Cecilius Calvert (1605-1675)
Second Lord Baltimore
MSA SC 3520-191
Biography:
Born: August 8, 1605, in Kent County, England; first son.
Resided: England, never immigrated to Maryland.
Died: November 30, 1675, in Middlesex, England.
Family Background:
Father: Sir
George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore (1578/79-1632).
Mother: Anne (1579-1622), daughter of George Mynne.
Brothers: Leonard
(ca. 1606-1647); George
(1613-1634); Francis; Henry; and John (1618-1618/19).
Half Brother: Philip
Calvert (1626-1682).
Sisters: Anne Calvert, who married William Peasley; Dorothy;
Elizabeth; Grace (1614-?), who married in 1631/32 Sir Robert Talbot, of
Carton, Ireland; and Helen (1615-1655), who married James Talbot, of Ballyconnell,
Ireland.
Married: 1627/28, Anne Arundell (?-1649), daughter of Sir Thomas
Arundell, of Wardour, England.
Children:
Sons: George Calvert (1634-1636); Charles,
3rd Lord Baltimore (1637-1714/15), who married first, ca. 1650 Mary, daughter
of Ralph Darnall, of Loughton, Herefordshire, England, second, in 1666
Jane Sewall (?-1700), widow of Henry Sewall (?-1665) and daughter of Vincent
Lowe, of Denby, England, third, in 1701 Mary Thorpe (?-1710), and fourth,
Margaret Charleton (?-l731), daughter of Thomas Charleton, of Hexham, Northumberland,
England.
Daughters: Anne Calvert; Mary (1630-1663), who married ca. 1650
Sir William Blakiston, of Gibside, Durham, England; and Elizabeth.
Private Career:
Education: Literate; entered Trinity College, Oxford University,
1621.
Religious Affiliation: Catholic.
Social Status and Activities: Succeeded his father as Lord Baltimore
in 1632 and settled Maryland, the charter for which George Calvert had
first obtained from the king.
Occupational Profile: Colonial investor and entrepreneur.
Public Career:
Provincial Office: Proprietor of Maryland, 1632-1675.
Out of Colony Service: Member of Parliment, 1634.
Stand of Public/Private Issues: Became increasingly disenchanted
with the Jesuits and their adherents in the late 1630s and early 1640s;
skillfully lobbied in England with the merchant community and Puritan government
to save his colony during the years of the English Civil War and Commonwealth
government; shrewdly distributed patronage in colony to maintain support
among Protestants as well as Catholics; active promoter of religious toleration.
Wealth at Death:
Size of estate unknown.
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