Baltimore, George Calvert

BALTIMORE, GEORGE CALVERT. - English politician and first lord of his title, b. at Kipling in Yorkshire around 1580, d. 15 April 1632 in London. He entered parliament in 1609; he was private secretary to Lord Cecil; when the latter died in 1613, he entered the privy council and was afterwards sent to Ireland to induce that people to accept conformity with the Anglican Church, stirring up great discontent, so that it became necessary to set up commissions of inquiry into such complaints. He became a great favorite of James I, received the Order of the Garter and in 1619 was appointed first Secretary of State. B. was a supporter of a policy of rapprochement with Spain, but the majority of parliament was opposed to it. In 1621 the king granted him as a reward 2,300 acres in Ireland on the condition that the colonists be conformists in matters of religion; but B., having become a Catholic in 1624, gave up his original castle so that this clause might be annulled. He furthermore renounced the secretaryship, but the king insisted that he remain on the Privy Council and granted him the dignity of a peer for Ireland as Baron of Baltimore. When James died, Charles I exempted him from the oath of religious supremacy so that he might remain on the Council, but B. refused.

In 1620 B. had obtained in America a possession which he called Avalon, which in 1623 was erected into a province with quasi-royal authority. In 1627 he went there to study its conditions and to establish a colony where all might enjoy freedom in serving God; indeed he brought there his wife, colonists and three priests; a Protestant minister accused him in London of having had Mass celebrated in the province and of having favored Catholics, but he was not heeded. In 1629 B. obtained from King Charles a large grant north and southeast of the Potomac and intended to establish there a regime of broad religious toleration; but since he died before giving it complete organization, it was his son Cecil, second Lord B., "absolute lord of Maryland and Avalon," who truly founded the colony of Maryland.

Pio Paschini