Somerset County, Maryland
| Somerset County, Maryland | ||
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Somerset County Courthouse
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 Location in the U.S. state of Maryland |
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 Maryland's location in the U.S. |
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| 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.) | ||
| • (2015) | 25,768 | |
| • Density | 42/sq mi (16/km²) | |
| Congressional district | 1st | |
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 | |
| Website | www |
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Somerset County is the southernmost county in the American 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 included in the Salisbury, MD-DE Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located on the state's Eastern Shore
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is located in Princess Anne.
Somerset County was settled and established 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 Accomac County, Virginia on the southern tip of the future Delmarva Peninsula, petitioned Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore in 1661 to migrate further north on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay to the territory under his governance, and the governor saw the opportunity to fortify the borders of his territory on the Delmarva Peninsula against the pressing encroachment of the Virginians.
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