Chapter 14
Lord Baltimore 1612-1672 Maryland Among the people in England who were having a hard time because they were unwilling to obey the laws about public worship were the Catholics. Some were fined, and some put into prison. They suffered so much on account of their religion that one of their number, George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, resolved to plant a settlement in the New World, where they could be free to worship God in their own way. Being a personal friend of King James, it was easy for him to get permission to plant such a colony in Newfound-land. But as it was too cold there for the settlers, they remained only a single winter; and Lord Baltimore then got the consent of the new King, Charles I, to plant a colony in the land lying north of the Potomac. Before he could carry out his plans Lord Baltimore died; but his son, the new Lord Baltimore, took up the work of planting a Catholic settlement in the New World. By the King’s request, the colony was to be named Maryland, in honor of the Queen, Henrietta Maria. In November, 1633, the company, made up of twenty “gentlemen” and three hundred laborers, sailed from England in two ships. They were well
Portrait of Cecil Calvert, Gerald Soest 66