George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore
 |
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.
See also: British colonization of the Americasand
Kiplin Hall*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*[
1] -- Kiplin Hall, Yorkshire
