In 1632 the English Crown unilaterally took the land from the Piscataway Natives who inhabited the Potomac-Anacostia region and King Charles I of England in turn granted the land, which was to become the state of Maryland, to George Calvert, whose interest in the colony lay in "the sacred duty of finding a refuge for his Roman Catholic brethren." It took until about 1675 for English settlers to reach what is now the DC area, after defeating the Powhatans in 1645 by spreading diseases that reduced the Native American numbers by roughly 90%. [http://news.aag.org/2018/07/american-indians-of-washington-d-c-and-the-chesapeake/]