Saint Mary's Settlement

Historic Saint Mary's Commission

Ingle's Rebellion, sometimes known as "the Plundering Time," was one of the most violent events in Maryland's colonial history. It can only be understood in the context of the English Civil War. Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore and his brother, Governor Leonard Calvert, put Maryland on the side of the king and against Parliament. In Maryland the conflict between Catholic Royalist and Puritan Roundhead invariably was translated into Catholic against Protestant.

Early in February 1645, Richard Ingle, captain of the ship Reformation, sailed into the colony intent on "rooting out the Papists." Finding a Dutch ship, the Looking Glass, anchored near St. Mary's City, Ingle at first hoisted a white flag, then suddenly fired a volley into the unsuspecting ship and sent men to capture her. Ingle raised a force of Protestant settlers and led them in plundering the estates of various Catholic leaders. John Lewgar and Giles Brent were captured, but Governor Calvert gathered a loyal force around him and held out in the newly built St. Thomas Fort.

Mr. Pope's Fort

Timothy B. Riordan

In response, the rebels built Mr. Pope's Fort around Governor Calvert's former residence. The next month, the rebels captured all five Jesuits
in Maryland. Fathers Andrew White and Thomas Copley were sent back to England, along with Lewgar and Brent. The other three Jesuits died under uncertain circumstances. Richard Ingle left Maryland in April 1645, but the rebellion continued for two years. While Governor Calvert was in Virginia, St. Thomas Fort was taken and Lord Baltimore's government ceased to exist. Late in 1646, Calvert returned with a force of exiled Marylanders and Virginia volunteers, retook the colony, and ended this violent period.

Andrews, Matthew Page. Tercentenary History of Maryland. Baltimore: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1925. 1:171-87.

Carr, Lois Green. "Sources of Political Stability and Upheaval in Seventeenth Century Maryland." Maryland Historical Magazine, 79 (1984): 44-70

Ingle, Edward. "Captain Richard Ingle, the Maryland 'Pirate and Rebel,' 1642-1653." Maryland Historical Society Fund Publication Number 19. Baltimore, 1889.

Menard, Russell R. "Maryland's 'Time of Troubles': Sources of Political Disorder in Early St. Mary's." Maryland Historical Magazine, 76 (1981):124-40.

Riordan, Timothy B. The Plundering Time: Maryland and the English Civil War, 1645-1646. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2004.