Henry Darnall

Henry Darnall
Colonel Henry Darnall.
Chancellor of Maryland
In office 1683–1689
Colonel of the Militia
Proprietary Agent and Receiver General
In office 1684–1711
Rent Roll Keeper
In office 1689–1699
Deputy Governor
In office ? – 1689
Personal details
Born	1645 England
Died	1711 (aged 66) Maryland
Spouse(s)	(1) Unknown (2) Eleanor Hatton Brooke
Relations	Philip Darnall (father) Mary Breton (mother) Henry Darnall Jr (son) Thomas Brooke, Jr. (stepson)
Residence	Woodyard and Portland Manor
Occupation	planter, politician, soldier
Website	Signature of Col. Henry Darnall

Colonel Henry Darnall (1645–1711), was a wealthy Maryland Roman Catholic planter, the Proprietary Agent of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675). He served for a time as Deputy Governor of the Province. During the Protestant Revolution of 1689, his proprietarial army was defeated by the Puritan army of Colonel John Coode, and he was stripped of his numerous colonial offices. Darnall died in 1711.

Henry Darnall was born in England in 1645, the son of Philip Darnall, a London barrister, and Mary Breton, daughter of Sir Henry Breton. Darnall was the first of his family to emigrate to America, and arrived in Maryland by c.1680, when he was granted a tract of 236 acres in what was then Calvert County. In Maryland he became a substantial landholder and slaveholder, and married Eleanor Hatton Brooke (1642–1725), the widow of Thomas Brooke, Sr., who had died in 1676.

Darnall was strongly allied to the proprietarial interest of Charles Calvert, who had married Darnall's cousin Mary. This alliance brought Darnall wealth and power, as he rapidly acquired both land and political office from his cousin's accommodating husband. Darnall's colonial appointments included: Chancellor of Maryland from 1683 to 1689; His Lordship's Agent & Receiver General from 1684 to 1711; Rent Roll Keeper, 1689 to 1699; Deputy Governor; and Colonel of the Militia. In 1703, Calvert granted Darnall 7,000 acres (28 km²) of land in Prince George's County. Darnall named the estate His Lordship's Kindness in recognition of Calvert's readiness to hand out large swathes of Maryland to his relatives.

Darnall would not enjoy his political offices for long. In 1689, the ruling Calvert family would lose control of the province, and Darnall would forfeit all his official positions.

Maryland Puritans, by now a substantial majority in the colony, revolted against the proprietary government, in part because of the apparent preferment of Catholics to official positions of power. The Glorious Revolution of the previous year had put a Protestant King and Queen on the throne of England, but the sovereignty of the new monarchs had not yet been acknowledged in Maryland.