ST. MARY’S COUNTY HISTORY AND LOOKUP

County History Books

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St. Mary’s County, Maryland: A Genealogical Overview

Located on a peninsula in Southern Maryland, bounded by the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River, and the Patuxent River, St. Mary’s County is the site of Maryland’s founding. As the “Mother County” of the state, it was the landing place for the first European colonists in 1634 and the site of the first colonial capital, St. Mary’s City. Its history is foundational to the American story, representing one of the earliest experiments in religious tolerance in the New World. For genealogists, it is a point of origin for countless families who later migrated throughout Maryland and the rest of the nation.

I. County Formation and Evolution

Understanding St. Mary’s County’s role as the original source of other Maryland counties is essential for tracing family lines that may have begun there but ended up in a neighboring jurisdiction.

  • 1637: County Formed: St. Mary’s County was the first county officially established in the Maryland colony.
  • Parent County: It was not formed from a parent county. It was created directly from the territory of the proprietary Province of Maryland, making it the original county from which others were later formed.
  • Subsequent County Formations: St. Mary’s County was originally much larger. Its territory was later used to help create several other counties, including Calvert County (in part, 1654), Charles County (1658), and Prince George’s County (in part, 1696). Researchers with early ancestors in these counties should check St. Mary’s County records.
  • Name Origin: The county was named in honor of the Virgin Mary, a reflection of the Roman Catholic faith of Cecilius Calvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore and the founder of the Maryland colony.
  • County Seat History: The original county seat was St. Mary’s City, which also served as the capital of the entire colony from 1634 to 1695. After the colonial capital was moved to Annapolis, St. Mary’s City declined significantly. In 1708, the county seat was moved to the more central location of Leonardtown, where it remains today.

II. Settlement and Early History

  • Early Inhabitants: Prior to European arrival, the area was inhabited by Algonquin-speaking peoples, primarily the Yaocomico, who were part of the larger Piscataway paramount chiefdom that dominated the region. The initial interactions between the colonists and the Yaocomico were largely peaceful.
  • Colonial Settlement and Economy: English settlement began on March 25, 1634, when approximately 140 colonists aboard the ships The Ark and The Dove landed at St. Clement’s Island. The colony was established under a charter granted to Lord Baltimore as a proprietary colony and a haven for English Catholics facing persecution. The economy was almost entirely driven by the cultivation of tobacco for export, which led to the development of a plantation system reliant first on English indentured servants and later, increasingly, on the labor of enslaved Africans.

III. Genealogical Records and Resources

This section provides practical information for locating the rich and remarkably well-preserved records of Maryland’s first county.

  • Courthouse: The primary repository for local records is the St. Mary’s County Clerk of the Circuit Court, located at 41605 Courthouse Drive, Leonardtown, MD 20650. This office holds the original land records (deeds), mortgages, court proceedings (civil and criminal), and marriage records from the colonial period to the present.
  • Vital Records:
    • Birth and Death Records: Statewide civil registration of births and deaths did not begin in Maryland until 1898. For records before this date, researchers must rely on church parish registers. St. Mary’s County has some of the oldest Catholic (e.g., St. Francis Xavier, St. Aloysius) and Anglican/Episcopal (e.g., King and Queen Parish) registers in the country.
    • Marriage Records: Marriage licenses are available from the Clerk of the Circuit Court from 1794 to the present. For marriages before 1794, church registers are the primary source of information.
  • Libraries with Genealogy Collections:
    • St. Mary’s County Historical Society: Located in Leonardtown, this is the most critical resource for local family research. Its research center holds family files, cemetery records, census records, church records, photographs, and an extensive local history library.
    • Maryland State Archives: Located in Annapolis, this is the central repository for all of Maryland’s historic public records. It holds microfilm copies of all of St. Mary’s County’s colonial and later courthouse records (land, probate, court) as well as an extensive collection of church records.
    • St. Mary’s College of Maryland: The college library has collections related to the history of the county and the early colonial period.
  • Bordering Jurisdictions:
    • Charles County, MD
    • Calvert County, MD (across the Patuxent River)
    • Northumberland County, VA (across the Potomac River)
    • Westmoreland County, VA (across the Potomac River)

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