HSMC Ceremony to Honor Colonial-Era Remains
Historic St. Mary’s City will host a Ceremony of Return on Saturday, September 20, 2025, a solemn and historic occasion marking the reinterment of human remains discovered and studied over the past several decades.
Among those being laid to rest is Philip Calvert (Chancellor; fifth Governor of Maryland; and son of George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore), Anne Wosley Calvert, and the infant son of Philip. Less is known of the 56 other individuals buried in and around the Brick Chapel; all were laid to rest sometime between 1634 and 1730.
The remains will be returned to the exact location where they were found, in what is now the Brick Chapel Exhibit.
This free public event represents years of archaeological research, historical study, and careful collaboration between HSMC, the Smithsonian Institution, and descendant communities.
The day’s program will begin at 10am with a formal procession from the reconstructed State House to the Brick Chapel Exhibit, led by a horse-drawn hearse. Participants will include descendants of the Calvert family, members of the Ark and Dove Society, St. Maries Cittie Militia, and historical interpreters in period dress.
Visitors of the museum and guests of the ceremony are invited to participate in the procession, honoring the individuals who founded colonial Maryland. The procession will open with cannon fire from Maryland Dove, the museum’s reconstructed tall ship that represents one of the two vessels carrying settlers to Maryland in 1634.
Recently returned from Washington, DC, Maryland Dove also brought back a Maryland flag that will be carried in the ceremony, further linking the past to the present.
At the Brick Chapel Exhibit, the ceremony will feature remarks by historians, archaeologists, and other key figures, including Dr. Douglas Owsley, curator of biological anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Following the speakers, a rite of reinterment will honor the individuals being laid to rest.
The exhibit will have limited, first-come, first-served seating; however, a live-stream viewing tent will be available. Following the reinterment, the public is invited to join a small reception at the Margaret Brent Pavilion, where light refreshments will be served.
“This is one of the most significant events in the museum’s history,” said Dr. Travis Parno, interim executive director at Historic St. Mary’s City. “The Ceremony of Return allows us to honor the individuals who played a role in Maryland’s earliest colonial history and ensure they are respectfully laid to rest once again.”
About the Lead Coffins Project
In 1990, archaeologists working at Historic St. Mary’s City uncovered three lead coffins buried beneath the chancel of the 17th-century Brick Chapel. Lead coffin burials were rare in colonial America and typically reserved for individuals of high status. Remarkably, all five known lead coffins in North America are located in St. Mary’s City—three from beneath the Brick Chapel and two from the nearby Trinity Churchyard.
The remains in the chapel coffins were identified as members of Maryland’s founding Calvert family, including Philip Calvert and his first wife, Anne Wolsley Calvert. Over the past three decades, a multi-disciplinary team—including archaeologists, historians, and scientists from the Smithsonian Institution—has studied the coffins and their contents to gain insight into early Maryland life, health, diet, and funerary practices. The project has offered an unprecedented look at Maryland’s first capital and its prominent figures.
The reinterment marks the final step in this long-term research effort, returning the individuals to their original resting place in the reconstructed Brick Chapel.
