George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore

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The Lord Baltimore.
(Painting by Stewart Montgomerie, 1997)

George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore (c. 1580 – 15 April 1632) was an English politician and coloniser.

He was born at Kiplin near Catterick in Richmondshire and was educated at Trinity College, Oxford. In 1606 he was made a Clerk of the Crown in Connaught and was made a Clerk of the Privy Council in 1608. In 1609 he became a Member of Parliament and was knighted in 1617 for service to King James I in matters foreign and domestic. After Calvert became a Secretary of State in 1619, he purchased Kiplin estate and built Kiplin Hall which still stands today.

In 1620, Calvert purchased a tract of land in Newfoundland between Fermeuse and Aquaforte on what is now the Avalon Peninsula. In 1621, Calvert sent Edward Wynne and a group of Welsh colonists to found a settlement at Ferryland. The new colony grew and became the first successful permanent British settlement on the island. Calvert was granted a Royal Charter in 1623 and his land grant was extended from Ferryland to Petty Harbour and from Conception Bay to west of Placentia Bay and was named the Province of Avalon.

Calvert converted to Catholicism in 1625 and, shockingly, announced it publicly. Since Catholics could not hold civil office, Calvert resigned as Secretary of State. His service in that post was a failure, as he had failed in the attempt to negotiate a marriage between the Prince of Wales (the future King Charles I) and Maria, daughter of King Philip III of Spain. However, in 1625 Calvert was granted the title of Lord Baltimore, of Baltimore in the County of Longford, as a reward for his loyalty to the King and moved to his Irish estates.

Baltimore travelled to Avalon in 1627 and in 1628 took over as Proprietary Governor of Avalon from his agent. He brought two Catholic priests with him with the intent of making the colony a haven for persecuted Catholics. One of the priests founded at Ferryland the first Catholic mission on British North American soil. In 1628 Baltimore brought his wife and eldest son, Cecil, with him to settle, but became disenchanted due to a harsh winter which killed ten settlers and afflicted many others with scurvy, as well as constant harassment of the colony by French pirates and criticism by Puritans for his covertly establishing a Catholic colony.

Lord Baltimore applied for a new Royal Charter for what was to become the Province of Maryland and set out for the territory in 1629 leaving his son in charge of Avalon. He landed in Virginia but the English colonists rejected him and he went back to Ireland.

In 1632 Baltimore sent Leonard Calvert and 300 settlers back to America. However, he died in April 1632, two months before his Royal Charter was officially granted, and his son Cecil established Maryland the following year.

External links

[Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]
[link] -- Kiplin Hall, Yorkshire

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