Editing Somerset County, Maryland (section)

==History==

===Initial settlements===
Somerset County was settled and established by English colonists in part due to a response to the [[Colony of Virginia|Province/Dominion of Virginia]] passing a law in 1659/1660 requiring Quakers in the colony to convert to [[Church of England|Anglicanism]] or leave the colony. A group of Virginia Quakers living in [[Accomack County, Virginia]], on the southern tip of what later became known as the [[Delmarva Peninsula]], petitioned [[Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore|Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore]] in 1661 to migrate to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to the territory under his governance. The governor considered this an opportunity to fortify the borders of his territory on the Delmarva Peninsula against the pressing encroachment of the Virginians.<ref>Torrence, Clayton, ''Old Somerset on the Eastern Shore of Maryland: A Study in Foundations and Founders'', Whittett & Shepperson, Richmond, VA (1935); Reprint 2005, Heritage Books, Westminster, MD, pp. 13–15</ref>

The Royal Charter that Lord Baltimore had received from King Charles I in 1632 had granted Maryland the land north of the entire length of the [[Potomac River]] up to the [[40th parallel north|40th parallel]]. Later surveys authorized by Baltimore on the [[Eastern Shore of Maryland|Eastern Shore]] of the [[Chesapeake Bay]] indicated that the southern boundary would continue across the peninsula at the mouth of the [[Pocomoke River]]. It was marked on the north shore by a rock outcropping labelled as "Watkins' Point". The Virginian Quakers settled just north of that point, on the southern bank of the Annemessex River in November 1662, A separate group of Anglican Virginian settlers were granted permission to make another settlement, further north along the [[Manokin River]].<ref>Torrence, pp. 25–26</ref>

In conjunction with the two new settlements, Lord Baltimore set up a three-man commission for the Eastern Shore territory, made up of two Marylanders and one Virginian. Its purpose was ostensibly to oversee the territory, found new settlements, and maintain a detailed recording of all land and civic transactions in the area. Lord Baltimore intended to use the commission to reinforce Maryland's claim to the area and to monitor any encroachments by Virginians.<ref>Torrence, pp. 15–16</ref>

===Invasion from Virginia===
In 1663, activists from Virginia persuaded the Virginia Assembly to declare that the Virginia-Maryland border was {{convert|30|mi}} north of the Pocomoke Sound, at the mouth of the [[Wicomico River (Maryland eastern shore)|Wicomico River]]. The Assembly tried to secure the allegiance to Virginia of all settlers south of the Wicomico River{{snd}} including the Annemessex and Manokin settlements.<ref>Torrence, pp. 27–28</ref> In early October 1663, a militia from Accomac County, Virginia led by a Colonel Edmund Scarborough arrived at the Annemessex settlement. They attempted to secure oaths of allegiance under threat of arrest and property confiscation. Scarborough was also on a personal mission to arrest [http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu/resources/profiles/horsey.html Stephen Horsey] (born on [[Isle of Wight]], England and immigrated to Northampton, Virginia, 1643), the leader of the anti-tax movement and a vocal critic of the colonial government. He along with fellow Northampton County residents [http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu/settlers/profiles/coulbourn.html William Coulborne], [http://www.esva.net/ghotes/dead_files/revell_desc.htm Randall Revell], and [http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu/settlers/profiles/dixon.html Ambrose Dixon] signed the ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150510034818/http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu/resources/transcriptions/northampton1651.html Tricesimo die Marty]'' 1651.

Scarborough and his force of 40 mounted men reached Horsey's new residence on October 11, 1663, and presented the Commands of the Assembly of Virginia against him. Horsey was "arrested" by Scarborough, but Horsey refused to accompany the party back to Virginia, declaring that he was going to remain in Maryland and maintain allegiance to the King and Lord Baltimore. The settlers expelled Scarborough and his force from the settlement.<ref>Torrence, pp. 39–40</ref> The company moved on to the [[Manokin Settlement]], where they were received much more favorably.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e487MlEWyOUC&q=Annemessex+settlement&pg=PA432|title=Maryland, a Guide to the Old Line State|first=Best Books|last=on|date=June 15, 2018|publisher=Best Books on|isbn=9781623760199|access-date=June 15, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> Although the Anglican settlers there were willing to swear allegiance to the Virginia colonial government, they were not willing to take any action against Lord Baltimore's government. Scarborough returned to Virginia without success in taking over southern Somerset County for Virginia.<ref>Torrence, pp. 41–42</ref>

===Early county leaders===
The new settlers established a government for Somerset County, the eighth in the [[Province of Maryland]]; it was formed from the southern part of [[Kent County, Maryland|Kent County]]. This had been organized in 1642 as the Province's second county, encompassing the entire Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake. Horsey was selected to sit on the first county court, which administered the new county. [[Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore|Charles Calvert]] appointed Stephen Horsey on December 11, 1665, along with [http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hsch1964&id=I74 Captain William Thorne], William Stevens, George Johnson, John Winder, James Jones and Henry Boston.<ref>Torrence, pp. 61–62</ref> Horsey sat as a regular member of the Somerset County Court through the winter and spring of 1666. He traveled across the Chesapeake Bay in 1665 with Captain Thorne to meet with Charles Calvert, who swore them in as county commissioners. Horsey established himself as a nonconformist and someone willing to stand up for his beliefs.<ref>Torrence, pp.300–301</ref>

[[File:Somerset County, MD 1669.jpg|thumb|Map of The Hundreds of Somerset County, Maryland as of 1669. Note the boundaries overlap with Sussex, Delaware and Accomac counties, Virginia.]]

===Boundary disputes with Delaware===
{{main|Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute}}

County boundary disputes continued, including of the northern boundary. Baltimore believed his Eastern Shore territory extended to the top of the peninsula, where the Delaware River meets the Bay. In the 1680s, [[William Penn]], founder of Pennsylvania, claimed this territory as his own, based on a conflicting deed. Penn, Baltimore, and their heirs began a protracted legal battle to determine the boundaries. Their compromise was to split the Delmarva Peninsula; however, they disagreed as to whether the boundary line should be drawn at the location of Cape Henlopen or at Fenwick Island. There were few settlers in the frontier on either side to take issue. That boundary would finally be settled in 1763 when surveyors [[Charles Mason]] and [[Jeremiah Dixon]] incorporated the [[Transpeninsular Line]] (Mason–Dixon line) as the definitive boundary between Delaware and Maryland.

===Settlement growth===
The territory continued to attract new settlers, primarily from Virginia, and by 1666, the territory had met the requirements to become established as a county in the province with its own local government. On August 22, 1666, Lord Baltimore issued a proclamation establishing the new county, including the establishment of a complete civil and military organization. The proclamation established a sheriff and a military commander for the county, and five surveyors charged with laying out a highway to serve the county. In January 1667, the county administration laid out the five initial districts, designated as "[[hundred (county subdivision)|Hundreds]]", into which the county would be divided. Additional hundreds were added as additional knowledge of the area was surveyed.<ref>Torrence, pp. 67–70</ref>

===Religious communities===
Settlement of the county generally proceeded from the Chesapeake Bay eastward, and from old [[Accomack County, Virginia|Accomack County]] northward. The original settlers in the first two settlements were [[Quakers]] and [[Anglican]]s; and both groups continued to grow from ongoing immigration from the northern portions of the Virginia colony. In the 1670s, Scottish and Irish Presbyterians began to immigrate to the county, some from Virginia, some from the British Isles. In December 1680, a prominent member of the county and professed Anglican, William Stevens of Rehoboth settlement, sent a request to the Presbytery of Laggan in northern Ireland to consider sending a [[Presbyterian]] minister to Somerset county; and the first Presbyterian (Reformed) minister, Reverend Francis Makemie, arrived in early 1683, quickly followed by a growing list of additional Irish Presbyterian ministers and missionaries. The towns of Rehoboth and [[Snow Hill, MD|Snow Hill]] along the [[Pocomoke River]] in the eastern (seaside) portion of Somerset County became Presbyterian centers in the county. The work of these Presbyterian ministers and missionaries eventually led to the organization of the Presbytery in Philadelphia in 1706, the forerunner of [[Presbyterian Church in the United States of America|American Presbyterianism]].

In 1689, the "[[Glorious Revolution]]" of 1688 in [[Kingdom of England|England]] resulted in the exile of the Roman Catholic [[James II of England|King James II]]. After conquest by invasion, the Protestant Dutch rulers [[William III of England|William of Orange-Nassau and Mary of Orange]] (James II's Protestant daughter) later became King William III, (1650–1702) and Queen Mary II. The [[Protestant Revolution (Maryland)|"Protestant Revolution" of 1689]] in Maryland overthrew the Roman Catholic government, resulting in the reversion of Lord Baltimore's proprietary charter. The Province was converted into a Royal colony (with a later government controlled by the king and his ministers). The capital was moved from the Catholic stronghold at [[St. Mary's City, Maryland|St. Mary's City]] in southern Maryland to the more central, newly renamed [[Annapolis, Maryland|Annapolis]] on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, opposite [[Kent Island]].

In 1692, the [[Maryland General Assembly|Provincial General Assembly]] established the [[Church of England]] as the "established church" of the Province. This put pressure on the Quakers and Presbyterians, who were excluded from political office for a period. Their numbers in the county began a slow decline until the [[American Revolution]].<ref>Scharf, J. Thomas, ''History of Maryland: From the Earliest Period to 1880'', Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1880), p. 68</ref>

For more than a century, the county and much of the colony were developed by planters, with the labor of enslaved Africans, for tobacco as a commodity crop. For many years they prospered, but tobacco exhausted the soil. By the early 19th century, after the [[American Revolutionary War]], some planters turned to mixed farming. The Eastern Shore remained primarily rural and steeped in slave society culture. Other parts of Maryland had an increasing proportion of [[free people of color]], and more than half the blacks in the state were free before the Civil War.

=== Connection to Napoleon ===
After the defeat of the [[First French Empire|French Empire]] at the hands of the [[Hundred Days|Seventh Coalition]] in July 1815, emperor [[Napoleon|Napoleon I]] sought to flee to the United States to escape imprisonment. According to local legends, Napoleon's brother, [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jerome Bonaparte]], had previously married [[Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte|Elizabeth Patterson]], an American socialite from Baltimore, and through her the Bonapartes had connections to the American gentry, such as the King family in Beverly. According to the 1944 book 'Rivers of the Eastern Shore' by Hulbert Footner, [[Nicholas Girod]], former [[Mayor of New Orleans|Mayor]] of [[New Orleans]], attempted to rescue Napoleon from his exile in British Saint Helena in 1821, the plan being to hide Napoleon in [[Beverly (Princess Anne, Maryland)|Beverly House]] in [[Princess Anne, Maryland|Princess Anne]], Somerset County, before transporting him to [[Napoleon House]] in New Orleans once the hunt for him subsided.<ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~lebelp/napoleonsomerset19780716r.pdf}}</ref> However, Napoleon died before the plot could go ahead.

===Native Americans===
As the English colonies expanded, they encroached on Native American land. The coastal areas were occupied primarily by [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian language]]-speaking tribes. The population of the latter decreased, due to disease, warfare and social disruption. Some of the tribes migrated west to the Ohio River Valley or joined with neighboring tribes to the north, such as the Lenape.

Some of the descendants of the tribes of Maryland remained. They intermarried with colonists, including white indentured servants, and African and African-American enslaved workers. Children of Native American mothers were generally absorbed and grew up in their culture, even if [[mixed-race]]. The Catholic Church recorded Native American families in southern Maryland. In the late 20th century, many groups of Native American began to reorganize, noting their community continuity. Several tribes have been recognized by the state.

===Subsequent counties===
After the Dutch Anglo war, the Dutch Republic lost their North American lands along the North & South Rivers (that is, along the Hudson & the Delaware). The Dutch colony (2 miles X 20 miles) along the Delaware Bay, became Durham County Maryland, With the county seat being Lewes, 1665 until 1669. In 1669 it became part of Somerset County until 1683 when it given to William Penn.

In 1742, [[Worcester County, Maryland|Worcester County]] to the east and the ocean, was organized as the thirteenth county of Maryland by separation from Somerset County. By 1867, portions of Somerset and Worcester counties were ceded to create a 22nd jurisdiction, [[Wicomico County, Maryland|Wicomico County]]. (The state in 1872 created a 23rd and final county in the far mountainous west, named [[Garrett County, Maryland|Garrett]].)

The county has a number of properties on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerset County, Maryland|National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref>