William Claiborne, an English Puritan surveyor and…

William Claiborne, an English Puritan surveyor and an early settler in Virginia, had in 1631 established a trading post on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay.

He has become a wealthy planter, a trader, and a major figure in the politics of the colony.

Following the formation of the province of Maryland, Claiborne has continued to recognize the island as part of his home colony of Virginia while Maryland’s proprietor Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, recognizes it as part of the English Province of Maryland, founded in 1632 as a Catholic colony.

Claiborne is a central figure in the disputes between the colonists of Maryland and of Virginia, partly because of his refusal to vacate the trading post on Kent Island, which in 1635 had provoked the first naval battles in North American waters.

An attorney for Cloberry and Company, who are concerned that the revenues they are receiving from fur trading has not recouped their original investment, arrive on Kent Island in autumn 1637.

The attorney takes possession of the island and bids Claiborne return to England, where Cloberry and Company file suit against him.

The attorney now invites Maryland to take over the island by force, which it does in December 1637.