Harford County, Maryland was first discovered in 1608 by Captain John Smith of the Virginia Colony, when he made a fairly accurate map of the upper country and its islands and shores. About 1649, Colonel Nathaniel Utie came from Virginia to explore the upper bay region and find a place to settle, and was granted an island located a few hundred yards south of Havre de Grace. He named it Spesutie, using the Latin Spes-Utie, meaning Utie's Hope. The spelling was later changed to Spesutia as it is known today. When the Church of England became the established church of the Palatinate of Maryland, the first Vestry House was erected at Spesutie Parish on the property which belonged by grant to Col. Nathaniel Utie. In 1718, Spesutie Parish was divided into St. George's and St. John's Parishes, and the Spesutia Church of St. George's Parish was erected two miles away at Perryman, where it still stands today.