8-year-old African American boy from Colonial Maryland found buried with white Colonists, and it’s unclear if he was enslaved
A composite image of Anne Wolseley Calvert, whose skeletal remains discovered in a 17th-century cemetery have been superimposed on an image of what she might have looked like in life.
(Image credit: Chip Clark/Smithsonian Institution)
Two indentured servants and an 8-year-old boy, possibly enslaved, were buried alongside distinguished local families in Maryland’s early colonial settlement, according to a new study.
The discovery of a young boy of predominantly African ancestry who was buried alongside individuals of European ancestry is an “important discovery that merits further consideration,” the researchers wrote in a study published Thursday (May 14) in the journal Current biology.
The investigation, which focused on DNA of a few dozen 17th-century skeletons, also clarified that the Maryland colony was established by people with genetic ancestry from western England and Wales.
St. Mary’s City was founded in 1634 as the capital of the British colony of Maryland. About 300 people, mostly of English ancestry, settled in the area after fleeing religious persecution, and in 1667 erected a small church known as the Brick chapel. Archaeological digs over the past three decades have revealed dozens of colonial-era burials, including three rare lead coffins, in and around the brick chapel.
Although historians have found numerous records of the founding families of St. Mary’s City, it was difficult to know exactly who was buried in the brick chapel and where they came from.
A photograph of the reconstructed 17th-century brick chapel in St. Mary’s City, Maryland.
(Image credit: Donald Winter/Historic St. Mary)
In the new study, the researchers detailed their analysis of the genomes of 49 people buried at Brick Chapel between 1634 and 1730. They found that two prominent men – Thomas Greene, the second colonial governor of Maryland, and Philip Calvert, the fifth colonial governor of Maryland – had been buried there with their families. Calvert was buried in a lead coffin, as was his first wife, Anne Wolseley Calvert, and Philip Calvert’s grandson with his second wife.
Although researchers already knew the graves of Calvert and his family, Greene was not identified until now. He was identified by comparing his DNA to the 23andMe genetic database and analyzing genealogy records.
“This is the first time that ancient DNA has been used to help identify unknown individuals, without any prior knowledge of who they might have been,” explains the first author of the study. Éadaoin Harneya senior scientist at the 23andMe Research Institute, said in a statement statement. “And it turns out that one of these individuals [Greene] proved to be one of the most significant figures in colonial Maryland.
The majority of the Brick Chapel skeletons revealed ancestral links to Wales and the west of England, and by cross-referencing these genomes with data provided by 23andMe research participants, researchers discovered that there are more than 1.3 million living genetic relatives of this founding colonial population. Most of the close relatives of this founding group – more than 200 people – have ancestral ties to Kentucky, probably due to the migration of Catholics from Maryland to Kentucky after the Revolutionary War.
“Detecting such a clear genetic signal from this documented historical migration to Kentucky highlights the power of our approach,” Harney said.
The founding of the brick chapel at St. Mary’s City. Burials have been found in and around the chapel.
(Image credit: Henry M. Miller/Historic St. Mary)
Slaves and indentured servants
Three of the 49 skeletons were a bit unusual, however. These included the 8-year-old boy of African origin and two young men. The men were in their 20s when they died between 1634 and 1667 and had chemical signatures suggesting they were recent immigrants from Ireland. Neither was buried in a coffin, and both their skeletons showed signs of heavy physical labor and poor health. “Although their servitude status is unknown, these characteristics are consistent with the profile of indentured servants“, the researchers wrote.
Indentured servitude was a common practice in colonial America, accounting for approximately 80% white immigrantsaccording to Anna Suranyia historian at Endicott College in Massachusetts who was not involved in the study.
“Servants were very different from slaves in that the period of servitude was limited, usually four or seven years, and then they were expected to join colonial society,” Suranyi said in an email to Live Science.
Indentured servants and slaves often lived in the same house as their masters and mistresses, she explained. But in terms of cemeteries, “whites, including indentured servants, were generally buried in separate cemeteries, with slaves sometimes buried in isolated, unmarked locations.”
The fact that the boy of African descent was buried in Brick Chapel cemetery, in accordance with English customs, may indicate that he was not enslaved. The distinction between indentured servant and slave was more fluid in the 17th century, Suranyi said, with “some people of African descent being treated more like indentured servants, but with longer periods of servitude – 20 years, for example.”
The results of this project took years, study co-author Douglas Owsleycurator of biological anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, said in the release. The lead coffins containing Philip Calvert and his family were first discovered in the 1990sbut their genomes were officially published for the first time in the new study.
“This work highlights the power of ancient DNA analyzes to fill gaps in the historical record,” study co-author David Reicha Harvard University geneticist, said in the release. “Although written records are extraordinarily rich, genetic data can still fill in gaps in those records and yield surprises.”
Harney, É., Jewett, E., Micheletti, S., Curry, R., Bruwelheide, KS, Freyman, WA, Miller, H., Akbari, A., Barca, K., Bryc, K., Deering, S., Ancona Esselman, S., Kalkus, K., Kearns, A., Moran, A., Nguyen, DT, Olalde, I., Sedig, J., Sirak, K., […] Reich, D. (2026). The Genetic Legacy of the 17th Century American Colony of St. Mary’s City, Maryland. Current biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.04.046
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