A HISTORY OF CHRIST CHURCH, PORT TOBACCO PARISH, ESTABLISHED 1692

Within a generation of the landing of the first Maryland settlers at St. Clement's Island in 1634, the frontiers of the colony were pushed north and west toward the Potomac and Port Tobacco rivers. A small village developed on the east side of the Port Tobacco River, which in 1658 became the county seat of the new County of Charles.

The early inhabitants of Port Tobacco were people who had fled the religious turmoil in England, where the royal family had been alternating from Catholic to Protestant over many years and several generations. The settlers had the deeply held conviction that freedom from religious persecution could become a reality in this new world. This was to remain a powerful determinant in the course of Maryland's history. Freed from interference by the Toleration Act of 1649 and feeling a need for spiritual guidance, a number of Anglican settlers gathered their first church in a simple log building at the head of the Port Tobacco Creek. The year was 1683, nine years before the Establishment Act which created an Anglican base in the State of Maryland.