Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore

Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (8 August 1605 – 30 November 1675), was the first Proprietor and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland, and ninth Proprietary Governor of the Colony of Newfoundland and the colony of Avalon (in the southeast).  His title was "Cecil Calvert, Second Baron Baltimore, First Lord Proprietary, Earl Palatine of the Provinces of Maryland and Avalon in America".  He received the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (15 April 1632), for whom it had been intended.  Cecil Calvert established and managed the Province of Maryland from his home, Kiplin Hall, in North Yorkshire, England.  As an English Roman Catholic, he continued the legacy of his father by promoting religious tolerance in the colony.

• Both George and Cecilius Calvert may claim the title of founders of Maryland.  The original design belongs to the former; the charter was a modification of his earlier charter of Avalon, and was, no doubt, drawn up in conformity with his suggestions; only his personal favor with the king would have obtained a grant of such a nature, and nothing but what we may call the accident of his death prevented his being the first proprietary. On the other hand, it was Cecilius in whose name the character was drawn, who sent out the first colonists and guided their earliest political steps, and who watched over the infancy of the colony and shielded it from ruin.

• Cecilius…seems to have studied to withdraw himself from publicity.  Except in connection with his colony, his name scarcely appears in history, and hardly any letters of his or addressed to him, other than those of a formel and official character, are known to exist.

• The grant of Maryland—so named in honour of the queen, Henrietta Maria—was made out in the name of Cecilius, Baltimore's eldest son and heir to the title.  As at first drawn, it included the whole peninsula east of the Chesapeake Bay; but it having been shown that some settlements had been made by Virginians in the southern part of this peninsula (now the Eastern Shore of Virginia), the southern boundary of Maryland was drawn eastward from the mouth of the Potomac.  With this alteration, the charter was confirmed on June 20th, 1632.
  • Page 35.

• During the last years of his life Cecilius seems to have lived altogether in retirement, and few references to him, other than official, are to be found.  …  On November 30th, 1675, Cecilius Calvert, the founder of Maryland, died at the age of sixty-nine.  His life had been in many ways one of trial and anxiety; he had passed through dangers and difficulties when far more than his own happiness and fortune was at stake, and by his patience, prudence, and moderation he preserved safe his own rights and the franchises of his people.
  • Page 174.

• William Claiborne, a leader of the Virginia colony and secretary of its Council, had obtained a royal license to establish a fur-trading post on Kent Island, between Maryland and Virginia, which he had purchased from the Indians.  The Virginia House of Burgesses—which included a representative from Kent Island—backed Claiborne in his refusal to recognize the overlordship of the Maryland feudal proprietor, Lord Baltimore.  Egged on by a competing Virginia fur trader's accusation that Claiborne was inciting the Indians to attack the Marylanders, Lord Baltimore ordered the seizure of Claiborne and the confiscation of his property.  Maryland's ships attacked and seized a vessel of Claiborne's, and not only killed several Kent Islanders in the process, but also hanged one as a "pirate" after the battle.  Governor John Harvey of Virginia angered the Virginians by taking the side of Lord Baltimore, removing Claiborne from his office as secretary, and jailing an official who sided with Claiborne.
  • Page 81.

• The first American proprietary was a grant of land in 1632 by King Charles I to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore.  The grant was carved out of Virginia territory and extended from the Potomac River north to the fortieth parallel, including (but rather larger than) the present boundaries of Maryland.  The king reserved for himself but one-fifth of the gold and silver that might be mined each year in the province.  Otherwise, Lord Baltimore was as free to govern in his vast domain as the king was in England.  The king even expressly granted the power to levy any taxes on Maryland, so named in honor of the English queen Henrietta Maria.  The charter granted to Lord Baltimore ownership of all the land, minerals, rivers, and fisheries in the area as well as the right to confer titles, incorporate cities and towns, levy taxes, erect churches and feudal manors, and constitute courts.  This was a veritable feudal government—a "Palatinate" as existed in Europe, specifically like the Palatinate of Durham in England.  One important limitation on Calvert's absolute rule, as in the case of the king himself, was that he could levy taxes only with the consent of an Assembly representing the freemen, or landholders, of the province.
  • Pages 114–115.

• From the first, Cecilius wanted to make Maryland a haven from persecution for Catholics in England.  But, eager to encourage settlement (for without settlers there would be no profit from his feudal domain), Calvert made no religious test for settling in the colony.  As a result, Protestants outnumbered Catholics among the settlers by nearly ten to one from the beginning—with the Protestant faith predominating among the poorer classes and Catholicism among the gentlemen.  Both Protestants and Catholics enjoyed full religious liberty and there was no established church in the colony.
  • Page 115.

• Early relations with the Indians were peaceful, with the land acquired from them by voluntary purchase rather than by force.  This peaceful coexistence was assured by Calvert's simple expedient of instructing his men to deal fairly with the Indians.
  • Page 115.

• The land system, however, in keeping with the vast feudal powers given to Calvert, was established on the most rigidly feudal lines in America.  Calvert early advertised that every settler who would finance the transport of five other settlers to the colony would receive a grant as "Lord of the Manor" of 2,000 acres of land—not outright, however, or in fee simple, but as a feudal tenancy with a quitrent of 400 pounds of good wheat per year to the proprietor.  The manor lords, most of them Catholic, in turn rented their land to smaller planters in exchange for rent in produce.  This restrictive method of allocating land or landownership decidedly hampered the growth of the entire colony during the seventeenth century.  Furthermore, Calvert gave vast estates as manors to his friends and relatives.
  • Page 115.

• While the Calverts tried to keep representative government to a minimum, an Assembly soon developed, after persistent pressure from below on the proprietors.  The proprietor and the Assembly soon quarreled over the extent of their relative powers, the proprietor claiming the sole right to initiate legislation, which the Assembly could then reject.  The Assembly, with the power to hold up the enactment of laws, refused to consent to any imposition of a code by Calvert and thus won the fight to initiate legislation.
  • Page 115.

• The governor and the proprietor, who appointed the governor, had veto power over all legislation and the governor could also dissolve the Assembly at will.  However, the Assembly assured its continuing existence by refusing to grant taxes for more than a year at a time.
  • Page 116.

• We have already alluded to the conflict between Lord Baltimore and William Claiborne, a Virginian who had established a trading post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay.  This quarrel was embittered by Claiborne's virulent anti-Catholicism, which had spurred him to play a leading role in ousting Calvert from Virginia, before the founding of the Maryland colony.  With Claiborne refusing to recognize Calvert's overlordship of Kent Island, Calvert moved to assert his dominion over Claiborne, wielding his land grant as his claim.  The conflict was punctuated by a naval battle between the ships of Lord Baltimore and of Claiborne.  Finally, the king decided the issue by ruling in Lord Baltimore's favor.
  • Page 116.

• In the mid-1640s, as the Puritan Revolution arose in England, Lord Baltimore sided with the king, and Leonard Calvert received privileges (or "letters of marque") from the king to capture vessels belonging to Parliament.  On the other hand, the Protestant tobacco trader, Capt. Richard Ingle, a friend of Claiborne's, received a similar commission from Parliament.
  • Page 116.

• Returning to England, [Capt. Richard] Ingle almost succeeded in revoking Maryland's charter, but Calvert retained it by taking pains to placate Parliament.  Calvert, for example, encouraged a group of Dissenters exiled from Virginia to settle in Maryland, a little further up the Chesapeake Bay from St. Marys, in what is now Annapolis.  Furthermore, after Leonard Calvert died in 1648, Lord Baltimore appointed the Protestant William Stone as governor.  He required the governor to take an oath not to violate the free exercise of religion by any Christians, specifically including Roman Catholics.
  • Page 116.

• Charles II, still in exile, embittered by what he regarded as acts of treachery by Lord Baltimore, deposed him and appointed instead Sir William Davenant as royal governor, for Baltimore "did visibly adhere to the rebels in England, and admit all kinds of sectaries and schismatics and ill-affected persons into the plantation."
  • Page 117.

• Former governor Stone now raised his insurrectionary army loyal to the proprietary, and in 1655 attacked Providence, the principal Puritan settlement in Maryland.  The erstwhile governor was crushed by a force of Puritan planters, Stone was imprisoned, and several of his followers executed, even though they had been promised their lives before surrender.  Calvert, however, proved extremely agile and managed to convice Cromwell and Parliament that religious toleration and hence his own rule should be reestablished.  Calvert was permitted to appoint a new governor in 1656 and this governor, Josiah Fendall, joined with the Puritans in agreeing to establish religious toleration, including toleration for Catholics.
  • Pages 117–118.

• With the death of Cromwell, Fendall tried to seize the opportunity to liberalize the colony further by casting off proprietary rule and submitting himself to appointment by the Maryland Assembly.  The restoration of Charles II, however, ended such hopes for the remainder of the century, and Baltimore moved swiftly to crush this move for independence, appointing Philip Calvert as governor.
  • Page 118.

• • Page 119.

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Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore

• Calvert Family Tree (accessed 10 Jul 2013).