Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore was an English politician, peer and lawyer who was the first proprietor of Maryland. Born in Kent in 1605, he inherited the proprietorship after the death of his father, George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, for whom it had been intended. Calvert proceeded to establish and manage the Province of Maryland as a proprietary colony for English Catholics from his English country house of Kiplin Hall in North Yorkshire.
Portrait by Gerard Soest, c. 1670.
Modern reconstruction of Dove, one of the two ships that carried settlers to plant Lord Baltimore's first settlement in Maryland in 1634.
Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's younger brother and the first governor of the Maryland colony.
Maryland Toleration Act, passed in 1649.
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore was an English peer and politician. He achieved domestic political success as a member of parliament and later Secretary of State under King James I. He lost much of his political power after his support for a failed marriage alliance between Prince Charles and the Spanish House of Habsburg royal family. Rather than continue in politics, he resigned all of his political offices in 1625 except for his position on the Privy Council and declared his Catholicism publicly. He was created Baron Baltimore in the Peerage of Ireland upon his resignation. Baltimore Manor was located in County Longford, Ireland.
A portrait of Lord Baltimore by Daniël Mijtens
Kiplin Hall, estate built by Sir George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632) in the 1620s
James I, painted by Daniël Mijtens in 1621. James made Calvert the first Baron Baltimore in 1625, in recognition of his services to the Crown.
Sketch of Sir George Calvert, first Baron and Lord Baltimore (1579–1632), c. 1620