Individual Details
George Calvert
(1579 - 15 Apr 1632)
George Calvert was a member of a family that dates back to 1366 in Yorkshire, England. Sir Calvert was the person responsible for securing Maryland's colonial charter. Historians have traditionally designated him the founder of Maryland.
From the book "George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore of Baltimore" by Wm. Hand Browne, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1890. p3. Age 14, "entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a commoner, and took his bachelor's degree in 1597." "His college studies ended, he travelled on the Continent, where it is probable that he made his first acquaintance of Sir Robert Cecil, afterward his patron and the founder of his fortunes...."
p.4 "In 1605 Calvert received his master's degree at Oxford..."
p. 5 " Calvert was a member of two of these commissions [on Ireland and the success of James I policy on conformity with religion and obedience to the law of England] ....they dwell especially on the harmful influence of the Jesuits; a point worth noting, as we shall se later that his son and successor entertained a strong dislike and suspicion of that order."
pp 12-13. Browne lays the groundwork for Calvert's fall out of favor when the King's marriage plans to the Spanish Infanta fell through and Buckingham switched to promoting the French side-which Calvert strongly opposed. "...Calvert wisely took the advantage of this transient gleam of fair weather to steer the bark of his fortunes out of the perilous seas of political life. He avowed to the king that he had become a convert to the faith of Rome, and asked to be allowed toresign his secretaryship and retire to private life." "His request was granted. Calvert, according to the custom of the time, negotiated with Sir Albert Morton to vacate the secretaryship in his favour for the sum of #L6,000. The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council, notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16th, 1625, elevated him to the Irish peeriage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, in the County of Longford."
p15
"As early as 1609 he had been a member of the second Virginia company [with his friend Sir Robert Cecil] and was also one of the provisional council for the management of the affairs of that colony after the revocation of the charter [in 1623], and one of the eighteen councillors of the New England Company in 1622."
p.16 "Calvert, in 1620, purchased a plantation on the island [New Foundland] from Sir William Vaughan, which he named Avalon (It is not absolutely certain whether this name was given by Baltimore or one of the earliest adventurers. His settlement was usually called Ferryland, and from this his letters are dated,) from the consecrated spot to which pious legend referred the introduction of Christianity into Britain. He sent out a number of colonists with proper implements and supplies, and placed his plantation in charge of a Captain Wynne....These cheerful reports were confirmed by the account of Captain Richard Whitbourne, whose "Westward Hoe for Avalon" was published in 1622." p 17 "In 1622 Calvert applied for a patent, and received a grant of the whole island. This, however, was superceded by a regrant in March, 1623, conveying to him the southeartern peninsula, which was erected into the province of Avalon by a royal charter issued April 7th.
Calvert, his family (minus Cecilius) and his 2nd wife visited Avalon in 1626, 1627.
p. 24 "..he was forced to see [in 1629] that he had been deceivedd by false representations, and that his colony, on which he had spent, in all, about twenty thousand pounds, was a failure"
"In 1637 [5 years after he died], on the alleged ground that the Calverts had abandoned Avalon and forfeited the charter, the island was granted to the marquis of Hamilton, the earls of Pembroke and Holland, and Sir David Kirke." p. 32 ""In 1663 Avalon [after a protracted legal battle] was delivered to Swanley, Baltimore's governor, and seems to have prospered fairly well." "From this time on the history of Avalon is almost a blank. The subsequent proprietaries seem to have neglected it altogether; and in 1754 it was decided that the proprietary rights had lapsed from long disuse, the charter was annuled, and Avalon as a distict province ceased to exist, though the name is still retained."
p33 "Calvert first introduced in America the palatinate form of government in which powers virtually royal are vested in a single person."
from notes of Paul Tobler: (addended by Wm. Hand Browne)
Notes for George Calvert:
1606 Became private secty to Sir Robert Cecil
Clerk of the Crown, (also assize in County Clare, Ireland)
1613 Clerk to the Privy Council
1617 Order of knighthood
1618 Principal Secty of State for England
1620 Lord of the Treasury
1620 Commissioner for the office of treasurer
Bought Avalon in Newfoundland
1624 Became Roman Catholic & Resigned all Preferments with the
Title Baron Baltimore.
1625 Retired from public life.
1629 Returned to England & requested patent N of VA to Mountains.
20 Jun 1632 Patent granted & Cecilius became 2nd Baron of Baltimore.
1632 Buried Dunstan's in the West, London, England
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According to Descendants of Virginia Calverts:
From the inscription which George, Lord Baltimore, had placed on the tomb of his first wife, Ann (Mynne) Calvert, and from other sources, it is learned that he was the son of Leonard and Grace or Alicia (Crossland) Calvert, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland, of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire.
Thomas Crossland died Aug., 1587; and Joanna, his wife, died July, 1575.
George Calvert was born about 1579/80, in or near the village of Danby Wiske, near the town of North Allerton, in North Riding, Yorkshire, England, son of Leonard, son of John and Margerie Calvert. This Leonard Calvert, father of George, was born about 1550 (estimated). He was a county gentleman, apparently in easy circumstances, who owned land and raised cattle. He married about 1575 (estimated) Grace (or Alicia) Crossland, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire. (See Foster's Visitations of Yorkshire) and descended from Roger de Crossland, of the time of Henry III.
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1595. George Calvert entered Trinity College, Oxford as a commoner.
1597. Took his degree of B.A.
1604. Married "Thursday, Nov. 22, Mr. George Calvert of St. Martins in the Felds, Gent., and Mrs. Anne Mynne of Bexley, Hertfordshire, at St. Peter's, Cornhill, London." (Parish Rec.)
1605. Received his first Master's Degree at Oxford. Became M.P. for Bosnay, Cornwall, and Private Secretary for Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and appointed by King James I Clerk of the Crown and of Assize in County Clare, Ireland, an office said to resembe that of Attorney General.
1609. Member of Second Virginia Company, and one of the Provisional Council for that Colony.
1613. Clerk of Privy Council.
1617. Sept. 29, Knighted by King James I.
1618. Secretary of State. Received life pension of 1,000(pounds) per year. Obtained a grant of the Province of Avalon in New Foundland.
1619. Made Principal Secretary of State
1621. August 8, his wife, Anne Mynne Calvert died.
1621. Feb. 18. The king granted him a manor of 2300 acres in county Longford, Ireland. "These lands were held under the condition that all settlers upon them should take the oath of supremacy and 'be coformable in point of religion'; and when Calvert, four years later made profession of the Roman Catholic faith, he surrendered his patent and received it back wit the religious clause omitted. These Longford estates were then erected into the manor of Baltimore, from which he took his baronial title." (William Hand Browne's "George and Cecilius Calvert," p.11)
1622. Was one of eighteen Commissioners of the New England Company.
1623. March, a re-grant of the southeastern peninsula of New Foundland which was erected into the Province of Avalon by Royal Charter, in which Lord Baltimore was given a palatinate or quasi-royal authority over the province, which was held in capite, by knight's service, with the condition of giving the king or his successors a white horse whenever he or they should visit those parts.
1623. Became a Roman Catholic and offered to resign as Secretary of State. He was retained as Member of the Privy Council.
1624. Member of the Council for winding up the affairs of the Virginia Company. Also M.P. for Oxfordshire.
1625. Resigned as Principal Secretary of State, Feb 9. Feb. 16, created Irish Peer with the title of Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore. (Note. No county is named in the enrollment of the Baltimore Patent. There was not and is not any place of that name in county Longford, which is the county usually assiged to this creation, but the chartered town of Baltimore, county Cork, the only place of that name in Ireland was then one of considerable size.) (The Genealogical Peerage of the United Kingdom, Vol. 1,p.226.)
1627. Second wife called "Dame Joane Baltimore" by her husband in a deed. Lord Baltimore visited Avalon this year, where he had spect some 25,000(Pounds) in improvements. In a letter at this time he writes: "...am... bound for a long journey to a place which I have had a long desire to visit, and have now the opportunity and leave to do it. It is Newfoundland, I mean, which, it imports me, more that curiousity only, to see, for I must either go and settle it in better order, or give it over and lose all the charge I have been at hitherto for other men to build their fortunes upon. And I had rather be esteemed a fool by some for the hazard of one month's journey, than to prove myself one certainly for six years past if the business be now lost for the want of a little pains and care."
"So in June of this year of 1627 he visited Avalon in person, arriving at the end of July. Though he came at the most favorable season, and remained for but a month or two, so that he could scarcely have had time to visit the interior of the island, we cannot but think that when he compared the reality with Whitbourne's glowing descriptions and his onw fancy pictures built upon them, his disappointment must have been sharp." (Wm.Hand Browne)
All behind his little plantation lay a region of wild savagery, or bleak and hopeless desolation, and in front was the wild, stormy and inhospitable sea. The brief northern summer bid from him the worst enemy of all, the long pitiless northern winter.
Departing after a short visit, he spent the winter in England preparing for his return, which he made in the following summer, bringing with him Lady Joane Baltimore, all his family except his eldest son, Cecilius, and about forty colonists, so that the whole colony was raised to about one hundred souls. Unexpected troubles beset him. He wrote to Lord Buckingham "I came to build, and sett, and sowe, but am falne to fighting with Frenchmen, who have heere disquieted me and many other of his Majesties subjects fighting in this land." He continues: "One De la Rade of Dieppe, with three ships and four hundred men, many of them gentlemen here have told us, came first into a harbour of mine called Capebroile, not above a league from the place where I am planted, and there surprising divers of the fishermen in thier shallops at the harbour's mouth, within a short time after possessed themselves of two English ships within the ahrbour, with all their fishes and provisions, and had done the liek to the rest in that place had I not sent them assistance with two ships of mine, one of them 360 tons and twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and another, a bark of sixty tons with three or four small guns in her, and about a hundred men aboard us in all," etc. By the ship that carried this letter, young Leonard Calvert and Peaseley returned to England, where Leonard petitioned the king that his father might have a share in certain prizes taken from the French by the ships Benediction and Victory.
1628. The dangers and discomforts of life at Avalon seem to have been too much for Lady Baltimore, and in 1628 she sailed for Virginia adn remained for some time at Jamestown, as is known from a letter of Baltimore's in which he asks letters from Privy Council to the Governor of Virginia instructing him to facilitate Lady Baltimore's return to England.
1629. Lord Baltimore arrived in Jamestone October 1629. He was received coldly by the Virginians. He was tendered the oath of Allegiance which he could not take on account of his religious faith, though he offered to take a modified form of it. To this the Virginians would not agree, and he departed for England where he sought King Charles I, who had succeeded his father, James I, in 1625, for a new grant of land. King Charles continued his father's friendship for Lord Baltimore and granted him the territory which later became Maryland.
1629. There is but one account of the death of Lady Baltimore by shipwreck. It is found in a fragment of unknown origin among the papers in Sir Hans Sloane's Collection in the British Museum in London, and is numbered 3662, pp. 24-6, and dated 1670. The following excerpt is dated 1629 in the margin, and since the next marginal date is 1631, it is inferred that the events recorded took place in the years 1629 and 1630. Lord Baltimore went "to Virginia in the year 1629, where he found a much better climate (than New Foundland), and leaving his lady and some of his children by her there, comes himself to England to secure a Patent of some part of that Continent, and smoe while after sends for his Lady, who together with her children that were left whit her, were unfortunately cast away in their return; in which ship his lordsip lost a great deal of plate and other goods of a great value." (Lady Baltimore sailed on the St. Claude which was wrecked off the English coast before October, 1630.)
1632. Apr. 15, Lord Baltimore was buried in the Chancel of St. Dunstan's before the Charter to Maryland had passed the Great Seal, so the charter was issued in the name of his son and heir, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, under the Great Seal dated 20th June, 1632, just a few weeks after his father's death. (for the will of Lord Baltimore see Part I)
George Calvert was a good linguist, a ready writer, and possessing executive talent, says Rev. Edward Neill, A.B., in his The Founders of Maryland. "His accomplishments won for him the notice and friendship of Sir Robert Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's Principal Secretary of State, who had no small part in securing to King James the succession to the throne of England. Through his recommendations George Calvert was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council of King James, 1613." (Richardson's Sidelights on Maryland History.)
William Hand Browne, in his George and Cecilius Calvert says: "The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16, 11625, elevated him to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore." (See Letters Patent, Part I.) Within a few weeks from the issue of this Patent, King James died, but his successor, Charles I, did not withdraw his favor from the late Secretary.
George Calvert wrote a remarkably illegible hand. It has been mentioned that King Charles told him that he "writ as fair a hand to look upon from afar off, as any man in England; but that when any one came near it, they were not able to read a word."
George Calvert was not, like Buckingham, a man of brilliant talent and boundless confidence in his own abilities, nor was he one of those who found the most attractive fishing in troubled waters. His talents were solid; he was cautious, laborious, exact, of unimpeachable integrity, and a true lover of his country.
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More About George Calvert:
Burial: 15 April 1632, St. Dunstan's Ch., London, Eng.16
Colonial Families of the United States of America: Volume 2
ISSUE BY 1ST m.
page 164
GEORGE CALVERT, 1st Lord of Baltimore, b. circa 1580; d. 15th Apr. 1632; became private secretary to Sir Robert CECIL; was appointed by the King, Clerk of the Crown and Assize in Co. Clare, Ireland; in 1613, appointed Clerk to the Privy Council; knighted in 1617. In 1619 was made Principal Secretary of State. Was member of Parliament from Yorkshire in 1621. 18th Feb. 1621, the King granted him a manor of 2300 acress in Co. Langford, Ireland, which was erected into the Manor of Baltimore, from which he derived his baronial title. Elevated to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore, 16th Feb. 1625; m. (firstly) circa 1605, Anne MYNNE, [p.164] d. 8th Aug. 1622, dau. of John MYNNE, Esq., of Hertingfordbury, and Elizabeth WROTH, his wife, dau. of Sir Thomas WROTH of Durance in Enfield, Middlesex, Knight; m. (secondly) Joan–as mentioned in legal papers; her surname unknown.
Maryland Historical Society; Fund Publications, 16-20. Volume IV 1880-1884 The last chapter is of Sir George "A Paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, April 14, 1884, by Lewis W. Wilhelm, A.B., Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University.
Just to highlight a few things in the book:
Page 26: "It was in the summer of 1606, that Calvert received from King James the reversion of an important clerkship in Ireland and so became officially identified with the country from which two decades later he received his title of "baron.""
Page 76: "The year 1622 was made memorable to Calvert by its vicissitudes of joy and sorrow, of worldly prosperity and of domestic unhappiness. In the midst of his pleasurable anticipations upon the Spanish Match, his spirits were cast into gloom by the sudden death of his amiable wife, on August 8, after an illness of but two days, at the age of 52 years, leaving behind her eleven young children....The oldest child, Cecilius, who became the heir of his father's fortune and title, was but sixteen years old; Leonard and George a decade after this time emigrated to the colony of Maryland; of Francis and Henry very little is known; John, born on the eve of his mother's death, is said to have died in youth. Of the five daughters little is known, save their names; Anne, the eldest, married Mr. William Peasley, and Grace became the wife of Sir Robert Talbot of County Kildare, Ireland; Dorothy, Elizabeth and Helen completed the family."
Page 89: ".....being infinitely addicted to the Roman Catholic faith, having been converted thereunto by Count Gondomar & Count Arundel, whose daughter Secretary Calvert's son had married. If Calvert's oldest son, Cecilius, did marry Lady Arundel at the time of the Spanish negotiations then some excellent authorities have made some amazing errors. According to Kennedy, Cecilius Calvert, in 1623, was but 17 years old, and according to Neill, in "Terra Mariae," Anne Arundel, in this year, was but eight years old. Such youthful marriages are certainly not usual in England."
Page 151: "....on Sunday, April 15, 1632, in the midst of his large family, he [Sir George] passed away in death."
In the preface, he gives Dr. William Hand Browne, credit for reviewing of his manuscript, along with others. The chapter contains about 160 pages and as mentioned, is about as much as I have read. Mrs. O'Gorman quotes a bit from Dr. Browne, in her book.
I got this book on Inter-Library loan from the John M. Olin Library at Washington University, 6600 Millbrook Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63130.
Louise Shaw [lshaw2@pcisys.net]
From "A Chesapeake family their slaves, A study in historical archaeology" Anne Elizabeth Yentsch, Cambridge University Press. P. 53 "....to the early 1600's when George Calvert began to move in Stuart circles after serving James I in Ireland. James I reward services with honor, knighted George Calvert in 1617, and awarded him an Irish baronetcy in February 1624/25. The status, prestige, and political powers of the Calvert family were on the rise. Still, the family was not among the greatest English nobility and did not possess the wealth of the aristocratic families that maintained major estates like Boxworth or Chatsworth. The aristocracy at that time evaluated its members according to a variety of cultural criteria including length of pedigree and location. The Calvert baronetcy was recent and Irish, not English; the family seat of Kiplin was in Yorkshire, distant from Court.....Drawn by the Calvert's future prospects and the family's Catholic faith, Thomas ARUNDEL (Lord ArundeL at Wardour) asked the second Lord Baltimore, the young Cecilius, to wed daughter Anne. The couple were married in 1527/28 and may have lived briefly at Arundel's own home, Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, before settling at Hook Manor on the Wardour estate. There Anne gave birth to three daughters, and infant George (1634-6) and finally Charles, the third Lord Baltimore. Charles had two sons, Cecilius (who died at 13) and Benedict Leonard (Sr.) born in Maryland. By that time the Calvert family was politically allied through a network of marriage and financial alliances with some of the most talented families in England. George Calvert forged the initial connections when he became a junior secretary to Sir Robert Cecil (1563-1612) \, who rose to be the Earl of Salisbury and was principal Secretary of State of James I. Among the circle of families linked to the Calverts were the ARUNDELS, the SOMERSETS, the powerful Irish TALBOTS (Lords Tyrconnel), the diplomatically astute and fiscally prudent HYDES (Earls of Rochester and Clarendon), and the literary, mathematical and political DIGGES. The third Lord Baltimore built upon this network during his Maryland residence (1661-84), using the mechanisms of judicious land grants, marriages, and political appointments to create his own small cadre of prominent Catholic families in Maryland, including the SEWALLS, TALBOTS, DIGGES, DARNALLS, LEES, LOWES. Maryland's Catholic gentry reciprocated by providing strong and effective political support and service, and gradually the lines extended to include other wealthy families including the Easter Shore dynasty of Quaker LLOYDS."
"In this book James W. Foster gives some of the family background. He states that George was born and a died a Roman Catholic. He then goes on to explain what it meant to be a Roman Catholic in the late 16th and early 17th century,
in England. The writer states that the Calverts were NOT from the migration of Flemish weavers attracted to Yorkshire, because of its fame for wool growing. Based on the evidence of wills and inventories, the Calverts of Yorkshire in the 16th century were tenant farmers, husbandmen, and yeomen of standing, and in the case of Leonard of Kiplin, gentlemen when that term signified superior social position. The writer gives George's birth date as abt. 1580 at Kiplin. Further that his father was Leonard son of John, who was a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton. His mother (the writers opinion after much study of evidence, was Alice,
daughter of John Crosland of Crosland near Almondbury in the West Riding. Her family's arms were quartered with Calvert arms by the second Lord Baltimore, indicating that she was an heiress in her own right, having no brothers. She died
early and Leonard remarried. This is supported by the record of the Yorkshire High Commission showing that Leonard Calvert and wife "GRACE" in 1592 were summoned by the Commission to answer charges of religious nonconformity.
Grace Crosland is the daughter of Thomas, of Crosland Hill near Almondbury. She was baptized at Almondbury on Feb. 8, 1573, and could not have been a mother in 1580. She is also mentioned in her father's will who died in 1587. Any relationship has never been established, because there were so many Crosland's and Catholic records were not kept until 1600. Couples were married privately and their children baptized surreptitiously by priests who traveled by night and hid by day. In the years 1580 to 1594 Leonard and Grace were frequently pressed to conform to Anglican practice. Leonard submitted a
certificate that he had conformed and 2 yrs. later gave bond that he and his wife (name not stated) would communicate within a given time. This happened several times and then the records are silent. He was either imprisoned or paid a
fine to be released. The next entry is dated Oct. 9, 1592 and states that he will have no Catholic servants or Catholic teacher for his children and would buy a Book of Common Prayer, a Bible in English and a catechism, to lie open in his house "for everyone to read." His children were to be put to school in York and not to leave without license from the Archbishop of York. Two of these children were George and Christopher, 10 and 12 years old. One of the relatives who appears in historical records is Ralph EWENS. He died without children in 1611. In his will he list his uncle, Leonard CALVERT and his wife, unnamed,
his grandmother, "Mistress Margerie CALVERT," his uncle and aunt ANTHWAITE, and his cousins George, Christopher and Samuel CALVERT. Another family allied with the CALVERTS were the SMITHSONS. George's sister Dorothy married Christopher SMITHSON of Moulton, North Riding. Their daughter Grace married into the CONYERS family. Sons of Christopher and Grace SMITHSON were
named Leonard, Calvert and George. Guess I've written enough. Cousins, buy the book. It is worth the money. James W. Foster spent many years in England
and the Maryland Archives researching the Calvert family. The information is well documented. BUY THE BOOK. Your Calvert Cousin, Vicki K. http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/s/p/e/Vicki-K-Spencer
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George Calvert
cybercat@ntr.net
"WILL OF RALPH EWENS
T. RADULPI EWENS. In the name of the ternall God my Creator of Jeses Christ my redeemer and Savio and of that eternall sactifyinge Spiritt proceedinge from both I raphe Ewens of Greyes Inne in the Countie of Midd' Esquie' beinge in bodie weake but in sence aud memorie in all apparaunce perfect doe make this my last will and testament in writinge to remaine inviolable for ever. ............
Item whereas Samuell Calvert gent my cosen german siandes indebted unto me in the some of Threescore poundes wth condicon for the payment of fortie poundes or thereaboutes my will is that my Executrix shall within tenne dayes after demaund thereof made deliver the saide bonde and make a good and lawful estate thereof by p're of Attorney unto my cosen Mr. George Calvert to be by him disposed to theis uses (that is to saic) First uppon receipt of the saide some to repaie to the said Samuell Calvert as my legacie Twentie pounds of the said debte And the residue thereof to be bestowed uppon my twoe sisters and their children according to the discretion of the said George Calvert.
Item I give to my saide two sisters and their children by waie of addicon All my apparell of doth stuffe and silke except my lynnen and my best gownd wth my meawnge is my said Executrix shall keep and dispose. Item I give to Raphe Grinsell my gocsonne Tenne poundes. Item I geve to be picked and valued out of my printed bookes soe many as will amount to the some of Twentie poundes to be given to the children of my sister Hartford & my sister Downes the same to be chosen and appointed by Mr Doctor Layfield and my cosen Mr George Calvert for wch paines to be taken by Mr Doctor Layfield I give him as a remembraunce Twentie Shillinges to make him a ringe with the word Memento.
I give unto the right honorable the Lord Stanhopp my late deere worthie, religious and honorable Master and friende a cupp of Five poundes wth this poesie Grati pignus. Item I geve to the right Hoble Ladie Stanhope my late honorable Mris a Ringe of fortie shillinges wth this poesie Memento. Item I give to the Hoble knight Sr Charles Stanhope sonne to the said Lord Stanhope A ringe of Thirtie shillinges wth this poesie R. E. Famulista. Item I give to the twoe daughters of the Lord Stanhope to either of them a ringe of twentie shillinges a peece wth this word Memento.
Item I geve unto my cosen George Calvert a ringe of Fortie Shillinges wth this word Memento. Item I geve unto my cosen his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges wth the same poesie. Item I geve unto my uncle Mr. Leonard Calvert a Ringe of fortie shillinges and to my Aunt his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges. And to my deere and lovinge grandmother Mrs Margerie Calvert a ringe of Fortye shillinges. And to my brother Richard's wife a ringe of twentie shillinges. And to my neece their daughter a ringe of Twenties shillinges. And to my cosen Christopher Calvert a ringe of Twentie shillinges.
And to my Aunt Saulkeld my Aunt Barlowe my unckle and my Aunt Branthwaite to ech of them Ringes of Twentie shillinges a peece. Item I geve to my cosen Mr. Robert Branthwaite and his wife to him a ringe of Fortie shillinges...
He had alvays an eye to business, so that there was hardly a foreign enterprise prosecuted in which he had not an interest, colonization being a specialty with him. He was one of the original associaates of the Virginia Company, and continued so till 1620. In 1609 and 1614 he put money in the East India Company. In 1622 he was a member of the New England Company. In 1620 he bought an extensive plantation in Newfoundland, and in 1623 he secured a charter for this, creating it a province, and giving him almost royal honors and prerogatives. Avalon, however, failing him in his expectations, he secured from King Charles the gift of a section of Virginia, extending also into North Carolina, and called Carolana; but finding he wouki have trouble in securing the actual possession he relinquished it. And then in the year 1632 we find him obtaining the province of Maryland, though dying before the gift was finally completed.
Not all information verified and/or documented. Not all are my direct line (only those denoted by *). Please use this as a guide and contact the source for more information. I am actively making updates and corrections and reposting the information. With
-- MERGED NOTE ------------
From the book "George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore of Baltimore" by Wm. Hand Browne, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1890. p3. Age 14, "entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a commoner, and took his bachelor's degree in 1597." "His college studies ended, he travelled on the Continent, where it is probable that he made his first acquaintance of Sir Robert Cecil, afterward his patron and the founder of his fortunes...."
p.4 "In 1605 Calvert received his master's degree at Oxford..."
p. 5 " Calvert was a member of two of these commissions [on Ireland and the success of James I policy on conformity with religion and obedience to the law of England] ....they dwell especially on the harmful influence of the Jesuits; a point worth noting, as we shall se later that his son and successor entertained a strong dislike and suspicion of that order."
pp 12-13. Browne lays the groundwork for Calvert's fall out of favor when the King's marriage plans to the Spanish Infanta fell through and Buckingham switched to promoting the French side-which Calvert strongly opposed. "...Calvert wisely took the advantage of this transient gleam of fair weather to steer the bark of his fortunes out of the perilous seas of political life. He avowed to the king that he had become a convert to the faith of Rome, and asked to be allowed toresign his secretaryship and retire to private life." "His request was granted. Calvert, according to the custom of the time, negotiated with Sir Albert Morton to vacate the secretaryship in his favour for the sum of #L6,000. The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council, notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16th, 1625, elevated him to the Irish peeriage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, in the County of Longford."
p15
"As early as 1609 he had been a member of the second Virginia company [with his friend Sir Robert Cecil] and was also one of the provisional council for the management of the affairs of that colony after the revocation of the charter [in 1623], and one of the eighteen councillors of the New England Company in 1622."
p.16 "Calvert, in 1620, purchased a plantation on the island [New Foundland] from Sir William Vaughan, which he named Avalon (It is not absolutely certain whether this name was given by Baltimore or one of the earliest adventurers. His settlement was usually called Ferryland, and from this his letters are dated,) from the consecrated spot to which pious legend referred the introduction of Christianity into Britain. He sent out a number of colonists with proper implements and supplies, and placed his plantation in charge of a Captain Wynne....These cheerful reports were confirmed by the account of Captain Richard Whitbourne, whose "Westward Hoe for Avalon" was published in 1622." p 17 "In 1622 Calvert applied for a patent, and received a grant of the whole island. This, however, was superceded by a regrant in March, 1623, conveying to him the southeartern peninsula, which was erected into the province of Avalon by a royal charter issued April 7th.
Calvert, his family (minus Cecilius) and his 2nd wife visited Avalon in 1626, 1627.
p. 24 "..he was forced to see [in 1629] that he had been deceivedd by false representations, and that his colony, on which he had spent, in all, about twenty thousand pounds, was a failure"
"In 1637 [5 years after he died], on the alleged ground that the Calverts had abandoned Avalon and forfeited the charter, the island was granted to the marquis of Hamilton, the earls of Pembroke and Holland, and Sir David Kirke." p. 32 ""In 1663 Avalon [after a protracted legal battle] was delivered to Swanley, Baltimore's governor, and seems to have prospered fairly well." "From this time on the history of Avalon is almost a blank. The subsequent proprietaries seem to have neglected it altogether; and in 1754 it was decided that the proprietary rights had lapsed from long disuse, the charter was annuled, and Avalon as a distict province ceased to exist, though the name is still retained."
p33 "Calvert first introduced in America the palatinate form of government in which powers virtually royal are vested in a single person."
from notes of Paul Tobler: (addended by Wm. Hand Browne)
Notes for George Calvert:
1606 Became private secty to Sir Robert Cecil
Clerk of the Crown, (also assize in County Clare, Ireland)
1613 Clerk to the Privy Council
1617 Order of knighthood
1618 Principal Secty of State for England
1620 Lord of the Treasury
1620 Commissioner for the office of treasurer
Bought Avalon in Newfoundland
1624 Became Roman Catholic & Resigned all Preferments with the
Title Baron Baltimore.
1625 Retired from public life.
1629 Returned to England & requested patent N of VA to Mountains.
20 Jun 1632 Patent granted & Cecilius became 2nd Baron of Baltimore.
1632 Buried Dunstan's in the West, London, England
----------------------
According to Descendants of Virginia Calverts:
From the inscription which George, Lord Baltimore, had placed on the tomb of his first wife, Ann (Mynne) Calvert, and from other sources, it is learned that he was the son of Leonard and Grace or Alicia (Crossland) Calvert, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland, of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire.
Thomas Crossland died Aug., 1587; and Joanna, his wife, died July, 1575.
George Calvert was born about 1579/80, in or near the village of Danby Wiske, near the town of North Allerton, in North Riding, Yorkshire, England, son of Leonard, son of John and Margerie Calvert. This Leonard Calvert, father of George, was born about 1550 (estimated). He was a county gentleman, apparently in easy circumstances, who owned land and raised cattle. He married about 1575 (estimated) Grace (or Alicia) Crossland, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire. (See Foster's Visitations of Yorkshire) and descended from Roger de Crossland, of the time of Henry III.
------------------------------------------
1595. George Calvert entered Trinity College, Oxford as a commoner.
1597. Took his degree of B.A.
1604. Married "Thursday, Nov. 22, Mr. George Calvert of St. Martins in the Felds, Gent., and Mrs. Anne Mynne of Bexley, Hertfordshire, at St. Peter's, Cornhill, London." (Parish Rec.)
1605. Received his first Master's Degree at Oxford. Became M.P. for Bosnay, Cornwall, and Private Secretary for Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and appointed by King James I Clerk of the Crown and of Assize in County Clare, Ireland, an office said to resembe that of Attorney General.
1609. Member of Second Virginia Company, and one of the Provisional Council for that Colony.
1613. Clerk of Privy Council.
1617. Sept. 29, Knighted by King James I.
1618. Secretary of State. Received life pension of 1,000(pounds) per year. Obtained a grant of the Province of Avalon in New Foundland.
1619. Made Principal Secretary of State
1621. August 8, his wife, Anne Mynne Calvert died.
1621. Feb. 18. The king granted him a manor of 2300 acres in county Longford, Ireland. "These lands were held under the condition that all settlers upon them should take the oath of supremacy and 'be coformable in point of religion'; and when Calvert, four years later made profession of the Roman Catholic faith, he surrendered his patent and received it back wit the religious clause omitted. These Longford estates were then erected into the manor of Baltimore, from which he took his baronial title." (William Hand Browne's "George and Cecilius Calvert," p.11)
1622. Was one of eighteen Commissioners of the New England Company.
1623. March, a re-grant of the southeastern peninsula of New Foundland which was erected into the Province of Avalon by Royal Charter, in which Lord Baltimore was given a palatinate or quasi-royal authority over the province, which was held in capite, by knight's service, with the condition of giving the king or his successors a white horse whenever he or they should visit those parts.
1623. Became a Roman Catholic and offered to resign as Secretary of State. He was retained as Member of the Privy Council.
1624. Member of the Council for winding up the affairs of the Virginia Company. Also M.P. for Oxfordshire.
1625. Resigned as Principal Secretary of State, Feb 9. Feb. 16, created Irish Peer with the title of Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore. (Note. No county is named in the enrollment of the Baltimore Patent. There was not and is not any place of that name in county Longford, which is the county usually assiged to this creation, but the chartered town of Baltimore, county Cork, the only place of that name in Ireland was then one of considerable size.) (The Genealogical Peerage of the United Kingdom, Vol. 1,p.226.)
1627. Second wife called "Dame Joane Baltimore" by her husband in a deed. Lord Baltimore visited Avalon this year, where he had spect some 25,000(Pounds) in improvements. In a letter at this time he writes: "...am... bound for a long journey to a place which I have had a long desire to visit, and have now the opportunity and leave to do it. It is Newfoundland, I mean, which, it imports me, more that curiousity only, to see, for I must either go and settle it in better order, or give it over and lose all the charge I have been at hitherto for other men to build their fortunes upon. And I had rather be esteemed a fool by some for the hazard of one month's journey, than to prove myself one certainly for six years past if the business be now lost for the want of a little pains and care."
"So in June of this year of 1627 he visited Avalon in person, arriving at the end of July. Though he came at the most favorable season, and remained for but a month or two, so that he could scarcely have had time to visit the interior of the island, we cannot but think that when he compared the reality with Whitbourne's glowing descriptions and his onw fancy pictures built upon them, his disappointment must have been sharp." (Wm.Hand Browne)
All behind his little plantation lay a region of wild savagery, or bleak and hopeless desolation, and in front was the wild, stormy and inhospitable sea. The brief northern summer bid from him the worst enemy of all, the long pitiless northern winter.
Departing after a short visit, he spent the winter in England preparing for his return, which he made in the following summer, bringing with him Lady Joane Baltimore, all his family except his eldest son, Cecilius, and about forty colonists, so that the whole colony was raised to about one hundred souls. Unexpected troubles beset him. He wrote to Lord Buckingham "I came to build, and sett, and sowe, but am falne to fighting with Frenchmen, who have heere disquieted me and many other of his Majesties subjects fighting in this land." He continues: "One De la Rade of Dieppe, with three ships and four hundred men, many of them gentlemen here have told us, came first into a harbour of mine called Capebroile, not above a league from the place where I am planted, and there surprising divers of the fishermen in thier shallops at the harbour's mouth, within a short time after possessed themselves of two English ships within the ahrbour, with all their fishes and provisions, and had done the liek to the rest in that place had I not sent them assistance with two ships of mine, one of them 360 tons and twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and another, a bark of sixty tons with three or four small guns in her, and about a hundred men aboard us in all," etc. By the ship that carried this letter, young Leonard Calvert and Peaseley returned to England, where Leonard petitioned the king that his father might have a share in certain prizes taken from the French by the ships Benediction and Victory.
1628. The dangers and discomforts of life at Avalon seem to have been too much for Lady Baltimore, and in 1628 she sailed for Virginia adn remained for some time at Jamestown, as is known from a letter of Baltimore's in which he asks letters from Privy Council to the Governor of Virginia instructing him to facilitate Lady Baltimore's return to England.
1629. Lord Baltimore arrived in Jamestone October 1629. He was received coldly by the Virginians. He was tendered the oath of Allegiance which he could not take on account of his religious faith, though he offered to take a modified form of it. To this the Virginians would not agree, and he departed for England where he sought King Charles I, who had succeeded his father, James I, in 1625, for a new grant of land. King Charles continued his father's friendship for Lord Baltimore and granted him the territory which later became Maryland.
1629. There is but one account of the death of Lady Baltimore by shipwreck. It is found in a fragment of unknown origin among the papers in Sir Hans Sloane's Collection in the British Museum in London, and is numbered 3662, pp. 24-6, and dated 1670. The following excerpt is dated 1629 in the margin, and since the next marginal date is 1631, it is inferred that the events recorded took place in the years 1629 and 1630. Lord Baltimore went "to Virginia in the year 1629, where he found a much better climate (than New Foundland), and leaving his lady and some of his children by her there, comes himself to England to secure a Patent of some part of that Continent, and smoe while after sends for his Lady, who together with her children that were left whit her, were unfortunately cast away in their return; in which ship his lordsip lost a great deal of plate and other goods of a great value." (Lady Baltimore sailed on the St. Claude which was wrecked off the English coast before October, 1630.)
1632. Apr. 15, Lord Baltimore was buried in the Chancel of St. Dunstan's before the Charter to Maryland had passed the Great Seal, so the charter was issued in the name of his son and heir, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, under the Great Seal dated 20th June, 1632, just a few weeks after his father's death. (for the will of Lord Baltimore see Part I)
George Calvert was a good linguist, a ready writer, and possessing executive talent, says Rev. Edward Neill, A.B., in his The Founders of Maryland. "His accomplishments won for him the notice and friendship of Sir Robert Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's Principal Secretary of State, who had no small part in securing to King James the succession to the throne of England. Through his recommendations George Calvert was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council of King James, 1613." (Richardson's Sidelights on Maryland History.)
William Hand Browne, in his George and Cecilius Calvert says: "The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16, 11625, elevated him to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore." (See Letters Patent, Part I.) Within a few weeks from the issue of this Patent, King James died, but his successor, Charles I, did not withdraw his favor from the late Secretary.
George Calvert wrote a remarkably illegible hand. It has been mentioned that King Charles told him that he "writ as fair a hand to look upon from afar off, as any man in England; but that when any one came near it, they were not able to read a word."
George Calvert was not, like Buckingham, a man of brilliant talent and boundless confidence in his own abilities, nor was he one of those who found the most attractive fishing in troubled waters. His talents were solid; he was cautious, laborious, exact, of unimpeachable integrity, and a true lover of his country.
------------------------------------------------------------
More About George Calvert:
Burial: 15 April 1632, St. Dunstan's Ch., London, Eng.16
Colonial Families of the United States of America: Volume 2
ISSUE BY 1ST m.
page 164
GEORGE CALVERT, 1st Lord of Baltimore, b. circa 1580; d. 15th Apr. 1632; became private secretary to Sir Robert CECIL; was appointed by the King, Clerk of the Crown and Assize in Co. Clare, Ireland; in 1613, appointed Clerk to the Privy Council; knighted in 1617. In 1619 was made Principal Secretary of State. Was member of Parliament from Yorkshire in 1621. 18th Feb. 1621, the King granted him a manor of 2300 acress in Co. Langford, Ireland, which was erected into the Manor of Baltimore, from which he derived his baronial title. Elevated to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore, 16th Feb. 1625; m. (firstly) circa 1605, Anne MYNNE, [p.164] d. 8th Aug. 1622, dau. of John MYNNE, Esq., of Hertingfordbury, and Elizabeth WROTH, his wife, dau. of Sir Thomas WROTH of Durance in Enfield, Middlesex, Knight; m. (secondly) Joan–as mentioned in legal papers; her surname unknown.
Maryland Historical Society; Fund Publications, 16-20. Volume IV 1880-1884 The last chapter is of Sir George "A Paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, April 14, 1884, by Lewis W. Wilhelm, A.B., Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University.
Just to highlight a few things in the book:
Page 26: "It was in the summer of 1606, that Calvert received from King James the reversion of an important clerkship in Ireland and so became officially identified with the country from which two decades later he received his title of "baron.""
Page 76: "The year 1622 was made memorable to Calvert by its vicissitudes of joy and sorrow, of worldly prosperity and of domestic unhappiness. In the midst of his pleasurable anticipations upon the Spanish Match, his spirits were cast into gloom by the sudden death of his amiable wife, on August 8, after an illness of but two days, at the age of 52 years, leaving behind her eleven young children....The oldest child, Cecilius, who became the heir of his father's fortune and title, was but sixteen years old; Leonard and George a decade after this time emigrated to the colony of Maryland; of Francis and Henry very little is known; John, born on the eve of his mother's death, is said to have died in youth. Of the five daughters little is known, save their names; Anne, the eldest, married Mr. William Peasley, and Grace became the wife of Sir Robert Talbot of County Kildare, Ireland; Dorothy, Elizabeth and Helen completed the family."
Page 89: ".....being infinitely addicted to the Roman Catholic faith, having been converted thereunto by Count Gondomar & Count Arundel, whose daughter Secretary Calvert's son had married. If Calvert's oldest son, Cecilius, did marry Lady Arundel at the time of the Spanish negotiations then some excellent authorities have made some amazing errors. According to Kennedy, Cecilius Calvert, in 1623, was but 17 years old, and according to Neill, in "Terra Mariae," Anne Arundel, in this year, was but eight years old. Such youthful marriages are certainly not usual in England."
Page 151: "....on Sunday, April 15, 1632, in the midst of his large family, he [Sir George] passed away in death."
In the preface, he gives Dr. William Hand Browne, credit for reviewing of his manuscript, along with others. The chapter contains about 160 pages and as mentioned, is about as much as I have read. Mrs. O'Gorman quotes a bit from Dr. Browne, in her book.
I got this book on Inter-Library loan from the John M. Olin Library at Washington University, 6600 Millbrook Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63130.
Louise Shaw [lshaw2@@pcisys.net]
From "A Chesapeake family their slaves, A study in historical archaeology" Anne Elizabeth Yentsch, Cambridge University Press. P. 53 "....to the early 1600's when George Calvert began to move in Stuart circles after serving James I in Ireland. James I reward services with honor, knighted George Calvert in 1617, and awarded him an Irish baronetcy in February 1624/25. The status, prestige, and political powers of the Calvert family were on the rise. Still, the family was not among the greatest English nobility and did not possess the wealth of the aristocratic families that maintained major estates like Boxworth or Chatsworth. The aristocracy at that time evaluated its members according to a variety of cultural criteria including length of pedigree and location. The Calvert baronetcy was recent and Irish, not English; the family seat of Kiplin was in Yorkshire, distant from Court.....Drawn by the Calvert's future prospects and the family's Catholic faith, Thomas ARUNDEL (Lord ArundeL at Wardour) asked the second Lord Baltimore, the young Cecilius, to wed daughter Anne. The couple were married in 1527/28 and may have lived briefly at Arundel's own home, Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, before settling at Hook Manor on the Wardour estate. There Anne gave birth to three daughters, and infant George (1634-6) and finally Charles, the third Lord Baltimore. Charles had two sons, Cecilius (who died at 13) and Benedict Leonard (Sr.) born in Maryland. By that time the Calvert family was politically allied through a network of marriage and financial alliances with some of the most talented families in England. George Calvert forged the initial connections when he became a junior secretary to Sir Robert Cecil (1563-1612) \, who rose to be the Earl of Salisbury and was principal Secretary of State of James I. Among the circle of families linked to the Calverts were the ARUNDELS, the SOMERSETS, the powerful Irish TALBOTS (Lords Tyrconnel), the diplomatically astute and fiscally prudent HYDES (Earls of Rochester and Clarendon), and the literary, mathematical and political DIGGES. The third Lord Baltimore built upon this network during his Maryland residence (1661-84), using the mechanisms of judicious land grants, marriages, and political appointments to create his own small cadre of prominent Catholic families in Maryland, including the SEWALLS, TALBOTS, DIGGES, DARNALLS, LEES, LOWES. Maryland's Catholic gentry reciprocated by providing strong and effective political support and service, and gradually the lines extended to include other wealthy families including the Easter Shore dynasty of Quaker LLOYDS."
"In this book James W. Foster gives some of the family background. He states that George was born and a died a Roman Catholic. He then goes on to explain what it meant to be a Roman Catholic in the late 16th and early 17th century,
in England. The writer states that the Calverts were NOT from the migration of Flemish weavers attracted to Yorkshire, because of its fame for wool growing. Based on the evidence of wills and inventories, the Calverts of Yorkshire in the 16th century were tenant farmers, husbandmen, and yeomen of standing, and in the case of Leonard of Kiplin, gentlemen when that term signified superior social position. The writer gives George's birth date as abt. 1580 at Kiplin. Further that his father was Leonard son of John, who was a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton. His mother (the writers opinion after much study of evidence, was Alice,
daughter of John Crosland of Crosland near Almondbury in the West Riding. Her family's arms were quartered with Calvert arms by the second Lord Baltimore, indicating that she was an heiress in her own right, having no brothers. She died
early and Leonard remarried. This is supported by the record of the Yorkshire High Commission showing that Leonard Calvert and wife "GRACE" in 1592 were summoned by the Commission to answer charges of religious nonconformity.
Grace Crosland is the daughter of Thomas, of Crosland Hill near Almondbury. She was baptized at Almondbury on Feb. 8, 1573, and could not have been a mother in 1580. She is also mentioned in her father's will who died in 1587. Any relationship has never been established, because there were so many Crosland's and Catholic records were not kept until 1600. Couples were married privately and their children baptized surreptitiously by priests who traveled by night and hid by day. In the years 1580 to 1594 Leonard and Grace were frequently pressed to conform to Anglican practice. Leonard submitted a
certificate that he had conformed and 2 yrs. later gave bond that he and his wife (name not stated) would communicate within a given time. This happened several times and then the records are silent. He was either imprisoned or paid a
fine to be released. The next entry is dated Oct. 9, 1592 and states that he will have no Catholic servants or Catholic teacher for his children and would buy a Book of Common Prayer, a Bible in English and a catechism, to lie open in his house "for everyone to read." His children were to be put to school in York and not to leave without license from the Archbishop of York. Two of these children were George and Christopher, 10 and 12 years old. One of the relatives who appears in historical records is Ralph EWENS. He died without children in 1611. In his will he list his uncle, Leonard CALVERT and his wife, unnamed,
his grandmother, "Mistress Margerie CALVERT," his uncle and aunt ANTHWAITE, and his cousins George, Christopher and Samuel CALVERT. Another family allied with the CALVERTS were the SMITHSONS. George's sister Dorothy married Christopher SMITHSON of Moulton, North Riding. Their daughter Grace married into the CONYERS family. Sons of Christopher and Grace SMITHSON were
named Leonard, Calvert and George. Guess I've written enough. Cousins, buy the book. It is worth the money. James W. Foster spent many years in England
and the Maryland Archives researching the Calvert family. The information is well documented. BUY THE BOOK. Your Calvert Cousin, Vicki K. http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/s/p/e/Vicki-K-Spencer
--
George Calvert
cybercat@@ntr.net
"WILL OF RALPH EWENS
T. RADULPI EWENS. In the name of the ternall God my Creator of Jeses Christ my redeemer and Savio and of that eternall sactifyinge Spiritt proceedinge from both I raphe Ewens of Greyes Inne in the Countie of Midd' Esquie' beinge in bodie weake but in sence aud memorie in all apparaunce perfect doe make this my last will and testament in writinge to remaine inviolable for ever. ............
Item whereas Samuell Calvert gent my cosen german siandes indebted unto me in the some of Threescore poundes wth condicon for the payment of fortie poundes or thereaboutes my will is that my Executrix shall within tenne dayes after demaund thereof made deliver the saide bonde and make a good and lawful estate thereof by p're of Attorney unto my cosen Mr. George Calvert to be by him disposed to theis uses (that is to saic) First uppon receipt of the saide some to repaie to the said Samuell Calvert as my legacie Twentie pounds of the said debte And the residue thereof to be bestowed uppon my twoe sisters and their children according to the discretion of the said George Calvert.
Item I give to my saide two sisters and their children by waie of addicon All my apparell of doth stuffe and silke except my lynnen and my best gownd wth my meawnge is my said Executrix shall keep and dispose. Item I give to Raphe Grinsell my gocsonne Tenne poundes. Item I geve to be picked and valued out of my printed bookes soe many as will amount to the some of Twentie poundes to be given to the children of my sister Hartford & my sister Downes the same to be chosen and appointed by Mr Doctor Layfield and my cosen Mr George Calvert for wch paines to be taken by Mr Doctor Layfield I give him as a remembraunce Twentie Shillinges to make him a ringe with the word Memento.
I give unto the right honorable the Lord Stanhopp my late deere worthie, religious and honorable Master and friende a cupp of Five poundes wth this poesie Grati pignus. Item I geve to the right Hoble Ladie Stanhope my late honorable Mris a Ringe of fortie shillinges wth this poesie Memento. Item I give to the Hoble knight Sr Charles Stanhope sonne to the said Lord Stanhope A ringe of Thirtie shillinges wth this poesie R. E. Famulista. Item I give to the twoe daughters of the Lord Stanhope to either of them a ringe of twentie shillinges a peece wth this word Memento.
Item I geve unto my cosen George Calvert a ringe of Fortie Shillinges wth this word Memento. Item I geve unto my cosen his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges wth the same poesie. Item I geve unto my uncle Mr. Leonard Calvert a Ringe of fortie shillinges and to my Aunt his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges. And to my deere and lovinge grandmother Mrs Margerie Calvert a ringe of Fortye shillinges. And to my brother Richard's wife a ringe of twentie shillinges. And to my neece their daughter a ringe of Twenties shillinges. And to my cosen Christopher Calvert a ringe of Twentie shillinges.
And to my Aunt Saulkeld my Aunt Barlowe my unckle and my Aunt Branthwaite to ech of them Ringes of Twentie shillinges a peece. Item I geve to my cosen Mr. Robert Branthwaite and his wife to him a ringe of Fortie shillinges...
He had alvays an eye to business, so that there was hardly a foreign enterprise prosecuted in which he had not an interest, colonization being a specialty with him. He was one of the original associaates of the Virginia Company, and continued so till 1620. In 1609 and 1614 he put money in the East India Company. In 1622 he was a member of the New England Company. In 1620 he bought an extensive plantation in Newfoundland, and in 1623 he secured a charter for this, creating it a province, and giving him almost royal honors and prerogatives. Avalon, however, failing him in his expectations, he secured from King Charles the gift of a section of Virginia, extending also into North Carolina, and called Carolana; but finding he wouki have trouble in securing the actual possession he relinquished it. And then in the year 1632 we find him obtaining the province of Maryland, though dying before the gift was finally completed.
Not all information verified and/or documented. Not all are my direct line (only those denoted by *). Please use this as a guide and contact the source for more information. I am actively making updates and corrections and reposting the information. With
From the book "George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore of Baltimore" by Wm. Hand Browne, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1890. p3. Age 14, "entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a commoner, and took his bachelor's degree in 1597." "His college studies ended, he travelled on the Continent, where it is probable that he made his first acquaintance of Sir Robert Cecil, afterward his patron and the founder of his fortunes...."
p.4 "In 1605 Calvert received his master's degree at Oxford..."
p. 5 " Calvert was a member of two of these commissions [on Ireland and the success of James I policy on conformity with religion and obedience to the law of England] ....they dwell especially on the harmful influence of the Jesuits; a point worth noting, as we shall se later that his son and successor entertained a strong dislike and suspicion of that order."
pp 12-13. Browne lays the groundwork for Calvert's fall out of favor when the King's marriage plans to the Spanish Infanta fell through and Buckingham switched to promoting the French side-which Calvert strongly opposed. "...Calvert wisely took the advantage of this transient gleam of fair weather to steer the bark of his fortunes out of the perilous seas of political life. He avowed to the king that he had become a convert to the faith of Rome, and asked to be allowed toresign his secretaryship and retire to private life." "His request was granted. Calvert, according to the custom of the time, negotiated with Sir Albert Morton to vacate the secretaryship in his favour for the sum of #L6,000. The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council, notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16th, 1625, elevated him to the Irish peeriage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, in the County of Longford."
p15
"As early as 1609 he had been a member of the second Virginia company [with his friend Sir Robert Cecil] and was also one of the provisional council for the management of the affairs of that colony after the revocation of the charter [in 1623], and one of the eighteen councillors of the New England Company in 1622."
p.16 "Calvert, in 1620, purchased a plantation on the island [New Foundland] from Sir William Vaughan, which he named Avalon (It is not absolutely certain whether this name was given by Baltimore or one of the earliest adventurers. His settlement was usually called Ferryland, and from this his letters are dated,) from the consecrated spot to which pious legend referred the introduction of Christianity into Britain. He sent out a number of colonists with proper implements and supplies, and placed his plantation in charge of a Captain Wynne....These cheerful reports were confirmed by the account of Captain Richard Whitbourne, whose "Westward Hoe for Avalon" was published in 1622." p 17 "In 1622 Calvert applied for a patent, and received a grant of the whole island. This, however, was superceded by a regrant in March, 1623, conveying to him the southeartern peninsula, which was erected into the province of Avalon by a royal charter issued April 7th.
Calvert, his family (minus Cecilius) and his 2nd wife visited Avalon in 1626, 1627.
p. 24 "..he was forced to see [in 1629] that he had been deceivedd by false representations, and that his colony, on which he had spent, in all, about twenty thousand pounds, was a failure"
"In 1637 [5 years after he died], on the alleged ground that the Calverts had abandoned Avalon and forfeited the charter, the island was granted to the marquis of Hamilton, the earls of Pembroke and Holland, and Sir David Kirke." p. 32 ""In 1663 Avalon [after a protracted legal battle] was delivered to Swanley, Baltimore's governor, and seems to have prospered fairly well." "From this time on the history of Avalon is almost a blank. The subsequent proprietaries seem to have neglected it altogether; and in 1754 it was decided that the proprietary rights had lapsed from long disuse, the charter was annuled, and Avalon as a distict province ceased to exist, though the name is still retained."
p33 "Calvert first introduced in America the palatinate form of government in which powers virtually royal are vested in a single person."
from notes of Paul Tobler: (addended by Wm. Hand Browne)
Notes for George Calvert:
1606 Became private secty to Sir Robert Cecil
Clerk of the Crown, (also assize in County Clare, Ireland)
1613 Clerk to the Privy Council
1617 Order of knighthood
1618 Principal Secty of State for England
1620 Lord of the Treasury
1620 Commissioner for the office of treasurer
Bought Avalon in Newfoundland
1624 Became Roman Catholic & Resigned all Preferments with the
Title Baron Baltimore.
1625 Retired from public life.
1629 Returned to England & requested patent N of VA to Mountains.
20 Jun 1632 Patent granted & Cecilius became 2nd Baron of Baltimore.
1632 Buried Dunstan's in the West, London, England
----------------------
According to Descendants of Virginia Calverts:
From the inscription which George, Lord Baltimore, had placed on the tomb of his first wife, Ann (Mynne) Calvert, and from other sources, it is learned that he was the son of Leonard and Grace or Alicia (Crossland) Calvert, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland, of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire.
Thomas Crossland died Aug., 1587; and Joanna, his wife, died July, 1575.
George Calvert was born about 1579/80, in or near the village of Danby Wiske, near the town of North Allerton, in North Riding, Yorkshire, England, son of Leonard, son of John and Margerie Calvert. This Leonard Calvert, father of George, was born about 1550 (estimated). He was a county gentleman, apparently in easy circumstances, who owned land and raised cattle. He married about 1575 (estimated) Grace (or Alicia) Crossland, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire. (See Foster's Visitations of Yorkshire) and descended from Roger de Crossland, of the time of Henry III.
------------------------------------------
1595. George Calvert entered Trinity College, Oxford as a commoner.
1597. Took his degree of B.A.
1604. Married "Thursday, Nov. 22, Mr. George Calvert of St. Martins in the Felds, Gent., and Mrs. Anne Mynne of Bexley, Hertfordshire, at St. Peter's, Cornhill, London." (Parish Rec.)
1605. Received his first Master's Degree at Oxford. Became M.P. for Bosnay, Cornwall, and Private Secretary for Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and appointed by King James I Clerk of the Crown and of Assize in County Clare, Ireland, an office said to resembe that of Attorney General.
1609. Member of Second Virginia Company, and one of the Provisional Council for that Colony.
1613. Clerk of Privy Council.
1617. Sept. 29, Knighted by King James I.
1618. Secretary of State. Received life pension of 1,000(pounds) per year. Obtained a grant of the Province of Avalon in New Foundland.
1619. Made Principal Secretary of State
1621. August 8, his wife, Anne Mynne Calvert died.
1621. Feb. 18. The king granted him a manor of 2300 acres in county Longford, Ireland. "These lands were held under the condition that all settlers upon them should take the oath of supremacy and 'be coformable in point of religion'; and when Calvert, four years later made profession of the Roman Catholic faith, he surrendered his patent and received it back wit the religious clause omitted. These Longford estates were then erected into the manor of Baltimore, from which he took his baronial title." (William Hand Browne's "George and Cecilius Calvert," p.11)
1622. Was one of eighteen Commissioners of the New England Company.
1623. March, a re-grant of the southeastern peninsula of New Foundland which was erected into the Province of Avalon by Royal Charter, in which Lord Baltimore was given a palatinate or quasi-royal authority over the province, which was held in capite, by knight's service, with the condition of giving the king or his successors a white horse whenever he or they should visit those parts.
1623. Became a Roman Catholic and offered to resign as Secretary of State. He was retained as Member of the Privy Council.
1624. Member of the Council for winding up the affairs of the Virginia Company. Also M.P. for Oxfordshire.
1625. Resigned as Principal Secretary of State, Feb 9. Feb. 16, created Irish Peer with the title of Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore. (Note. No county is named in the enrollment of the Baltimore Patent. There was not and is not any place of that name in county Longford, which is the county usually assiged to this creation, but the chartered town of Baltimore, county Cork, the only place of that name in Ireland was then one of considerable size.) (The Genealogical Peerage of the United Kingdom, Vol. 1,p.226.)
1627. Second wife called "Dame Joane Baltimore" by her husband in a deed. Lord Baltimore visited Avalon this year, where he had spect some 25,000(Pounds) in improvements. In a letter at this time he writes: "...am... bound for a long journey to a place which I have had a long desire to visit, and have now the opportunity and leave to do it. It is Newfoundland, I mean, which, it imports me, more that curiousity only, to see, for I must either go and settle it in better order, or give it over and lose all the charge I have been at hitherto for other men to build their fortunes upon. And I had rather be esteemed a fool by some for the hazard of one month's journey, than to prove myself one certainly for six years past if the business be now lost for the want of a little pains and care."
"So in June of this year of 1627 he visited Avalon in person, arriving at the end of July. Though he came at the most favorable season, and remained for but a month or two, so that he could scarcely have had time to visit the interior of the island, we cannot but think that when he compared the reality with Whitbourne's glowing descriptions and his onw fancy pictures built upon them, his disappointment must have been sharp." (Wm.Hand Browne)
All behind his little plantation lay a region of wild savagery, or bleak and hopeless desolation, and in front was the wild, stormy and inhospitable sea. The brief northern summer bid from him the worst enemy of all, the long pitiless northern winter.
Departing after a short visit, he spent the winter in England preparing for his return, which he made in the following summer, bringing with him Lady Joane Baltimore, all his family except his eldest son, Cecilius, and about forty colonists, so that the whole colony was raised to about one hundred souls. Unexpected troubles beset him. He wrote to Lord Buckingham "I came to build, and sett, and sowe, but am falne to fighting with Frenchmen, who have heere disquieted me and many other of his Majesties subjects fighting in this land." He continues: "One De la Rade of Dieppe, with three ships and four hundred men, many of them gentlemen here have told us, came first into a harbour of mine called Capebroile, not above a league from the place where I am planted, and there surprising divers of the fishermen in thier shallops at the harbour's mouth, within a short time after possessed themselves of two English ships within the ahrbour, with all their fishes and provisions, and had done the liek to the rest in that place had I not sent them assistance with two ships of mine, one of them 360 tons and twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and another, a bark of sixty tons with three or four small guns in her, and about a hundred men aboard us in all," etc. By the ship that carried this letter, young Leonard Calvert and Peaseley returned to England, where Leonard petitioned the king that his father might have a share in certain prizes taken from the French by the ships Benediction and Victory.
1628. The dangers and discomforts of life at Avalon seem to have been too much for Lady Baltimore, and in 1628 she sailed for Virginia adn remained for some time at Jamestown, as is known from a letter of Baltimore's in which he asks letters from Privy Council to the Governor of Virginia instructing him to facilitate Lady Baltimore's return to England.
1629. Lord Baltimore arrived in Jamestone October 1629. He was received coldly by the Virginians. He was tendered the oath of Allegiance which he could not take on account of his religious faith, though he offered to take a modified form of it. To this the Virginians would not agree, and he departed for England where he sought King Charles I, who had succeeded his father, James I, in 1625, for a new grant of land. King Charles continued his father's friendship for Lord Baltimore and granted him the territory which later became Maryland.
1629. There is but one account of the death of Lady Baltimore by shipwreck. It is found in a fragment of unknown origin among the papers in Sir Hans Sloane's Collection in the British Museum in London, and is numbered 3662, pp. 24-6, and dated 1670. The following excerpt is dated 1629 in the margin, and since the next marginal date is 1631, it is inferred that the events recorded took place in the years 1629 and 1630. Lord Baltimore went "to Virginia in the year 1629, where he found a much better climate (than New Foundland), and leaving his lady and some of his children by her there, comes himself to England to secure a Patent of some part of that Continent, and smoe while after sends for his Lady, who together with her children that were left whit her, were unfortunately cast away in their return; in which ship his lordsip lost a great deal of plate and other goods of a great value." (Lady Baltimore sailed on the St. Claude which was wrecked off the English coast before October, 1630.)
1632. Apr. 15, Lord Baltimore was buried in the Chancel of St. Dunstan's before the Charter to Maryland had passed the Great Seal, so the charter was issued in the name of his son and heir, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, under the Great Seal dated 20th June, 1632, just a few weeks after his father's death. (for the will of Lord Baltimore see Part I)
George Calvert was a good linguist, a ready writer, and possessing executive talent, says Rev. Edward Neill, A.B., in his The Founders of Maryland. "His accomplishments won for him the notice and friendship of Sir Robert Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's Principal Secretary of State, who had no small part in securing to King James the succession to the throne of England. Through his recommendations George Calvert was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council of King James, 1613." (Richardson's Sidelights on Maryland History.)
William Hand Browne, in his George and Cecilius Calvert says: "The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16, 11625, elevated him to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore." (See Letters Patent, Part I.) Within a few weeks from the issue of this Patent, King James died, but his successor, Charles I, did not withdraw his favor from the late Secretary.
George Calvert wrote a remarkably illegible hand. It has been mentioned that King Charles told him that he "writ as fair a hand to look upon from afar off, as any man in England; but that when any one came near it, they were not able to read a word."
George Calvert was not, like Buckingham, a man of brilliant talent and boundless confidence in his own abilities, nor was he one of those who found the most attractive fishing in troubled waters. His talents were solid; he was cautious, laborious, exact, of unimpeachable integrity, and a true lover of his country.
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More About George Calvert:
Burial: 15 April 1632, St. Dunstan's Ch., London, Eng.16
Colonial Families of the United States of America: Volume 2
ISSUE BY 1ST m.
page 164
GEORGE CALVERT, 1st Lord of Baltimore, b. circa 1580; d. 15th Apr. 1632; became private secretary to Sir Robert CECIL; was appointed by the King, Clerk of the Crown and Assize in Co. Clare, Ireland; in 1613, appointed Clerk to the Privy Council; knighted in 1617. In 1619 was made Principal Secretary of State. Was member of Parliament from Yorkshire in 1621. 18th Feb. 1621, the King granted him a manor of 2300 acress in Co. Langford, Ireland, which was erected into the Manor of Baltimore, from which he derived his baronial title. Elevated to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore, 16th Feb. 1625; m. (firstly) circa 1605, Anne MYNNE, [p.164] d. 8th Aug. 1622, dau. of John MYNNE, Esq., of Hertingfordbury, and Elizabeth WROTH, his wife, dau. of Sir Thomas WROTH of Durance in Enfield, Middlesex, Knight; m. (secondly) Joan–as mentioned in legal papers; her surname unknown.
Maryland Historical Society; Fund Publications, 16-20. Volume IV 1880-1884 The last chapter is of Sir George "A Paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, April 14, 1884, by Lewis W. Wilhelm, A.B., Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University.
Just to highlight a few things in the book:
Page 26: "It was in the summer of 1606, that Calvert received from King James the reversion of an important clerkship in Ireland and so became officially identified with the country from which two decades later he received his title of "baron.""
Page 76: "The year 1622 was made memorable to Calvert by its vicissitudes of joy and sorrow, of worldly prosperity and of domestic unhappiness. In the midst of his pleasurable anticipations upon the Spanish Match, his spirits were cast into gloom by the sudden death of his amiable wife, on August 8, after an illness of but two days, at the age of 52 years, leaving behind her eleven young children....The oldest child, Cecilius, who became the heir of his father's fortune and title, was but sixteen years old; Leonard and George a decade after this time emigrated to the colony of Maryland; of Francis and Henry very little is known; John, born on the eve of his mother's death, is said to have died in youth. Of the five daughters little is known, save their names; Anne, the eldest, married Mr. William Peasley, and Grace became the wife of Sir Robert Talbot of County Kildare, Ireland; Dorothy, Elizabeth and Helen completed the family."
Page 89: ".....being infinitely addicted to the Roman Catholic faith, having been converted thereunto by Count Gondomar & Count Arundel, whose daughter Secretary Calvert's son had married. If Calvert's oldest son, Cecilius, did marry Lady Arundel at the time of the Spanish negotiations then some excellent authorities have made some amazing errors. According to Kennedy, Cecilius Calvert, in 1623, was but 17 years old, and according to Neill, in "Terra Mariae," Anne Arundel, in this year, was but eight years old. Such youthful marriages are certainly not usual in England."
Page 151: "....on Sunday, April 15, 1632, in the midst of his large family, he [Sir George] passed away in death."
In the preface, he gives Dr. William Hand Browne, credit for reviewing of his manuscript, along with others. The chapter contains about 160 pages and as mentioned, is about as much as I have read. Mrs. O'Gorman quotes a bit from Dr. Browne, in her book.
I got this book on Inter-Library loan from the John M. Olin Library at Washington University, 6600 Millbrook Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63130.
Louise Shaw [lshaw2@pcisys.net]
From "A Chesapeake family their slaves, A study in historical archaeology" Anne Elizabeth Yentsch, Cambridge University Press. P. 53 "....to the early 1600's when George Calvert began to move in Stuart circles after serving James I in Ireland. James I reward services with honor, knighted George Calvert in 1617, and awarded him an Irish baronetcy in February 1624/25. The status, prestige, and political powers of the Calvert family were on the rise. Still, the family was not among the greatest English nobility and did not possess the wealth of the aristocratic families that maintained major estates like Boxworth or Chatsworth. The aristocracy at that time evaluated its members according to a variety of cultural criteria including length of pedigree and location. The Calvert baronetcy was recent and Irish, not English; the family seat of Kiplin was in Yorkshire, distant from Court.....Drawn by the Calvert's future prospects and the family's Catholic faith, Thomas ARUNDEL (Lord ArundeL at Wardour) asked the second Lord Baltimore, the young Cecilius, to wed daughter Anne. The couple were married in 1527/28 and may have lived briefly at Arundel's own home, Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, before settling at Hook Manor on the Wardour estate. There Anne gave birth to three daughters, and infant George (1634-6) and finally Charles, the third Lord Baltimore. Charles had two sons, Cecilius (who died at 13) and Benedict Leonard (Sr.) born in Maryland. By that time the Calvert family was politically allied through a network of marriage and financial alliances with some of the most talented families in England. George Calvert forged the initial connections when he became a junior secretary to Sir Robert Cecil (1563-1612) \, who rose to be the Earl of Salisbury and was principal Secretary of State of James I. Among the circle of families linked to the Calverts were the ARUNDELS, the SOMERSETS, the powerful Irish TALBOTS (Lords Tyrconnel), the diplomatically astute and fiscally prudent HYDES (Earls of Rochester and Clarendon), and the literary, mathematical and political DIGGES. The third Lord Baltimore built upon this network during his Maryland residence (1661-84), using the mechanisms of judicious land grants, marriages, and political appointments to create his own small cadre of prominent Catholic families in Maryland, including the SEWALLS, TALBOTS, DIGGES, DARNALLS, LEES, LOWES. Maryland's Catholic gentry reciprocated by providing strong and effective political support and service, and gradually the lines extended to include other wealthy families including the Easter Shore dynasty of Quaker LLOYDS."
"In this book James W. Foster gives some of the family background. He states that George was born and a died a Roman Catholic. He then goes on to explain what it meant to be a Roman Catholic in the late 16th and early 17th century,
in England. The writer states that the Calverts were NOT from the migration of Flemish weavers attracted to Yorkshire, because of its fame for wool growing. Based on the evidence of wills and inventories, the Calverts of Yorkshire in the 16th century were tenant farmers, husbandmen, and yeomen of standing, and in the case of Leonard of Kiplin, gentlemen when that term signified superior social position. The writer gives George's birth date as abt. 1580 at Kiplin. Further that his father was Leonard son of John, who was a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton. His mother (the writers opinion after much study of evidence, was Alice,
daughter of John Crosland of Crosland near Almondbury in the West Riding. Her family's arms were quartered with Calvert arms by the second Lord Baltimore, indicating that she was an heiress in her own right, having no brothers. She died
early and Leonard remarried. This is supported by the record of the Yorkshire High Commission showing that Leonard Calvert and wife "GRACE" in 1592 were summoned by the Commission to answer charges of religious nonconformity.
Grace Crosland is the daughter of Thomas, of Crosland Hill near Almondbury. She was baptized at Almondbury on Feb. 8, 1573, and could not have been a mother in 1580. She is also mentioned in her father's will who died in 1587. Any relationship has never been established, because there were so many Crosland's and Catholic records were not kept until 1600. Couples were married privately and their children baptized surreptitiously by priests who traveled by night and hid by day. In the years 1580 to 1594 Leonard and Grace were frequently pressed to conform to Anglican practice. Leonard submitted a
certificate that he had conformed and 2 yrs. later gave bond that he and his wife (name not stated) would communicate within a given time. This happened several times and then the records are silent. He was either imprisoned or paid a
fine to be released. The next entry is dated Oct. 9, 1592 and states that he will have no Catholic servants or Catholic teacher for his children and would buy a Book of Common Prayer, a Bible in English and a catechism, to lie open in his house "for everyone to read." His children were to be put to school in York and not to leave without license from the Archbishop of York. Two of these children were George and Christopher, 10 and 12 years old. One of the relatives who appears in historical records is Ralph EWENS. He died without children in 1611. In his will he list his uncle, Leonard CALVERT and his wife, unnamed,
his grandmother, "Mistress Margerie CALVERT," his uncle and aunt ANTHWAITE, and his cousins George, Christopher and Samuel CALVERT. Another family allied with the CALVERTS were the SMITHSONS. George's sister Dorothy married Christopher SMITHSON of Moulton, North Riding. Their daughter Grace married into the CONYERS family. Sons of Christopher and Grace SMITHSON were
named Leonard, Calvert and George. Guess I've written enough. Cousins, buy the book. It is worth the money. James W. Foster spent many years in England
and the Maryland Archives researching the Calvert family. The information is well documented. BUY THE BOOK. Your Calvert Cousin, Vicki K. http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/s/p/e/Vicki-K-Spencer
--
George Calvert
cybercat@ntr.net
"WILL OF RALPH EWENS
T. RADULPI EWENS. In the name of the ternall God my Creator of Jeses Christ my redeemer and Savio and of that eternall sactifyinge Spiritt proceedinge from both I raphe Ewens of Greyes Inne in the Countie of Midd' Esquie' beinge in bodie weake but in sence aud memorie in all apparaunce perfect doe make this my last will and testament in writinge to remaine inviolable for ever. ............
Item whereas Samuell Calvert gent my cosen german siandes indebted unto me in the some of Threescore poundes wth condicon for the payment of fortie poundes or thereaboutes my will is that my Executrix shall within tenne dayes after demaund thereof made deliver the saide bonde and make a good and lawful estate thereof by p're of Attorney unto my cosen Mr. George Calvert to be by him disposed to theis uses (that is to saic) First uppon receipt of the saide some to repaie to the said Samuell Calvert as my legacie Twentie pounds of the said debte And the residue thereof to be bestowed uppon my twoe sisters and their children according to the discretion of the said George Calvert.
Item I give to my saide two sisters and their children by waie of addicon All my apparell of doth stuffe and silke except my lynnen and my best gownd wth my meawnge is my said Executrix shall keep and dispose. Item I give to Raphe Grinsell my gocsonne Tenne poundes. Item I geve to be picked and valued out of my printed bookes soe many as will amount to the some of Twentie poundes to be given to the children of my sister Hartford & my sister Downes the same to be chosen and appointed by Mr Doctor Layfield and my cosen Mr George Calvert for wch paines to be taken by Mr Doctor Layfield I give him as a remembraunce Twentie Shillinges to make him a ringe with the word Memento.
I give unto the right honorable the Lord Stanhopp my late deere worthie, religious and honorable Master and friende a cupp of Five poundes wth this poesie Grati pignus. Item I geve to the right Hoble Ladie Stanhope my late honorable Mris a Ringe of fortie shillinges wth this poesie Memento. Item I give to the Hoble knight Sr Charles Stanhope sonne to the said Lord Stanhope A ringe of Thirtie shillinges wth this poesie R. E. Famulista. Item I give to the twoe daughters of the Lord Stanhope to either of them a ringe of twentie shillinges a peece wth this word Memento.
Item I geve unto my cosen George Calvert a ringe of Fortie Shillinges wth this word Memento. Item I geve unto my cosen his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges wth the same poesie. Item I geve unto my uncle Mr. Leonard Calvert a Ringe of fortie shillinges and to my Aunt his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges. And to my deere and lovinge grandmother Mrs Margerie Calvert a ringe of Fortye shillinges. And to my brother Richard's wife a ringe of twentie shillinges. And to my neece their daughter a ringe of Twenties shillinges. And to my cosen Christopher Calvert a ringe of Twentie shillinges.
And to my Aunt Saulkeld my Aunt Barlowe my unckle and my Aunt Branthwaite to ech of them Ringes of Twentie shillinges a peece. Item I geve to my cosen Mr. Robert Branthwaite and his wife to him a ringe of Fortie shillinges...
He had alvays an eye to business, so that there was hardly a foreign enterprise prosecuted in which he had not an interest, colonization being a specialty with him. He was one of the original associaates of the Virginia Company, and continued so till 1620. In 1609 and 1614 he put money in the East India Company. In 1622 he was a member of the New England Company. In 1620 he bought an extensive plantation in Newfoundland, and in 1623 he secured a charter for this, creating it a province, and giving him almost royal honors and prerogatives. Avalon, however, failing him in his expectations, he secured from King Charles the gift of a section of Virginia, extending also into North Carolina, and called Carolana; but finding he wouki have trouble in securing the actual possession he relinquished it. And then in the year 1632 we find him obtaining the province of Maryland, though dying before the gift was finally completed.
Not all information verified and/or documented. Not all are my direct line (only those denoted by *). Please use this as a guide and contact the source for more information. I am actively making updates and corrections and reposting the information. With
-- MERGED NOTE ------------
From the book "George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore of Baltimore" by Wm. Hand Browne, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1890. p3. Age 14, "entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a commoner, and took his bachelor's degree in 1597." "His college studies ended, he travelled on the Continent, where it is probable that he made his first acquaintance of Sir Robert Cecil, afterward his patron and the founder of his fortunes...."
p.4 "In 1605 Calvert received his master's degree at Oxford..."
p. 5 " Calvert was a member of two of these commissions [on Ireland and the success of James I policy on conformity with religion and obedience to the law of England] ....they dwell especially on the harmful influence of the Jesuits; a point worth noting, as we shall se later that his son and successor entertained a strong dislike and suspicion of that order."
pp 12-13. Browne lays the groundwork for Calvert's fall out of favor when the King's marriage plans to the Spanish Infanta fell through and Buckingham switched to promoting the French side-which Calvert strongly opposed. "...Calvert wisely took the advantage of this transient gleam of fair weather to steer the bark of his fortunes out of the perilous seas of political life. He avowed to the king that he had become a convert to the faith of Rome, and asked to be allowed toresign his secretaryship and retire to private life." "His request was granted. Calvert, according to the custom of the time, negotiated with Sir Albert Morton to vacate the secretaryship in his favour for the sum of #L6,000. The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council, notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16th, 1625, elevated him to the Irish peeriage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, in the County of Longford."
p15
"As early as 1609 he had been a member of the second Virginia company [with his friend Sir Robert Cecil] and was also one of the provisional council for the management of the affairs of that colony after the revocation of the charter [in 1623], and one of the eighteen councillors of the New England Company in 1622."
p.16 "Calvert, in 1620, purchased a plantation on the island [New Foundland] from Sir William Vaughan, which he named Avalon (It is not absolutely certain whether this name was given by Baltimore or one of the earliest adventurers. His settlement was usually called Ferryland, and from this his letters are dated,) from the consecrated spot to which pious legend referred the introduction of Christianity into Britain. He sent out a number of colonists with proper implements and supplies, and placed his plantation in charge of a Captain Wynne....These cheerful reports were confirmed by the account of Captain Richard Whitbourne, whose "Westward Hoe for Avalon" was published in 1622." p 17 "In 1622 Calvert applied for a patent, and received a grant of the whole island. This, however, was superceded by a regrant in March, 1623, conveying to him the southeartern peninsula, which was erected into the province of Avalon by a royal charter issued April 7th.
Calvert, his family (minus Cecilius) and his 2nd wife visited Avalon in 1626, 1627.
p. 24 "..he was forced to see [in 1629] that he had been deceivedd by false representations, and that his colony, on which he had spent, in all, about twenty thousand pounds, was a failure"
"In 1637 [5 years after he died], on the alleged ground that the Calverts had abandoned Avalon and forfeited the charter, the island was granted to the marquis of Hamilton, the earls of Pembroke and Holland, and Sir David Kirke." p. 32 ""In 1663 Avalon [after a protracted legal battle] was delivered to Swanley, Baltimore's governor, and seems to have prospered fairly well." "From this time on the history of Avalon is almost a blank. The subsequent proprietaries seem to have neglected it altogether; and in 1754 it was decided that the proprietary rights had lapsed from long disuse, the charter was annuled, and Avalon as a distict province ceased to exist, though the name is still retained."
p33 "Calvert first introduced in America the palatinate form of government in which powers virtually royal are vested in a single person."
from notes of Paul Tobler: (addended by Wm. Hand Browne)
Notes for George Calvert:
1606 Became private secty to Sir Robert Cecil
Clerk of the Crown, (also assize in County Clare, Ireland)
1613 Clerk to the Privy Council
1617 Order of knighthood
1618 Principal Secty of State for England
1620 Lord of the Treasury
1620 Commissioner for the office of treasurer
Bought Avalon in Newfoundland
1624 Became Roman Catholic & Resigned all Preferments with the
Title Baron Baltimore.
1625 Retired from public life.
1629 Returned to England & requested patent N of VA to Mountains.
20 Jun 1632 Patent granted & Cecilius became 2nd Baron of Baltimore.
1632 Buried Dunstan's in the West, London, England
----------------------
According to Descendants of Virginia Calverts:
From the inscription which George, Lord Baltimore, had placed on the tomb of his first wife, Ann (Mynne) Calvert, and from other sources, it is learned that he was the son of Leonard and Grace or Alicia (Crossland) Calvert, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland, of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire.
Thomas Crossland died Aug., 1587; and Joanna, his wife, died July, 1575.
George Calvert was born about 1579/80, in or near the village of Danby Wiske, near the town of North Allerton, in North Riding, Yorkshire, England, son of Leonard, son of John and Margerie Calvert. This Leonard Calvert, father of George, was born about 1550 (estimated). He was a county gentleman, apparently in easy circumstances, who owned land and raised cattle. He married about 1575 (estimated) Grace (or Alicia) Crossland, daughter of Thomas and Joanna (Hawksworth) Crossland of Crossland Hill, Yorkshire. (See Foster's Visitations of Yorkshire) and descended from Roger de Crossland, of the time of Henry III.
------------------------------------------
1595. George Calvert entered Trinity College, Oxford as a commoner.
1597. Took his degree of B.A.
1604. Married "Thursday, Nov. 22, Mr. George Calvert of St. Martins in the Felds, Gent., and Mrs. Anne Mynne of Bexley, Hertfordshire, at St. Peter's, Cornhill, London." (Parish Rec.)
1605. Received his first Master's Degree at Oxford. Became M.P. for Bosnay, Cornwall, and Private Secretary for Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and appointed by King James I Clerk of the Crown and of Assize in County Clare, Ireland, an office said to resembe that of Attorney General.
1609. Member of Second Virginia Company, and one of the Provisional Council for that Colony.
1613. Clerk of Privy Council.
1617. Sept. 29, Knighted by King James I.
1618. Secretary of State. Received life pension of 1,000(pounds) per year. Obtained a grant of the Province of Avalon in New Foundland.
1619. Made Principal Secretary of State
1621. August 8, his wife, Anne Mynne Calvert died.
1621. Feb. 18. The king granted him a manor of 2300 acres in county Longford, Ireland. "These lands were held under the condition that all settlers upon them should take the oath of supremacy and 'be coformable in point of religion'; and when Calvert, four years later made profession of the Roman Catholic faith, he surrendered his patent and received it back wit the religious clause omitted. These Longford estates were then erected into the manor of Baltimore, from which he took his baronial title." (William Hand Browne's "George and Cecilius Calvert," p.11)
1622. Was one of eighteen Commissioners of the New England Company.
1623. March, a re-grant of the southeastern peninsula of New Foundland which was erected into the Province of Avalon by Royal Charter, in which Lord Baltimore was given a palatinate or quasi-royal authority over the province, which was held in capite, by knight's service, with the condition of giving the king or his successors a white horse whenever he or they should visit those parts.
1623. Became a Roman Catholic and offered to resign as Secretary of State. He was retained as Member of the Privy Council.
1624. Member of the Council for winding up the affairs of the Virginia Company. Also M.P. for Oxfordshire.
1625. Resigned as Principal Secretary of State, Feb 9. Feb. 16, created Irish Peer with the title of Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore. (Note. No county is named in the enrollment of the Baltimore Patent. There was not and is not any place of that name in county Longford, which is the county usually assiged to this creation, but the chartered town of Baltimore, county Cork, the only place of that name in Ireland was then one of considerable size.) (The Genealogical Peerage of the United Kingdom, Vol. 1,p.226.)
1627. Second wife called "Dame Joane Baltimore" by her husband in a deed. Lord Baltimore visited Avalon this year, where he had spect some 25,000(Pounds) in improvements. In a letter at this time he writes: "...am... bound for a long journey to a place which I have had a long desire to visit, and have now the opportunity and leave to do it. It is Newfoundland, I mean, which, it imports me, more that curiousity only, to see, for I must either go and settle it in better order, or give it over and lose all the charge I have been at hitherto for other men to build their fortunes upon. And I had rather be esteemed a fool by some for the hazard of one month's journey, than to prove myself one certainly for six years past if the business be now lost for the want of a little pains and care."
"So in June of this year of 1627 he visited Avalon in person, arriving at the end of July. Though he came at the most favorable season, and remained for but a month or two, so that he could scarcely have had time to visit the interior of the island, we cannot but think that when he compared the reality with Whitbourne's glowing descriptions and his onw fancy pictures built upon them, his disappointment must have been sharp." (Wm.Hand Browne)
All behind his little plantation lay a region of wild savagery, or bleak and hopeless desolation, and in front was the wild, stormy and inhospitable sea. The brief northern summer bid from him the worst enemy of all, the long pitiless northern winter.
Departing after a short visit, he spent the winter in England preparing for his return, which he made in the following summer, bringing with him Lady Joane Baltimore, all his family except his eldest son, Cecilius, and about forty colonists, so that the whole colony was raised to about one hundred souls. Unexpected troubles beset him. He wrote to Lord Buckingham "I came to build, and sett, and sowe, but am falne to fighting with Frenchmen, who have heere disquieted me and many other of his Majesties subjects fighting in this land." He continues: "One De la Rade of Dieppe, with three ships and four hundred men, many of them gentlemen here have told us, came first into a harbour of mine called Capebroile, not above a league from the place where I am planted, and there surprising divers of the fishermen in thier shallops at the harbour's mouth, within a short time after possessed themselves of two English ships within the ahrbour, with all their fishes and provisions, and had done the liek to the rest in that place had I not sent them assistance with two ships of mine, one of them 360 tons and twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and another, a bark of sixty tons with three or four small guns in her, and about a hundred men aboard us in all," etc. By the ship that carried this letter, young Leonard Calvert and Peaseley returned to England, where Leonard petitioned the king that his father might have a share in certain prizes taken from the French by the ships Benediction and Victory.
1628. The dangers and discomforts of life at Avalon seem to have been too much for Lady Baltimore, and in 1628 she sailed for Virginia adn remained for some time at Jamestown, as is known from a letter of Baltimore's in which he asks letters from Privy Council to the Governor of Virginia instructing him to facilitate Lady Baltimore's return to England.
1629. Lord Baltimore arrived in Jamestone October 1629. He was received coldly by the Virginians. He was tendered the oath of Allegiance which he could not take on account of his religious faith, though he offered to take a modified form of it. To this the Virginians would not agree, and he departed for England where he sought King Charles I, who had succeeded his father, James I, in 1625, for a new grant of land. King Charles continued his father's friendship for Lord Baltimore and granted him the territory which later became Maryland.
1629. There is but one account of the death of Lady Baltimore by shipwreck. It is found in a fragment of unknown origin among the papers in Sir Hans Sloane's Collection in the British Museum in London, and is numbered 3662, pp. 24-6, and dated 1670. The following excerpt is dated 1629 in the margin, and since the next marginal date is 1631, it is inferred that the events recorded took place in the years 1629 and 1630. Lord Baltimore went "to Virginia in the year 1629, where he found a much better climate (than New Foundland), and leaving his lady and some of his children by her there, comes himself to England to secure a Patent of some part of that Continent, and smoe while after sends for his Lady, who together with her children that were left whit her, were unfortunately cast away in their return; in which ship his lordsip lost a great deal of plate and other goods of a great value." (Lady Baltimore sailed on the St. Claude which was wrecked off the English coast before October, 1630.)
1632. Apr. 15, Lord Baltimore was buried in the Chancel of St. Dunstan's before the Charter to Maryland had passed the Great Seal, so the charter was issued in the name of his son and heir, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, under the Great Seal dated 20th June, 1632, just a few weeks after his father's death. (for the will of Lord Baltimore see Part I)
George Calvert was a good linguist, a ready writer, and possessing executive talent, says Rev. Edward Neill, A.B., in his The Founders of Maryland. "His accomplishments won for him the notice and friendship of Sir Robert Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's Principal Secretary of State, who had no small part in securing to King James the succession to the throne of England. Through his recommendations George Calvert was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council of King James, 1613." (Richardson's Sidelights on Maryland History.)
William Hand Browne, in his George and Cecilius Calvert says: "The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council notwithstanding his change of religion; and on February 16, 11625, elevated him to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore." (See Letters Patent, Part I.) Within a few weeks from the issue of this Patent, King James died, but his successor, Charles I, did not withdraw his favor from the late Secretary.
George Calvert wrote a remarkably illegible hand. It has been mentioned that King Charles told him that he "writ as fair a hand to look upon from afar off, as any man in England; but that when any one came near it, they were not able to read a word."
George Calvert was not, like Buckingham, a man of brilliant talent and boundless confidence in his own abilities, nor was he one of those who found the most attractive fishing in troubled waters. His talents were solid; he was cautious, laborious, exact, of unimpeachable integrity, and a true lover of his country.
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More About George Calvert:
Burial: 15 April 1632, St. Dunstan's Ch., London, Eng.16
Colonial Families of the United States of America: Volume 2
ISSUE BY 1ST m.
page 164
GEORGE CALVERT, 1st Lord of Baltimore, b. circa 1580; d. 15th Apr. 1632; became private secretary to Sir Robert CECIL; was appointed by the King, Clerk of the Crown and Assize in Co. Clare, Ireland; in 1613, appointed Clerk to the Privy Council; knighted in 1617. In 1619 was made Principal Secretary of State. Was member of Parliament from Yorkshire in 1621. 18th Feb. 1621, the King granted him a manor of 2300 acress in Co. Langford, Ireland, which was erected into the Manor of Baltimore, from which he derived his baronial title. Elevated to the Irish Peerage as Baron Baltimore, 16th Feb. 1625; m. (firstly) circa 1605, Anne MYNNE, [p.164] d. 8th Aug. 1622, dau. of John MYNNE, Esq., of Hertingfordbury, and Elizabeth WROTH, his wife, dau. of Sir Thomas WROTH of Durance in Enfield, Middlesex, Knight; m. (secondly) Joan–as mentioned in legal papers; her surname unknown.
Maryland Historical Society; Fund Publications, 16-20. Volume IV 1880-1884 The last chapter is of Sir George "A Paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, April 14, 1884, by Lewis W. Wilhelm, A.B., Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University.
Just to highlight a few things in the book:
Page 26: "It was in the summer of 1606, that Calvert received from King James the reversion of an important clerkship in Ireland and so became officially identified with the country from which two decades later he received his title of "baron.""
Page 76: "The year 1622 was made memorable to Calvert by its vicissitudes of joy and sorrow, of worldly prosperity and of domestic unhappiness. In the midst of his pleasurable anticipations upon the Spanish Match, his spirits were cast into gloom by the sudden death of his amiable wife, on August 8, after an illness of but two days, at the age of 52 years, leaving behind her eleven young children....The oldest child, Cecilius, who became the heir of his father's fortune and title, was but sixteen years old; Leonard and George a decade after this time emigrated to the colony of Maryland; of Francis and Henry very little is known; John, born on the eve of his mother's death, is said to have died in youth. Of the five daughters little is known, save their names; Anne, the eldest, married Mr. William Peasley, and Grace became the wife of Sir Robert Talbot of County Kildare, Ireland; Dorothy, Elizabeth and Helen completed the family."
Page 89: ".....being infinitely addicted to the Roman Catholic faith, having been converted thereunto by Count Gondomar & Count Arundel, whose daughter Secretary Calvert's son had married. If Calvert's oldest son, Cecilius, did marry Lady Arundel at the time of the Spanish negotiations then some excellent authorities have made some amazing errors. According to Kennedy, Cecilius Calvert, in 1623, was but 17 years old, and according to Neill, in "Terra Mariae," Anne Arundel, in this year, was but eight years old. Such youthful marriages are certainly not usual in England."
Page 151: "....on Sunday, April 15, 1632, in the midst of his large family, he [Sir George] passed away in death."
In the preface, he gives Dr. William Hand Browne, credit for reviewing of his manuscript, along with others. The chapter contains about 160 pages and as mentioned, is about as much as I have read. Mrs. O'Gorman quotes a bit from Dr. Browne, in her book.
I got this book on Inter-Library loan from the John M. Olin Library at Washington University, 6600 Millbrook Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63130.
Louise Shaw [lshaw2@@pcisys.net]
From "A Chesapeake family their slaves, A study in historical archaeology" Anne Elizabeth Yentsch, Cambridge University Press. P. 53 "....to the early 1600's when George Calvert began to move in Stuart circles after serving James I in Ireland. James I reward services with honor, knighted George Calvert in 1617, and awarded him an Irish baronetcy in February 1624/25. The status, prestige, and political powers of the Calvert family were on the rise. Still, the family was not among the greatest English nobility and did not possess the wealth of the aristocratic families that maintained major estates like Boxworth or Chatsworth. The aristocracy at that time evaluated its members according to a variety of cultural criteria including length of pedigree and location. The Calvert baronetcy was recent and Irish, not English; the family seat of Kiplin was in Yorkshire, distant from Court.....Drawn by the Calvert's future prospects and the family's Catholic faith, Thomas ARUNDEL (Lord ArundeL at Wardour) asked the second Lord Baltimore, the young Cecilius, to wed daughter Anne. The couple were married in 1527/28 and may have lived briefly at Arundel's own home, Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, before settling at Hook Manor on the Wardour estate. There Anne gave birth to three daughters, and infant George (1634-6) and finally Charles, the third Lord Baltimore. Charles had two sons, Cecilius (who died at 13) and Benedict Leonard (Sr.) born in Maryland. By that time the Calvert family was politically allied through a network of marriage and financial alliances with some of the most talented families in England. George Calvert forged the initial connections when he became a junior secretary to Sir Robert Cecil (1563-1612) \, who rose to be the Earl of Salisbury and was principal Secretary of State of James I. Among the circle of families linked to the Calverts were the ARUNDELS, the SOMERSETS, the powerful Irish TALBOTS (Lords Tyrconnel), the diplomatically astute and fiscally prudent HYDES (Earls of Rochester and Clarendon), and the literary, mathematical and political DIGGES. The third Lord Baltimore built upon this network during his Maryland residence (1661-84), using the mechanisms of judicious land grants, marriages, and political appointments to create his own small cadre of prominent Catholic families in Maryland, including the SEWALLS, TALBOTS, DIGGES, DARNALLS, LEES, LOWES. Maryland's Catholic gentry reciprocated by providing strong and effective political support and service, and gradually the lines extended to include other wealthy families including the Easter Shore dynasty of Quaker LLOYDS."
"In this book James W. Foster gives some of the family background. He states that George was born and a died a Roman Catholic. He then goes on to explain what it meant to be a Roman Catholic in the late 16th and early 17th century,
in England. The writer states that the Calverts were NOT from the migration of Flemish weavers attracted to Yorkshire, because of its fame for wool growing. Based on the evidence of wills and inventories, the Calverts of Yorkshire in the 16th century were tenant farmers, husbandmen, and yeomen of standing, and in the case of Leonard of Kiplin, gentlemen when that term signified superior social position. The writer gives George's birth date as abt. 1580 at Kiplin. Further that his father was Leonard son of John, who was a tenant of Philip Lord Wharton. His mother (the writers opinion after much study of evidence, was Alice,
daughter of John Crosland of Crosland near Almondbury in the West Riding. Her family's arms were quartered with Calvert arms by the second Lord Baltimore, indicating that she was an heiress in her own right, having no brothers. She died
early and Leonard remarried. This is supported by the record of the Yorkshire High Commission showing that Leonard Calvert and wife "GRACE" in 1592 were summoned by the Commission to answer charges of religious nonconformity.
Grace Crosland is the daughter of Thomas, of Crosland Hill near Almondbury. She was baptized at Almondbury on Feb. 8, 1573, and could not have been a mother in 1580. She is also mentioned in her father's will who died in 1587. Any relationship has never been established, because there were so many Crosland's and Catholic records were not kept until 1600. Couples were married privately and their children baptized surreptitiously by priests who traveled by night and hid by day. In the years 1580 to 1594 Leonard and Grace were frequently pressed to conform to Anglican practice. Leonard submitted a
certificate that he had conformed and 2 yrs. later gave bond that he and his wife (name not stated) would communicate within a given time. This happened several times and then the records are silent. He was either imprisoned or paid a
fine to be released. The next entry is dated Oct. 9, 1592 and states that he will have no Catholic servants or Catholic teacher for his children and would buy a Book of Common Prayer, a Bible in English and a catechism, to lie open in his house "for everyone to read." His children were to be put to school in York and not to leave without license from the Archbishop of York. Two of these children were George and Christopher, 10 and 12 years old. One of the relatives who appears in historical records is Ralph EWENS. He died without children in 1611. In his will he list his uncle, Leonard CALVERT and his wife, unnamed,
his grandmother, "Mistress Margerie CALVERT," his uncle and aunt ANTHWAITE, and his cousins George, Christopher and Samuel CALVERT. Another family allied with the CALVERTS were the SMITHSONS. George's sister Dorothy married Christopher SMITHSON of Moulton, North Riding. Their daughter Grace married into the CONYERS family. Sons of Christopher and Grace SMITHSON were
named Leonard, Calvert and George. Guess I've written enough. Cousins, buy the book. It is worth the money. James W. Foster spent many years in England
and the Maryland Archives researching the Calvert family. The information is well documented. BUY THE BOOK. Your Calvert Cousin, Vicki K. http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/s/p/e/Vicki-K-Spencer
--
George Calvert
cybercat@@ntr.net
"WILL OF RALPH EWENS
T. RADULPI EWENS. In the name of the ternall God my Creator of Jeses Christ my redeemer and Savio and of that eternall sactifyinge Spiritt proceedinge from both I raphe Ewens of Greyes Inne in the Countie of Midd' Esquie' beinge in bodie weake but in sence aud memorie in all apparaunce perfect doe make this my last will and testament in writinge to remaine inviolable for ever. ............
Item whereas Samuell Calvert gent my cosen german siandes indebted unto me in the some of Threescore poundes wth condicon for the payment of fortie poundes or thereaboutes my will is that my Executrix shall within tenne dayes after demaund thereof made deliver the saide bonde and make a good and lawful estate thereof by p're of Attorney unto my cosen Mr. George Calvert to be by him disposed to theis uses (that is to saic) First uppon receipt of the saide some to repaie to the said Samuell Calvert as my legacie Twentie pounds of the said debte And the residue thereof to be bestowed uppon my twoe sisters and their children according to the discretion of the said George Calvert.
Item I give to my saide two sisters and their children by waie of addicon All my apparell of doth stuffe and silke except my lynnen and my best gownd wth my meawnge is my said Executrix shall keep and dispose. Item I give to Raphe Grinsell my gocsonne Tenne poundes. Item I geve to be picked and valued out of my printed bookes soe many as will amount to the some of Twentie poundes to be given to the children of my sister Hartford & my sister Downes the same to be chosen and appointed by Mr Doctor Layfield and my cosen Mr George Calvert for wch paines to be taken by Mr Doctor Layfield I give him as a remembraunce Twentie Shillinges to make him a ringe with the word Memento.
I give unto the right honorable the Lord Stanhopp my late deere worthie, religious and honorable Master and friende a cupp of Five poundes wth this poesie Grati pignus. Item I geve to the right Hoble Ladie Stanhope my late honorable Mris a Ringe of fortie shillinges wth this poesie Memento. Item I give to the Hoble knight Sr Charles Stanhope sonne to the said Lord Stanhope A ringe of Thirtie shillinges wth this poesie R. E. Famulista. Item I give to the twoe daughters of the Lord Stanhope to either of them a ringe of twentie shillinges a peece wth this word Memento.
Item I geve unto my cosen George Calvert a ringe of Fortie Shillinges wth this word Memento. Item I geve unto my cosen his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges wth the same poesie. Item I geve unto my uncle Mr. Leonard Calvert a Ringe of fortie shillinges and to my Aunt his wife a ringe of Twentie shillinges. And to my deere and lovinge grandmother Mrs Margerie Calvert a ringe of Fortye shillinges. And to my brother Richard's wife a ringe of twentie shillinges. And to my neece their daughter a ringe of Twenties shillinges. And to my cosen Christopher Calvert a ringe of Twentie shillinges.
And to my Aunt Saulkeld my Aunt Barlowe my unckle and my Aunt Branthwaite to ech of them Ringes of Twentie shillinges a peece. Item I geve to my cosen Mr. Robert Branthwaite and his wife to him a ringe of Fortie shillinges...
He had alvays an eye to business, so that there was hardly a foreign enterprise prosecuted in which he had not an interest, colonization being a specialty with him. He was one of the original associaates of the Virginia Company, and continued so till 1620. In 1609 and 1614 he put money in the East India Company. In 1622 he was a member of the New England Company. In 1620 he bought an extensive plantation in Newfoundland, and in 1623 he secured a charter for this, creating it a province, and giving him almost royal honors and prerogatives. Avalon, however, failing him in his expectations, he secured from King Charles the gift of a section of Virginia, extending also into North Carolina, and called Carolana; but finding he wouki have trouble in securing the actual possession he relinquished it. And then in the year 1632 we find him obtaining the province of Maryland, though dying before the gift was finally completed.
Not all information verified and/or documented. Not all are my direct line (only those denoted by *). Please use this as a guide and contact the source for more information. I am actively making updates and corrections and reposting the information. With
Events
| Birth | 1579 | in the chapelry of Bolton., Kiplin, Yorkshire, England |  | ||
| Education | 1594 | Trinity College, Oxford |  | ||
| Education | 1597 | Trinity College, Oxford | | ||
| Education | 1604 | Trinity College, Oxford | | ||
| Marriage | 22 Nov 1604 | St. Peter's, Cornhill, London - Anne Mynne | |||
| Event | 1606 | | |||
| Event | 1609 | Cornwall | | ||
| Event | 1610 | | |||
| Event | 1613 | Ireland | | ||
| Event | 1617 | | |||
| Fact | 1620 | Lord of Treasury | | ||
| Divorce | 1622 | Anne Mynne | | ||
| Marriage | Aft 1622 | Joanne | |||
| Event | Mar 1623 | | |||
| Religion | 1624 | Convert to Catholic | | ||
| Occupation | 1625 | Retired from public life | | ||
| Event | 1628 | | |||
| Death | 15 Apr 1632 | London, England | |||
| Burial | St. Dunstan, Fleet Street, London, England-since destroyed by fire | | |||
| Land | 2300 acres in Langfrod, Ireland-Manor of Baltimore |
Families
| Spouse | Anne Mynne (1578 - 1621) |
| Child | Cecilius Calvert (1605 - 1675) |
| Child | Ann Calvert (1607 - 1672) |
| Child | Dorothy Calvert (1608 - 1624) |
| Child | Elizabeth Calvert (1609 - ) |
| Child | Leonard Calvert (1610 - 1647) |
| Child | Henry Calvert (1611 - 1635) |
| Child | Francis Calvert (1612 - 1630) |
| Child | George Calvert (1613 - 1634) |
| Child | Grace Calvert (1615 - 1672) |
| Child | John Calvert (1618 - 1618) |
| Child | Helen Calvert (1619 - ) |
| Spouse | Joanne ( - ) |
| Father | Leonard Calvert (1550 - 1611) |
| Mother | Alicia Grace Crossland (1557 - ) |
| Sibling | Samuel Calvert ( - ) |
| Sibling | Helen Calvert (1571 - ) |
| Sibling | Christopher Calvert (1582 - ) |
| Sibling | Robert Calvert (1585 - 1632) |
| Sibling | Mary Calvert (1586 - ) |
Notes
Education
At the young age of fourteen, in 1594, George entered Trinity College, Oxford. It was here that he became proficient in LatinEducation
In the summer of 1597, upon earning his bachelor degree, he traveled throughout the continent, and in doing so, learned the French, Spanish and Italian languages.Education
honorary degree of Master of ArtsEvent
In 1606, Calvert became the primary secretary to Sir Robert Cecil. Cecil, was the secretary of state and controller of the policy of King James I, (Ruled 1603-1625) and served in this capacity until his death in 1612. Through Sir Robert's influence, Calvert advanced quickly and soon earned the confidence of the king.Over the years Calvert held many important positions. In 1606, he was made the clerk of the crown of assize and peace in County Clare, Ireland.
Event
In 1609, he was made a member of Parliament for Bossiney, in Cornwall;Event
was sent on a special mission for the king to France in 1610; and assisted the king in a theological dispute with Vorstius, a Dutch theologian.Event
In 1613, Calvert was appointed a clerk of the Privy Council where he also served on a commission to look into religious grievances in Ireland.Event
In 1617, George Calvert was knighted, and two years later, the king, in direct opposition to the desires of the Duke of Buckingham, appointed him the principal secretary of state. In this position, he would serve as a companion to Sir Robert Naunton. By virtue of this position, he was automatically made a member of the Privy Council. In his position as principal secretary of state, he steadfastly discharged vital diplomatic functions. He was a zealous defender in Parliament of the unpopular policies of King James I, especially the negotiations for an alliance with Catholic Spain.Fact
In 1620, King James I granted Calvert an increased duty on silk that enabled him to purchase part of the peninsula of Avalon, in the southeastern section of Newfoundland. Two years later he received a grant from the King for the entire country of Newfoundland.Meanwhile, a small colony had been established there in Ferryland in 1620. Although some buildings were erected, and some planting was done, the colony did not flourish.
Divorce
George and Anne divorced about 1622.Event
In March 1623, a re-grant was issued, restricting his territory to the original peninsula of Avalon. On April 7, 1623, by virtue of a royal charter, was erected into the province of Avalon, the powers of whose lord were regal in kind and inferior only in degree to those of a king.Religion
He was a zealous defender in Parliament of the unpopular policies of King James I, especially the negotiations for an alliance with Catholic Spain. In 1624, when these negotiations failed, Calvert lost his seat in Parliament; a position he had held for Yorkshire since 1621. Upon losing his Parliament seat, he was then returned to Parliament without delay as one of the members for the University of Oxford. Upon his return to Parliament, one of the issues facing him was a measure for the persecution of Catholics. Being a Catholic, and having announced his conversion to that faith, he resigned his secretaryship.Occupation
In February 1625, King James I retained him as a member of the Privy Council and created him Baron of Baltimore, First Lord Baltimore, in the Kingdom of Ireland.Event
In the summer of 1627, Calvert made a short visit to the colony. He returned in 1628 with his second wife, Joanne, whom he married sometime after 1622, and some of his children from his first wife, except his son Cecilius. During the summer of 1628, the colony was attacked by three French ships, whereby several engagements ensued. Because of this, Lord Baltimore appealed to the King for protection.On March 20, 1628, George and his second wife, Joanne, had one son, Philip. He would go on to marry Anne Wolseley
Endnotes
1. from will of Peter Johnson, where he names wife's childrent from John Mattingly: James, Joseph and Luke. Presume others d, p 3.
2. from will of Peter Johnson, where he names wife's childrent from John Mattingly: James, Joseph and Luke. Presume others dead, p 3.
3. "Gardiner, Generations".
4. "Gardiner, Generations".