Mary's. The Council, which had
gathered there, surrendered, and the Association for the Defense found
itself in power. It proceeded to call a convention and to memorialize the
King and Queen, who in the end approved its course. Maryland passed under
the immediate government of the Crown. Lord Baltimore might still receive
quit-rents and customs, but his governmental rights were absorbed into the
monarchy. Sir Lionel Copley came out as Royal Governor, and a new order
began in Maryland.
The heyday of Catholic freedom was past. England would have a Protestant
America. Episcopalians were greatly in the minority, but their Church now
became dominant over both Catholic and Dissenter, and where the freethinker
raised his head he was smitten down. Catholic and Dissenter and all alike were
taxed to keep stable the Established Church. The old tolerance, such as it
was, was over. Maryland paced even with the rest of the world.
Presently the old capital of St. Mary's was abandoned. The government
removed to the banks of the Severn, to Providence -- soon, when Anne should
be Queen, to be renamed Annapolis. In vain the inhabitants of St. Mary's
remonstrated. The center of political gravity in Maryland had shifted.
The third Lord Baltimore died in 1715. His son Benedict, fourth lord,
turned from the Catholic Church and became a member of the Church of
England. Dying presently, he left a young son, Charles, fifth Lord
Baltimore, to be brought up in the fold of the Established Church.
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