Montgomery County, Maryland: History
Prior to 1688, the first tract of land in what is now Montgomery County was granted by Charles I in a charter to the first Lord Baltimore, the head of the Calvert family. The county's creation was a focus of Thomas S. Wootton who, on August 31, 1776, introduced a measure to form a new county from Frederick County, Maryland to aid area residents in simplifying their business affairs. The measure passed, creating the new political entity of Montgomery County in what was then the colonial-era Province of Maryland.
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Montgomery County was the site of tobacco plantations owned by merchant and politician Robert Peter. Hundreds of black people were enslaved on these plantations.