Leonard Calvert

Leonard Calvert (born c. 1606, England—died June 9, 1647, St. Mary’s, Md. [U.S.]) was the first governor of Maryland colony.

Leonard Calvert was the younger brother of Cecilius Calvert and the son of George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore. Upon George Calvert’s death in 1632, Cecilius inherited the family title and also became proprietor of the newly chartered Roman Catholic colony of Maryland. Leonard Calvert was thereupon deputized as governor of the colony, and in November 1633 he sailed from England in the ships Ark and Dove with 17 gentlemen and their wives and about 200 others. The emigrants landed in Maryland the following spring and established a settlement at St. Mary’s on Chesapeake Bay. In accordance with his brother’s instructions, Governor Calvert initially attempted to administer the new colony under feudalistic precepts with the assistance of only two commissioners. In February 1635, however, he summoned the first assembly to meet, and in the following years the proprietor in England, acting through Governor Calvert, and the colonial assembly struggled for the power to initiate legislation. Although the aristocratic governor initially tried to restrict the legislative powers of subsequent assemblies, he did submit in 1638 to the legislature’s proposals that he govern according to the laws of England, and the right of initiative in legislation soon afterward passed to the assembly.

In 1638 Governor Calvert seized the trading post on Kent Island that had been established and was still claimed by William Claiborne, a prominent Virginia trader. Claiborne, who had been hostile toward Maryland since its founding, later joined with Richard Ingle in 1644 to instigate a successful rebellion of Protestants in the colony that forced Governor Calvert to flee to Virginia. Two years later, however, Calvert returned from Virginia with an armed force and reinstated proprietorial rule in Maryland.