George Calvert
First Lord Baltimore
Michael
Humphries, MA
With the
dawning of the seventeenth century, England
was thrust into political, religious, and social turmoil as the medieval
period slowly gave way to a modern Europe. The early explorations led
to the founding of colonies in the New World by European nations in
search of gold and a passage through the northwest to the riches of the
Orient. Spain had developed and administered a colonial empire that
included two continents and was rivaled by none. France was
establishing fur trading posts along the northern limits of North America
in a vast land known as Canada. Portugal
was developing a fishing industry on the outer banks of Newfoundland
while the Dutch were exploring and beginning settlements in the
mid-Atlantic area of the east cost. A late contender in this arena of
European rivalry, England
was attempting to attract investors to again establish a colony in the New World
after the disastrous attempts at Roanoke Island in
the final years of the sixteenth century. Reports of a new land, lush
with forests and filed with prospects of untold wealth were brought back
to England by explorers who had sailed the Chesapeake Bay. These
events, although, appealing to the more adventurous souls, were placed
in the background by more compelling events. The political intrigue of
seventeenth century England would see the fall of two kings and with one
losing his head. Religious extremists were instrumental in the rise of
separatists seeking to further purify the Anglican Church from the Roman
Catholic roots. The familiar medieval social structure with knights,
lords, and manors would soon become distant to the new mercantile class
that would be the captains of the world’s industries. The progression
from a predominantly agricultural economy to one of manufacturing
reduced the available acreage of farmland and increased the amount of
land necessary for the raising of sheep to supply the expanding demands
of the English factories.
George
Calvert was born in 1580 to a Catholic family in Kipling, Yorkshire.
After many years of experiencing pressure to join the Anglican Church by
civil authorities, George’s father finally submitted and became a
member. It is thought that George’s stepmother remained a Catholic
throughout this perilous time. As a well educated Anglican gentleman,
young George graduated from Oxford
University in 1597 and set forth on a tour of Europe. Soon after his
return from the continent, Calvert was introduced to Sir Robert Cecil, a
member of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council. Sir Robert was impressed
with the young Calvert and employed him as his personal secretary. The
closeness of Calvert to his mentor was reflected in the naming of his
first born son, Cecil, who was named in honor of Sir Robert. Calvert’s
star had begun to rise and he was appointed clerk of the Privy Council
in 1608 and served as a member of Parliament. King James I then tapped
Calvert for a difficult mission to Europe
as a special emissary. In 1617, he became a knight and in 1619, a
principal Secretary of State. Thus George Calvert, who had started his
career with limited financial resources and hailing from a austere
family, used his natural abilities and education to become a favorite at
court and was able to place himself in a position to obtain favors
necessary to realize his goals of planting a colony in the New World.
With his
contacts as a member of the court, George Calvert was privy to
discussions of wealth and treasure thought to be found in the New
World.
Believing that land ownership was the key to a successful
business venture, Calvert found himself able to realize his goal of
investing in foreign lands as a way of increasing his wealth. Calvert
began by buying shares in the East India Company and in 1609 purchased
stock in the Virginia Company, which had recently established the colony
of Jamestown. Learning from the failures and successes of these
colonial ventures, Calvert then bought the controlling interest in a
patent for the founding of a colony in Newfoundland in 1620. The
following year he financed an expedition to establish the colony of
Avalon and called his plantation Ferryland. Two years later, he added
to his holdings with the addition of the entire southeast coast of the
island.
Tragedy struck in
1622 with the death of his wife, Anne, leaving him a widower with eleven
children. While in mourning and with his personal political fortunes in
decline, Calvert began to develop a greater interest in religion
resulting in his conversion to Catholicism. With this choice of
conscience, Calvert realized that his duties as a public official were
ended and he tended his resignation as Secretary of State. Immediately
following his departure from court and as a reward for his many years of
faithful service, King James I raised Calvert to the Irish peerage as
Baron of Baltimore in the county of Longford. Soon after in 1625, James
I died and his son Charles I ascended the throne. Summoned before the
new king to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, Calvert
respectfully declined stating that his faith would not allow him to do
so. With this official act, George Calvert was officially disqualified
from holding any public office. With no public duties, the first Lord
Baltimore devoted his time to managing his colony on the “rim of
Christendom.” After two summer visits, Calvert wrote to King Charles I
on August 19, 1629 that:
…from the middst
of October to the middst of May there is a sadd face of wynter upon all
this land, both sea and land so frozen for the greatest part of the
tyme as they are not penetratable, no plant or vegetable thing appearing
out of the earth untilit be about the beginning of May…
Calvert
requested that a new patent be granted to him with a better location and
including the same rights and powers previously found in the Avalon
Charter. He went on to request a charter be granted from “his majesty’s
dominion”, Virginia. With this idea firmly lodged in his mind,
Calvert’s quest of establishing a new colony on the shores of the
Chesapeake Bay became paramount in his plans to convince Charles I to
approve his request. In the interim, following the disappointing
experiences in Newfoundland, Calvert set sail for Jamestown where he was
met with courtesy but without enthusiasm. Again, he was
requested to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy by the Virginia
officials and again, he refused. Setting sail for England, Calvert
became determined to plant his new colony along the shoreline of the
Chesapeake Bay. Upon his
arrival in England, Calvert met with resistance to his plans and was
discouraged from pursuing a land grant within the boundaries of the
Virginia colony. Never far from his thoughts, was the plight of
his fellow Catholics and the constant persecution they faced in a
religiously intolerant England. Calvert was aware that Catholicism
would never again occupy the position that it had before the Reformation
in England and his fellow Catholics, at best, would be a religious
minority in a predominantly Protestant country. He further
reasoned that one way to protect the Catholic minority was to provide a
haven from the hostilities of an intolerant religious majority. To
transplant a Catholic aristocracy and its accompanying feudalistic
society with its titles, manors, and courts to the New World, was not a
new idea in post Reformation Catholic thought. The advantages of
providing Catholic gentry the idea of a new start in a safe environment
in exchange for financial support and a dependable labor supply would
result in an well-organized colonization effort whose chances of success
would be increased.
With the
well-orchestrated opposition of the Virginia colonists facing Calvert
and his proposed colony, the likelihood of a Catholic settlement in the
Chesapeake area became increasingly dim. However, with the marriage of
Charles I to the Catholic Henrietta Maria, daughter of assassinated King
Henry IV, and sister to King Louis XIII of France, the king saw the
opportunity to please his new queen, and at the same time, assist his
father’s old friend in his quest for a safe haven for Catholics.
Popular belief and legend suggests that Lord Baltimore prepared the
charter and presented it to Charles I for his approval complete but with
the name of the colony having been left blank. Into this space, Charles
I wrote the name of his queen, and the newly granted colony was named
after Henrietta Maria. Thereafter, Lord Baltimore’s new settlement
became known as Terra Maria, …Mary’s Land.
George
Calvert would never live to see the new colony planted, nor would he
become the first proprietor of this unique experiment in religious
freedom. He died on April 15, 1632 just two months before the final
version of the charter was issued on June 20, to his heir and son Cecil,
the second Lord Baltimore and the first Proprietor of the Maryland.
With the landing of the Maryland colonists on St. Clement’s Island in
March of 1634, a new tradition of religious freedom was established in
the New World that would become the cornerstone of our rights guaranteed
under the Constitution of the United States.
