In 1691 King William and Queen Mary appointed Sir Lionel Copely as the first royal governor and told him that the colonists needed to become more religious. The Establishment Act in 1692 divided Talbot County into 3 parishes, which would serve the Church of England, and Old White Marsh, was one of them. The location of the church was to be in Hambleton, this decision based upon the trade routine of the time. It was between the two ports in Oxford and Dover (small town on the Choptank near where Dover Bridge today sits).