Province of Maryland

The Province of Maryland was chartered on June 20, 1632, granted by King Charles I to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, who inherited the charter from his father George Calvert; settlers first arrived aboard the ships Ark and Dove in 1634. Maryland was governed as a proprietary palatinate under the Calvert family, and in 1649 passed the Maryland Toleration Act, an early legal protection for Christian religious practice. Catholic proprietary control was interrupted by the Protestant Revolution of 1689, and the Calvert family did not fully regain its proprietary powers until 1715, after converting to Protestantism. The province ended in 1776 when it joined the American Revolution against Great Britain; four Maryland delegates, including Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signed the Declaration of Independence, and Maryland became a U.S. state. As a proprietary palatinate granted by the crown to the Calvert family, it is grouped here among Kingdoms and Principalities, the closest available classification for such a grant pending a dedicated colonial-provinces category.