew's Creek residence of Robert Clark, Surveyor General of Md.
1639 - "St. Peter's Key" residence of John Harris, later of William Goldsmith.
1642 - England's Civil War begins.
1644 - Parliamentary armies prosper, decisive battle of Marston Moor, June 1644.
1620 - 1646 - Puritans arrive from England to Chesapeake Bay.
1646 - King surrenders to the Scots; bishops & Book of Common Prayer abolished; Presbyterian Church est.
1647 - George Fox preached widely in north of England drawing a number of converts.
1648 - Second Civil War: Scots side with King & are defeated; provincial risings crushed.
1649 - Trial & execution of Charles I: England becomes a Republic.
1650 - Puritans arrive in Md. individually or in small groups from Eng., Ireland, New Eng., Virginia. [1]
1650 - "DelaBrooke" on Patuxent settled by Robert Brooke, Council member during Cromwell Party. [2]
1652 - Charles Cromwell, Lord Protector of England: founding of Quakerism by George Fox [3] [4]
1655-56 - Elizabeth Harris, founder of Maryland Quakerism, began her work by converting Puritans.[5]
1658 - Cromwell dies and is succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell.
1658-60 - Intense persecution of Md. Quakers for peace testimony, non-oath taking & no hat-honoring.
1658-59 - Talbot County Md. land grants issued; Quakers from W. Shore/Kent Island come to E-shore.
1659 - Richard overthrown by army; Rump Parliament restored but displeased many in the army.
1660 - Charles II restored (Restoration)
1661-1670 - Herring Creek, South River, Severn, Broad Neck, Clifts & Putuxent Meetings established on W-shore of Md; three Eastern Shore meetings at Kent Island, Bayside & Betty's Cove begin; Choptank Meetings established when many VA Friends arrive in Md. to escape persecution in VA, the Dickinson, Gorsuch, Powell, and Stephenson families; Tuckahoe Meeting on the Choptank dates from the 1670s. Friends accepted as good neighbors and as good citizens by provincial government.
1662 - Church of England restored; Royal Society receives its Charter.
1663 - Failure of first royal attempt to grant religious toleration
1671 - St. Mary's sent two representatives to [Md.] General Assembly - one was Honorable Thos. Notley.
1672 - Failure of second royal attempt to grant religious toleration; in Md. George Fox visits Betty's Cove Mt.
1672-73 - Visit by John Burnyeat, William Edmundson & George Fox to Talbot Co on E-Shore of Md.
1676 - Year Quakerism fully took hold on Eastern-Shore of Md. "Monthly Meeting at Wenlock Christison's 24 of first month, 1767." Earliest record extant of Third Haven Meeting, formerly Tredhaven.
1678 - Titus Oates & the Popish Plot; Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress published.
1679-81 - The Exclusion Crisis; emergence of Whig & Tory parties in England.
1684 14th day 8th month - Work begins on the Third Haven Meeting House. [6]
1685 - Charles II dies, accession of James II, rebellion by Chas II's protestant bastard, Duke of Monmouth
1687 - James II's Declaration of Indulgence
1688 - Wm of Orange invades, James II takes flight, accession of William III of Orange & Mary.
1689 - Bill of Rights settles succession to the Throne; Act of Toleration gives rights to Trinitarian dissenters.
1689 July - In Chaptico, Md. soldiers mustered in and army organized for Protestant Revolution.
1690 - Battle of the Boyne: William III defeats Irish & French Army.
1702 - Death of William III; accession of Anne
1707 - Union of England & Scotland
1714 - Death of Anne; accession of George I
1726 - Death of George I, accession of George II
1728 - Leonardtown laid out; in 1730 Thomas Spalding granted permission to use lots not taken up.
1737 - Construction of Christ Church, King & Queen Parish, Chaptico, SMCo Md. Maddox window.
1738 - Wesley's conversion, start of Methodism
1760 - Death of George II, accession of George III
Footnotes:
1. In 1649, Puritans were augmented by the arrival of some 300 from Virginia and a smaller number from England in 1650. By the time Quakerism came to Maryland, Puritans were to be found from the Patuxent to the Magothy on the Western Shore and on Kent Island.
2. Robert Brooke, a member of the Coucil during the ascendancy of the Cromwell party was President of the Council and as such, Governor of the Province. In a memo, he wrote: "Robert Brooke Esq. ar'd out of England on the 29 day of June 1650 in his 48th year of age with his wife and ten children. He was the first that did seat the Patuxent about 20 miles up the river at "DeLaBrooke." He brought in 28 other persons.
3. Anglicans purified out the Pope, the mass, and other such elements in the Church of England; Presbyterians removed bishops & simplified worship & church organizations; Congregationalists gave local congregations power claimed by the elders & called for separation of church & state: Baptists did away with infant baptism and programmed aspects of worship; Seekers subtracted almost everything except Bible reading & prayer.
4. Fox & a growing number of his associates when not in prison for their religious activity, traveled throughout England from 1652 to 1654 proclaiming their beliefs.
5. Elizabeth Harris brought about a sizeable Quaker community; especially drawn to it were people from the Puritan settlements in Annapolis & Patuxent areas on the Western Shore & Kent Island on the Eastern Shore. These earliest Md.Quakers lived in the Puritan areas from Herring Creek to the Magothy River and on Kent Island, enjoyed peace & acceptance in the 1656 to early 1658 period. Briefly, Maryland was a Quaker colony in the New World; which changed in 1658 when Baltimore's agent took over from the Quaker-Puritan forces and the personal animosities of Edward Lloyd & Nanthaniel Utie toward Quakerism were rampant.
6. Quakerism contined its steady growth in Md. through the last quarter of the 17th Century. The October yearly meeting was large (1685) and the Truth gets ground & prospers in many hearts (1700.)
Bibliography:
Footnotes 1-5 from "Three Hundred Years & More of Third Haven Quakerism," by Kenneth L. Carroll, Queen Anne Press, 1984, pp. 11-27.
Time Line Dates from "Oxford History of Britain," ed. by Kenneth Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 694-698, "Chronology."
Founding of Maryland dates: "Chronicles of Colonial Md," by James W. Thomas, Clearfield Co, reprint 1995.
Maps: "Atlas of American History," Ferrell & Natkiel, NY: Facts on File, 1987, pp. 15 & 19.