Maryland State Archives

Charles M. Andrews provides a partially erroneous analysis of the warrants for the grant of Maryalnd to Cecil Calvert in volume II of The Colonial Period of American History. The Settlements, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936), pp.278-285. Because Andrews did not have access to the full text of the warrants, he wrongly argued that "Mariland" as first conceived, was to cover only what is now known as the Eastern Shore (p. 280). In fact, the first request for a grant encompassed land to the south of the James River. When Virginians objected, the second request, dated March 1632, encompassed all of the Eastern Shore as well as the whole of the Potomac River from "the head or fountaine thereof."

The language of the second request or draft warrant reads:

"that whole peninsula or Neck of land lying betweene the ocean on the East & the greate Bay of Chessopeack on the west, and betweene Cape Charles on the South, and Delaware Bay on the North, together with the whole Bay of Delaware unto the Bottome thereof and from thence to the head or fountain of the River of Patowomack and so long the west and south shoare of the said river unto a place called Cinquacke at or neare unto the mouth thereof where it falles into the Bay of Chessopeack, and from thence running along the west=shore of the said Bay to the Bottom of the same when it meetes wth the Peninsula first mentioned, and all the scope of land contained within those limmitts."

The Virginians were unhappy with the second warrant, which had already progressed through the Privy Seal, and 'after much discourse and debate' on June 5, 1632, the King was informed that the previous warrant should be limited to above Watkins Point. It is at this 'discourse and debate' that Virginia had every opportunity to object to the issuance of a charter encompassing the whole of the Potomac River, which it did not as is evidenced by the draft of the letter of the Attorney General requesting that the only change to be made in the "graunt lately passed the privi seale" be the removal of that part of the Eastern Shore below a parallel line drawn to the Atlantic Ocean from Watkins Point.

transcribed text:

May it please
yor most excellent Matie

Whereas upon complaint unto yr matie by some of the late dissolved company for the plantation of Vriginia pretending the injury & discouragement the English planted in those parts might recive by a grant lately passed the privy Seale unto the Lo: Baltimore of some part of that territory uer Matie was pleased to refer the examination of that difference unto us. Whereupon both parites appearing before us after much discourse and debate of the business, we thought fitt, in respect that divers of ye Maties subjects have beene a long time planted on that part of the Peninsula adjoyning to Cape-Charles, wch is now comprehended within the Lo: Baltimores grant, that ther should be an exception in the said grant, of all that part of the said peninsula where in the English are inahbited lying between the Promontory of Cape=Charles aforesaid & a certain poynt of land comonly called Watkins Poynt at or near the mouth of the river Wighco being distant three score miles from the said Cape Cahrels, and that therefore the Lo: Baltimores Grant should be in that river limited to that poynt, and in all things else continue as it was. All wch we humbly leave to yr Maties consideration.

R: Weston
Dorsett

From Greenewich June the 5th 1632.

Citation: June 5, 1632, "Coppy of the Lords Certificate to his Matie concerning the limits of my grant," Maryland State Archives Special Collections, MSA SC 1546-4

The Charter was issued on June 20, 1632 in latin with a sealed parchment copy given to Lord Baltimore and a copy for the King recorded among the Patent Rolls. Its bounds were defined by the language of the final draft of the patent which was in latin derived from the language of the second warrant as modified by discourse and debate limited to the controversy over how much of the Eastern Shore peninsula to grant.

The first English version of the Charter was published in 1635 as part of the Relation of Maryland. It is that text which forms the most accurate rendition of the original intent of Maryland's boundaries. Given the process by which the official recorded version of the Charter was translated into Latin, this is most likely the english version from which the official Latin was derived:

KNOW YEE therefore, that Wee favouring the Pious, and Noble purpose of the said Barons of Baltemore, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and meere motion, have given, granted, and confirmed, and by this our present Charter, for Us, Our heirs, and successors, doe give, grant and confirme unto the said Cecilius, now Baron of Baltemore, his heires and Assignes, all that part of a Peninsula, lying in th eparts of America, betweene the Ocean on the East, and the Bay of Chesopeack on the West, and divided from the other part thereof by a right line drawne from the Promontory or Cape of Land called Watkins Point (situate in the foresaid Bay, neere the River of Wighco) on the West, unto the maine Ocean on the East; and betweene that bound on the South, unto that part of Delaware Bay on the North, which lieth under the fortieth degree of Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctiall, where New-England ends; And all that tract of land between the bounds aforesaid; that is to say passing from the foresaid Bay, called Delaware Bay, in a right line by the degree aforesaid, unto the true Meridian of the first fountain of the River of Pattowmeck, and from thence trending toward the South unto the farther banke of the said River, where it falls into the Bay of Chesopeack, and from thence by a straight line unto the foresaid Promontory, and place called Watkins Point, (so that all that tract of land divided by the line aforesaid, drawne betweene the maine Oceane, and Watkins Point unto the Promontory called Cape Charles, and all its apurtenances, do reamine intirely excepted to us, our heires, and Successors for ever.)

Because of the confusion in all the boundary court cases with regard to what constitutes the proper translation of the latin in the Maryland charter with regard to Maryland's boundaries, it is important to point out that the language of the charter was first in English as represented by drafts of warrants requesting that a charter be issued. Once the officers of the crown (in Maryland's case, the Attorney General) and the King in Council agreed to the language, then it was translated into Latin and, after several bureaucratic hoops, the charter was issued bearing the Great Seal.

Charles M. Andrews provides an excellent analysis of this process in an appendix to his Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain ... Washington, D. C., Carnegie institution of Washington, 1912-14. 2 v. On p. 271 Andrews points out that "in the case of Baltimore's Charter the bill seems to bear the signature of the Attorney General." [ecp-12-33; for a discussion of the first warrant and the request for a grant south of the James River see ecp-12-247]

For the authoritative version in latin see Patent Roll 8, Charles I, part 3, no. 2594 in the Public Record Office, and a fascimile presented by the Duke of Kent to the State of Maryland in 1984 (MSA SC 1601-1-1). The latin of the Patent Rolls was transcribed in the third volume of the Archives of Maryland. Daniel Dulany, in Thomas Bacon's Laws of Maryland (1765), provides the generally accepted translation on facing pages with a latin version which differs in minor respects from that transcribed in volume 3 of the Archives of Maryland. In 1860, W. N. Sainsbury pointed out that the examination of two later copies of the Maryland patent "exhibit a remarkable instance of the different construction that may be put upon the same document, if written in full or with contractions; the disputes with Virginia about boudnaries form the frequent topic of discussion in these papers." In 1723 a copy of the latin was transcribed and corrected from the original in the Calvert family Archives. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660. London: Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts, 1860, pp. xxii, 42, 152. In all, any discussion of the text of the Charter should flow from the English as published in 1635, and from the Latin as recorded on the Patent Rolls of the Public Record Office (MSA SC 1601-1-1) or from the missing original parchment given Cecilius Calvert. [editorial note, ecp-12-33-4]