When the Commonwealth had been estab lished in England, five Parliamentary commis sioners were appointed to reduce Virginia from her allegiance to the Crown and their commis sion, by craft or accident, was extended to "all the plantations within Chesapeake Bay." Two of these commissioners were Claiborne and Bennett, the head of the Puritan party in Vir ginia; the other three were Englishmen, but only one of these arrived in America. He acted with the two Virginians, and they seized the government of Maryland in 1652. Baltimore's hostility to Claiborne had been so great that he had exempted him and Ingle from a general pardon. Claiborne's counter-influence may doubtless be seen in the commissioner's illegal order, that writs should henceforth run in the name of the keepers of the liberty of England, instead of the proprietary, as provided by the provincial charter. Governor Stone refused to obey this order and was removed from office. Three months later he yielded and was re stored, but after two years of compliance he again ordered writs to run in the proprietary's name. The Puritans of Providence, as they called their settlement on the Severn, promptly rose in revolt and compelled Stone to resign his office. When Baltimore rebuked him for yield ing so easily, Stone gathered an armed force and a battle took place near Annapolis iu March 1655 between the two parties, in which conflict the proprietary's party was routed and Stone was taken prisoner. From July 1654 to 1657 the provincial government was in the hands of a body of commissioners, appointed by Bennett and Claiborne, and serving as executive, provin cial court and upper house of assembly. The Toleration Act was repealed. Cromwell, how ever, confirmed Baltimore's title to the province in 1656, and in March 1657 his authority was restored, a general amnesty being proclaimed and the Toleration Act confirmed. So complete was pacification that some of the Puritan commissioners sat in the General Assembly of 1659.
A new county, Charles, named for the pro prietary's heir, was organized in 1658 from the western part of Saint Mary's County. The re stored proprietary government had as its gov ernor Capt. Josias Fendall, an energetic man, who organized the militia and then came into conflict with the Quakers, a growing body in the province. When Feudall had been governor for two years he proved himself faithless to the proprietary, surrendered his commission as governor and accepted a new one from the as sembly, which claimed the right to make laws without Baltimore's consent. When news of these disloyal acts reached England, Baltimore sent out with an amnesty_ his half-brother, Philip Calvert, as governor in Fendall's place. As soon as Calvert arrived in Maryland, the rebellion collapsed, and the lenient governor was content with inflictinif fines as punishment, together with perpetual disfranchisement for, a few leaders. •Shortly afterward the proprietor substituted his only son, Charles Calvert, for his brother, Philip, who was given the chancellor ship of Maryland as a solace. Leonard Cal vert's son was soon made provincial secretary, and for 30 years a period of family government continued.
The Dutch had unsuccessfully attempted a settlement upon the Delaware in 1631 and the Swedes had been more successful in 1638. New Sweden had been reduced by the Dutch of New Netherland in 1655. Maryland's representative was sent to notify the Dutch that they were within the provincial boundaries and must ac knowledge her jurisdiction or depart. Gover nor Stuyvesant, on his part, sent two envoys to Saint Mary's, one of whom was a Bohemian, Augustine Herman, who was so charmed by the land through which he traveled, that he re moved into it and took up a tract in Cecil County — Bohemia Manor — for which he paid by executing the first good map of Maryland. A brisk trade sprang up between the English settlers on the Chesapeake and the Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware. This lucrative trade was illicit, under the navigation laws which dated from about 1650, and was partly the rea son why the provincial authorities hesitated to take decided action against the Dutch, until it was too late to do so ; for the Delaware settle ments were seized by the English fleet in 1664, and granted by the king to his brother, the Duke of York, as part of his province of New York. For several years there was friction between the two governments, and Calvert sent officers, from time to time, to summon the Delawareans to admit his overlordship, while he also granted lands in that region.
Cecil Calvert, first lord proprietary, died in 1675, and was succeeded by his son, Charles. During the years preceding this event, the boundary between Maryland and Virginia on the Eastern Shore was run, with some loss to the province through imperfect surveying; the tobacco trade flourished, and the settlements spread down the Eastern Shore, so that Talbot, Somerset and Dorchester counties were' organ ized, and along the head of the Chesapeake, so that Baltimore and Cecil counties were estab lished.
The second lord proprietary had as stormy an experience as his father. Indian troubles led to a joint expedition with the Virginians against the Susquehannocks in 1675. In shameful vio lation of a safe conduct, the Maryland com mander weakly yielded to the Virginians' clamor, and five of the chiefs were wickedly put to death. After a month's siege of their fort, the Indians fled; some of them fleeing southward began that course of rapine which led to Bacon's Rebellion (q.v.) in Virginia, while others went northward to unite them selves to their Iroquois kindred, bringing down with them, from time to time, Senecas and Onondagas in hostile incursions against the English settlers and the friendly Indian tribes in Maryland.
In 1680 a disturbance arose, headed by Fen dall and John Coode, a renegade Anglican clergyman. It failed, and Fendall was banished, but the discontent increased, and the °Popish Plot° in England, with the fear shown there for the overthrow of the Protestant religion, found reflection in Maryland, in the suspicion felt by many toward the Roman Catholic proprietary.