Grassington-based Penny Plain Theatre Company has been commissioned by a Yorkshire stately home to write and enact a special performance for visitors from the United States.

Kiplin Hall, near Northallerton, was built by George Calvert in the 1620s and the theatre company has scripted a tale about the Calvert family history.

As a Secretary of State under King James I, Calvert was created Baron Baltimore in 1625.

After his death in 1632, his son Cecil was granted land in America which became Maryland (named after the Queen), with many places named after the Calvert family including, a century later, the city of Baltimore. Descendants of the original settlers who sailed with George Calvert’s sons in two ships, The Ark and The Dove, are travelling to England for a Charter Day celebration at Kiplin Hall on Sunday.

The event also marks the centenary of the founding of the Society of the Ark and the Dove.

Kiplin Hall administrator Marcia McLuckie said: “Members of The Society of the Ark and the Dove can trace their ancestry directly to the original 150 settlers who left England in November 1633.

“Having seen Penny Plain perform last summer at Richmond Castle, they seemed the ideal theatre company for us to commission for staging a historical piece in honour of the Americans’ visit this summer.”

Mark Bamforth, a founding member of Penny Plain, has researched and scripted the tale.

“Set between 1592 and 1633, this is a departure from our usual period,” he said. “Generally our speciality is performing as a group of disreputable Victorian travelling players ‘Hardcastle’s Mighty Excelsior Theatre Company’.

“However it is encouraging that Penny Plain has been approached and commissioned for this project as a theatre company with a reputation for historical accuracy.

“The format of the ‘George Calvert and the Founding of Maryland’ performance is also not our usual tightly-rehearsed knockabout farce, but a serious reflection on real characters from history whose lives shaped the eastern shore of America. It’s a fascinating project for us”.

A cast of seven will perform the play in the grounds of Kiplin Hall for the American visitors at 1pm on Sunday. Tickets for a second public performance at 3pm are included in the admission price for the hall and grounds, which are open from 2pm.

Penny Plain is also preparing this year’s summer touring show which will include a pastoral selection of folk songs, dances and a mummers play whose origins have been traced to Linton-in-Craven.