Part of first Colonial settlement in Maryland St. Inigoes is part of the site of the first colonial settlement in Maryland
Governor Leonard Calvert's lost grave Archeologists based in the neighboring Historic St. Mary's City research complex believe that the leader of Maryland's first colony, who also became its first colonial governor, is buried somewhere in St. Inigoes. The most likely spot has been narrowed down to somewhere on Webster Field, now a small U.S. Naval Aircraft facility located on the water on the Western side of St. Inigoes. Several archeological digs have been conducted but the grave has yet to be discovered. Members of the Calvert family in the settlement were known to be buried in lead coffins. It is not known if this is how
Leonard Calvert was buried. His death, due to disease, happened suddenly and unexpectedly after a period of religious warfare had wracked the colony. Soon after his death, one of the first laws requiring religious tolerance was written and enacted in the colony, further codifying its original proprietarial mandate of religious tolerance and reestablishing peace.
Oldest North American Catholic parish St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church in St. Inigoes is the oldest continuously operating U.S.
Catholic parish in English speaking North America. In 1637, the Calverts gave the
Jesuits the St. Inigoes plantation, which comprised 2,000 mainland acres and a thousand acres on St. George's Island in the St. Mary's River. St. Inigoes was, along with nearby
St. Mary's City, one of the earliest places in America to legislate religious tolerance, beginning with the earliest mandates for the colony set by the first Lord Baltimore and his sons. The parish also includes part of one of the nation's oldest known
African American Catholic communities, which has an even larger presence in neighboring
Ridge.
Colonial Relics of the original Ark and Dove settlers ships The church contains relics from the original
Ark and
Dove sailing ships which bore the first settlers to the Maryland colony. On 30 October 1814, the sloop was at Saint Mary's River. A raiding party from
Saracen landed at St. Inigoes and proceeded to plunder the Jesuit mission and plantation, known as St. Inigoes Manor, including St. Ignatius Church, which was a part of the manor at the time. When the raiding party returned, Commander Alexander Dixie, captain of
Saracen sent one of his lieutenants under a flag of truce to return what had been taken and to convey a letter of apology to the priests and residents of the settlement there.
Former plantations A few former pre–Civil War plantations are also located in St. Inigoes; some still have ruins of former slave quarters. One slave plantation, "The Villa", was operated by a local order of Jesuits.
Naval facility St. Inigoes is home to
Webster Field, a small naval annex and secondary naval airfield, which is used for the development of electronic avionics. Webster Field is attached to
Naval Air Station Patuxent River in
Lexington Park.
Coast Guard Station St. Inigoes Coast Guard Station St. Inigoes is located near the naval facility and is charged with rescue, law enforcement, safety education and protecting citizens in area waters. It operates under the command of
Coast Guard Sector Maryland-National Capitol Region and is also operationally attached to the PAX River Naval Air Station in the event of need of personnel for wartime duties.
USS Tulip monument St. Inigoes is also home to the
USS Tulip monument, located a short walk from near the end of Cross Manor Road. USS
Tulip was a
Union gunship that exploded off the shore of St. Inigoes in 1864 as a result of a boiler accident. Forty-nine sailors were killed, and there were only eight survivors. The monument is listed as the smallest U.S. federal cemetery. The
Tulip was originally commissioned as a Chinese naval vessel but was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1863 for use in the Potomac flotilla during the Civil War.
Farming The small farming community is quite old, and some local farm families have roots in the area going back hundreds of years. These include people of English, Irish and African-American descent (in that order of relative population size). Some tracts of farmland are on parcels of larger, former slave plantations and still produce tobacco, corn and soy crops yearly.
Local accent St. Inigoes is one of the few remaining places in St. Mary's County where older families retain hints of the speech of the area's original English and Irish colonial settlers. Although not as strong as the better-known
Smith Island accent still found across the Chesapeake Bay from St. Mary's County, the St. Inigoes accent bears many similarities with the accents of Smith Island and other relic bay communities. The local speech also features some fragments of dialect and sayings unique to St. Mary's county. The less-well-documented local African-American accent and dialect also appears to bear some locally unique forms. These accents are in the process of dying out with the decline of the fishing community, the conversion of farmland to residential development and the influx of new residents. Set in 17th-century St. Inigoes and neighboring St. Mary's City, the book is a work of
historical fiction that also, in some aspects, is very close to the real history of the original Maryland Colony, as it does describe certain historical events that did occur in St. Inigoes and also in St. Mary's City. It is set against the backdrop of the struggle for religious tolerance and
religious freedom in the early colony. ==See also==