National Society of Descendants of Lords of the Maryland Manors
(1938 – 2014)

Society of Maryland Manors Seal

The Society was founded in February 1938 by Mr. Harry Wright Newman and its first president was Mrs. Herman August Knorr (Catherine Lindsay Smith) who served from 1938 to 1940. It was incorporated in July 1964, and its mission was to locate and mark the sites of Maryland Manors with informative road memorials. The society accepted lines of descent, "direct or through heirs-at-law, if the Lord of The Manor died with out issue."

Membership was strictly by invitation to those descended from the First Baron of Baltimore, or from a colonist who was granted a manor by the Lord Proprietor of the Province of Maryland.

At one time its membership reached close to 400, spreading across the nation and abroad. One of Society's most famous honorary members was The Earl of Avon, Anthony Eden, K.G., England's post-war Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957.

The colors of the Society were black and gold, the same the colors of the armorial bearings of the house of Calvert. The insignia of the Society consisted of a miniature badge of a five-armed cross. The center portion contained the armorial bearings of the ancient house of Calvert.

Around 2014, interest in the National Society of Descendants of Lords of the Maryland Manors began to wane as its members successfully achieved their society's goal of marking all of the locations of Maryland's Manors. In 2024, it was decided that the Society should merge with the Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America, where its members are welcomed to continue their research manorial land grants in Colonial North America. The Society's papers are now housed at the Maryland State Archives.



Past Presidents:

Mrs. Hermann August Knorr 1938 – 1940
Miss Rosalie Edelin Briscoe 1940 – 1942
Mr. Harry Wright Newman 1942 – 1945
Miss Stella Pickett Hardy 1945 – 1947
Mrs. Merle Leroy Cox 1947 – 1949
Mr. Harry Wright Newman 1949 – 1951
Mrs. Dorothy Jefferson Shuey 1951 – 1953
Mrs. Elizabeth Koones Henius 1953 – 1955
Mr. Harry Wright Newman 1955 – 196l
Mrs. William Henry Pitcher 1961 – 1965
Mr. Reed Marquette Fawell, Jr. 1965 – 1969
Mr. Francis William Hill 1969
Mrs. Charles Valentine Stiefel 1969 – 1973
Mr. William Beverly Bristor, Jr. 1973 – 1977
Mr. Abell Archibald Norris, Jr. 1977 – 1979
Mr. Clement Snowden Conkey 1979 – 1983
Miss Mary Elizabeth Kerby 1983 – 1985
Mr. John Frederick Dorman 1985 – 1989
Mrs. William Beverly Bristor, Jr. 1989 – 1994
Miss Mary Elizabeth Kerby 1994 – 1998
Mrs. William Edward Boone 1998 – 2000
Col. Francis Weems Matthews 2000 – 2004
Mrs. James Edward Wilson 2004 – 2006
B.G. M. Hall Worthington, Jr. 2006 – 2011
Mr. James Brent Hooper 2011 – 2024