View source for Leonard Calvert

{{short description|English-born colonial administrator (1606-1647)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox governor
| name                = Leonard Calvert
| image               = Leonard Calvert, by Jacob Van Oost I or II (1640).jpg
| image_size          = 220
| caption             = {{circa|1640}} portrait of Calvert by [[Jacob van Oost]] or [[Jacob van Oost the Younger]]
| office              = [[List of colonial governors of Maryland|Proprietary governor of Maryland]]
| term_start          = 1634
| term_end            = 1647
| predecessor         = ''Office established''
| successor           = [[Thomas Greene (governor)|Thomas Greene]]
| constituency        = 
| majority            = 
| birth_date          = {{circa|1606}}
| birth_place         = England
| death_date          = 9 June 1647 (aged 40–41)
| death_place         = [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]]
| party               = 
| relations           = 
| spouse              = 
| children            = {{hlist|William<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nicklin |first1=John Bailey Calvert |title=Descendants of Francis Calvert |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |date=1930 |volume=25 |issue=1 |page=31}}</ref>|Anne}}
| parents             = [[George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore]] (father) and Anne Mynne (mother)
| occupation          = [[Placeman]], [[planter class|planter]]
| signature           = Signature of Leonard Calvert (1606–1647).png
| footnotes           = 
}}

'''Leonard Calvert''' ({{circa|1606}} – 9 June 1647) was an English-born colonial administrator who served as the first [[List of colonial governors of Maryland|proprietary governor of Maryland]] from 1634 to 1647.<ref name="Maryland State Archives">{{cite web |url=http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000100/000198/html/198bio.html |title=Leonard Calvert ''MSA SC 3520-198'' |publisher=Maryland State Archives |date=March 7, 2003 |access-date=May 3, 2009 |archive-date=September 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930094819/http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000100/000198/html/198bio.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was the second son of [[George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore]], the first [[lord proprietor]] of the [[Province of Maryland]]. His elder brother [[Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore|Cecil]], who inherited the colony and the title upon the death of their father in 1632, appointed Leonard as governor of Maryland in his absence.

==Early life==
Leonard Calvert was born in England to [[George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore]] and his wife Anne Mynne, and was named in honor of his paternal grandfather, Leonard Calvert of [[Yorkshire]].<ref name="Krugler">{{cite book |last1=Krugler |first1=John |title=English and Catholic: The Lords Baltimore in the Seventeenth Century |date=2004 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore, MD |page=28}}</ref><ref name="sparky">{{cite book|last=Sparks|first=Jared|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RBsNAAAAIAAJ|title=The Library of American Biography: George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore|publisher=Charles C. Little and James Brown|year=1846|location=Boston|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RBsNAAAAIAAJ/page/n30 16]–|quote=Leonard Calvert.}}</ref>

==Colonisation of Newfoundland==
In 1625, when Calvert's father was created Lord Baltimore and received [[letters patent]] for the creation of a [[Province of Avalon]] in the island of [[Province of Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]] from [[James I of England]], he relocated part of his newly converted [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] family to Newfoundland.

Leonard Calvert accompanied his father to the new colony of Newfoundland in 1628. The colony ultimately failed due to disease, extreme cold, and attacks by the French, and the family returned to England. After a few years, Baltimore declared Avalon a failure and traveled to the [[Colony of Virginia]], where he found the climate much more suitable and temperate, but was met with an unwelcome reception from the Virginians' government and ruling class.<ref name=sparky/>

==Establishment of Maryland==
[[File:Coat of arms of Cecil Calvert.svg|thumb|Calvert's coat of arms]]

In 1632, Baltimore returned to [[England]], where he negotiated an additional patent for the [[Province of Maryland|colony of Maryland]] from [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]]. However, before the papers could be executed, Baltimore died on April 15, 1632.<ref name=sparky/>

On June 20, 1632, [[Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore|Cecil]], the second [[Baron Baltimore|Lord Baltimore]], received from the king the charter for the colony of Maryland that his father had negotiated. The charter consisted of 23 sections, but the most important conferred on Lord Baltimore and his heirs, besides the right of absolute ownership in the soil, certain powers, ecclesiastical as well as civil, resembling those possessed by the nobility of the Middle Ages. Leonard Calvert was appointed by his brother as the colony's first [[governor]].<ref name=sparky/>

===''The Ark'' and ''The Dove''===
Two vessels, ''[[The Ark (ship)|The Ark]]'' and ''[[Maryland Dove|The Dove]],'' carrying over 300 settlers, sailed from the harbour of [[Cowes]], [[England]], on November 22, 1633, arriving at just inside the huge harbor and bay (later to be named "[[Hampton Roads]]") at the mouth of the [[Chesapeake Bay]], between [[Cape Charles (headland)|Cape Charles]] and [[Cape Henry]] and passed off "[[Old Point Comfort|Point Comfort]]" at the mouths of the intersecting [[James River (Virginia)|James]], [[Nansemond River|Nansemond]], and [[Elizabeth River (Virginia)|Elizabeth River]]s, in the colony of [[Virginia]] on February 24, 1634 (also later the site of the cities of [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]], [[Portsmouth, Virginia|Portsmouth]] and [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]] on the south side and [[Newport News, Virginia|Newport News]] and [[Hampton, Virginia|Hampton]] on the northern peninsula). After exploring the area, a few weeks later they sailed up the [[Potomac River]], north of the Virginia shoreline and the southern border of their new colony and landed on the northern shore at [[Blakistone Island Light|Blakistone Island]] (later renamed [[St. Clement's Island State Park|St. Clement's Island]]) on March 25, 1634, erected a large cross, gave thanks and celebrated a [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] with Fr [[Andrew White (Jesuit)|Andrew White]] who had accompanied them  (later to be celebrated as "[[Maryland Day]]", an official state and local holiday). Two days later, on March 27, they returned further south down-river near the point where the Potomac meets the Bay at what is now [[St. Mary's City, Maryland|St. Mary's City]], then the site of a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] village of the [[Yaocomico]] branch of the [[Piscataway (tribe)|Piscataway tribe]], whom the [[paramount chief]] had moved away to accommodate the new English settlers, so as to take advantage of the trading opportunities of their more powerful technology: industries, weapons and implements, and they began the work of establishing a settlement there.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Calvert}}</ref>

==Governor of Maryland==
[[File:Leonard Calvert Monument MD1.jpg|thumb|Leonard Calvert monument in St. Mary's City]]
Following his brother's instructions, Leonard Calvert at first attempted to govern the country in an [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutist]] way, but in January 1635, he had to summon a colonial [[Deliberative assembly|assembly]], which became the foundation and first session of the modern [[Maryland General Assembly|General Assembly of Maryland]], the third legislature to be established in the English colonies after the [[House of Burgesses]] in the Dominion of [[Province of Virginia|Virginia]] and the [[General Court of Massachusetts|General Court]] in the Commonwealth of [[Province of Massachusetts|Massachusetts]]. In 1638, the Assembly forced him to govern according to the [[common law]] of [[England]], and subsequently the right to initiate legislation passed to the new [[Maryland General Assembly|General Assembly]], representing the common "freeholders" (owners of [[Freehold (law)|freehold]] property) as subjects of the Crown.

In 1638, Calvert seized a trading post at [[Kent Island, Maryland|Kent Island]] established by the Virginian [[William Claiborne]]. In 1643, Governor Calvert went to England to discuss policies with his brother Lord Baltimore, the proprietor, leaving the affairs of the colony in charge of acting Governor [[Giles Brent]], his brother-in-law (he had married Ann Brent, daughter of Richard Brent). Calvert returned to Maryland in 1644 with a new wife and children (William, born in 1643, and a daughter, Anne, born in 1644).<ref name="Maryland State Archives"/> That same year, Claiborne returned and led an uprising of Maryland [[Protestant]]s against the Catholic Proprietor. Calvert was soon forced to flee southward to [[Virginia]]. He returned at the head of an armed force in 1646 and reasserted [[Proprietary colony|proprietarial]] rule.

Leonard Calvert died of an illness in the summer of 1647.  Before he died, he wrote a will naming [[Margaret Brent]] (the sister of Giles and a future, historically famous planter, lawyer, and female advocate for women's rights) as the executor of his estate. Calvert also named his friend and fellow passenger aboard ''The Ark'' and ''The Dove'', [[Thomas Greene (governor)|Thomas Greene]], as his successor to the governorship.

In 1890, the State of Maryland erected an obelisk monument to Calvert and his wife at [[St. Mary's City, Maryland|Historic St. Mary's City]] which had a historical district created to commemorate the colonial origins of the colony.

==Leonard Calvert's lost grave==
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2023}}
The location of Leonard Calvert's grave has been lost to history, but there is an effort{{by who|date=December 2021}}{{when|date=December 2021}} underway to find it. Archeologists{{who|date=December 2021}} based in the [[St. Mary's City, Maryland|Historic St. Mary's City]] research complex believe{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} that Leonard Calvert is buried somewhere in [[St. Inigoes, Maryland]]. The most likely spot{{according to|date=December 2021}} has been narrowed down to somewhere on Webster Field, now a small U.S. Naval Aircraft facility located on the water on the Western side of St. Inigoes. Several archeological digs{{by who|date=December 2021}} have been conducted{{when|date=December 2021}} but the supposed grave has not been discovered.

Members of the Calvert family in the settlement were known{{by who|date=December 2021}} to be buried in lead coffins. It is not known{{by who|date=December 2021}} if this is how Leonard Calvert was buried. His death, due to disease, happened suddenly and unexpectedly after a period of religious warfare had wracked the colony. Soon after his death, one of the first laws requiring religious tolerance was written and enacted in the colony, further codifying its original proprietarial mandate of religious tolerance and reestablishing peace.

==See also==
*[[List of colonial governors of Maryland]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
* ''Dictionary of American Biography'' Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}{{AmCyc Poster|Calvert (Lord Baltimore)|Leonard Calvert}}
*[http://www.lib.umd.edu/binaries/content/assets/public/special/projects/riversdale/calvertfamilytree.pdf Calvert Family Tree]
*[http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000100/000198/html/198images.html Images of Leonard Calvert on the State of Maryland online archives]
* {{cite DNB|wstitle= Calvert, Leonard |volume= 08 |last= Henderson |first= Thomas Finlayson |author-link= Thomas Finlayson Henderson |page= 273 |year= 1886 |short=}}

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{{succession box|title=[[List of colonial governors of Maryland|Provincial Governor of Maryland]]|before=&mdash;|after=[[Thomas Greene (governor)|Thomas Greene]]|years=1634–1647}}
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{{Governors of Maryland}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvert, Leonard}}
[[Category:1606 births]]
[[Category:1647 deaths]]
[[Category:English emigrants]]
[[Category:Colonial governors of Maryland]]
[[Category:Calvert family|Leonard]]
[[Category:St. Mary's County, Maryland]]
[[Category:St. Mary's City, Maryland]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Younger sons of barons]]