GEORGE CALVERT, the 1st lord: b. about 1580, Kipling, near Bolton Castle, Yorkshire: d. 15 April 1632. He graduated from Trinity Col lege, Oxford, 1597; traveled abroad, and after his return became secretary to Sir Robert Cecil (afterward Lord Salisbury), clerk of the Crown of Ireland, 1606, and clerk of the Coun cil, 1608. He assisted James in his contro versial writings, had charge of the Spanish and Italian correspondence during the Secretary of State's absence in 1613, was on a committee to investigate Irish Catholic grievances the same year, was knighted 1617, and in 1619 was made Secretay of State by Buckingham's favor. He represented Yorkshire jointly with Sir Thomas Wentworth (aftenvard Lord Strafford) in the Parliament of 1621, and in the stormy times that followed was a mediator between Parlia ment and King, with the usual fate of being thought a spy by the one and lukewarm by the other. The French Ambassador styled him an honest, sensible, well-intentioned man and zealous patriot, and therefore without influence. He had principal charge of the foreign negotia tions while James was chasing the will-o'-the wisp of the Spanish marriage and making Eng land a nullity in the Thirty Years' War; Cal vert's later Catholicism made him suspected as favoring the latter policy, but in fact he wished a more energetic one. On 14 Jan. 1624 he was one of the nine councillors who opposed a breach with Spain. In January 1625 he an notmced himself a Roman Catholic; his con version is credited to Gondomar, •the famous Spanish Ambassador, and Lord Arundel of Wardour, his son's father-in-Iaw. On 12 Feb ruary he resigned his office and was given the barony of Baltimore: which, as James hated ((apostasy,p measures his esteem for Calvert. On the accession of Charles I, in 1625, Balti more refused, from conscientious scruples, to take the oath of supretnacy and abjuration, and Charles gave him a handsome letter to the Lord Deputy of Ireland. In 1627 he was summoned to court to consult on the peace with Spain, but thenceforth took no part in public business, de voting himself to colonization. Already in 1621-22 he had planted a colony in Newfound land, chartered in 1623 as Avalon; in 1627 and 1628-29 he visited it, but the severe climate dis appointed him and he begged for a grant in a milder one. Without waiting for a reply he at tempted to explore Virginia for a settlement; but the Jamestown officials of the old Virginia company refused permission unless he would take the oath above. The region satisfied his ideal, however, and he persisted in asking a grant there against the dissuasions of Charles, who finally assigned him a northeastern tract, now the States of Maryland and Delaware; but the same interests delayed the proceedings, and before the charter was signed, 20 June 1632, Baltimore died. The usual assumption that he intended the colony for a Roman Catholic es tablishment is refuted by the fact that the charter established the Church of England and did not even specify toleration for other creeds, which was not made a provision of law till 1649, though of course intended, and proclaimed at once on the establishment of the colony. Baltimore thought— wrongly, as it turned out —that the proprietary's power and the religion of the chosen colonists would prevent the perse cution of his own faith, and had neither wish nor power to persecute others. That he meant
it as an asylum and breeding-ground for his religion is a matter of course. It was also to be a feudal aristocracy, but with an assembly of freemen whose consent was necessary to the validity of laws. In a word, Baltimore was a conservative of high principles and moderate temper.
Cectuus or CECIL CALVERT, the 2d lord: b. about 1605; d. 30 Nov. 1675. He married Anne Howard, daughter of Lord Arundel of Wardour (after whom Anne Arundel County of Maryland is named), about 1623. The charter of Maryland granted to his father was transferred to him as heritor; but he never visited it during the 43 years of his life there after, sending deputies in his place, and manag ing its business and political affairs judiciously from England, settling disputes of natives or colonists sensibly and placably, and esteemed a worthy successor to his father. Down to the civil war of 1642 he had little to do but sup port his brother, Leonard, as governor; but his policy then became difficult. He tried to steer a middle course, and avoid either for himself or the colony any pronounced declaration of sympathies or allegiance which might expose it to confiscation; but Ingle's upset of the colonial government (see LEONARD CALVERT), and the Parliamentary triumphs at home, showed him at last that this could not be main tained, and that with the Puritans at the head, the Roman. Catholic supremacy, though used only to preserve themselves from persecution, must be given up. On 9 June 1647 Leonard died, after appointing as his provisional suc cessor an ardent churchman and loyalist, Thomas Green; but Lord Baltimore in 1648 appointed Capt. William Stone and had him settle some 500 Puritans, harried by the Vir ginia Cavaliers, in Maryland. When the news of the King's death arrived, Green, in Stone's absence, proclaimed Charles II King, as did Virginia; on which William Claiborne (q.v., and below), the treasurer of Virginia, joined the Parliamentary party, obtained a commission to reduce the two rebellious provinces, and, after overthrowing the Virginia government, forced Governor Stone to renounce his allegiance to Lord Baltimore and give it to the "keepers of the liberties of England." When Cromwell dispersed the Long Parliament Stone repudiated the agreement; Claiborne marched against him, deposed him and appointed a Puri tan government which at once most ungrate fully disfranchised all Catholics and repealed the Colonial Toleration Act of 1649. In January 1654 Cromwell himself intervened, and forbade the Virginia authorities to molest Lord Balti more or his officers in Maryland. Baltimore thereupon ordered Stone to overturn the Puritan government, but Stone's force was de feated and himself captured. Baltimore, how ever, kept his favor with the Puritan adminis tration; the commissioners of plantation de cided that the province was his, and in 1658 it was restored to him. Claiborne's influence was at an end, and Baltimore had no further troubles over Maryland.