Flag of Somerset County, Maryland
 | |
| Use |  |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 1694 |
The Flag of Somerset County, Maryland, United States, consists of a flag of Great Britain with the head of a Native American in the center. The flag was adopted in 1694 after the county received a Royal Warrant from King William III of England to use the Union Jack as its flag. That flag was later adopted by the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.[1]
History
Somerset County was founded in the Province of Maryland in 1666 and was named after Mary Somerset, the sister-in-law of Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore.[2] The county did not have a flag initially. In 1693, Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, commissioned the creation and design of a flag for the county.[3][4] The following year, King William III of England granted Somerset County a Royal Warrant to use the "King's Colours" as their county flag.[1] The King's Colours became the flag of Great Britain in 1707 but the Kings of England had used it as a personal flag to symbolise the personal Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland.[1] The Indian in the center represented the local Native Americans who had a large number of settlements in the Somerset County area.[5][6]
On the year of the flag's adoption, the colonists in Somerset County started to use it as a naval ensign.[5] In the following years, it appears that the flag fell into disuse. In 1958, members of the Olde Princess Anne Days Committee and some Somerset County Commissioners discovered a facsimile of the flag in the house of Joshua Miles, who permitted a reproduction to be created.[5] Later, in the 1990s, the flag inspired the design of the flag of the University of Maryland as the Eastern Shore campus was located in Somerset County.[7]
References
- ^ a b c Semmes, Raphael (1979). Captains and Mariners of Early Maryland. Arno Press. p. 772. ISBN 0405106262.
- ^ Jacob, John (2001). "Introduction". Somerset County in Vintage Postcards. Arcadia Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 0738513725.
- ^ "Somerset County planning to mark 350th year in 2016". County Times. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- ^ Rhodes, Jason (2012). Somerset County. Arcadia Publishing. p. 1. ISBN 978-0738592275.
- ^ a b c "Somerset County Flag" (PDF). Visit Somerset. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- ^ "Accohannocks take their history out of hiding". Bay Journal. 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- ^ "The University Flag". University of Maryland. 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
