Leonard Calvert

Leonard Calvert ( – 9 June 1647) was an English-born colonial administrator who served as the first proprietary governor of Maryland from 1634 to 1647. He was the second son of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, the first lord proprietor of the Province of Maryland. His elder brother 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.

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 Newfoundland from James I of England, he relocated part of his newly converted 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.

Governor of Maryland

Following his brother's instructions, Leonard Calvert at first attempted to govern the country in an absolutist way, but in January 1635, he had to summon a colonial assembly, which became the foundation and first session of the modern General Assembly of Maryland, the third legislature to be established in the English colonies after the House of Burgesses in the Dominion of Virginia and the General Court in the Commonwealth of 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 General Assembly, representing the common "freeholders" (owners of freehold property) as subjects of the Crown.

In 1890, the State of Maryland erected an obelisk monument to Calvert and his wife at Historic St. Mary's City which had a historical district created to commemorate the colonial origins of the colony. The obelisk is a cenotaph as the true location of his grave is unknown.