#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 25 Earliest: Leonard Calvert Maryland's Earliest Settler

Leonard Calvert: Maryland's First Settler

Since this week's theme is earliest, I am writing about my 9X Great-Grandfather, Leonard Calvert, who was among the earliest settlers of Maryland and its first provincial governor.

In 1632, King Charles I of England granted a large tract of land, nearly nine million acres, to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, (a convert to Catholicism) in gratitude for Calvert's loyal service to the Crown.  Tradition says that Charles himself named the tract "Maryland" (Maria Terra) in honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria. George unfortunately died the same year and the patent to the lands in Maryland passed to his oldest son, Cecil Calvert. As Lord Proprietor of Maryland, Cecil began immediately to plan for the colonization of his American holding.  All those acres would not produce any income unless he could recruit colonists to clear the land and plant tobacco.

So, Lord Baltimore arranged transport for settlers to the New World aboard two ships--the Ark (a 400-ton merchant ship) and the Dove (a smaller pinnacle) supplied with clothing, food and tools to see them through the first year. Although the prospect of a risky 3000-mile voyage to an uncharted wilderness was daunting, Calvert successfully attracted settlers by promising them free land and the rights that land owners enjoyed in England.  A devout Catholic, he also took the unusual step of promising them religious freedom and no public support for any religion, a marked deviation from the religious intolerance of Europe's Roman Catholic countries. (Hence Maryland's nickname: the Free State) Although this experiment in tolerance and separation of Church and state was not entirely successful, it did sow the seeds for later incorporation into the American way of life.

In any case, the Ark and the Dove, with about 140 people on board, left the Isle of Wight on 22
November 1633 and promptly encountered a hurricane.  The Dove was so badly damaged that she had to return to England for repairs, but eventually rejoined the Ark.

Fortunately, the voyagers enjoyed delightful weather for the next three months, and the ships made it comfortably to the West Indies and in due course entered the Chesapeake Bay. After a stop in Virginia to show their charter, they sailed up the Potomac River and landed at St. Clements Island, where they erected a great wooden cross and celebrated Mass on the 25th of March 1634.  The day has been celebrated ever since as Maryland Day.  The settlers negotiated with the local Native American tribe, the Yoacomoco, who agreed to sell a village to the Calverts in exchange for gifts, trading guarantees and protection from their enemies, the Susquehannock and Iroquois tribes.  The Yoacomoco village became the English settlement of St. Mary's City and the first capital of Maryland.  


Cecil Calvert had become bogged down in Royal court politics, because of growing anti-Catholic tensions in England and also because the colony of Virginia was lobbying the king to have the Maryland colonial grant abolished.  Therefore, Cecil had to remain vigilantly involved in court politics in order to protect his charter from anti-Catholic and Virginia colony lobbyists. Thus it fell to Cecil's younger brother, Leonard, to lead the colonists to Maryland and serve as the province's first governor.

Leonard Calvert, named after his paternal grandfather, was born in England in 1606.  The settling of Maryland was not Leonard's first venture at colonization.  In 1625, Leonard had accompanied his father as he had tried to create a colony called Avalon on the island of Newfoundland.  But ultimately, Lord Baltimore declared that a failure due to the extreme cold and attacks by the French and asked the king for a land grant in the warmer climate of Virginia, which, as noted above, he was finally granted in 1632, but did not live to see fulfilled.  Leonard was admitted to Gray's Inn (which meant he could practice law) in 1633, shortly before leaving for Maryland. As Governor, Leonard Calvert was in charge of Maryland's militia, sea forces, court system and finances.  Although the new governor at first attempted to govern in an absolutist way, he was eventually forced to call a colonial assembly, which became the foundation for Maryland's General Assembly and the third legislature to be established in the colonies, after Virginia's House of Burgesses and Massachusetts' General Court.

In 1638, Governor Calvert seized a trading post at Kent Island established by Virginian William Claiborne.  In 1643, he returned to England to discuss policies with his brother Lord Baltimore, leaving the colony in charge of  Giles Brent. He returned in 1644 just in time to face an uprising by William Claiborne and the Protestant colonists against the Catholic Proprietor. The English Civil War reached the shores of the Chesapeake as Captain Richard Ingle attacked and plundered St. Mary's City in an attempt to claim the Maryland colony for England's Parliament. Leonard escaped capture and fled south to Virginia and eventually returned at the head of an armed force and reasserted Lord Baltimore's rule in 1647.

However, Leonard died of disease that same summer.  In his will, he appointed Margaret Brent (future historically famous advocate for women's rights) as his executor and named Thomas Greene as the next Governor of Maryland. 

Leonard Calvert married in England, although the identity of his wife is not known.  Recent evidence has shown that Ann Brent, whom he was thought to have married, was in fact a spinster, but his wife may have been a member of the Brent family.  He did have two children, William, born in 1643, and Ann, born in 1644. The children were apparently raised in England and emigrated to Maryland years later after the death of their father.

Anne Calvert, my 7X Great Grandmother, married first Baker Brooke, who died in Calvert County MD in 1679, leaving his large estates to his wife Anne. Anne married secondly, Henry Brent (possibly a cousin), and thirdly Richard Marsham, a justice of Prince George's County MD. Baker Brooke II, my 6X great-grandfather, married his step-sister, Katherine Marsham.

Leonard Calvert's burial place is not known (although there is an archeological search underway for it.)  However, the state of Maryland did erect a monument to Leonard Calvert in 1890 in Trinity Churchyard in St. Mary's City.