George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, barons Baltimore of Baltimore

Preface

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

The characters of the two seem much alike. There is the same patience, the same humanity of disposition, the same moderation, and the same steadiness of purpose. But in one respect there is a great difference for the biographer. George Calvert passed a large part of his active life in imporvi PREFACE.

tant public office, and in close connection with the great events and great actors of his day. His name is in all histories and memoirs of the time, and his letters are scattered through many collections. Cecilius, on the other hand, seenis to have studied to withdraw himself from publicity. Except in connection with his colony, his name scarcely appears in history, and hardly any letters of his or addressed to him, other than those of a formal and official character, are known to exist. It requires close study of his acts, and of the motives that prompted them, before the dim personality of the man begins to take form and feature. Hence all biographical notices of Cecilius Calvert have been meagre, shadowy, and unsatisfactory.

If the present sketch be in any degree less open to this reproach, it is due to the fact that the writer has had some advantages that were denied to his predecessors. In particular he has been able to consult, in their originals, the ancient papers of the Calvert family ; a body of manuscripts unknown to previous historians, recently discovered in England among the litter and rubbish of an old conservatory, rescued from destruction, and acquired by the Maryland Historical Society. Some of these papers, as throwing new and important light on the events of the time, have been quoted at considerable length ;

PREFACE. vii

for instance the instructions to the first colonists, Leonard Calvert's narrative of the reduction of Kent Island, Baltimore's letter to his brother about the Jesuits, etc.

The other chief sources have been the manuscript archives of the State^ the collections of the Maryland Historical Society, and the colonial records preserved in the PubUc Record Office, London, and made accessible to all the world by the admirable calendar of Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury.

Among the printed works consulted, the writer desires to acknowledge special obligations to " The Foundation of Maryland," by Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, and the " Life of George Calvert," by Lewis W. Wilhelm, Esq., two monographs published by the Maryland Historical Society.

He has also to thank his friend, Mr. John H. Ingram of London, and the Rev. Andrew Clark, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, for their great kindness in searching manuscript records at his request.

Chapter I

The Calvert family — Verstegan's statement — Leonard Calvert — Birth of George Calvert — Education — Connection with Cecil — In Parliament — Marriage — Sent to Ireland — In favour with James I. — Knighted — Secretary of State — Favours the Spanish marriage — Grant of lands in Ireland — Children — Failure of the Spanish match — Calvert resolves to retire from office — Avows himself a Roman Catholic and resigns his Secretaryship — Is created Baron Baltimore, 1-14

Chapter II

Calvert's interest in colonization — Plantation in Newfoundland — Receives a grant of Avalon — Visits his Province — Description of Avalon — Descent of French cruisers — Captures French ships — Letter to Buckingham — Severity of the climate — Letter to the King — Sails for Virginia — Reception at Jamestown — Letter to Strafford — Receives grant of land on the Chesapeake — Pamphlet on England's policy — Death — Events at Avalon — Portrait of George Calvert, 15-34

CHAPTER HI.

Cecilius Calvert succeeds his father — Receives the charter of Maryland — Character of the charter — Pal-

X CONTENTS.

PAGE

atinate governments — State of affairs in England — Plans of colonization — The Ark and Dove — Difficulties and hindrances — Enemies of the new colony — Attacks upon the charter — The first immigration — Catholics and Protestants — Baltimore's instructions — Religious toleration, . . . 35~57

Chapter IV

Sailing of the Ark and Dove — Father White's journal — First impressions of Maryland — Friendly reception by the Indians — Settlement on St. Mary's river — Hostility in Virginia — William Claiborne and his post on Kent Island — Arrest of Smith — Outbreak at Jamestown — Fight on the Pocomoke — Claiborne superseded — Kent Island submits to Baltimore — Boteler and Smith give trouble — Leonard Calvert arrests them — Pacification of the island — Report of the Expedition — Boteler and Smith tried and condemned — Boteler pardoned, .... 58-82

Chapter V

The first Maryland Assembly— Assembly of 1637-8 — The Council and the Burgesses — Mode of electing — Proxies — Baltimore dissents to the laws — The Assembly rejects his code — Secretary Lewger — A deadlock — Baltimore yields the initiative to the Assembly — A dilemma and its solution — Claiborne attainted — Health of the colonists — Monopolies — The Proprietary's revenues — Claiborne's petition and extraordinary proposal — The charter confirmed, 83-97

Chapter VI

A serious problem — Religious toleration promised the first colonists — The colony favored by the leading Catholics and the heads of the Jesuit order — Priests

CONTENTS. xi

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sent out — *' Rights of Holy Church " provided for — How far should these rights extend ? — An ivipetium in imperio — Grants of lands by Indian chiefs to the missionaries — Extravagant privileges — Baltimore applies to Rome to have the Jesuits withdrawn — Conditions of plantation — Relations of Church and State — Questions propounded to the Jesuits — An agreement — No lands to be held by any religious body or for its use — No secret trusts — The Assembly becomes representative — An anomaly — Death of Lady Baltimore, . . 98-118

CHAPTER Vn.

Letter to Leonard — Strong distrust of the Jesuits — The governor sharply censured — Reorganization of the government — Indian laws of succession — Civil war in England — Baltimore's attitude — The Arundels of Wardour — Leonard goes to England — Ingle's treasonable proceedings, arrest, and escape — Claiborne's machinations — Ingle seizes St. Mary's and plunders the Southern plantations — Claiborne's followers plunder Kent Island — Complications in Virginia — Leonard recovers the Province — His death — Stone appointed governor — The Seal of Maryland, 119-136

Chapter VIII

The Act concerning Religion — Puritans in the Province — Their grievances — The oath of fidelity — Toleration of Catholics — Proclamation of Charles 11. — Uneasiness in the Province — " Popish tyranny" — Sir William Davenant's adventure — Virginia to be reduced to obedience to Parliament — Maryland surreptitiously included in the commission — Claiborne Parliamentary Commissioner — Maryland rexii CONTENTS.

PAGE

duced and the government remodelled — Attempt to destroy the colony frustrated — Cromwell to decide the controversy — Fuller governs in the name of the Protector — The Puritan Act of Toleration — Cromwell's first letter — Stone marches on Providence — Is defeated and taken prisoner — Prisoners shot — Cromwell's second letter — The Province restored to Baltimore, ....... 1 37-159

Chapter IX

Fendall governor — Reorganizes the militia — Agreement of fidelity — Quakers in Maryland — Order against them — Thurston's case — The Dutch on the Delaware — Utie's mission — Stuyvesant's wrath — Embassy of Herman and Waldron — Fruitless negotiations — Fendall's attempt at revolution — The Burgesses declare themselves the Assembly — Fendall surrenders his commission and accepts one from the Burgesses — Superseded by Philip Calvert — Tried and sentenced — Sentence commuted — Final organization of the Assembly — Currency — Indian money — Tobacco — "Maryland money" coined by Baltimore — Charles Calvert governor — " Act of gratitude " — Death of Cecilius Calvert — State of the Province, 160-175

GEORGE AND CECILIUS CALVERT.

Chapter I

The origin of the Calvert family is obscure. There were Calverts, or Calverds, in Yorkshire as early as the fourteenth century, the name of Margareta Calverd appearing on the Durham Halmote, or Manorial Rolls, in 1366; but none of the genealogies affords us the means of tracing from these the family of the founder of Maryland. The biographies usually speak of the Calverts as of Flemish extraction, which is not improbable, as Calvart or Calvaert is a well-known Flemish name; but their lineage — at least that of the Yorkshire Calverts — has never been traced back to Flanders. In the exemplification of arms issued in 1622 by Richard St. George, Norroy king of arms, to Sir George Calvert, it is stated on the authority of Verstegan, the antiquary and philologist, " that the said Sir George is descended of a noble and auntient familie of that surname in the earldom of Flanders, where they have lived long in great honor, and have had great possessions, their principall and auntient seat being at Warvickoe in the said province. And that in theis later tymes two brethren of that surname, vid: Jaques Calvert, lord of Severe, two leagues from Gaunt, remayned in the Netherland broyles on the side of the Kinge of Spayne, and hath a sonne who at this present is in honourable place and office in the ParHament Courte at Macklyn ; and Levinus Calverte the younger brother tooke parte with the States of Holland, and was by them ymployed as their agent with Henry the fourth late Kinge of Fraunce, which Levinus Calvert left a Sonne in France, whom the foresaid Kinge entertayned as a gentleman of his bed chamber." He goes on to say, on the same authority, that the proper armorial bearings of the Calverts are, " or, three martletts sables, with this creast, vizt., the upper part or halves of two launces, the bandroll of the first, sables, and the second, or; " and then declares that the arms which the Calverts have borne in England are " paley of six pieces, or and sables, a bend counterchanged," to which he adds, as a crest, the two half-lances with their bandrolls, or small banners, of black and gold standing in a ducal crown.

It would seem from this that Norroy did not quite see his way clear to affiliate Sir George to the Flernish Calverts; but he has no objection to intimate it heraldically by the addition of the Flemish crest as an honorable augmentation to his proper ancestral bearings.

Our earliest certain knowledge of the family begins with Leonard, the father of George, who was living in' the time of Elizabeth in or near the town of Danby Wiske, in the valley of the Swale, Yorkshire. All that we know of Leonard Calvert is that his father's name was John, and that he was a country gentleman, apparently in easy circumstances, who owned land and raised cattle — a fact which at a later time gave an enemy of George Calvert an opportunity to sneer at him as " the son of a grazier " — that he married Alicia Crossland, a lady of gentle birth, and that he acquired the estate of Kiplin, in the same valley, in the latter part of Elizabeth's reign.

Either on this estate of Kiplin, or in the village of that name, George Calvert, the eldest son of his parents, was born about the year 1580. But few particulars of his youth are recorded. At the early age of fourteen he entered Trinity College, Oxford, as a commoner, and took his bachelor's degree in 1597. That he acquired a good knowledge of Latin is shown by a poem in that language deploring the death of Sir Henry Unton, ambassador to France ; and it is also likely that here he laid the foundation of that acquaintance with French, Italian, and Spanish which afterward stood him in good stead in his diplomatic career.

His college studies ended, he travelled on the Continent, where it is probable that he made his first acquaintance with Sir Robert Cecil, afterward his patron and the founder of his fortunes, who had been sent by Elizabeth on an embassy to the court of France, to knit more closely the bonds of alliance with Henry IV.

On Elizabeth's death, in 1603, Cecil was continued by James in the office of Secretary of State, and we already find Calvert among his friends. We may safely ascribe to Cecil's influence the fact that Calvert was associated with him in the management of certain estates that had been settled on the queen. In the same year he had a seat in James's first Parliament as a member for the Cornish borough of Bossiney, and thus took his first steps in public life.

A year or so later he married his first wife, Anne, the daughter of John Mynne, a gentleman of ancient family in Hertfordshire; and their eldest son, Cecilius, named after his patron Cecil, was born in 1606.

In 1605 Calvert received his master's degree at Oxford, on the occasion of the king's visit to that university. The ceremonies were unusually magnificent, the Duke of Lennox and the Earls of Oxford and Northumberland heading the long list of candidates, of whom Calvert was the last. On this occasion an honorary degree was bestowed upon Cecil, who was already a master of arts of Cambridge.

Soon after his leaving the university, Calvert became Cecil's private secretary, and was appointed by the king clerk of the crown and of assize in County Clare, Ireland, an office of importance, resembling that of an attorney-general. This was the first link connecting Calvert with Ireland, in which kingdom he was afterward to hold considerable estates and a place on the roll of nobility.

The death of Cecil in 16 12, though it deprived

Calvert of an attached and powerful friend, did not lessen the royal favor to him; and in 16 13 he was appointed clerk to the. Privy Council, and was sent on a mission to Ireland to report on the success of James's new policy of bringing the Irish to conformity with the religion and obedience to the law of England. Like all similar experiments, this policy had produced wide-spread and angry discontent among the native Irish, and several commissions were appointed to hear and report on their grievances.

Calvert was a member of two of these commissions, and his ready pen had doubtless a large share in the preparation of their reports, which seem to have been drawn up with great care and in a just and equitable spirit. They dwell especially on the harmful influence of the Jesuits; a point worth noting, as we shall see later that his son and successor entertained a strong dislike and suspicion of that order.

Calvert had also received other marks of royal confidence, and had been sent on a mission to the French court in 16 10 on the occasion of the accession of Louis XIII. His course seemed now steadily upward; the king liked him, trusted him, and employed him in many ways. He helped James in his diatribe against the Dutch theologian Vorstius, whose Arminian heresies the king, in his capacity of Defender of the Faith, felt bound to confute. Whether Calvert assisted in the conduct of the argument, or turned the king's vernacular into Latin, or merely transcribed James' notes, cannot be determined ; the latter, however, does not seem hkely, as Calvert wrote a remarkably illegible hand. In his correspondence he is often found apologizing for using the hand of an amanuensis, and he mentions once that Charles I. told him that he " writ as fair a hand to look upon afar off as any man in England ; but that when any one came near it, they were not able to read a word." On the whole, it seems most likely, as Calvert was a good Latinist, that he turned the king's English or French into Latin, to which James afterward added such graces and ornaments of vituperative rhetoric as the occasion, his dignity, and the polemic style of the age seemed to demand. In 1617 Calvert received the order of knighthood on the occasion of the marriage of the brother of Buckingham. The death of the able Cecil, and the fickle and capricious character of the ambitious and pleasure -loving duke, made the services of a painstaking and conscientious servant like Calvert more valuable than ever. On the dismissal of Sir Thomas Lake in 1619 he was raised to the high office of Principal Secretary of State, a position somewhat resembUng that of a modern prime minister. Of these secretaries there were two, Calvert's colleague being Sir Robert Naunton, a modest, unpretentious man of literary tastes, but of no political influence. Buckingham, who wanted the place for another, was chagrined at the appointment, but concealed his annoyance, and carried the news himself to Calvert. The king sent for him and asked him various questions, among the rest about his wife and her

GEORGE AXD CECILIUS CALVERT. 7

character ; a point on which he laid stress, because he held the offences of Calvert's predecessor as due, in great measure, to his wife ; and in a harangue in the Star Chamber had warned his secretaries against trusting their wives with secrets of state. Calvert reassured the king on this point, and bore affectionate testimony to his wife's virtue.

This important office, which of necessity drew him into the vortex of European politics, came to Calvert at a critical juncture in the affairs of England and Europe ; and we may well believe the statement that he hesitated before accepting it. He was not, like Buckingham, a man of briUiant talent and boundless confidence in his own abilities, nor was he of those who find the most attractive fishing in troubled waters. Calvert's talents were solid: he was cautious, laborious, exact, of unimpeachable integrity, and a true lover of his country ; and he could not have failed to see the heavy storm-clouds gathering on the poHtical horizon. A great continental struggle was impending: the Bohemians had lighted a torch which was setting all Europe ablaze ; and this very twelvemonth saw James's son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, crowned king at Prague and stripped of his hereditary dominions. Spain and France were rivals for the friendship of England : alliance with either was sure to make of the other a dangerous enemy: England itself was divided against itself. Calvert seems to have arrived at the conclusion that Spain would be the better friend or the more formidable foe ; and he favoured the proposed marriage of Prince Charles with the Infanta Maria, daughter of PhiHp III., although the majority in Parliament and in England thought otherwise.

Calvert received a further mark of the king's confidence in 1620, and was made one of the commissioners for the office of treasurer — in commission since Cecil's death — his colleague being Sir Lionel Cranfield. He also received a pension of ;^t,ooo and a subsidy on raw silk imported. This subsidy, it may be observed, was confirmed or regranted by Charles I. in 1627, and surrendered in 163 1 for a pension of ;^i,ooo.

The ParHament of 1621 met amid great excitement. Was James to draw his sword for his children's rights, and thus commit England to the Protestant side, or was he not? If he was, would the Commons be liberal in their supplies of money? The king was, as usual, distracted by inconsistent desires. He wanted money desperately, but he also wanted peace: he felt keenly the sufferings of his daughter, but he could not throw off the influence of Gondomar, nor give up his cherished scheme of the Spanish marriage ; and he still clung to the notion that a middle course was possible, and that he might act the part of a peacemaker.

Calvert sat in this ParHament, through Wentworth's influence, as a member for Yorkshire, Wentworth himself being his colleague, and was one of the minority that supported the Spanish poHcy of the court, while at the same time he tried to act the part of a conciliator between the king and the country party; a task for which his moderate, grave, and pacific disposition well fitted him, though it grew daily more difficult as tempers rose and the estrangement widened. He was known to favour the Spanish cause, and this cast a shadow of suspicion on his actions. When he urged them not to leave the king's hands tied for want of money at this critical juncture, the Commons said they were ready to give, and give freely, if he would only assure them that the money would be used against Spain and that the Prince of Wales would marry a Protestant wife. Calvert, knowing the king's secret wishes, could not give. this assurance, and so the struggle went on.

Still, though not popular with the popular party, Calvert was not obnoxious to it, and the king often used him as a medium for communicating his wishes orally to the House. The French ambassador, Tillieres, writing at this time, stated that the control of all public affairs really rested in Buckingham and Calvert. The latter he describes as " an honorable, sensible, well-minded man, courteous toward strangers, full of respect toward ambassadors, zealously intent upon the welfare of England ; but by reason of all these good qualities, entirely without consideration or importance." If he means such consideration and importance as Buckingham enjoyed, he was right. Calvert was no ambitious schemer to whom it was necessary to surround himself with a crowd of partisans and tools of every rank ; nor was he a splendid grandee, dazzling men's eyes by his magnificence. But if he means that the Secretary lO GEORGE AND CECILIUS CALVERT.

was a political nonentity, the records of Parliament prove the contrary. He often spoke, and his words always commanded attention and respect. He was of consideration from the unblemished integrity of his character, and from the wisdom, sincerity, and moderation of his counsels, and he was of importance because he was known to possess the confidence of the king. But it was his misfortune to be the mouthpiece of a master in whose sincerity the Commons trusted little, and in whose constancy not at all.

It is not necessary to go, as some have gone, to the fascinations of Gondomar, to explain Calvert's adherence to the Spanish side. He still believed Spain to be, what she had unquestionably been in the preceding reign, the most formidable power in Europe. In an alliance with Spain, as he thought, lay England's safety. The king strongly favoured this alliance, could he only make up his mind. Now, if there was to be an alliance with Spain, the closer and firmer that alliance the better; and nothing could knit it so close as the Spanish marriage. As for the rehgious question, if the prince wedded a daughter of France, there would be the same difficulty; and as for an alhance with a Protestant German house, even if James had not thought such a match unspeakably beneath him, his daughter's unhappy experience put that out of the question. There can be no doubt that Calvert in his consistent advocacy of the Spanish policy believed that he was serving his country as well as his king.

GEORGE AND CECILIUS CALVERT. n

The king rated at their due worth the faithful services of his Secretary, and on February i8th, 1621^ granted him a manor of 2,300 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 conformable 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 with the religious clause omitted. These Longford estates were then erected into the manor of Baltimore, from which he took his baronial title.

In the next year Calvert had the misfortune to lose his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, who died August 8th, 1622, leaving a family of ten children, the eldest of whom, Cecilius, was only about sixteen years old. Two other sons, Leonard and George, afterward had a share in the foundation of Maryland, and both died in the New World ; Anne, the eldest daughter, married William Peaseley; Grace, the fourth daughter, married Sir Robert Talbot, a kinsman of the earl of Tyrconnel; and of the others, Francis, Henry, Dorothy, Elizabeth, and Helen, little more than the names is known. An eleventh child, John, died in infancy. In memory of this beloved wife, Calvert erected a monument, which is still standing, in the parish church of Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire.

In 1623 occurred the memorable journey of Prince Charles and Buckingham to Spain, 'in disguise, which was to have such an unexpected ending and such momentous consequences. For a while all seemed to go well: James was delighted, and Calvert was busy drawing up the marriage contract and making preparations for the reception of the Spanish bride. The king, who, in Buckingham's absence, relied e^v tirely on the Secretary, was highly pleased with \j^ diligence and devotion, and testified his satisfaction by making him a member of the Q ; \cil of York.

The sudden return of Charles , , . Buckingham without the bride, and the outburst of popular joy that followed, shattered Calvert's hopes and warned him of the approaching end of his political career. In the next Parliament, 1624, he had a seat, not for his native county, but for Oxford. Buckingham had veered round to the popular side, and sought the favour of Parliament by a display of animosity to his former supporters: the king, feeble in mind and body, and a mere puppet in the hands of his adored " Steenie," was now all on the French side. Calvert could not follow these high examples, even to please the king. He believed that England was drifting into a war with Spain, and he could not pretend to approve the course that things were taking. The favourite now openly sought his disgrace : the king grew cold and suspicious : snares were laid to entrap him, if possible, in something that might be a ground for impeachment.

But as Buckingham's plans prospered, his hostiHty to the Secretary grew less. Though violent, domineering, and unscrupulous, he was not coldly vindictive, and was placable enough to those who did not cross his schemes or stand in his way. The old king's temper changed with the favourite's. Calvert wisely took the advantage of this transient gleam of fair weather to steer the bark of his fortunes out of 'he perilous seas of poUtical life. He avowed to he king that he had become a convert to the faith of Rome, and -^sked to be allowed to resign his secretaryship i retire to private life.

His reque .vas 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 ;£6,ooo. The king, whose old affection for him had returned, retained him in the Privy Council, notwithstanding his change of rehgion; and on February i6th, 1625, elevated him to the Irish peerage as Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, in the County of Longford. In the original patent (in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society) the reasons for his elevation are set forth as follows :

" We therefore, nearly considering in the person of Our well-beloved and entirely faithful Councillor, George Calvert, Knight, gravity of manners, singular gifts of mind, candour, integrity, and prudence, as well as benignity and urbanity toward all men, and also reflecting in Our mind with how great fidelity, diligence, and alacrity he has served Us, both in Our kingdom of Ireland, whither, not long ago, he was specially sent upon Our very weighty and most important business there, as also in this Our Kingdom of England, throughout many years, but especially since he was advanced near Our person to the place and honour of a Councillor and Our principal Secretary ; and willing that son|e singular mark of Our royal favour may r-^ffaillRmto the aforomid George and unto his posterity forever, by which not only he, but others also may perceive how highly We prize the fidehty and obedience of the said George, and how much We desire to reward his virtues and merits, We have decreed him to be inscribed among the number of the peers of Our said Kingdom of Ireland: Know ye therefore that We, of Our especial grace, and of Our sure knowledge and mere motion, have exalted, preferred, and created the aforesaid George Calvert, Knight, unto the estate, degree, dignity, and honour of Baron Baltimore of Baltimore, within Our Kingdom of Ireland."

Within a few weeks from the issue of this patent James died, but his successor, Charles, did not withdraw his favour from the late Secretary, On the contrary, he wished to retain him in the council, offering to dispense with the oath of supremacy in his case ; but Baltimore was firm in his resolution to retire finally from official life.

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Chapter II

Relieved of the burdens and anxieties of public business, which had already seriously impaired his health, Calvert now had leisure to turn his attention to his interests in the New World. He had long taken much interest in the colonizing schemes which were so rife at the time, and had associated himself with several. As early as 1609 he had been a member of the second Virginia company, and was also one of the provisional council for the management of the affairs of that colony after the revocation of the charter, and one of the eighteen councillors of the New England Company in 1622.