Saint Mary’s City is a historic community established on the southern tip of the Western Shore of Maryland , a Southern State in the United States. The city, founded by English colonists in 1634, was Maryland’s first permanent English settlement. It served as colonial Maryland’s capital from its founding until 1695. Today, the site of St. Mary’s City lies partly on the campus of St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Archaeological digs at the site preserve colonial artifacts, and actors in period dress reenact the past among replicas of historic buildings.
In late 1633, Cecilius Calvert , the second Lord Baltimore , sent about 140 English colonists to the Maryland region on two ships, the Ark and the Dove. In March 1634, the colonists established St. Maries City (also spelled St. Marys City and later St. Mary’s City) near the southern tip of the Western Shore. Calvert emphasized that the colony would defend religious freedom for Roman Catholics and members of other faiths. The settlers, led by Cecilius’s brother Leonard, purchased land from the local Yaocomaco people. The colonists lived largely in peace with their new neighbors.
In the decades following its founding, St. Mary’s City grew to become a busy shipping and trading center. Its residents constructed shops and government buildings. Leading trades included fishing and the farming of tobacco . The colonists’ use of enslaved Africans as tobacco plantation workers increased as the crop grew in importance. Tensions between the area’s Catholics and Protestants increased during the English Civil War of the 1640’s and remained high for many years afterward.
By the late 1600’s, St. Mary’s City stood far from the colony’s population center, which had grown along the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay . In 1695 (1694 by the calendar then in use), Maryland’s capital was relocated northward, to Annapolis (then known as Anne Arundel Town). St. Mary’s City, its political and economic power having declined, soon lost most of its remaining population. The site was later abandoned.
In the 1930’s, archaeologists began excavating the site of colonial St. Mary’s City. In 1966, the St. Mary’s City Commission (later renamed the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission) formed to preserve the site and interpret scientists’ findings. The area was designated a national historic landmark in 1969. In 1984, the commission established Historic St. Mary’s City to further preserve the site, conduct excavations, and reconstruct historical buildings. Today, the site contains a replica of the Dove, and reconstructed buildings include blacksmith and printing shops, a tavern, and a Catholic church. The site also includes re-creations of a 1600’s-era tobacco farm and Yaocomaco village.
