George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore
Encyclopedia
Sir George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, 8th Proprietary Governor
of Newfoundland (1579–15 April 1632) was an English
politician
and colonizer
. He achieved domestic political success as a Member of Parliament
and later Secretary of State
under King James I
. He lost much of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance between Prince Charles
and the Spanish royal family. Rather than continue in politics, he resigned all of his political offices in 1625 except for his position on the Privy Council
and declared his Catholicism
publicly. He was granted the title of 1st Baron Baltimore
in the Irish peerage upon his resignation.
Calvert took an interest in the colonisation
of the New World, at first for commercial reasons and later to create a refuge for English Catholics. He became the proprietor of Avalon
, the first sustained English settlement on the island of Newfoundland. Discouraged by its climate and the sufferings of the settlers, Calvert looked for a more suitable spot further south and sought a new royal charter to settle the region, which would become the state of Maryland
. Calvert died five weeks before the new charter was sealed, leaving the settlement of the Maryland colony to his son Cecilius
. His second son Leonard Calvert
was the first colonial governor of the Province of Maryland
. Historians have long recognized George Calvert as the founder of Maryland, in spirit if not in fact.
Calverts. At George Calvert's knighting, it was claimed that his family originally came from Flanders
. Calvert's father Leonard was a country gentleman who had achieved some prominence as a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton
, and was wealthy enough to marry a gentlewoman
, Alicia or Alice Crossland. He established his family on the estate of Kiplin
, near Catterick
in Richmondshire
, North Yorkshire. George Calvert was born at Kiplin in late 1579. His mother died on 28 November 1587, when he was eight years old. His father then married Grace Crossland, Alicia's first cousin.
In 1569, Sir Thomas Gargrave had described Richmondshire as a territory where all gentlemen were "evil in religion", by which he meant Roman Catholic; it appears Leonard Calvert was no exception. During the reign of Elizabeth I
, the royal government over the church and of compulsory religious uniformity were enacted by parliament and enforced through penal laws. The Acts of Supremacy
and Uniformity
of 1559 included an oath of allegiance to the queen and an implicit denial of the Pope's authority over the English church. This oath was required of any common citizen who wished to hold high office, attend university, or take advantage of opportunities controlled by the state.
The Calvert household suffered the intrusion of the Elizabethan religious laws. From the year of George's birth onwards, Leonard Calvert was subjected to repeated harassment by the Yorkshire authorities, who in 1580 extracted a promise of conformity from him, compelling his attendance at the Church of England
. In 1592, when George was twelve, the authorities denounced one of his tutors for teaching "from a popish primer" and instructed Leonard and Grace to send George and his brother Christopher to a Protestant tutor, and, if necessary, to present the children before the commission “once a month to see how they perfect in learning”. As a result, the boys were sent to a Protestant tutor called Mr Fowberry at Bilton. The senior Calvert had to give a bond of conformity; he was banned from employing Catholic servants and forced to purchase an English Bible, which was to "ly open in his house for everyone to read".
In 1593, records show that Grace Calvert was committed to the custody of a pursuivant, an official responsible for identifying and persecuting Catholics, and in 1604, she was described as the "wife of Leonard Calvert of Kipling, non-communicant at Easter last".
George Calvert went up to Trinity College, Oxford
, matriculating in 1593/94, where he studied foreign languages and received a bachelor’s degree in 1597. As the oath of allegiance was compulsory after the age of sixteen, he would almost certainly have pledged conformity while at Oxford. The same pattern of conformity, whether pretended or sincere, continued through Calvert’s early life. After Oxford, he moved to London in 1598, where he studied municipal law at Lincoln’s Inn for three years.
, who was born in the winter of 1605–6, were all baptized as Protestants. When Anne died on 8 August 1622, she was buried at Calvert’s local Protestant church, St Martin in the Fields.
, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth, whom Calvert had met during an extended trip to Europe between 1601 and 1603, after which he became known as a specialist in foreign affairs. Calvert carried a packet for Cecil from Paris, and so entered the service of the principal engineer of James VI of Scotland’s succession to the English throne in 1603.
James rewarded Cecil, whom he made a privy councillor
and secretary of state, earl of Salisbury
in 1605, and in 1608 Lord High Treasurer
, making him the most powerful man at the royal court. As Cecil rose, Calvert rose with him. Calvert’s foreign languages, legal training, and discretion made him an invaluable aide to Cecil, who, no lover of Catholics, seems to have accepted Calvert’s conformity as beyond question. Working at the centre of court politics, Calvert exploited his influence by selling favours, an accepted practice for the times. Calvert accumulated a number of small offices, honours, and sinecures. In August 1605, he attended the king at Oxford, and received an honorary master-of-arts degree in an elaborate ceremony at which the Duke of Lennox
, the earls of Oxford and Northumberland, and Cecil received degrees. Given the prestige of the other graduates, Calvert's was the last awarded, but his presence in such company signalled his growing stature.
In 1606, the king made Calvert clerk of the Crown and Assizes in Connaught, County Clare, Ireland, his first royal appointment. In 1609, James appointed him a clerk of the Signet office, a post which required the preparation of documents for the royal signature and brought Calvert into close contact with the king. Calvert also served in James’s first parliament as a member for the borough of Bossiney
, Cornwall, installed there by Cecil to support his policies. In 1610, Calvert was appointed a clerk of the Privy Council. Each of these positions would have required an oath of allegiance.
With Cecil's support, Calvert came into his own as an advisor and supporter of King James. In 1610 and 1611, Calvert undertook missions to the continent on behalf of the king, visiting a number of embassies in Paris, Holland, and Cleves
, and acting as an ambassador to the French court during the coronation of Louis XIII in 1610. A correspondent from France reported that Calvert gave “everyone great contentment with his discreet conversation.” In 1615, James sent him to the Palatinate (German), whose impoverished elector, Frederick V
, had married James’s daughter Elizabeth
in 1613. Calvert had to convey the king’s disapproval that Elizabeth, for lack of money, had given away expensive jewels to a gentlewoman leaving her employ. Frederick’s decision in 1619 to accept the throne of Bohemia
triggered a war with the powerful Habsburgs, which James attempted to end through a proposed alliance with Spain.
In 1611, James employed Calvert to research and transcribe his tract against the Dutch theologian Conrad Vorstius
. The following year, Cecil died, and Calvert acted as one of the four executors of his will. The king’s favourite
, Sir Robert Carr
, Viscount Rochester, assumed the duties of secretary of state and recruited Calvert to assist with foreign policy, in particular the Latin and Spanish correspondence. Carr, soon raised to the earldom of Somerset, was not a success in the job, and fell from favour partly as a result of the murder of Thomas Overbury
, to which Carr's wife, Frances, the former Countess of Essex
, pleaded guilty in 1615. Carr's place as James’s principal favourite was now taken by the handsome George Villiers
, with whom James was said to have been infatuated.
In 1613, the king commissioned Calvert to investigate Catholic grievances in Ireland, along with Sir Humphrey Wynch, Sir Charles Cornwallis, and Sir Roger Wilbraham. The commission spent almost four months in Ireland, and its final report, partly drafted by Calvert, concluded that conformity should be enforced more strictly in Ireland, Catholic schools be suppressed, and bad priests removed and punished. The king resolved not to reconvene an Irish parliament until the Catholics "shall be better disciplined". In 1616, James endowed Calvert with the manor of Danby Wiske
in Yorkshire, which brought him into contact with Sir Thomas Wentworth, who became his closest friend and political ally. Calvert was now wealthy enough to buy the Kiplin estate in his home parish; and in 1617, his social status received a further boost when he was knighted.
In 1619, Calvert completed his rise to power when James appointed him as one of the two principal secretaries of state
. This followed the dismissal of Sir Thomas Lake
due to scandals, including his wife’s indiscretions with state secrets. Not emerging as a candidate until the end of the selection process, Calvert's appointment surprised him and most observers. Assuming he owed his promotion to the king’s increasingly powerful favourite, George Villiers, he sent him a great jewel as a token of thanks. Villiers returned the jewel, however, saying he had had nothing to do with the matter. Calvert's personal fortune was secured when he was additionally appointed a commissioner of the treasury with a £1,000 pension and a subsidy on imported raw silk, which would later be converted to another £1,000 pension.
In Parliament, a political crisis developed over the king's policy of seeking a Spanish wife for Charles, Prince of Wales, as part of a proposed alliance with the Habsburgs. In the Parliament of 1621, it fell to Calvert to advocate the "Spanish match"
, as it came to be called, against the majority of Parliament, who feared an increase in Catholic influence on the state. As a result of his pro-Spanish stance and defence of relaxations in the penal laws against Catholics, Calvert became estranged from many in the Commons, who were suspicious of his close familiarity with the Spanish ambassador's court. Calvert also faced difficulties in his private life: his wife's death on 8 August 1622, left him the single father of ten children, the oldest of whom, Cæcilius, was sixteen years old.
Although King James rewarded Calvert in 1623 for his loyalty by granting him a 2300 acres (9.3 km²) estate in County Longford
, Ireland, where his seat was known as the Manor of Baltimore, Calvert was increasingly isolated from court circles as the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham
wrested control of policy from the ageing James. Without consulting the diplomatically astute Calvert, the prince and the duke travelled to Spain to negotiate the Spanish marriage for themselves, with disastrous results. Instead of securing an alliance, the visit provoked a hostility between the two courts which quickly led to war. In a reversal of policy, Buckingham dismissed the treaties with Spain, summoned a war council, and sought a French marriage for the prince.
No disgrace was attached to Calvert's departure from office: the king, to whom he had always remained loyal, confirmed his place on the Privy Council and appointed him Baron Baltimore
, in County Longford, Ireland. Immediately after Calvert resigned, he converted to Catholicism.
The connection between Calvert's resignation and his conversion to Catholicism was a complex one. George Cottington, a former employee of Calvert, suggested in 1628 that Calvert's conversion had been in progress a long time before it was made public. George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury
, reported that political opposition to Calvert, combined with his loss of office, had "made him discontented and, as the saying is, Desperatio facit monachum, so hee apparently did turne papist, which hee now professeth, this being the third time that he hath bene to blame that way [sic]". Godfrey Goodman
, Bishop of Gloucester, later claimed Calvert had been a secret Catholic all along ("infinitely addicted to the Catholic faith"), which explained his support for lenient policies towards Catholics and for the Spanish match.
But, no one had questioned Calvert's conformity at the time, and if he had indeed been secretly Catholic, he had hidden it well. It seems more likely Calvert converted in late 1624. At the time, Simon Stock, a Discalced Carmelite
priest reported to the Congregation Propaganda Fide
in Rome on November 15 that he had converted two Privy Councillors to Catholicism, one of whom historians are certain was Calvert. Calvert, who had probably met Stock at the Spanish embassy in London, later worked with the priest on a plan for a Catholic mission in his Newfoundland colony.
When King James died in March 1625, his successor Charles I maintained Calvert's barony but not his place on the Privy Council. Calvert turned his attention to his Irish estates and his overseas investments. He was not entirely forgotten at court. After Buckingham's dabblings in wars against Spain and France had ended in failure, he recalled Baltimore to court, and for a while may have considered employing him in the peace negotiations with Spain. Though nothing came of Baltimore's recall, he renewed his rights over the silk-import duties, which had lapsed with the death of James I, and secured Charles' blessing for his venture in Newfoundland.
in 1609, and a few months later a more substantial sum in the East India Company
, which he increased in 1614. In 1620, Calvert purchased a tract of land in Newfoundland from Sir William Vaughan
, who had failed to establish a colony on the island. He named it Avalon
, after the legendary spot where Christianity was introduced to Britain. The plantation lay on what is now called the Avalon Peninsula
and included the fishing station at Ferryland
. Calvert almost certainly had a fishery project in mind at this stage.
Calvert dispatched Captain Edward Wynne
and a group of Welsh
colonists to Ferryland, where they landed in August 1621 and set about constructing a settlement. Wynne sent positive reports concerning the potential for local fisheries and for the production of salt, hemp
, flax
, tar
, iron, timber and hops
. Wynne also praised the climate, declaring, "It is better and not so cold as England" and predicted that the colony would become self-sufficient after one year. Others corroborated Wynne's reports: for example, Captain Daniel Powell, who delivered a further party of settlers to Ferryland, wrote: "The land on which our Governor planted is so good and commodious, that for the quantity, I think there is no better in many parts of England"; but he added ominously that Ferryland was "the coldest harbour in the land". Wynne and his men began work on various building projects, including a substantial house and the shoring up of the harbour. To protect them against marauding French ships, a recent hazard in the area, Calvert employed the pirate John Nutt
.
The settlement appeared to be progressing so well that in January 1623 Calvert obtained a concession from King James for the whole of Newfoundland, though the grant was soon reduced to cover only the Avalon peninsula, owing to competing claims. The final charter constituted the province as a palatinate
, officially titled the "Province of Avalon", under Calvert's personal rule.
After resigning the secretariat in 1625, the new Baron Baltimore made clear his intention to visit the colony: "I intend shortly," he wrote in March, "God willing, a journey for Newfoundland to visit a plantation which I began there some few years since." His plans were disrupted by the death of King James, and by the crackdown on Catholics with which Charles I began his reign in order to appease his opponents. The new king required all privy councillors to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance; and since Baltimore, as a Catholic, had to refuse, he was obliged to step down from that cherished office. Given the new religious and political climate, and perhaps also to escape a serious outbreak of plague in England, Baltimore moved to Ireland. His expedition to Newfoundland set sail without him in late May 1625 under Sir Arthur Aston
, who became the new governor of Avalon.
A reference by David Rothe, bishop of Ossary, in Ireland, to a "Joane [also recorded as Jane] Baltimore now wife" of Calvert, reveals that Baltimore had recently remarried.
From the time of his conversion in 1625 onwards, Baltimore took care to cater for the religious needs of his colonists, both Catholic and Protestant. He had asked Simon Stock to provide priests for the 1625 expedition, but Stock's recruits arrived in England after Aston had sailed. Stock's own ambitions for the colony appear to have exceeded Baltimore's: in letters to De Propaganda Fide
in Rome, Stock claimed the Newfoundland settlement could act as a springboard for the conversion of natives not only in the New World but also in China, the latter via a passage he believed existed from the east coast to the Pacific Ocean.
Aston's return to England in late 1626, along with all the Catholic settlers, failed to deter Baltimore, who finally sailed for Newfoundland in 1627, arriving on July 23 and staying only two months before returning to England. He had taken both Protestant and Catholic settlers with him, as well as two secular priests
, Thomas Longville and Anthony Pole (also known as Smith), the latter remaining behind in the colony when Baltimore departed for England. The land Baltimore had seen was by no means the paradise described by some early settlers, being only marginally productive; as the summer climate was deceptively mild, his brief visit gave Baltimore no reason to alter his plans for the colony.
In 1628, he sailed again for Newfoundland, this time with his second wife Jane, most of his children, and 40 more settlers, to officially take over as Proprietary Governor
of Avalon. He and his family moved into the house at Ferryland built by Wynne, a sizeable structure for the time, by colonial standards, and the only one in the settlement large enough to accommodate religious services for the community.
Matters connected to religion were to bedevil Baltimore's stay in "this remote part of the worlde where I have planted my selfe [sic]". He sailed at a time when English military preparations were underway to relieve the Huguenots at La Rochelle. He was dismayed to find that the war with France had spread to Newfoundland, and that he had to spend most of his time fighting off French attacks on English fishing fleets with his own ships the Dove and the Ark. As he wrote to Buckingham, "I came to builde, and sett, and sowe, but I am falne to fighting with Frenchmen [sic]". His settlers were so successful against the French that they captured several ships, which they escorted back to England to help with the war effort. Baltimore was granted the loan of one of the ships to aid in his defence of the colony, as well as a share of the prize money.
Adopting a policy of free religious worship in the colony, Baltimore allowed the Catholics to worship in one part of his house and the Protestants in another. This novel arrangement proved too much for the resident Anglican priest, Erasmus Stourton
—"that knave Stourton", as Baltimore referred to him—who, after altercations with Baltimore, was placed on a ship for England, where he lost no time in reporting Baltimore's practices to the authorities, complaining that the Catholic priests Smith and Hackett said mass every Sunday and "doe use all other ceremonies of the church of Rome in as ample a manner as tis used in Spayne [sic]". and that Baltimore had the son of a Protestant forcibly baptised as a Catholic. Although Stourton's complaints were investigated by the Privy Council, due to Baltimore's support in high places, the case was dismissed.
Baltimore had become disenchanted with conditions in "this wofull country", and he wrote to his old acquaintances in England lamenting his troubles. The final blow to his hopes was dealt by the Newfoundland winter of 1628–9, which did not release its grip until May. Like others before them, the residents of Avalon suffered terribly from the cold and from malnutrition. Nine or ten of Baltimore's company died that winter, and with half the settlers ill at one time, his house had to be turned into a hospital. The sea froze over, and nothing would grow before May. "Tis not terra Christianorum", Baltimore wrote to Wentworth. He confessed to the king: "I have found...by too deare bought experience [that which other men] always concealed from me...that there is a sad face of wynter upon all this land".
Baltimore solicited a new charter from the king. In order to found an alternative colony in a less hostile climate further south, he requested "a precinct" in Virginia
, where he could grow tobacco
. He wrote to his friends Francis Cottington and Thomas Wentworth enlisting their support for this new proposal, admitting the impression his abandonment of Avalon might make in England: "I shall rayse a great deal of talke and discourse and be censured by most men of giddiness and levity [sic]". The king, perhaps guided by Baltimore's friends at court, replied expressing concern for Baltimore's health and gently advising him to forget colonial schemes and return to England, where he would be treated with every respect: "Men of your condition and breeding are fitter for other imployments than the framing of new plantations, which commonly have rugged & laborious beginnings, and require much greater meanes, in managing them, than usually the power of one private subject can reach unto".
Baltimore sent his children home to England in August. By the time the king's letter reached Avalon, he had departed with his wife and servants for Virginia.
, where the Virginians, who suspected him of designs on some of their territory and vehemently opposed Catholicism, gave him a cool welcome. They gave him the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, which he refused to take, so they ordered him to leave. After no more than a few weeks in the colony, Baltimore left for England to pursue the new charter, leaving his wife and servants behind. In early 1630, he procured a ship to fetch them, but it foundered off the Irish coast, and his wife was drowned. Baltimore described himself the following year as "a long time myself a Man of Sorrows
".
Baltimore spent the last two years of his life constantly lobbying for his new charter, though the obstacles proved difficult. The Virginians, led by William Claiborne
, who sailed to England to make the case, campaigned aggressively against separate colonising of the Chesapeake, claiming they possessed the rights to that area. Baltimore was short of capital, having exhausted his fortune, and was sometimes forced to depend on the assistance of his friends. To make matters worse, in the summer of 1630, his household was infected by the plague, which he survived. He wrote to Wentworth: "Blessed be God for it who hath preserved me now from shipwreck, hunger, scurvy
and pestilence..."
His health declining, Baltimore's persistence over the charter finally paid off in 1632. The king first granted him a location south of Jamestown, but Baltimore asked the king to reconsider in response to opposition from other investors interested in settling the new land of Carolina
into a sugar plantation. Baltimore eventually compromised by accepting redrawn boundaries to the north of the Potomac River
, on either side of the Chesapeake Bay
. The charter was about to pass when the fifty-two-year-old Baltimore died in his lodgings at Lincoln's Inn Fields, on 15 April 1632. Five weeks later, on 20 June 1632, the charter for Maryland
passed the seals.
, with a new royal charter which Cecil Calvert vigorously challenged, and it was finally absorbed into Newfoundland in 1754. Although Baltimore's failed Avalon venture marked the end of an early era of attempts at proprietary colonisation, it laid the foundation upon which permanent settlements developed in that region of Newfoundland.
Maryland became a prime tobacco exporting colony in the mid-Atlantic and, for a time, a refuge for Catholic settlers, as George Calvert had hoped. Under the rule of the Lords Baltimore, thousands of British Catholics emigrated to Maryland, establishing some of the oldest Catholic communities in what later became the United States. Although Catholic rule in Maryland was eventually nullified by the re-assertion of royal control over the colony, only a few decades later Maryland joined twelve other British colonies along the Atlantic coast in declaring their independence from British rule and the right to freedom of religion for all citizens in the new United States.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland was named for his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
. Numerous other place names honored the Barons Baltimore.
Proprietary Governor
Proprietary Governors were individuals authorized to govern proprietary colonies. Under the proprietary system, individuals or companies were granted commercial charters by the King of England to establish colonies. These proprietors then selected the governors and other officials in the colony....
of Newfoundland (1579–15 April 1632) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and colonizer
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
. He achieved domestic political success as a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
and later Secretary of State
Secretary of State (England)
In the Kingdom of England, the title of Secretary of State came into being near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , the usual title before that having been King's Clerk, King's Secretary, or Principal Secretary....
under King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
. He lost much of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance between Prince Charles
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
and the Spanish royal family. Rather than continue in politics, he resigned all of his political offices in 1625 except for his position on the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
and declared his Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
publicly. He was granted the title of 1st Baron Baltimore
Baron Baltimore
Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore Manor in County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 for George Calvert and became extinct on the death of the sixth Baron in 1771. The title was held by several members of the Calvert family who were proprietors of the palatinates...
in the Irish peerage upon his resignation.
Calvert took an interest in the colonisation
Colonisation
Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect", originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the...
of the New World, at first for commercial reasons and later to create a refuge for English Catholics. He became the proprietor of Avalon
Province of Avalon
Province of Avalon was the area around the settlement of Ferryland, Newfoundland and Labrador, in the 17th century, which upon the success of the colony grew to include the land held by Sir William Vaughan and all the land that lay between Ferryland and Petty Harbour.Sir George Calvert had acquired...
, the first sustained English settlement on the island of Newfoundland. Discouraged by its climate and the sufferings of the settlers, Calvert looked for a more suitable spot further south and sought a new royal charter to settle the region, which would become the state of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Calvert died five weeks before the new charter was sealed, leaving the settlement of the Maryland colony to his son Cecilius
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, 1st Proprietor and 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland, 9th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland , was an English peer who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland. He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, the...
. His second son Leonard Calvert
Leonard Calvert
Leonard Calvert was the 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland. He was the second son of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, the first proprietary of the Province of Maryland...
was the first colonial governor of the Province of Maryland
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...
. Historians have long recognized George Calvert as the founder of Maryland, in spirit if not in fact.
Family and early life
Little is known of the ancestry of the YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
Calverts. At George Calvert's knighting, it was claimed that his family originally came from Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
. Calvert's father Leonard was a country gentleman who had achieved some prominence as a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton
Philip Wharton, 3rd Baron Wharton
Philip Wharton, 3rd Baron Wharton was an English peer of the Wharton barony. He was named after his godfather, Philip II of Spain. He inherited the title of Baron when he was 17 years old....
, and was wealthy enough to marry a gentlewoman
Gentlewoman
A gentlewoman in the original and strict sense is a woman of good family, analogous to the Latin generosus and generosa...
, Alicia or Alice Crossland. He established his family on the estate of Kiplin
Kiplin
Kiplin is the small hamlet that accompanies Kiplin Hall to form the civil parish of Kiplin in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore and founder of the US state of Maryland, was born there....
, near Catterick
Catterick, North Yorkshire
Catterick , sometimes Catterick Village, to distinguish it from the nearby Catterick Garrison, is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England...
in Richmondshire
Richmondshire
Richmondshire is a local government district of North Yorkshire, England. It covers a large northern area of the Yorkshire Dales including Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, Wensleydale and Coverdale, with the prominent Scots' Dyke and Scotch Corner along the centre. Teesdale lies to the north...
, North Yorkshire. George Calvert was born at Kiplin in late 1579. His mother died on 28 November 1587, when he was eight years old. His father then married Grace Crossland, Alicia's first cousin.
In 1569, Sir Thomas Gargrave had described Richmondshire as a territory where all gentlemen were "evil in religion", by which he meant Roman Catholic; it appears Leonard Calvert was no exception. During the reign of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, the royal government over the church and of compulsory religious uniformity were enacted by parliament and enforced through penal laws. The Acts of Supremacy
Acts of Supremacy
The first Act of Supremacy was a piece of legislation that granted King Henry VIII of England Royal Supremacy, which means that he was declared the supreme head of the Church of England. It is still the legal authority of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom...
and Uniformity
Act of Uniformity 1559
The Act of Uniformity set the order of prayer to be used in the English Book of Common Prayer. Every man had to go to church once a week or be fined 12 pence , a considerable sum for the poor. By this Act Elizabeth I made it a legal obligation to go to church every Sunday...
of 1559 included an oath of allegiance to the queen and an implicit denial of the Pope's authority over the English church. This oath was required of any common citizen who wished to hold high office, attend university, or take advantage of opportunities controlled by the state.
The Calvert household suffered the intrusion of the Elizabethan religious laws. From the year of George's birth onwards, Leonard Calvert was subjected to repeated harassment by the Yorkshire authorities, who in 1580 extracted a promise of conformity from him, compelling his attendance at the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. In 1592, when George was twelve, the authorities denounced one of his tutors for teaching "from a popish primer" and instructed Leonard and Grace to send George and his brother Christopher to a Protestant tutor, and, if necessary, to present the children before the commission “once a month to see how they perfect in learning”. As a result, the boys were sent to a Protestant tutor called Mr Fowberry at Bilton. The senior Calvert had to give a bond of conformity; he was banned from employing Catholic servants and forced to purchase an English Bible, which was to "ly open in his house for everyone to read".
In 1593, records show that Grace Calvert was committed to the custody of a pursuivant, an official responsible for identifying and persecuting Catholics, and in 1604, she was described as the "wife of Leonard Calvert of Kipling, non-communicant at Easter last".
George Calvert went up to Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
, matriculating in 1593/94, where he studied foreign languages and received a bachelor’s degree in 1597. As the oath of allegiance was compulsory after the age of sixteen, he would almost certainly have pledged conformity while at Oxford. The same pattern of conformity, whether pretended or sincere, continued through Calvert’s early life. After Oxford, he moved to London in 1598, where he studied municipal law at Lincoln’s Inn for three years.
Marriage and family
In November 1604, he married Anne Mynne (or Mayne) in a Protestant ceremony at St Peter’s, Cornhill, where his address was registered as St Martin in the Fields. His children, including his heir, CæciliusCæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, 1st Proprietor and 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland, 9th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland , was an English peer who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland. He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, the...
, who was born in the winter of 1605–6, were all baptized as Protestants. When Anne died on 8 August 1622, she was buried at Calvert’s local Protestant church, St Martin in the Fields.
Political success
Calvert named his son Cecilius for Sir Robert CecilRobert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC was an English administrator and politician.-Life:He was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Mildred Cooke...
, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth, whom Calvert had met during an extended trip to Europe between 1601 and 1603, after which he became known as a specialist in foreign affairs. Calvert carried a packet for Cecil from Paris, and so entered the service of the principal engineer of James VI of Scotland’s succession to the English throne in 1603.
James rewarded Cecil, whom he made a privy councillor
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
and secretary of state, earl of Salisbury
Earl of Salisbury
Earl of Salisbury is a title that has been created several times in British history. It has a complex history, being first created for Patrick de Salisbury in the middle twelfth century. It was eventually inherited by Alice, wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster...
in 1605, and in 1608 Lord High Treasurer
Lord High Treasurer
The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Act of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third highest ranked Great Officer of State, below the Lord High Chancellor and above the Lord President...
, making him the most powerful man at the royal court. As Cecil rose, Calvert rose with him. Calvert’s foreign languages, legal training, and discretion made him an invaluable aide to Cecil, who, no lover of Catholics, seems to have accepted Calvert’s conformity as beyond question. Working at the centre of court politics, Calvert exploited his influence by selling favours, an accepted practice for the times. Calvert accumulated a number of small offices, honours, and sinecures. In August 1605, he attended the king at Oxford, and received an honorary master-of-arts degree in an elaborate ceremony at which the Duke of Lennox
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond was a Scottish nobleman and politician. He was the son of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox and his wife Catherine de Balsac. Stewart was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England...
, the earls of Oxford and Northumberland, and Cecil received degrees. Given the prestige of the other graduates, Calvert's was the last awarded, but his presence in such company signalled his growing stature.
In 1606, the king made Calvert clerk of the Crown and Assizes in Connaught, County Clare, Ireland, his first royal appointment. In 1609, James appointed him a clerk of the Signet office, a post which required the preparation of documents for the royal signature and brought Calvert into close contact with the king. Calvert also served in James’s first parliament as a member for the borough of Bossiney
Bossiney
Bossiney is a village in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is north-east of the larger village of Tintagel which it adjoins: further north-east are the Rocky Valley and Trethevy.-History:...
, Cornwall, installed there by Cecil to support his policies. In 1610, Calvert was appointed a clerk of the Privy Council. Each of these positions would have required an oath of allegiance.
With Cecil's support, Calvert came into his own as an advisor and supporter of King James. In 1610 and 1611, Calvert undertook missions to the continent on behalf of the king, visiting a number of embassies in Paris, Holland, and Cleves
Duchy of Cleves
The Duchy of Cleves was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the town of Wesel, bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west...
, and acting as an ambassador to the French court during the coronation of Louis XIII in 1610. A correspondent from France reported that Calvert gave “everyone great contentment with his discreet conversation.” In 1615, James sent him to the Palatinate (German), whose impoverished elector, Frederick V
Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia ....
, had married James’s daughter Elizabeth
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Elizabeth of Bohemia was the eldest daughter of King James VI and I, King of Scotland, England, Ireland, and Anne of Denmark. As the wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, she was Electress Palatine and briefly Queen of Bohemia...
in 1613. Calvert had to convey the king’s disapproval that Elizabeth, for lack of money, had given away expensive jewels to a gentlewoman leaving her employ. Frederick’s decision in 1619 to accept the throne of Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
triggered a war with the powerful Habsburgs, which James attempted to end through a proposed alliance with Spain.
In 1611, James employed Calvert to research and transcribe his tract against the Dutch theologian Conrad Vorstius
Conrad Vorstius
Conrad Vorstius was a German-Dutch Protestant Remonstrant theologian, and successor to Jacobus Arminius in the theology chair at Leiden.-Early life:...
. The following year, Cecil died, and Calvert acted as one of the four executors of his will. The king’s favourite
Favourite
A favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...
, Sir Robert Carr
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , was a politician, and favourite of King James I of England.-Background:Robert Kerr was born in Wrington, Somerset, England the younger son of Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehurst, Scotland by his second wife, Janet, sister of Walter Scott of Buccleuch...
, Viscount Rochester, assumed the duties of secretary of state and recruited Calvert to assist with foreign policy, in particular the Latin and Spanish correspondence. Carr, soon raised to the earldom of Somerset, was not a success in the job, and fell from favour partly as a result of the murder of Thomas Overbury
Thomas Overbury
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history...
, to which Carr's wife, Frances, the former Countess of Essex
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset was an English noblewoman who was the central figure in a famous scandal and murder during the reign of King James I...
, pleaded guilty in 1615. Carr's place as James’s principal favourite was now taken by the handsome George Villiers
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
, with whom James was said to have been infatuated.
Danby Wiske
Danby Wiske is a village in the district of Hambleton in North Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement in the civil parish of Danby Wiske with Lazenby. The village lies on a minor road between the village of Streetlam and the A167 near Northallerton...
in Yorkshire, which brought him into contact with Sir Thomas Wentworth, who became his closest friend and political ally. Calvert was now wealthy enough to buy the Kiplin estate in his home parish; and in 1617, his social status received a further boost when he was knighted.
In 1619, Calvert completed his rise to power when James appointed him as one of the two principal secretaries of state
Secretary of State (England)
In the Kingdom of England, the title of Secretary of State came into being near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I , the usual title before that having been King's Clerk, King's Secretary, or Principal Secretary....
. This followed the dismissal of Sir Thomas Lake
Thomas Lake
Sir Thomas Lake was Secretary of State to James I of England. He was a Member of Parliament in 1604, 1614, 1625 and 1626....
due to scandals, including his wife’s indiscretions with state secrets. Not emerging as a candidate until the end of the selection process, Calvert's appointment surprised him and most observers. Assuming he owed his promotion to the king’s increasingly powerful favourite, George Villiers, he sent him a great jewel as a token of thanks. Villiers returned the jewel, however, saying he had had nothing to do with the matter. Calvert's personal fortune was secured when he was additionally appointed a commissioner of the treasury with a £1,000 pension and a subsidy on imported raw silk, which would later be converted to another £1,000 pension.
Secretary of state
Spanish Match
The Spanish Match was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles, the son of King James I of England, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of Spain...
, as it came to be called, against the majority of Parliament, who feared an increase in Catholic influence on the state. As a result of his pro-Spanish stance and defence of relaxations in the penal laws against Catholics, Calvert became estranged from many in the Commons, who were suspicious of his close familiarity with the Spanish ambassador's court. Calvert also faced difficulties in his private life: his wife's death on 8 August 1622, left him the single father of ten children, the oldest of whom, Cæcilius, was sixteen years old.
Although King James rewarded Calvert in 1623 for his loyalty by granting him a 2300 acres (9.3 km²) estate in County Longford
County Longford
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland, where his seat was known as the Manor of Baltimore, Calvert was increasingly isolated from court circles as the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
wrested control of policy from the ageing James. Without consulting the diplomatically astute Calvert, the prince and the duke travelled to Spain to negotiate the Spanish marriage for themselves, with disastrous results. Instead of securing an alliance, the visit provoked a hostility between the two courts which quickly led to war. In a reversal of policy, Buckingham dismissed the treaties with Spain, summoned a war council, and sought a French marriage for the prince.
Resignation and conversion to Catholicism
As the chief parliamentary spokesman for an abandoned policy, Calvert no longer served a useful purpose to the court, and by February 1624 his duties had been restricted to placating the Spanish ambassador. The degree of his disfavour was shown when he was reprimanded for supposedly delaying diplomatic letters. Calvert bowed to the inevitable. On the pretext of ill health, he began negotiations for the sale of his position, finally resigning the secretariat in February 1625.No disgrace was attached to Calvert's departure from office: the king, to whom he had always remained loyal, confirmed his place on the Privy Council and appointed him Baron Baltimore
Baron Baltimore
Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore Manor in County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 for George Calvert and became extinct on the death of the sixth Baron in 1771. The title was held by several members of the Calvert family who were proprietors of the palatinates...
, in County Longford, Ireland. Immediately after Calvert resigned, he converted to Catholicism.
George Abbot (Archbishop of Canterbury)
George Abbot was an English divine and Archbishop of Canterbury. He also served as the fourth Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, between 1612 and 1633....
, reported that political opposition to Calvert, combined with his loss of office, had "made him discontented and, as the saying is, Desperatio facit monachum, so hee apparently did turne papist, which hee now professeth, this being the third time that he hath bene to blame that way [sic]". Godfrey Goodman
Godfrey Goodman
Godfrey Goodman was the Anglican Bishop of Gloucester, and a member of the Protestant Church. He was the son of Godfrey Goodman and Jane Croxton, landed gentry living in Wales...
, Bishop of Gloucester, later claimed Calvert had been a secret Catholic all along ("infinitely addicted to the Catholic faith"), which explained his support for lenient policies towards Catholics and for the Spanish match.
But, no one had questioned Calvert's conformity at the time, and if he had indeed been secretly Catholic, he had hidden it well. It seems more likely Calvert converted in late 1624. At the time, Simon Stock, a Discalced Carmelite
Discalced Carmelites
The Discalced Carmelites, or Barefoot Carmelites, is a Catholic mendicant order with roots in the eremitic tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers...
priest reported to the Congregation Propaganda Fide
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome is the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for missionary work and related activities...
in Rome on November 15 that he had converted two Privy Councillors to Catholicism, one of whom historians are certain was Calvert. Calvert, who had probably met Stock at the Spanish embassy in London, later worked with the priest on a plan for a Catholic mission in his Newfoundland colony.
When King James died in March 1625, his successor Charles I maintained Calvert's barony but not his place on the Privy Council. Calvert turned his attention to his Irish estates and his overseas investments. He was not entirely forgotten at court. After Buckingham's dabblings in wars against Spain and France had ended in failure, he recalled Baltimore to court, and for a while may have considered employing him in the peace negotiations with Spain. Though nothing came of Baltimore's recall, he renewed his rights over the silk-import duties, which had lapsed with the death of James I, and secured Charles' blessing for his venture in Newfoundland.
Avalon colony
Calvert had long maintained an interest in the exploration and settlement of the New World, beginning with his investment of twenty-five pounds in the second Virginia CompanyVirginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
in 1609, and a few months later a more substantial sum in the East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, which he increased in 1614. In 1620, Calvert purchased a tract of land in Newfoundland from Sir William Vaughan
William Vaughan (writer)
-Life:He was the son of Walter Vaughan and was born at Golden Grove, Carmarthenshire, Wales—his father's estate. He was descended from an ancient prince of Powys. He was brother to John Vaughan, 1st Earl of Carbery and Henry Vaughan , a well-known Royalist leader in the English Civil War...
, who had failed to establish a colony on the island. He named it Avalon
Avalon
Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae as the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged and later where Arthur was...
, after the legendary spot where Christianity was introduced to Britain. The plantation lay on what is now called the Avalon Peninsula
Avalon Peninsula
The Avalon Peninsula is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland.The peninsula is home to 257,223 people, which is approximately 51% of Newfoundland's population in 2009, and is the location of the provincial capital, St. John's. It is connected to the...
and included the fishing station at Ferryland
Ferryland
Ferryland is a town in Newfoundland and Labrador on the Avalon Peninsula. According to the 2006 Statistics Canada census, its population is 529. Addresses in Ferryland use the alphanumerically lowest postal codes in Canada, starting with A0A....
. Calvert almost certainly had a fishery project in mind at this stage.
Calvert dispatched Captain Edward Wynne
Edward Wynne
Edward Wynne was Proprietary Governor of Ferryland colony from 1621 to 1626. Born in Wales, he was appointed by George Calvert to establish the colony, and in August 1621, he landed at Ferryland with 12 men. By November of that same year, the colonists had completed a large dwelling, and then by...
and a group of Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
colonists to Ferryland, where they landed in August 1621 and set about constructing a settlement. Wynne sent positive reports concerning the potential for local fisheries and for the production of salt, hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
, flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
, tar
Tar
Tar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...
, iron, timber and hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
. Wynne also praised the climate, declaring, "It is better and not so cold as England" and predicted that the colony would become self-sufficient after one year. Others corroborated Wynne's reports: for example, Captain Daniel Powell, who delivered a further party of settlers to Ferryland, wrote: "The land on which our Governor planted is so good and commodious, that for the quantity, I think there is no better in many parts of England"; but he added ominously that Ferryland was "the coldest harbour in the land". Wynne and his men began work on various building projects, including a substantial house and the shoring up of the harbour. To protect them against marauding French ships, a recent hazard in the area, Calvert employed the pirate John Nutt
John Nutt
This article is about John Nutt the English pirate. For John Nutt the 18th century English printer, see John Nutt .John Nutt was a 17th-century English pirate. He was one of the more notorious brigands of his time raiding the coast of southern Canada and western England for over three years...
.
The settlement appeared to be progressing so well that in January 1623 Calvert obtained a concession from King James for the whole of Newfoundland, though the grant was soon reduced to cover only the Avalon peninsula, owing to competing claims. The final charter constituted the province as a palatinate
County palatine
A county palatine or palatinate is an area ruled by an hereditary nobleman possessing special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom or empire. The name derives from the Latin adjective palatinus, "relating to the palace", from the noun palatium, "palace"...
, officially titled the "Province of Avalon", under Calvert's personal rule.
After resigning the secretariat in 1625, the new Baron Baltimore made clear his intention to visit the colony: "I intend shortly," he wrote in March, "God willing, a journey for Newfoundland to visit a plantation which I began there some few years since." His plans were disrupted by the death of King James, and by the crackdown on Catholics with which Charles I began his reign in order to appease his opponents. The new king required all privy councillors to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance; and since Baltimore, as a Catholic, had to refuse, he was obliged to step down from that cherished office. Given the new religious and political climate, and perhaps also to escape a serious outbreak of plague in England, Baltimore moved to Ireland. His expedition to Newfoundland set sail without him in late May 1625 under Sir Arthur Aston
Arthur Aston
Sir Arthur Aston was appointed Proprietary Governor of Avalon in 1625 by Sir George Calvert. Aston was a devout Roman Catholic and was recommended by Father Stout to govern the Catholic colony...
, who became the new governor of Avalon.
A reference by David Rothe, bishop of Ossary, in Ireland, to a "Joane [also recorded as Jane] Baltimore now wife" of Calvert, reveals that Baltimore had recently remarried.
From the time of his conversion in 1625 onwards, Baltimore took care to cater for the religious needs of his colonists, both Catholic and Protestant. He had asked Simon Stock to provide priests for the 1625 expedition, but Stock's recruits arrived in England after Aston had sailed. Stock's own ambitions for the colony appear to have exceeded Baltimore's: in letters to De Propaganda Fide
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome is the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for missionary work and related activities...
in Rome, Stock claimed the Newfoundland settlement could act as a springboard for the conversion of natives not only in the New World but also in China, the latter via a passage he believed existed from the east coast to the Pacific Ocean.
Baltimore in Avalon
Baltimore was determined to visit his colony in person. In May 1626, he wrote to Wentworth:Aston's return to England in late 1626, along with all the Catholic settlers, failed to deter Baltimore, who finally sailed for Newfoundland in 1627, arriving on July 23 and staying only two months before returning to England. He had taken both Protestant and Catholic settlers with him, as well as two secular priests
Secular clergy
The term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or members of a religious order.-Catholic Church:In the Catholic Church, the secular clergy are ministers, such as deacons and priests, who do not belong to a religious order...
, Thomas Longville and Anthony Pole (also known as Smith), the latter remaining behind in the colony when Baltimore departed for England. The land Baltimore had seen was by no means the paradise described by some early settlers, being only marginally productive; as the summer climate was deceptively mild, his brief visit gave Baltimore no reason to alter his plans for the colony.
Proprietary Governor
Proprietary Governors were individuals authorized to govern proprietary colonies. Under the proprietary system, individuals or companies were granted commercial charters by the King of England to establish colonies. These proprietors then selected the governors and other officials in the colony....
of Avalon. He and his family moved into the house at Ferryland built by Wynne, a sizeable structure for the time, by colonial standards, and the only one in the settlement large enough to accommodate religious services for the community.
Matters connected to religion were to bedevil Baltimore's stay in "this remote part of the worlde where I have planted my selfe [sic]". He sailed at a time when English military preparations were underway to relieve the Huguenots at La Rochelle. He was dismayed to find that the war with France had spread to Newfoundland, and that he had to spend most of his time fighting off French attacks on English fishing fleets with his own ships the Dove and the Ark. As he wrote to Buckingham, "I came to builde, and sett, and sowe, but I am falne to fighting with Frenchmen [sic]". His settlers were so successful against the French that they captured several ships, which they escorted back to England to help with the war effort. Baltimore was granted the loan of one of the ships to aid in his defence of the colony, as well as a share of the prize money.
Adopting a policy of free religious worship in the colony, Baltimore allowed the Catholics to worship in one part of his house and the Protestants in another. This novel arrangement proved too much for the resident Anglican priest, Erasmus Stourton
Erasmus Stourton
Erasmus Stourton was a clergyman and early settler to the Colony of Avalon, Newfoundland in 1627...
—"that knave Stourton", as Baltimore referred to him—who, after altercations with Baltimore, was placed on a ship for England, where he lost no time in reporting Baltimore's practices to the authorities, complaining that the Catholic priests Smith and Hackett said mass every Sunday and "doe use all other ceremonies of the church of Rome in as ample a manner as tis used in Spayne [sic]". and that Baltimore had the son of a Protestant forcibly baptised as a Catholic. Although Stourton's complaints were investigated by the Privy Council, due to Baltimore's support in high places, the case was dismissed.
Baltimore had become disenchanted with conditions in "this wofull country", and he wrote to his old acquaintances in England lamenting his troubles. The final blow to his hopes was dealt by the Newfoundland winter of 1628–9, which did not release its grip until May. Like others before them, the residents of Avalon suffered terribly from the cold and from malnutrition. Nine or ten of Baltimore's company died that winter, and with half the settlers ill at one time, his house had to be turned into a hospital. The sea froze over, and nothing would grow before May. "Tis not terra Christianorum", Baltimore wrote to Wentworth. He confessed to the king: "I have found...by too deare bought experience [that which other men] always concealed from me...that there is a sad face of wynter upon all this land".
Colony and Dominion of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia was the English colony in North America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution...
, where he could grow tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
. He wrote to his friends Francis Cottington and Thomas Wentworth enlisting their support for this new proposal, admitting the impression his abandonment of Avalon might make in England: "I shall rayse a great deal of talke and discourse and be censured by most men of giddiness and levity [sic]". The king, perhaps guided by Baltimore's friends at court, replied expressing concern for Baltimore's health and gently advising him to forget colonial schemes and return to England, where he would be treated with every respect: "Men of your condition and breeding are fitter for other imployments than the framing of new plantations, which commonly have rugged & laborious beginnings, and require much greater meanes, in managing them, than usually the power of one private subject can reach unto".
Baltimore sent his children home to England in August. By the time the king's letter reached Avalon, he had departed with his wife and servants for Virginia.
Attempt to found a mid-Atlantic colony
In late September or October 1629, Baltimore arrived in JamestownJamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
, where the Virginians, who suspected him of designs on some of their territory and vehemently opposed Catholicism, gave him a cool welcome. They gave him the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, which he refused to take, so they ordered him to leave. After no more than a few weeks in the colony, Baltimore left for England to pursue the new charter, leaving his wife and servants behind. In early 1630, he procured a ship to fetch them, but it foundered off the Irish coast, and his wife was drowned. Baltimore described himself the following year as "a long time myself a Man of Sorrows
Man of Sorrows
Among the passages in the Hebrew Bible that have been identified by Christians as prefigurations of the Messiah, the Man of Sorrows of Isaiah 53 is paramount - the various theological traditions are discussed at that article...
".
Baltimore spent the last two years of his life constantly lobbying for his new charter, though the obstacles proved difficult. The Virginians, led by William Claiborne
William Claiborne
William Claiborne was an English pioneer, surveyor, and an early settler in Virginia and Maryland. Claiborne became a wealthy planter, a trader, and a major figure in the politics of the colony...
, who sailed to England to make the case, campaigned aggressively against separate colonising of the Chesapeake, claiming they possessed the rights to that area. Baltimore was short of capital, having exhausted his fortune, and was sometimes forced to depend on the assistance of his friends. To make matters worse, in the summer of 1630, his household was infected by the plague, which he survived. He wrote to Wentworth: "Blessed be God for it who hath preserved me now from shipwreck, hunger, scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
and pestilence..."
His health declining, Baltimore's persistence over the charter finally paid off in 1632. The king first granted him a location south of Jamestown, but Baltimore asked the king to reconsider in response to opposition from other investors interested in settling the new land of Carolina
Province of Carolina
The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...
into a sugar plantation. Baltimore eventually compromised by accepting redrawn boundaries to the north of the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
, on either side of the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
. The charter was about to pass when the fifty-two-year-old Baltimore died in his lodgings at Lincoln's Inn Fields, on 15 April 1632. Five weeks later, on 20 June 1632, the charter for Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
passed the seals.
Legacy
In his will, written the day before he died, Baltimore beseeched his friends Wentworth and Cottington to act as guardians and supervisors to his first son Cecil, who inherited the title of Lord Baltimore and the imminent grant of Maryland. Baltimore's two colonies in the New World continued under the proprietorship of his family. Avalon, which remained a prime spot for the salting and export of fish, was expropriated by Sir David KirkeDavid Kirke
Sir David Kirke was an adventurer, colonizer and governor for the king of England. Kirke was the son of Gervase Kirke, a wealthy London-based Scottish merchant, who had married a Huguenot woman, Elizabeth Goudon, and was raised in Dieppe, in Normandy.In 1627 Kirke's father and several London...
, with a new royal charter which Cecil Calvert vigorously challenged, and it was finally absorbed into Newfoundland in 1754. Although Baltimore's failed Avalon venture marked the end of an early era of attempts at proprietary colonisation, it laid the foundation upon which permanent settlements developed in that region of Newfoundland.
Maryland became a prime tobacco exporting colony in the mid-Atlantic and, for a time, a refuge for Catholic settlers, as George Calvert had hoped. Under the rule of the Lords Baltimore, thousands of British Catholics emigrated to Maryland, establishing some of the oldest Catholic communities in what later became the United States. Although Catholic rule in Maryland was eventually nullified by the re-assertion of royal control over the colony, only a few decades later Maryland joined twelve other British colonies along the Atlantic coast in declaring their independence from British rule and the right to freedom of religion for all citizens in the new United States.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland was named for his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, 1st Proprietor and 1st Proprietary Governor of Maryland, 9th Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland , was an English peer who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland. He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, the...
. Numerous other place names honored the Barons Baltimore.
See also
- British colonization of the AmericasBritish colonization of the AmericasBritish colonization of the Americas began in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the Americas...
- Calvert family
- Kiplin HallKiplin HallKiplin Hall is a Jacobean historic house at Kiplin in North Yorkshire, England, that is now a Grade I listed building. It stands by the River Swale in the Vale of Mowbray. The nearest villages are Scorton, Great Langton and Bolton-on-Swale...
- Province of MarylandProvince of MarylandThe Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...
External links
- Calvert, Sir George (bio), from "The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador: Government House" website.
- Calvert, Sir George (bio), from Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Calvert, Sir George (bio), from Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
, full-article free, latest online edition. - Calvert, Sir George (bio), from 1911 Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
. - Calvert, Sir George (bio), from Maryland State Archives. Includes photographs and sources.