Religion intertwined in our DNA

---

The phrase “To thine own self be true” comes directly from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, written around 1600. It appears in Act I, Scene 3, in the advice speech given by Polonius to his son Laertes before Laertes leaves for France.

Polonius is a courtier in King Claudius’s court, often portrayed as pompous and verbose. In this moment, however, he delivers a string of maxims about prudence, honesty, and self-restraint. His closing line is:

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

Here, Polonius suggests that personal integrity—being true to oneself—is the foundation for honesty in dealings with others. The advice was meant as practical fatherly counsel: if you maintain inner consistency and conscience, you won’t deceive others.

While Shakespeare coined the exact wording, the sentiment was not new.

• Ancient Greek philosophy—especially Socrates’ teaching “Know thyself” (γνῶθι σεαυτόν)—carried a similar idea of inner awareness guiding virtue.
• Stoic philosophers such as Epictetus and Seneca emphasized living in accordance with one’s true nature.
• Renaissance humanism also encouraged individual moral integrity, which would have influenced Shakespeare.

Shakespeare distilled these older moral currents into a pithy, memorable English phrase.

So, the origins are specifically Shakespearean, but its enduring appeal rests on much older philosophical traditions about conscience, integrity, and self-knowledge.

I use this maxim not only in my religious views, it is my own personal view.

The Catholic George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), former Secretary of State to King Charles I of England, wished to create a haven for English Catholics in the New World. After having visited the Americas and founded a colony in the future Canadian province of Newfoundland called "Avalon", he convinced the King to grant him a second territory in more southern, temperate climes. Upon Baltimore's death in 1632 the grant was transferred to his eldest son Cecil, the 2nd Baron Baltimore.

On June 20, 1632, Charles granted the original charter for Maryland, a proprietary colony of about twelve million acres (49,000 km2), to the 2nd Baron Baltimore. Some historians view this grant as a form of compensation for the 2nd Lord Baltimore's father's having been stripped of his title of Secretary of State upon announcing his Catholicism in 1625.

In Maryland, Baltimore sought to create a haven for English Catholics and to demonstrate that Catholics and Protestants could live together peacefully, even issuing the Act Concerning Religion in matters of religion. The 1st Lord Baltimore was himself a convert to Catholicism, a considerable political setback for a nobleman in 17th-century England, where Catholics could easily be considered enemies of the crown and potential traitors to their country. Like other aristocratic proprietors, he also hoped to turn a profit on the new colony.

The Colony of Virginia was a British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776.

The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colony lasted for three attempts totaling six years. In 1590, the colony was abandoned. But nearly 20 years later, the colony was re-settled at Jamestown, not far north of the original site. A second charter was issued in 1606 and settled in 1607, becoming the first enduring English colony in North America. It followed failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert[4] in 1583 and the Roanoke Colony (in modern eastern North Carolina) by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s.

The founder of the Jamestown colony was the Virginia Company, chartered by King James I, with its first two settlements being in Jamestown on the north bank of the James River and Popham Colony on the Kennebec River in modern-day Maine, both in 1607. The Popham colony quickly failed because of famine, disease, and conflicts with local Native American tribes in the first two years. Jamestown occupied land belonging to the Powhatan Confederacy; it was also on the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies by ship in 1610. Tobacco became Virginia's first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns.

In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I, and the Virginia Colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony. After the English Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s, the Virginia colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Protectorate and Commonwealth of England.

From 1619 to 1775/1776, the colonial legislature of Virginia was the General Assembly, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia Colony until 1699; from 1699 until its dissolution, the capital was in Williamsburg. The colony experienced its first significant political turmoil with Bacon's Rebellion of 1676

On October 30, 1629, King Charles I of England granted a patent to Sir Robert Heathfor the lands south of 36 degrees and north of 31 degrees, "under the name, in honor of that king, of Carolana." Heath wanted the land for French Huguenots, but when Charles restricted use of the land to members of the Church of England, Heath assigned his grant to George, Lord Berkeley. King Charles I was executed in 1649 and Heath fled to France where he died. Following the 1660 restoration of the monarchy, Robert Heath's heirs attempted to reassert their claim to the land, but Charles II ruled the claim invalid.

King Charles II granted the Charter of Carolina in 1663 for land south of the British Colony of Virginia and north of Spanish Florida. He granted the land to eight lords proprietor, namely Edward, Earl of Clarendon; George, Duke of Albemarle; William, Lord Craven; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Carteret; Sir William Berkeley; and Sir John Colleton.[4] Charles granted the land in return for their financial and political assistance in restoring him to the throne in 1660.[5] The granted lands included all or part of the present-day U.S. states of North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

The northern half of the Province of Carolina differed significantly from the southern half, and transportation and communication were difficult between the two regions, so a separate deputy governor was appointed to administer the northern region in 1691.

The partition of Carolina into the Province of North Carolina and the Province of South Carolina was completed at a meeting of the lords proprietor held at Craven House in London on December 7, 1710, although the same proprietors continued to control both colonies. The first provincial governor of North Carolina was Edward Hyde. Unrest against the proprietors in South Carolina in 1719 led King George I to directly appoint a governor in that province, whereas the lords proprietor continued to appoint the governor of North Carolina.

Both Carolinas became royal colonies in 1729, after the British government had tried for nearly 10 years to locate and buy out seven of the eight lords proprietor. The remaining one-eighth share of the province was retained by members of the Carteret family until 1776, part of the Province of North Carolina known as the Granville District.