<P> George Calvert received a charter from King Charles I to found the colony of Maryland in 1632 . When George Calvert died, his son, Cecilius Calvert, later known as Lord Baltimore, became the proprietor . Calvert came from a wealthy Catholic family and was the first individual (rather than a joint - stock company) to receive a grant from the Crown . He received a grant for a large tract of land north of the Potomac river and on either side of Chesapeake Bay . Calvert planned on creating a haven for English Roman Catholics, most of whom were well - to - do nobles such as himself who could not worship in public . He planned on creating an agrarian manorial society where each noble would have a large manor and tenants would work in the fields and on other tasks . However, with extremely cheap land prices, many Protestants moved to Maryland and bought land for themselves . They soon became a majority of the population, and in 1642 religious tension began to erupt . Calvert was forced to take control and pass the Maryland Toleration Act in 1649, making Maryland the second colony to have freedom of worship, after Rhode Island . However, the Act did little to help religious peace . In 1654, Protestants barred Catholics from voting, ousted a pro-tolerance Governor, and repealed the Toleration Act . Maryland stayed Protestant until Calvert again took control of the colony in 1658 . </P> <P> The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony or the Province of Virginia, and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia) was an English colony in North America which existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution (as a British colony after 1707). The name Virginia was first applied by Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I in 1584 . Jamestown was the first town created by the Virginia colony . After the English Civil War in the mid 17th century, the Virginia Colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Commonwealth of England . </P> <P> While other colonies were being founded, Virginia continued to grow . Tobacco planters held the best land near the coast, so new settlers pushed inland . Sir William Berkeley, the colony's governor, sent explorers over the Blue Ridge Mountains to open up the back country of Virginia to settlement . </P> <P> After independence from Great Britain in 1776, the Virginia Colony became the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the original thirteen states of the United States, adopting as its official slogan "The Old Dominion". The states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, and portions of Ohio, were all later created from the territory encompassed earlier by the Colony of Virginia . </P>

Geography and town development of the southern colonies