Flag of Somerset County, Maryland

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]

For the English county flag, see Flag of Somerset.
Somerset County
Use
Proportion3:2
Adopted1694

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]

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References
  1. Semmes, Raphael (1979). Captains and Mariners of Early Maryland. Arno Press. p. 772. ISBN 0405106262.
  2. Jacob, John (2001). "Introduction". Somerset County in Vintage Postcards. Arcadia Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 0738513725.
  3. "Somerset County planning to mark 350th year in 2016". County Times. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
  4. Rhodes, Jason (2012). Somerset County. Arcadia Publishing. p. 1. ISBN 0738592277.
  5. "Somerset County Flag" (PDF). Visit Somerset. Retrieved 2019-01-05. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "Accohannocks take their history out of hiding". Bay Journal. 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
  7. "The University Flag". University of Maryland. 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
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