Accordingly, when Leonard Calvert, on his arrival at Point Comfort in February, 1634, called upon Claiborne to recognize Baltimore’s paramount sovereignty over Kent Island, because of its lying within the limits of his charter, the council of Virginia, at the request of Claiborne, considered the claim, and declared that the colony had as much right to Kent Island as to “any other part of the country given by his majesty’s patent” in 1609.[4] After this, acquiescence in Baltimore’s wishes would have been treason, and Claiborne declined to acknowledge Lord Baltimore’s authority in Kent Island, and continued to trade in the bay as freely as formerly.

Calvert’s instructions[5] had been, in case of such a refusal, not to molest Claiborne for at least a year.  But Captain Fleet, Claiborne’s rival in the fur trade, started a story that Claiborne was the originator of the rumor which so greatly alarmed the Indians at the time of the arrival of the emigrants at St. Mary’s.  Though Claiborne promptly repelled the calumny, Baltimore, in September, 1634, sent an order to his brother Leonard to seize Kent Island, arrest Claiborne, and hold him prisoner.[6] As this mandate was contrary to the order in July, 1633, of the lords commissioners, which enjoined the parties to preserve “good correspondence one with another,” Claiborne’s partners petitioned the king against it.

Thereupon the king, by an order[7] dated October 8, 1634, peremptorily warned Lord Baltimore, or his agents, “not to interrupt the people of Kent Island in their fur trade or plantation.”  Nevertheless, April 5, 1635, Thomas Cornwallis, one of the Maryland councillors, confiscated a pinnace of Claiborne’s for illegal trading, and this act brought on a miniature war in which several persons on both sides were killed.[8] Great excitement prevailed in both colonies, and in Virginia the people arrested Harvey, their governor, who upheld Cornwallis’s conduct, and shipped him off to England; while two of the councillors were sent to Maryland to protest against the violent proceedings affecting Claiborne.[9]

These measures induced a truce, and for nearly three years there were no further hostilities in the bay.  Claiborne brought his case before the king, who referred it to the Lords Commissioners for Plantations; then, as his partners feared to take further risk, he carried on the trade in the bay almost solely with his own servants and resources.  In December, 1636, these partners, becoming dissatisfied at their loss of profit, made the capital mistake of sending, as their agent to Kent Island, George Evelin, who pretended at first to be an ardent supporter of Claiborne, but presently, under a power of attorney, claimed control over all the partnership stock.