Somerset County, MD

Somerset County, Maryland
Somerset County Courthouse
Flag Seal
Location in the U.S. state of Maryland
Maryland's location in the U.S.
Founded	August 22, 1666
Seat	Princess Anne
Largest town	Princess Anne
Area
• Total	610 sq mi (1,580 km2)
• Land	320 sq mi (829 km2)
• Water	291 sq mi (754 km2), 48%
Population (est.)
• (2016)	25,928
• Density	81/sq mi (31/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.somersetmd.us/index.html

Somerset County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 26,470. making it the second-least populous county in Maryland. The county seat is Princess Anne.

The county was named for Mary, Lady Somerset, the wife of Sir John Somerset and daughter of Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour (ca 1560-1639). She was also the sister of Anne Calvert, Baroness Baltimore (1615-1649), who later lent her name to Anne Arundel County, which was erected in 1650 as the Province of Maryland's third county.

Somerset County is located on the state's Eastern Shore. It is included in the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is located in Princess Anne.

Somerset County was settled and established by English colonists in part due to a response to the Province/Dominion of Virginia passing a law in 1659/1660 requiring Quakers in the colony to convert to Anglicanism or leave the colony. A group of Virginia Quakers living in Accomack County, Virginia, on the southern tip of what later became known as the Delmarva Peninsula, petitioned Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore in 1661 to migrate to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to the territory under his governance. The governor considered this an opportunity to fortify the borders of his territory on the Delmarva Peninsula against the pressing encroachment of the Virginians.