Here is an interesting bit of Calvert related trivia: THE PROVINCIAL FLAG OF MARYLAND. RICHARD HENRY SPENCER The question has often been asked what was the Provincial Flag of Maryland. What was it composed of? The colors of Maryland, both as a Province and as a State, have always been and still are those of the Calverts, but the armorial bearings1 and colors composing the flag of the Province were different from those composing the flag of the State of Maryland. The original exemplification of arms issued 3 December, 1622, to the Honorable Sir George Calvert, Knight, (afterwards First Lord Baltimore), by Sir Richard George, Knight, "Norroy Kinge of Arms of the North parts of the Realme of England from the River of Trent Northward," is in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society. In it, the Norroy King of Arms certifies the ancient arms of the Calvert family, emblazoned in colors, to be "paley of Sixe peices, or and Sables, a bend counterchanged." That is, six vertical stripes, alternately gold (or) and black (sable) crossed by a diagonal stripe running from the upper corner to the observer's left, on which stripe the colors are reversed, being black where it crosses the gold and gold where it crosses the black. George Calvert, First Lord Baltimore, died 15 April, 1632, before receiving a Charter from Charles I, which was the grant of a territory in North America to an individual, and "contained provision for the transmission, whole and unimpaired, of almost all the peculiarities of the British Constitution, not excepting the feudal system itself." It was left to his son, Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore, to carry out the plan of colonization which his father had conceived, and upon receiving the Charter 20 June, 1632, to certain territory north of the Potomac river, to be holden by the tenure of fealty only, yielding and paying therefor to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, the rental of "two Indian Arrowes,2 of those parts, to be delivered at the Castle of Windsor, every yeere on the Tuesday in Easter weeke, and also the fifth part of all Gold and Silver Ore, within the limits aforesaid, which shall from time to time happen to be found." He called it Maryland, in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, and daughter of Henry IV, of France. In 1633, Cecilius Calvert sent his brother Leonard Calvert, with a party of twenty gentlemen, three Jesuit priests, and about two hundred others, adventurers, mechanics and indentured servants, in two vessels, the Ark and the Dove, to colonize his new possessions. The use of flags is of great antiquity. In the Bible3 the standards of the various tribes are referred to in the arrangement of the camp of the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai, B. C. 1490. The Assyrian, Greek and Roman armies had their distinctive flags. In Bede's description of the interview, A. D. 597, between the heathen King Ethelbert and the Roman Missionary Augustine, the followers of the latter are said to have borne banners on which silver crosses were displayed. After the Crusades the cross (the symbol which has found its way into the flag of Maryland) seems to have taken a very prominent and important place on the banners and standards of European nations. During the Middle Ages, the war-cry of the English was the name of their patron saint, St. George, and his banner argent, a cross gules, its national ensign. It was borne as one of the English banners at the siege of Caerlaverock in 1300, and during all their wars in France under the Black Prince, the English used a white flag with a red cross, as it is borne today in the flags of the British navy. "Thys blessyd and holy marter saynte George is patrone of this royame of englond, and the crye of men of warre. In the worshyp of whome is founded the noble ordre of the garter," we read in the Golden Legend;4 and Spenser in his Fairie Queene, Book I, Canto 10, says: "For thou emongst those Saints, whom thou doest see, Shalt be a Saint, and thine owne nations frend And patrone: thou Saint George shalt called bee, Saint George of mery England the signe of victoree." The cross of St. Andrew, from the time of the early crusaders, was also held in high esteem as the patron saint of Scotland, and his banner azure, a saltire argent, the national ensign. In 1603, at the accession of James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, he assumed the title of King of Great Britain, being King of both England and Scotland, and as "the English and Scotch vessels were constantly contending, each claiming that her flag was the older," James I. on 12 April, 1606, issued the following proclamation: "Whereas, some differences hath arisen between our subjects of South and North Britain, travelling by sea, about the bearing of their flags; for the avoiding of all such contentions hereafter, we have, with the advice of our Council, ordered, from henceforth, all our subjects of this Isle and Kingdom of Great Britain, and the members thereof, shall bear in their maintop the Red Cross, commonly called St. George's Cross, and the White Cross, commonly called St. Andrew's Cross, joined together, according to a form made by our Herald's, and sent by us to our Admiral to be published to our said subjects; and in their foretop, our subjects of South Britain shall wear the Red Cross only, as they were wont; and our subjects of North Britain, in their foretop the White Cross only, as they were accustomed." This combination of the crosses of the two kingdoms, in one field, was known as the Union, sometimes called the Union Jack as signifying the sovereignty of James I. (Jacobus) over both English and Scotch. The Ark and the Dove when they sailed from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, 22 November, 1633, with the first colony under Leonard Calvert, flew the St. George's Cross from the foretop, as it was the common ensign of English ships of that period, and possibly the Union flag5 from the maintop, as required by the King's Proclamation of 1606.6 Father Andrew White, in A Relation of Maryland, published in London, September 8, 1635, after describing the arrival of Governor Leonard Calvert and the Colonists at "a River on the North-side of Patomeck River, within 4 or 5 leagues from the mouth thereof, which they called Saint George's River," says: "They went up this river about 4 leagues, and anchored at the Towne of Yoacomaco.... The Governor determined to make the first Colony there, ... and thus upon the 27 day of March, Anno Domini, 1634, the Governour tooke possession of the place, and named the Towne Saint Maries.... They had not beene there many dayes before Sir John Harvie, the governor of Virginia came thither to visit them: ... After they had finished the storehouse, and unladed the ship, the Governour thought fit to bring the Colours on shore, which were attended by all the Gentlemen, and the rest of the servants in armes; who received the Colours with a volley of shot, which was answered by the Ordnance from the ships; At this Ceremony were present, the Werowances of Patuxent, and the Yoacomaco, with many other Indians." There is nothing on record to show what the "Colours" were, but Cecilius Calvert being granted by his Charter absolute ownership of his Province, the armorial bearings of the Proprietor, black and gold (mistakenly called black and yellow), were the colors of the Province and borne on its ensign, and it may have been included among the "Colours" before mentioned. In 1638, Governor Leonard Calvert made his expedition to Kent Island for the purpose of reducing the Claiborne force to subjection, when he and his armed men marched, as he writes to his brother the Proprietor, 25 April, 1638, "with your Ensigne7 displayed." forces of Lord Baltimore and the Parliamentary party, the former marched "in battle array, with Lord Baltimore's colours8 displayed," fighting "against the Lord Protector's government and people, yea to shoot against his Highness's colours, killing the ensign-bearer." In the proceedings of the Lower House of Assembly of the Province of Maryland, 2 June, 1740, the Colours are mentioned, but not described. In the proceedings, however, of the Lower House of Assembly, 26 October, 1742, is the following record: "Invoice of Goods, Shipp'd on Board the Baltimore, Jern(ingham) Bigg, Master, for Maryland, on the proper Account and Risque of the Province of Maryland: and goes consigned to Mr. Charles Hammond, Treasurer of the Western Shore in said Province, and charged as advised, viz: "Mr Samuel Hyde, Bought of Samuel Roberts, February 10, 1741-2. A Black and Yellow Flag, 83 yards at 10 d: œ3.9.2." And in the Proceedings of the Lower House of Assembly, 14 May, 1750, is this record, "The Governor communicates to Mr Speaker the following Accounts, and the following Copy of an Order of Council, viz: By the Governor and Council, January 17, 1749. Ordered. That the Honourable Col. Charles Hammond, Treasurer of the Western Shore, send to the Executors of Mr Joseph Adams, late Merchant in London, for the following Arms and Ammunition: 15 Great Guns, Four Pounders, double fortified, of the new Model; 12 Drums, and 12 Pair of Sticks; 12 Trumpets, and Mouth pieces to each Trumpet; A black and yellow Flag; 20 Half-Barrels of Best Gunpowder," etc. At a Council9 held at the City of Annapolis, Tuesday, the 6th day of August, in the fourth year of his Lordship's Dominion, Annoq Domini, 1755. Present His Excellency Horatio Sharpe, Esqr. Governor. The honble Benja Tasker, Esqr. Benedict Calvert, Esqr. "Ordered that the honourable Col. Charles Hammond, Treasurer of the Western Shoar, send to Mr Silvanus Grove, Merchant in London, for Twenty half Barrels of Gunpowder, a Black & Yellow Flagg 24 feet long and 16 feet broad, with the Union in One Corner, and a Barrel of Flints," etc. This flag was not the Provincial Flag of Maryland, but it was one probably intended for use in his Majesty's service in the war against the French, for Braddock's defeat, the month before, had aroused the Province, and it was made in compliance with the Proclamation of Queen Anne, 28 July, 1707, when the complete or legislative union of Great Britain, including England, Wales and Scotland, was established by treaty and the first Union Parliament assembled. This proclamation provided and required "that the ensigns armorial of our Kingdom of Great Britain," shall be "the crosses of St George and St Andrew conjoined, to be used in all flags, banners, standards and ensigns, both at sea and land." The flag10 thus prescribed and confirmed was called the Union and it became the National flag of Great Britain. It was very often used in the canton by the American colonies in connection with other devices, until the rupture with the mothercountry. The flag of the United Colonies in January, 1776, was composed of thirteen stripes alternately red and white, with the Union in one corner. After the War of the Revolution, by common consent, the Maryland State Flag was composed of the armorial bearings of the Calverts and Crosslands (the latter bearing a cross in brilliantly contrasted colors of silver and red), quartered, as displayed on the escutcheon of the Great Seal, for, no design was ever formally adopted for the official flag of the State of Maryland, until during Governor Warfield's administration, when the General Assembly of Maryland passed "An Act to formally adopt and legalize the Maryland Flag." Chap. 48. Approved March 9, 1904. But the preamble to this Act is incorrect and misleading, as it states, "that the flag designed and used as the Flag of Maryland, under the Proprietary Government, and which is still known as the Maryland Flag, has never been formally adopted by Maryland as a State, its use having been continued by common consent only," and which "from the earliest settlement of the Province to the present time, has been known and distinguished as the Flag of Maryland." There is no Provincial Flag of Maryland in existence, as far as known, and there is nothing on record to warrant the assumption that the Flag of Maryland, under the Proprietary Government, was ever at any time the same as is the Flag of the State of Maryland of today, which is composed of the armorial bearings of the Calverts and Crosslands, quartered, as displayed on the escutcheon of the Great Seal.11 It would thus appear, and it is undoubtedly the fact, that the Provincial Flag of Maryland was composed of the armorial bearings of the Calverts only, black and gold. 1 During the third Crusade under Richard Coeur de Lion, (1189-1192), coats of arms were usually borne by all the great nobles. Their banners were embroidered or painted with their armorial bearings. 2 The receipt for the first year's rent dated Tuesday, the 23d day of April, 1633, signed by W. Thomas, keeper of his Majesty's wardrobe; as also the receipts for the years 1634, 1636-1638, 1640-1643, 1655-1658, 1660-1663, 1671-1677, 1736, 1738-1740, 1743-1751, and 1765, are among the interesting and valuable historical manuscripts belonging to the Maryland Historical Society. 3 "And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts." Numbers, Chap. i, Verse 52. "Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house." Numbers, Chap. ii, Verse 2. 4 The Golden Legend was written by Giacomo de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa (1230-1298), translated and published by William Caxton, the first English printer, in 1483. 5 It is positively known that Union flags were afterwards used in the famous battle of the Severn, in 1655, between the Province, for in May, 1696, two Union flags were received from London for the use of the Province of Maryland. Maryland Archives, Vol. xx, pp. 446-447. Also Vol. XXIV, page 14. 6 See Calvert Papers, Art. 3, p. 37 (Md. Hist. Soc. Fund. Pub. No. 35). 7 Calvert Papers, No. 1, page 185. 8 Roger Heamans, Commander of the ship Golden Lyon, then at anchor, in Severn River, in Providence (now Annapolis), and who participated in the battle, in his Narrative, published in 1655, a copy of which is in the Bodleian Library, London, says: "The colours were black and yellow--appointed by the L. Br." Thurloe's State Papers, Vol. v, page 487; Bozman's History of Maryland, page 697. Md. Hist. Magazine, Vol. IV, page 148. 9 Maryland Archives, Vol. XXXI, page 46. 10 Our Flag, Preble, 1872; The Flags of the World, Hulme, 1897; The Encyclopedia Americana, 1903; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Ed. 1910. 11 Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, derived the Crossland Arms from his grandmother Alicia Crossland, and while he and his successors in the title Baron of Baltimore appear frequently to have used their paternal coat of arms separately, for the Great Seal of Maryland, a province in which as Absolute Lord and Proprietary he had the rank of a count palatine, Cecilius prescribed the quarterly coat, and thus made the provincial arms distinctive. The quarterly coat of arms is shown in Guillim's Display of Heraldry, and appears upon various old prints. For a full description of the Great Seal see Md. Hist Soc. Fund Pub. No. 23 (1896). 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