| In June every year, Kiplin Hall celebrates its links with
America and the anniversary of the granting of the Charter to found the new
colony of Terra Maria – or Maryland, as it is known today. King Charles I
granted the Charter on 20th June 1632 to Cecil Calvert, the eldest son of
George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore, who built Kiplin Hall in the early 1620s.
George had spent a number of years planning the foundation of the colony and
drawing up the Charter, but sadly died two months before the King put his seal
to it. Cecil, 2nd Lord Baltimore, and his younger brother, Leonard, continued
with their father’s plans. In November 1633, Leonard sailed to America
with 150 settlers and 50 sailors, crammed with all their goods and belongings
into 2 small wooden boats, the Ark and the Dove. The boats landed at Chesapeake
Bay in March 1634 and their life in the New World had begun, with Leonard as
Maryland’s first governor. In 2001, the Governor of Maryland declared that
20th June would become the state’s official Charter Day, to be celebrated
on both sides of the Atlantic. Every year on the nearest Sunday, the Friends
and volunteers of Kiplin Hall are invited to a buffet lunch, funded by a direct
descendant of the 1st Lord Baltimore. Cornelia Peyton Fowler is a
many-times-great granddaughter of the founder of Maryland and maintains close
links to Kiplin. The lunch is her way of thanking the Friends for their support
of Kiplin Hall and all its activities. In the afternoon, the Hall hosts a 17th
century living history event. This year Mavis Palfreman, a Friend of Kiplin and
a member of Richmond Amateur Dramatic Society (RADS), wrote a series of
conversation pieces for the Friends and visitors to enjoy, which she and three
other members of RADS acted. Throughout the afternoon, visitors could eavesdrop
on the conversations of Cecil and Leonard Calvert and their wives, the two
Annes, hearing of their plans and anxieties as they discussed the granting of
the Charter, the preparations for their voyage and the news coming back from
the colony of the first settlers’ impressions of the new land and its
native inhabitants. More than seventy Friends greatly enjoyed both the lunch
and the afternoon’s entertainment. |
