Religious Landscape of Colonial Maryland

Christ Church and the Religious Landscape of Colonial Maryland

The origins of Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia, Maryland — originally known as the Elk Ridge Church — are deeply entwined with the political, religious, and geographic transformations of colonial Maryland. This article investigates the complex development of Queen Caroline Parish, the ecclesiastical landscape that preceded it, and the socio-political context that shaped its creation in 1728. It draws on land records, vestry acts, tax documents, and period maps, with particular emphasis on the transitional period between the Protestant Revolution of 1689 and the establishment of the parish system under the Church of England in 1692.

1.  The Establishment of the Anglican Church in Maryland

Maryland was founded in 1634 by Cecil Calvert (Lord Baltimore) as a haven for English Catholics, but from the beginning, the colony included a mix of religious groups, including Anglicans (members of the Church of England). For much of Maryland’s early history, there was no established church, and religious tolerance (at least in theory) was part of the colony’s founding principles. However, the Glorious Revolution (1688) in England, which resulted in the Protestant monarchy of William and Mary, had major repercussions in Maryland.

The Protestant Revolution of 1689 in Maryland was a bloodless coup that overthrew the Catholic proprietary government of Lord Baltimore. In 1692, the new Protestant-led assembly passed the Act for the Service of Almighty God and the Establishment of the Protestant Religion within this Province. This act created 30 Church of England parishes across Maryland, funded through local taxation.

The original 4 Parishes, all without churches, within “Ann Arrundel” were: Herring Creek, South River, Middle Neck and Broad Neck.  St. Anne’s Parish, originally called Middle Neck Parish, established St. Anne's Church as the primary Parish church, completed around 1700, and the Parish took on the name of the church soon after.  The same pattern is held for other parishes. South River became All-Hallows, Broad Neck became Westminster, and Herring Creek became St. James.

St. Anne’s, being the parish church of Annapolis, the new colonial capital, was seen as the appropriate location to represent the official, royal presence of the Church of England in Maryland. St. Anne’s was the place where official government ceremonies and public worship tied to the colonial government would take place until 1715.

2.  County Boundary Changes and Their Religious Impact (1698–1727)

In 1698, the upper portion of Anne Arundel County, including the lands along the Patuxent River and what is now modern-day Howard County, was temporarily transferred to Baltimore County jurisdiction. This boundary change was likely administrative in nature, driven by evolving patterns of colonial settlement, transportation corridors, and efforts to rationalize ecclesiastical oversight. Yet the area remained remote from both the political seat in Baltimore Town and the parish seat of St. Paul's in Baltimore County.  St. Anne’s Parish was the home for many of the families of the new occupants of Elk Ridge, especially those further south of the Patapsco River.

During the nearly thirty years under Baltimore County’s nominal control (1698–1727), the region's settlers lived in an ecclesiastical and administrative limbo. From a church perspective, the vestry of St. Paul's Parish was to offer meaningful oversight, deliver services, or collect taxes in this sparsely settled frontier.  But it was remote from the southern part of this growing population.  But by 1726, St. Anne’s Church and Parish were providing baptisms in the Elk Ridge “Chappell” later described as a Chapel of Ease for St. Anne’s.  

In 1727, the land was returned to Anne Arundel County. That transfer enabled the General Assembly to pass an act the following year (1728) formally establishing Queen Caroline Parish explicitly recognizing the need for a dedicated parish to serve the frontier region between Annapolis and Baltimore.

As described in the excerpt below, the community in Elk-Ridge had been dependent on traveling to St. Paul’s Parish north of the Patapsco River near Baltimore, so an act was passed in 1728 “for Erecting a New Parish, out of that Part of St. Paul’s Parish that lies in Anne‑Arundel County, and out of All‑Hallow’s [formerly South River Parish] and St. Anne’s Parishes in the said County”:

 Whereas it is represented to this present General Assembly, by the Inhabitants in and about Elk-Ridge, in Anne-Arundel County, That they have been for many Years in a melancholly Condition, for want of the Gospel, and the Blessed Means thereof, dispenced among them, the Parish-Church in St. Paul's Parish aforesaid, wherein they live, lying at such Distance, and the Falls so difficult, that it is impossible for them and their Families to repair to it : And therefore the said Inhabitants humbly prayed, that they might have a new Parish taken out of the several Parishes aforesaid, according to the Bounds hereafter expressed…

That from and after the First Day of December next ensuing, all the remaining Part heretofore called Elk-Ridge Hundred, which was not annexed to Westminster Parish, being now Part of St. Paul's Parish aforesaid, and all that Part of All-Hallow's Parish bounded by a Line drawn from the Mouth of Rogues Harbour Branch, on Patuxent River, to the North Branch, or Snowden's River, on the Southward of Thomas Jones's Plantation; Also all that Part of St. Anne's Parish bounded by a Line drawn from the Mouth of a small Branch running into Patuxent River…

Without coordination between counties and parishes, settlers could have been left without access to sacraments, poor relief, or the moral and social structure the Church of England was designed to provide.

3. The Founding of Elk Ridge Church (later Christ Church)

Before Queen Caroline Parish was formally created, it was claimed that the Anglican community in the upper Patuxent region had established a place of worship by 1711 called Elk Ridge Church as a satellite of St. Anne’s Parish to serve this remote population. But this date has been called into question by research conducted by parishioners of Christ Episcopal Church in preparation for the church’s upcoming 300th anniversary. Their research reflects a commendable level of diligence and care. Their willingness to question a long-standing assumption represents exactly the kind of careful, evidence-based local research that strengthens our understanding of the past. Their findings prompted a reexamination of the documentary record, which does not support a Protestant chapel existing on that site prior to the 1720s.

The record shows that Charles Carroll, the settler, received a certificate of survey in January 1700 for land forming part of the 1,300-acre patent known as New Year’s Gift, patented in February 1706. In 1711, Carroll conveyed this land to his nephew, James Carroll. It was not until James Carroll sold the tract to Caleb Dorsey in April 1720 that the property became available for Protestant use, particularly given the Catholic affiliations of the Carroll family.

It is therefore most likely that a chapel was constructed sometime between 1720 and 1728. In fact, the researchers at Christ Episcopal Church found documentation from St. Anne’s Church of a baptism performed at the “Elk Ridge Chappell” in 1726.   This shows this structure functioning formally as a chapel of ease prior to the establishment of Queen Caroline Parish as previously claimed.

Following the General Assembly’s act in 1728, the Elk Ridge Church became the official parish church of Queen Caroline Parish. It wasn’t until 1811 that this church was consecrated as the protestant episcopal Christ Church.  On January 7, 1728, the Church Wardens were Mr. Henry Ridgely and John Howard, and the first Vestrymen were Mr. Thomas Wainright, John Dorsey (of Edward), John Hammond (of Charles), Orlando Griffith, Richard Davis, and Robert Shipley.

Administrative Hundreds

The concept of the “hundred” as an administrative unit in Maryland derived from English practice where a hundred traditionally represented an area that could provide one hundred men under arms or supported a hundred households. In Maryland since the mid-1600s, hundreds came to serve a similarly pragmatic purpose. Their primary functions included the following:

• Taxation Districts: Tax assessments, such as the 40 pounds of tobacco per tithable (person), were collected within each hundred.

• Militia Rolls and Muster Calls.

• Judicial Venues: Justices of the Peace presided over local courts within the Hundreds, supported by sheriffs and constables.

• Religious Organization: Churchwardens and vestrymen often relied on the hundred structure to administer parish obligations.

In 1692, there were six Hundreds in “Ann Arrundel” County, and by 1728, when Queen Caroline Parish was organized, the existing hundreds were: Elk Ridge, Hundred, Huntington, and Patuxent.

In the 1783 Supply Tax records for Anne Arundel County, these hundreds are explicitly listed as separate tax-reporting units, confirming their continued administrative relevance well into the post-colonial period. The tax commissioners relied on hundred boundaries to assess all free male inhabitants and tithables for support of the revolutionary cause.

Parish Precincts

Tobacco was the cash crop in colonial Maryland, but it was also the backbone of both its secular economy and its ecclesiastical infrastructure. The legal mechanism for the parish’s financial support was finalized in the “Act of 1702”, which mandated an annual assessment of 'forty pounds of Tobacco per poll' for every taxable inhabitant.  This covered:

• The salary of the parish minister (usually 16,000 pounds of tobacco annually).

• Construction, furnishing, and maintenance of church buildings and chapels.

• Parish poor relief, including aid to widows, orphans, and the indigent.

• Burial expenses and administrative costs for vestries.

The quality of tobacco needed to be guaranteed in all transactions. This was ensured through the 1728 “Act for Improving the Staple of Tobacco”.

And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That the Vestry of every Parish within this Province, shall every Year, during the Continuance of this Act, upon the Fifteenth Day of May, Yearly, (if the same be not Sunday, and if it shall so happen, then on the next Day after,) lay out their respective Parishes into Precincts , and appoint Two Persons in each Precinct, to examine and enquire of the Names, and Number of the Persons hereby allowed to tend Tobacco, and the Crops of the several Planters within the Laws said Precinct…”

The 1728 Act for Improving the Staple of Tobacco required each parish to be divided into smaller units called precincts to facilitate:

• Survey and reporting of all tobacco plants.

• Appointment of two local men per precinct to inspect crops and record plantings.

• Coordination of destruction of excess or low-quality tobacco, including stalks and suckers, to ensure quality standards.

The nine precincts established were listed in the 1729/1730 Christ Church Vestry Minutes: Lower, Middle, and Upper Precincts in the Fork of Patuxent, Wincopin Neck, Upton, Delaware Bottom, Elkridge, Deep Run and HuntingTown.

4.      Prominent Vestrymen and Families

The founding vestry of Queen Caroline Parish in 1728 included John Dorsey (son of Edward ca. 1682-1735), Henry Ridgely “the Surveyor” (ca. 1690–1749) and John Hammond (1685–1735), descendants of prominent Anglican families with deep roots in the religious and political life of Anne Arundel County. Their prior involvement in St. Anne’s Church and Queen Anne Parish positioned them as natural leaders in the formation of the new parish.

The Dorsey Family

The Dorsey family served as a leadership bridge between St. Anne’s in Annapolis and Christ Church (Queen Caroline Parish). This connection focused on Caleb Dorsey Sr., an early and long-serving vestrymen of St. Anne’s.  Caleb with his son John had allowed the Elk Ridge Church to be built on their land prior to Queen Caroline Parish being established. In 1738, they fulfilled their promise and legally transferred the two acres of “New Year’s Gift” to the Parish.  John Dorsey and Henry Ridgely Jr. shared the first pew of Christ Church.

The Ridgely Family

The Ridgely family’s foundational influence on Queen Caroline Parish spanned three generations of civil and ecclesiastical leadership, beginning with Col. Henry Ridgely Sr. (ca. 1635–1710), a high-ranking militia officer and Provincial Assembly delegate who originally patented the 268-acre Ridgely’s Forest within the future parish bounds. His son, Capt. Henry Ridgely Jr. (1669–1700), solidified the family’s social standing through his marriage to Catherine Greenberry, daughter of Col. Nicholas Greenberry, further intertwining the Ridgely’s with Maryland’s colonial elite before his early death and interment at St. Anne’s. The lineage culminated in the work of Henry Ridgely III (the “Surveyor”), who inherited these vast holdings and served as a founding vestryman of Queen Caroline Parish.

The Hammond Family

Like the Ridgely’s, the Hammonds were part of the landed gentry that helped shape the sociopolitical structure of central Maryland. John Hammond (1685–1735), a founding vestryman of Queen Caroline Parish, descended from Col. John Hammond (ca. 1645–1707)—a Protestant Associator and key supporter of the Church of England following the Glorious Revolution. Col. Hammond was a founder of St. Anne’s Church in Annapolis after the 1692 Vestry Act and owned the Rich Neck estate on the South River.  John Hammond’s father, Charles Hammond (1671–1713), remained active in the civil and ecclesiastical life of Anne Arundel County, serving in the Maryland Assembly.