cooperation. The lords of the manors were to hold
courts for their tenants, and manorial rules were to
establish the rights and duties of the inhabitants. The
manor was to be a central institution in the life of the
colony, both as an instrument of social control and as a
focal point for the establishment of community net-
works.¹³

   What kind of man was the author of this document?
By all accounts he was not a haughty or imperious man
who trampled on others to reach the top. One contem-
porary described him as "an honorable, sensible, well-
minded man, courteous to strangers, full of respect
towards ambassadors, zealously intent upon the welfare
of England; but by reason of all these good qualities,
entirely without consideration or influence."¹⁴ Certain-
ly he was hardworking and conscientious—a first-rate
public servant. He had excellent legal abilities and used
his knowledge of legal procedures to forward his co-
lonial projects. But while he understood the politics of
the courts of James I and Charles I, he was not ruthless
enough to maintain his position among the greedy men
who scrounged for power. Perhaps also his practical
business abilities were too limited for the scope of his
colonizing ambitions. One could argue, at least, that he
was foolish to plan expansion of his Ferryland settle-
ment without better knowledge of Newfoundland
conditions.

   On the whole what we know of George Calvert does
not much resemble a visionary, yet a visionary he was,
at least in part. He brought a brilliant legal mind to bear
on a colonial charter that thwarted all later efforts to
rescind it. But his plans for transplanting English social
and political structure looked backward rather than for-
ward. Whether his vision of a Catholic refuge also

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