The Plundering Time was a period of civil unrest in the Province of Maryland

Province of Maryland

The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...

 caused by the tensions of the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. Governor Leonard Calvert

Leonard Calvert

Leonard Calvert was the 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland. He was the second son of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, the first proprietary of the Province of Maryland...

 (1606–1647) led colonial defenses against Parliamentary privateers such as Captain Richard Ingle

Richard Ingle

Richard Ingle was an English colonial seaman and tobacco trader in the American colonies who took over the government of the colony of Maryland in 1645....

 and William Claiborne

William Claiborne

William Claiborne was an English pioneer, surveyor, and an early settler in Virginia and Maryland. Claiborne became a wealthy planter, a trader, and a major figure in the politics of the colony...

. This conflict is also known as Claiborne and Ingle's Rebellion.

Background

The causes of the rebellion included Claiborne's disputed claim with the Calverts over Kent Island, Maryland

Kent Island, Maryland

Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay, and a historic place in Maryland. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is separated from Sandy Point, an area near Annapolis, by...

, the bitter relations between the Catholic elite and the Protestant majority, and the partisanship of the English Civil War.

Plundering time

In 1638, Calvert seized a trading post in Kent Island established by Claiborne. In 1644, Claiborne led an uprising of Protestants and retook Kent Island. Meanwhile, Ingle seized control of St. Mary's City, Maryland

St. Mary's City, Maryland

St. Mary's City, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, is a small unincorporated community near the southernmost end of the state on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is located on the eastern shore of the St. Mary's River, a tributary of the Potomac. St. Mary's City is the fourth oldest...

. They began plundering the property of anyone who did not swear allegiance to the English Parliament. Governor Calvert escaped to Virginia and in 1647 regained control of the colony effectively ending the rebellion of Claiborne and Ingle. Succumbing to illness he died the following summer. The colonial assembly issued the Maryland Toleration Act

Maryland Toleration Act

The Maryland Toleration Act, also known as the Act Concerning Religion, was a law mandating religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. Passed on April 21, 1649 by the assembly of the Maryland colony, it was the second law requiring religious tolerance in the British North American colonies and...

 in 1649 to mollify the factions. Parliamentary victory in England renewed tensions leading to the Battle of the Severn

Battle of the Severn

The Battle of the Severn was a skirmish fought on March 25, 1655, on the Severn River at Horn Point, across Spa Creek from Annapolis, Maryland, in what at that time was referred to as "Providence", in what is now the neighborhood of Eastport. Following the battle, Providence changed its name to...

in 1655.