Yaocomico homes and storehouses were constructed of frames of bent saplings, which were then covered with mats made of wetland reeds called phragmites.
Slowly, Maryland gained a toehold in America. Managing the colony long-distance, Cecil assigned manor lands to a select group of his colonists, who either paid for the land outright or rented it. They tendered part of every crop to the lord proprietor. In ten years, the colony’s population grew to between five and six hundred settlers.
Life in Maryland wasn’t easy. Building and sustaining a colonial homestead meant that everyone, even the wealthy, worked. Additionally, tobacco is a labor-intensive crop. All planters who could afford to hired help, mostly males. From 1634 to 1635, men outnumbered women six to one. During the second half of the seventeenth century, as other types of labor increased and as families were established, the ratio dropped to three to one.
ALTHOUGH SOME FAMILIES immigrated to the new colony of Maryland, most colonists were individuals seeking prosperous lives. Most of the early immigrants could not read or write. But public documents such as court records, wills, and estate inventories provide records of their lives. During the first half of the seventeenth century, the majority of Maryland’s workforce came from England as indentured servants enticed to the colony with the promise of fifty acres of land at the end of their indenture. These people signed a legal document called an indenture, in which they agreed to work for a landowner (called the master) for a specific length of time, usually four to five years. In return, the master paid the servant’s passage to Maryland and fed and housed him or her during the period of indenture. A master could sell an indenture to a third party if he or she so desired. The majority of indentured servants were seventeen to twenty-eight years old.
While most of the servants were English, some were African. During the first half of the seventeenth century, the English did not commonly use the term slave. All African and European workers, regardless of legal status, were called servants. In seventeenth-century English America, slavery was not hereditary, nor was it always a lifetime condition. A predetermined time limit could be set, although the term was often so long as to make freedom unlikely. Most of the Africans were slaves, but some were freemen. Others served as indentured servants for the term of their indenture and were then free of further obligation to the landowner.
As much as Cecil Calvert wished he could go to Maryland, he felt that he could best protect his colony’s boundaries, both geographical and religious, by remaining in England, where he lobbied endlessly on Maryland’s behalf. Leonard’s regular reports kept Cecil abreast of operations in the colony. While tobacco was Maryland’s chief cash crop, Cecil requested that Leonard also send goods such as timber and animal hides. Sometimes, though, his requests went unfulfilled. In April 1638, Leonard regretfully wrote, “The cedar you writt for . . . I could not procure to send this yeare by reason there is very few to be fownd that are usefull tymber trees.” Ships loaded with trade goods regularly sailed between America and England.
While wild animals — such as wolves, bears, and mountain lions — roamed Maryland’s forests, domesticated animals, specifically hogs and cattle, also posed a threat to a colonist’s survival, as they could wreak havoc on crucial food crops. The solution? Fences — although, in contrast to modern fencing practices, Marylanders enclosed their gardens rather than their livestock. Loose pigs and cows fended for themselves in the countryside. Colonists notched the animals’ ears in different patterns to indicate individual ownership.
Colonists protected their crops by weaving branches to form wattle fences that were pig-tight, horse-high, and bull-strong. The fence in the background is constructed with split rails.
This replica of a seventeenth-century Maryland tenant farmer’s home is located in Saint Mary’s City. Its walls and roof are covered in clapboard, and it has a loft for storage and sleeping. The chimney is made of wattle and daub.
Acre by acre, Marylanders carved their place in America. And perhaps most important to Cecil Calvert, Catholics worshipped openly in Saint Mary’s City, fulfilling the dream of liberty of conscience that his father and he had shared. However, religious tensions between Protestant and Catholic Marylanders grew. Some Protestants worried that the Jesuit priests who were preaching in Indian villages might turn the native inhabitants against the Protestants. Maryland’s Protestants and Catholics argued about ongoing disagreements in England between the king and Parliament. Colonists grumbled about some of Lord Baltimore’s policies concerning land grants in the province. Gradually, these tensions began to threaten the very survival of the province’s unique policy.
DEATH WAS NO STRANGER to Maryland’s colonists. Swampy conditions and impure water caused fevers and diseases, such as dysentery, that killed many immigrants within weeks of their arrival. Changes in climate and diet, plus a harsh work routine, led to more deaths. Those who survived this period, which the colonists called the “seasoning time,” could expect a hard life. Seventy percent of the men died before age fifty. Women had an even shorter life span. Twenty-five percent of the babies died during their first year, and half of those who survived infancy died before they reached the age of twenty. Most children lost at least one parent. Step and half brothers and sisters became very common due to the remarriage of the surviving parent. And the court assigned orphans without relatives to new families, for whom they worked in return for room and board.
Troubled times in Maryland reflected troubled times in England. In London, conflict reigned between King Charles I and Parliament. Believing his right to rule came directly from God, King Charles claimed that he alone was best qualified to make important governmental decisions. Many members of Parliament, including a group of Protestants called Puritans, disagreed with this assertion and with some of the king’s religious and political policies. The Puritans also disapproved of plays, music, and dance, all pastimes loved by Queen Henrietta Maria (a Catholic) and the king.
As Parliament sought reform in politics and in the Anglican Church, the gulf between it and the king widened. Three times, King Charles I angrily dissolved Parliament and ruled England himself. When he finally reinstated Parliament, in 1640, general battle lines for a civil war were already drawn: Puritans, merchants, and the Royal Navy supported Parliament; the aristocracy, the Anglican Church, peasants, and Catholics supported the king.
Fearing for their safety, Charles and the royal family left London in January 1642 under the protection of Royalist troops. Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan and a very powerful member of Parliament, remained in London, where he served as a commander of parliamentary forces.
In 1644, as England’s civil war intensified, Cecil Calvert, perpetually strapped for cash, busily juggled the governing of Maryland even as he safeguarded his family’s safety and position in England. That same year, William Penn was born in London. Less than forty years later, he would seriously threaten the Calvert family’s boundaries in America.
IN SOME WAYS, William Penn understood boundaries even better than George Calvert had. By the time he was twenty-five years old, Penn had fought parental boundaries, defended the beliefs of his religion’s boundaries, and challenged the legal boundaries of the British court.
Prior to Penn’s birth, England’s civil war placed his father, William senior, in a quandary. The Penn family had long supported England’s joint rule by king and Parliament. So on the one hand, William senior was loyal to King Charles I and hoped that he and Parliament would reconcile. On the other hand, William was a captain in the Royal Navy, which was supported by Parliament. Professional commitments edged out personal beliefs. In order to keep his command (and stay out of prison), William senior had to fight the king’s men. Eventually, parliamentary forces defeated King Charles’s troops, and King Charles I was imprisoned in 1647.
While his father fought at sea, William Penn’s mother, Margaret, anchored the family in their house on Tower Hill. From their house, she could see the infamous Tower of London, where many pol
itical prisoners had been jailed and executed. She nursed three-year-old William through smallpox. William survived, but as a consequence of the disease, he lost most of his hair. Margaret soon had him fitted with a wig. Although William’s hair did eventually grow back, it did so sparsely. William wore various styles of wigs for the rest of his life. This was not problematic, since wigs were the fashion for men at that time anyway.
The baptism register in All Hallows by the Tower Church, London, records William Penn Jr.’s baptism, on October 23, 1644 (fifth line from the bottom).
JUST HEARING the word smallpox struck terror in the hearts of seventeenth-century people. The disease had no cure. And it killed one-third of the adults and more than half of the children it infected.
Caused by the Variola virus, smallpox has probably been present in human populations for about ten thousand years. The name of the virus comes from a Latin word that means “spotted” or “pimpled,” in reference to the rash that appears on an afflicted person’s skin.
Inhaling the airborne virus from a smallpox victim’s cough was all it took for the contagion to spread from person to person like wildfire. In nine to twelve days, an infected person fell ill with a headache, backache, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, and a raised red rash. Within several days, the rash turned into blister-like pustules that spread from the face to the chest, arms, and legs. In about nine days, the pustules broke open and scabs formed on the pits left behind. That’s when most people died. For those who lived, the scabs dried and fell off, and the person’s skin was left scarred with small, deep pits. Those who survived smallpox were immune to the disease for the rest of their lives.
Inoculation against smallpox was not practiced in England during the seventeenth century. The first professional inoculations in England and North America occurred in 1721. In 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner developed a smallpox vaccination. In 1979, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated.
The dawn of 1649 found King Charles I on trial for high treason, then sentenced to death. On January 30, 1649, an executioner beheaded him, and Oliver Cromwell assumed control of the government. If this upset William Penn Sr., he did not comment publicly. But young William certainly heard adults talk about the king’s execution. Shortly afterward, William senior bought a country home outside of London.
When young William was about nine years old, he became a pupil at Chigwell School, several miles from his home. Chigwell, founded by the Anglican Church, was noted for its sound religious education, which favored neither Puritan nor Catholic practices. Considering the turbulent political climate — with Puritans, Anglicans, and Roman Catholics all vying for power — it was an educational choice above reproach.
In addition to grammar and mathematics, William Penn studied Latin and Greek and spoke both languages by the time he was eleven. But he especially enjoyed religion class and daily prayers. William later recalled that his first spiritual experience occurred when he was in his twelfth year and felt the presence of God as a brightening of the room and a sensation of inward peacefulness. Between the ages of twelve and fifteen, he experienced additional similar spiritual revelations. Later, as an adult, experiencing God in this way would become the very center of his religion.
Meanwhile, William senior’s naval career soared. In a new war — this time against the Dutch — he became a national hero. In 1656, Cromwell granted him Macroom Castle, in Ireland, and presented him with a gold chain worth one hundred English pounds. Admiral William Penn was a very wealthy, very famous man.
Penn’s career plummeted, however, when Cromwell, displeased with the results of a naval mission in the West Indies, ordered him jailed in the Tower of London. To be nearer to her husband, Margaret moved the family back to Tower Hill Road. Once again, young William was living in the tower’s shadow, but this time, his father’s life was in jeopardy, as many of the tower’s political prisoners were executed.
Because execution was a very real threat, political prisoners feared being sent to the Tower of London. The Penns’ London home was within sight of the tower.
Fortunately, William senior’s fame and the Royal Navy’s high esteem weighed heavily in his favor, and Cromwell released him. Less than a year later, the Penn family moved to Macroom Castle, a decision with far-reaching consequences for young William.
The rambling estate of Macroom Castle was a far cry from their home in London. William was groomed for a public career and a place in society. His father taught him how to manage land and fight with a sword — accomplishments expected of a gentleman’s son. A tutor brought from England educated young William in scholarly subjects.
William senior had, if not an open mind, at least a curious one. So, when Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary, traveled to Ireland in 1657, William senior allowed him to hold a meeting in Macroom Castle. While preaching, Loe spoke about Inner Light and listening within oneself to hear God’s voice. Loe’s words resonated with listeners.
RADICAL AND OUTRAGEOUS — that’s what most English people thought of the Society of Friends, a religious group also known as the Quakers formed during the late 1640s. While still in his early twenties, George Fox, the group’s founder, traveled the countryside conducting unstructured services. He spoke about understanding God through silent prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible. Quakers shunned the rituals and sacraments that were the backbone of the Anglican Church. There were no ordained clergy — no priests, no bishops. Instead, each Quaker received Inner Light or Truth through individual prayers made directly to God.
Practicing peace, simplicity, and equality formed the core of Quaker beliefs. Quakers advocated plain living, including clothes free of fripperies such as lace and feather plumes. Believing all men to be equal, they did not acknowledge social class. They did not remove their hats to anyone, including royalty and government officials. When addressing a person, they used the words thee and thou in lieu of formal titles. Quakers refused to fight in wars or to swear oaths. These practices, so contradictory to those of the Anglican Church, to British society, and in some cases to the requirements of British law, often led to arrest and imprisonment.
William junior noticed that the family’s black servant “could not contain himself from weeping aloud.” When William looked at his father, he “saw the tears running down his cheeks.” Loe’s heartfelt words powerfully echoed young William’s own spiritual revelations.
After Oliver Cromwell’s death, in 1658, Parliament, pressured by a growing number of people who upheld the monarchy, invited Prince Charles (King Charles I’s son) to return from exile in the Netherlands. In April 1660, thirty-one ships carrying loyal supporters sailed to the Netherlands to bring the exiled prince back to England. William senior was among those supporters. In appreciation, the prince, who shortly afterward was declared King Charles II, knighted William senior.
In 1660, young William was fifteen years old and headed to university, furthering his father’s plans for an illustrious place in society. Sir William enrolled him at Christ Church college at Oxford University, one of England’s most prestigious schools, long known for its support of the monarchy. With King Charles II on the throne, the social climate changed. Fancy clothing returned to fashion. England’s theaters, which Oliver Cromwell had ordered closed, reopened. People once again attended plays and musical diversions. At Oxford, William found student parties and celebrations raucous and overwhelming. And he disagreed with worship practices of the Anglican Church, which the king had reinstated as England’s official church. William preferred the company of students who shared his religious beliefs, rebellious beliefs that definitely did not conform to the strict rituals and boundaries of the Anglican Church.
On April 22, 1661, the two Williams, along with their neighbor (and famous diarist) Samuel Pepys, watched King Charles II and his retinue parade from the Tower of London to Whitehall Palace for the king’s coronation. As Pepys described it, “Imbroidery and diamonds were ordinary among them. . . . The King, in a most rich imbrodered suit
and cloak, looked most nobly. . . . So glorious was the show with gold and silver, that we were not able to look at it — our eyes at last being so much overcome.” And then “both the King and the Duke of Yorke took notice of us as he saw us at the window.” Despite his preference for serious matters, imagine how sixteen-year-old William must have felt when the king and his younger brother, the Duke of York, nodded — maybe even waved — at him and his father.
William Penn Jr., portrayed here at age twenty-two, began attending Quaker meetings in Ireland in 1666. Doing so changed the course of his life.
Yet William Penn Jr. continued his rebellious religious path: “He, with certain other students of that University, withdrawing from the National Way of Worship, held Private Meetings for the Exercise of Religion, where they both preach’d and pray’d amongst themselves.” This upset authorities, who fined the teenager for nonconformity.
William persisted in disregarding the university’s disapproval. He attended meetings led by Dr. John Owen, a Puritan preacher and former head of Christ Church, even though he was no longer in the school’s favor. Finally, the university expelled William for his unwillingness to conform to the boundaries set by the college and the church. Later, at the Penns’ London home, a livid Sir William “endeavoured by both Words and Blows” to change his son’s attitude. When William remained unmoved, his father angrily “turn’d him out of Doors.”
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