The Marylanders went to work like so many beavers, building a fort and
other defenses to be ready for an attack. When they heard that the
people on Kent Island had fitted out a large sailboat as a man-of-war,
Governor Calvert fitted up two pinnaces, or small boats, and mounted a
cannon in each. Then the men of Maryland sailed for Kent Island and
captured it, after a battle in which several persons were killed. After
this there was no more trouble with Claiborne, and since that time Kent
Island has belonged to Maryland. Lord Baltimore held the rights over
Maryland by a grant from the king, somewhat as William Penn afterward
came to own Pennsylvania. Although Cecil, Baron Baltimore, was never
able to visit his property in the New World, his name was given to
Baltimore, the greatest city of Maryland, and Anne Arundel County was
named for his wife.
The purpose of the colony was not all religious. Trading and business
were also the objects of those brave settlers, and some of the most
successful merchant princes have sprung from that old Maryland
stock--“the best out of Old England.” The women of Maryland have been
far-famed for their beauty. There is good reason for naming the
loveliest of climbing roses, “Baltimore Belles.”
The best thing grown in old Maryland was its patriotism. When the
Fathers were signing the Declaration of Independence, the chief man
from Maryland was Charles Carroll. As there was another Charles Carroll,
the hero in Independence Hall signed his name “Charles Carroll of
Carrollton.” The patriotic spirit of the colony still lives in that
song, popular in all the states: “Maryland, my Maryland!”
WILLIAM PENN, THE FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA
When William Penn was born, his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, was
sailing out to sea on an English battleship. Little William’s mother was
a lovely woman from Holland, and as good as she was beautiful. While in
college at Oxford, young Penn attended Quaker meetings, which had been
started by followers of George Fox, the founder of a religious sect, the
Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they were commonly called.
[Illustration: WILLIAM PENN.
_In State Capitol of Pennsylvania_]
The professors in charge of Oxford University did not believe in such
meetings, so they turned out of the college those who attended them.
When William Penn went home, sent away from Oxford, his father was so
angry that he gave his Quaker son a beating and drove him from home.
Young Penn would have had to starve or beg in the streets but for his
good mother, who sent and helped him secretly. Even after that William
was found at a Quaker meeting in London and put in prison for eight
months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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