Maryland Colonial Records

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U.S. Colonial Records

Maryland

Colonial Records

Online Records

Many records from the colonial era in New England were kept at the town or county level. Search the catalog at the town or county level to locate those records.

• 1634-1777- Maryland State Archives (Probate Records, Colonial, Index)
• 1635-1777- Will Books, - images only
• 1657-1777- Testamentary Proceedings- images only
• 1674-1718- Index to Inventories and Accounts- images only
• 1674-1718- Inventories and Accounts of Estates- images only
• 1679-1778- Court Judgments- images only
• 1718-1777- Accounts of Estates- images only
• 1718-1777- Inventories of Estates, - images only
• 1718-1777- Index to Inventories of Estates- images only
• 1752-1758- Probate Accounts- images only
• 1751-1776- Index to Balances of Final Distribution Books- images only

History

Maryland was initially settled as a proprietary colony by a charter granted to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, in 1632. In 1634, St. Mary's City was founded when settlers arrived at the Chesapeake Bay from England. During the next several decades, governorship of the colony went back and forth between Lord Baltimore, who was Catholic, and the Puritans. Near the end of the 17th century, however, Maryland reverted to the Crown, and the Anglican Church became the official church of Maryland in 1692. Some disputed land was ceded to Virginia in 1732, and in 1763, the Mason-Dixon line was established between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Maryland was one of the original thirteen colonies of the United States.

Earliest Church Records	Earliest Land Records	Earliest Court Records	Earliest Newspapers
1640	1633	1635	1727

Resources

Court Records

• Abstracts of the Inventories and Accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland [1674-1718] by V. L. Skinner, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1981-8).
• Abstracts of the Balance Books of the Prerogative Courts of Maryland [1755-1777] by V. L. Skinner, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1995).
• Abstracts of Chancery Court Records of Maryland, 1669-1782 by Debbie Hooper, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1996).
• Abstracts of the Testamentary Proceedings of the Prerogative Court of Maryland by V. L. Skinner, (Baltimore, Maryland : Clearfield Company, 2004-2012).
• Calendar of Maryland State Papers: No. 1. The Black Books by Elizabeth W. Meade, (1943, reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967, fiche 6050087).
• The County Courthouses and Records of Maryland: Part Two: The Records by Morris Leon Radoff, (Annapolis: Hall of Records, 1963, fiche 6054101).
• The Early Settlers of Maryland: An Index to Names of Immigrants Compiled from Records of Land Patents, 1633-1680, in the Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland by Gust Skordas, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing CO., 1968).
• Index of Maryland Colonial Wills, 1634-1777 by James C. Magruder, (1933, reprint, Balltimore: Genealogical Publishing CO., 1986).
• Proceedings of the Maryland Court of Appeals, 1695-1729 (1933, reprint, Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint, 1975).
• Land Office and Prerogative Court Records of Colonial Maryland by Elisabeth Hartsook, (1946, reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968, fiche 6117897).
• The Maryland Calendar of Wills [1635-1774] by Jane Baldwin, 14 Vols., (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968-, fiche 6046924).
• Maryland Deponents, 1634-1799 by Henry C. Eden, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1991).
• More Maryland Deponents, 1716-1799 by Henry C. Eden, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1992-).

Church Records

• Church Life in Colonial Maryland by Theodore C. Gambrall, (1885. Reprint. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1987, film 1490395).
• Church and State in the Maryland Colony by Ernest Lloyd Harris, (1894. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1987, film 1550159).
• Directory of Maryland Church Records by Edna A. Kanely, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1987).
• The First Parishes of the Province of Maryland: Wherein Are Given historical Sketches of the Ten Counties and of the Thirty Parishes in the Province at the Time of the Establishment of the Church of England in Maryland in 1692; Also a Short Treatise on the Religious Situation Before the Establishment by Percy Granger Skirven, (Baltimore: Norman Remington Co., 1923, film 1321223).

Baptist

Kept at local congregations. Some were filmed and are available at the Southern Baptist historical Library and Archives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Church of the Brethren

• Every Name Index: History of the Church of the Brethren in Maryland by J. Maurice Henry by Lela Eby, (Mill Valley, CA: The Author, 1975, fiche 6104839).
• History of the Church of the Brethren in Maryland''by Maurice J. Henry, (Elgin, IL: Brethren Publishing, 1936, fiche 6100195).

Evangelical, Anglican, and Reformed Church

• Anglican Maryland, 1692-1792 by Arthur Pierce Middleton, (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co., 1992).

Methodist

United Methodist Historical Society of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Lovely Lane Museum Library
2200 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21218-5897
(410) 889-4458

Presbyterian

• Early Presbyterianism in Maryland by James William McIlvain, (1890, New York: Johnson Reprint, 1973).

Quaker

• Quaker Records in Maryland by Phebe R. Jacobsen, (Annapolis: Hall of Records, 1966).
• Quakerism on the Eastern Shore by Kenneth Lane Carroll, (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1970).
• Quaker Records of Northern Maryland: Births, Deaths, Marriages and Abstracts from the Minutes, 1716-1800 by Henry C. Eden, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1993).
• Quaker Records of Southern Maryland: Births, Deaths, Marriages and Abstracts from the Minutes, 1658-1800 by Henry C. Eden, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1992).

Roman Catholic

• Early Catholic Maryland and its Early Jesuit Missionaries by William P. Treacy, (Swedesboro, NJ: n.p., 1889).
• Vital Records of the Jesuit Missions of the Eastern Shore, 1760-1800 by F. Edward Wright, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1986).

Early Families and Life

• Baltimore County Families by Robert W. Barnes, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988).
• The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century: Essays on Anglo-American Society by Thad W. Tate and David L. Ammerman, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979).
• Citizens of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, 1659-1750 by F. Edward Wright, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1986).
• Crime and Punishment in Colonial Maryland by Raphael Semmes, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1938, 1995).
• The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate: An Intimate and Objective history of the province of Maryland to the Overthrow of Proprietary Rule in 1654, with Accounts of Lord Baltimore's Settlement at Avalon by Harry Wright Newman, (1961. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing CO., 1973).
• The Founders of Maryland: As Portrayed in Manuscripts, Provincial Records, and Early Documents by Edward D. Neill, (Albany: Joel Munsell, 1876, film 1425713).
• Genealogical and Memorial Encyclopedia of the State of Maryland: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation by Richard Henry Spencer, 2 Vols., (New York: American Historical Society, 1919, fiche 6046929).
• The Maryland Germans: A History by Dieter Cunz, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1948, fiche 604835).
• Maryland: The Land of Sanctuary: A History of Religious Toleration in Maryland from the First Settlement until the American Revolution by William T. Russell, (Baltimore: J. H. Furst, 1908).
• Maryland: A Middle Temperament, 1634-1980 by Robert J. Brugger, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1988).
• Maryland under the Commonwealth: A Chronicle of the years, 1649-1658 by Bernard Christian Steiner, (1911. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1971).
• Old Manors in the Colony of Maryland by Annie Middleton Sioussat, 2 Vols., (Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1911, fiche 6046929).
• Scots on the Chesapeake, 1607-1830 by David Dobson, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992).
• Seigniory in Early Maryland: With a List of Manors and Manor Lords by Harry Wright Newman, (1949. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982, film 0989407).
• Settlers of Maryland 1679-1783 by Peter Wilson Coldham, 5 Vols., (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995-6).
• To Maryland from Overseas by Harry Wright Newman, (1982. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984).
• Tobacco Colony: Life in Early Maryland, 1650-1720 by Gloria L. Main, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).

Land Records

All Maryland land originally was owned by the Calvert family. From 1633-1683, headrights and land grants were given to settlers in exchange for providing transportation for and others to Maryland. Cash sales replaced the headright system by 1683.

• The "Black Books" in the "Rainbow Series" in the Maryland State Papers contains Proprietary Papers, 1701-1785 (Annapolis: Hall of Records, 1947, film 0012975), and Church Vestry Papers (Annapolis: Hall of Records, 1947, film 0012975) from the colonial era.
• Calvert Papers, *(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1973). Online digital images at FamilySearch. A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Calvert Papers by Richard J. Cox and Maryland State Archives, (Baltimore, Maryland: Maryland Historical Society, 1973).
• Patents Series (film 0013063). Originals are at the Hall of Records in Annapolis, MD.

Published Records

• Archives of Maryland, 72 Vols., (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1883-1972).

Proceedings of the Court of Chancery of Maryland [Archives of Maryland, Vol. 51, Court Series 5] (film 0908320).

Judicial and Testamentary Business of the Provincial Court, 1637-1683, 11 Vols., [Archives of Maryland, Court Series 1-4, 10-15] (film 0924323).

Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1636-1770, 11 Vols., [Archives of Maryland, Vols. 3, 5, 8, 15] (film 0430292).

Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland, January 1637/38-April 1774, 32 Vols., [Archives of Maryland, Vols., 1-2, 7, 13, 19, 22, 24, 26-7, 29, 30, 33-40, 42, 46, 50, 55-6, 58-9, 61-4] (film 0924322).

• An Index to the Source Records of Maryland: Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical by Eleanor Phillips Passano, (1940, reprint: Genealogical Publishing CO., 1994).
• Maryland Records: Colonial, Revolutionary, County and Church from Original Sources by Gaius M. Brumbaugh, 2 Vols., (1940, reprint: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994).

Newspapers

• Gleanings from Maryland Newspapers, 1727-1790 by Robert W. Barnes, (Lutherville, MD: Bettie Carothers, 1975, film 0928166).
• Marriages and Deaths from the Maryland Gazette, 1727-1829 by Robert W. Barnes, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1973). Available digitally on Ancestry.com.
• The Maryland Gazette, 1727-1761 by Karen Mauer Green, (Galveston, TX: Frontier Press, 1989).

Other

• A Guide to the Maryland Hall of Records: Local, Judicial and Administrative Records on Microform by Edward C. Papenfuse, (Annapolis: Archives Division, Hall of Records, 1978, fiche 6049468).
• The Manuscript Collections of the Maryland Historical Society by Avril J. M. Pedley, (Baltimore: The Society, 1968).
• Maryland's Maritime Heritage: A Guide to the Collections of the Radcliffe maritime Museum, Museum and Library of Maryland History, the Maryland Historical Society by Mary Ellen Hayward, (Baltimore: The Society, 1984).

Record Indexes Available at the Maryland State Archives

• Hodges Marriage Reference Card File, 1674-1851.
• Marriage Licences, etc., 1650-1695.
• Births, and deaths, 1649-1715. Some counties started keeping vital records along with their land records before 1720.
• Colonial Muster and pay Rolls, 1732-1772.
• Provincial Naturalizations, 1634-1776.
• County Land Records for Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, and Worcester.
• Rent Rolls, 1639-1776.

Vital Records

• Divorces and Names Changed in Maryland: By Act of the Legislature, 1634-1867 by Mary K. Meyer, (Mount Airy, MD: Pipe Creek Publications, 1991).
• Maryland Eastern Shore Vital Records: 1648-1825 by F. Edward Wright, 5 Vols., (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1982).
• Maryland Marriages 1634-1820 by Robert W. Barnes, 3 Vols., (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1975). Online database can be used at a family history library.