This 1694 illustration shows Father Andrew White baptizing Kittamaquund.

Father Andrew White (1579-1656)

Father Andrew White was a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus, an order whose priests, known as Jesuits, devote their lives to learning, scholarship, and ministry. Many Jesuits also travel to other countries on missions for the Catholic Church.

Father White was born in England and attended colleges in England, Spain, and France. After he became a Jesuit priest, Father White taught students at two universities in France. Although he enjoyed the priesthood, Father White also liked adventures and wanted to see the world.

During Father White’s lifetime, Catholic priests were not allowed to live or work in England. The official church of England was the Anglican church, so it was against the law to practice a different religion. Father White secretly returned to England many times to visit his Catholic friends. During one visit, he got a job working for Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore. Cecil Calvert needed Father White's help to find Catholic families to settle in his new colony, Maryland. Father White wanted the Jesuits to establish a Catholic mission in the Maryland colony. He thought that the Jesuits could convert the local Indigenous people to the Catholic faith.

In November 1633, Father White, several other Jesuits, including one priest, and nine servants prepared for a long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. They met the ship Ark at the Isle of Wight off the coast of England just before it sailed for the New World. Father White kept a journal of this voyage called Voyage into Maryland. Just a few months after landing in Maryland, Father White sent his journal to Cecil Calvert in England and to the Society of Jesus, carried back by the Ark on its return voyage. It is a very important book about Maryland's early history.

Father White's journal offers a vivid firsthand account of what life was like for the colonists, both during their four-month voyage and in the difficult early months of settlement. Partway through the crossing, he wrote that a violent storm struck, and passengers and crew alike feared the ship might capsize. He wrote that he was afraid and that he prayed to God for help. Fortunately, the storm's winds blew the Ark south directly toward the British colony of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea. The settlers rested on the island of Barbados, repaired the Ark, and once again set sail for the coast of North America.

Before landing in Maryland, Father White and his fellow voyagers landed in Virginia. They picked up more supplies and experienced guides, like Captain Henry Fleet. Finally, on March 25, 1664, all the passengers aboard the Ark landed safely on shore near the mouth of the St. Mary's River.

Father White celebrated the first Catholic Mass in Maryland to thank God for their safe landing. They made a treaty with the Yaocomico people for land at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. There they stayed and built a new town called St. Mary's City.

Father White worked very hard to learn the Algonkian language of the Piscataway people from Southern Maryland. He wrote down a dictionary of Piscataway words and translated Catholic prayers into that language. In 1639, Father White met the Tayac, or head chieftain, of the Piscataway people. The tayac's name was Kittamaquund.

Kittamaquund accepted the Catholic religion, and soon after, Father White baptized Kittamaquund and his family. Father White also wanted to trade with the Piscataways for food and valuable beaver furs. In 1641, he provided a boat for Mathias de Souza to use when trading with them.

Father White's mission in Maryland ended in 1645 when Richard Ingle and his fellow Protestants raided St. Mary's City. Ingle's men captured the Catholic priests and leaders of the Maryland colony. Ingle brought Father White and other Catholic leaders back to England.

The English government kept Father White in jail until January 1648. Finally, Father White went on trial before the English Court. The Court decided Father White had not done anything wrong, so they set him free. Father White went back to Europe to help the Society of Jesus. He died in England in December 1656.

Vocabulary

Anglican: The Anglican Church was created under King Henry VIII during the Reformation and became the official church of England.
Capsize: Capsize refers to turning a boat or vessel upside down or on its side while in the water, often due to high winds, large waves, overloading, or loss of stability.
Catholic Mass: Catholic Mass is the central act of worship in the Catholic Church where bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Piscataway: The Piscataway are an Indigenous tribe located in Central Maryland.
Protestants: A Protestant is a member of a Western Christian church that separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th-century Reformation, or any group descending from them.
Society of Jesus: The Society of Jesus is a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Tayac: A tayac is the leader of the Piscataway people.
Yaocomico: The Yaocomico were an Indigenous subtribe related to the Piscataway. They resided on the north bank of the Potomac River, and were absorbed by the Piscataway in the 17th century.

« Back to Library Collection

Sources:

Hughes, T. (1908). History of the Society of Jesus in North America: Colonial and federal documents, 1605–1838 (Vol. 1, Part 1, Nos. 1–140). Longmans, Green and Co.

White, A. (1910). A brief relation of the voyage unto Maryland. In C. C. Hall (Ed.), Narratives of early Maryland, 1633–1684 (pp. 29–45). Charles Scribner's Sons.

White, A. (1995). Voyage to Maryland [Relatio itineris in Marilandiam] (B. Lawatsch-Boomgaarden & J. Ijsewijn, Trans.). Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. (Original work published 1634)