Chapter 13: Popish Peers. c1630–1675.

Just weeks before his death in 1625, King James I of England received the resignation of his Secretary of State, George Calvert – who now made public his conversion to Catholicism. The king could not abide a Catholic in the upper echelons of power, but he rewarded Calvert for decades of loyal service by elevating him to the Irish peerage as the 1st Baron Baltimore. Freed from domestic politics, the baron could now concentrate on overseas endeavors. He had already been granted a charter to colonize Newfoundland but, upon visiting the colony in 1627-1628, found the winter chill unbearable. 1 An old member of the Virginia Company, and then a royal commissioner for the crown colony, he now petitioned the crown for a lapsed charter in southern Virginia – overlapping the region called Carolina. Protestant colonists and colonial investors objected to the new Carolina grant and in 1632, before any compromise could be reached, the Baron Baltimore died. His son and heir, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, pursued the claim with King Charles I.

Charles I remained sympathetic to Catholics in his kingdom. English Protestants questioned the king's loyalties and cast suspicion on his wife, Henrietta Maria: not only was she French and Catholic, she was also the sister of the reigning King Louis XIII, and daughter of the late King Henry IV and Queen Marie de Medici. Whilst Puritans espoused ideals of modesty and austerity, Charles and Henrietta Maria flaunted the full privileges of their wealth and power. To embellish their royal palaces, they brought in artists from continental Europe. As the official court painter, Anthony van Dyck produced over 100 portraits of the reigning Stuart dynasty – including at least 40 of Charles and 30 of Henrietta Maria. Peter Paul Rubens, who had previously beautified Luxembourg Palace in Paris for Marie de Medici, now beautified Whitehall Palace in London for her daughter. Henrietta Maria would also invite to the English court another of her mother's favourite artists, Orazio Gentileschi, and his daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi. 2

In 1632, King Charles aroused the fears of his Protestant subjects when he granted to the 2nd Baron Baltimore the right to carve a Catholic colony out of Protestant Virginia. First appearing in the Latin form of "Terra Maria," the name was soon Anglicized as MARYLAND. For a Catholic flock long accustomed to concealing its worship of saints and martyrs, Maryland proved a shrewd choice of names. The 2nd Baron Baltimore avowed that it was named "in memory and honor of the queen." Indeed, King Charles had encouraged his subjects to hail Henrietta Maria as Queen Mary – notwithstanding the fact that she had not been crowned queen of England, nor baptized Mary. But Maryland also evoked her mother, the queen-regent of France, Marie de Medici. And the last Catholic queen of England, "Bloody" Mary Tudor. And the last Catholic queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart. And the woman held holiest by all Catholics, Mary, Queen of the Angels. Certainly, the Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland could be mistaken as tributes to the Virgin Mary.

Embroiled in legal disputes with disgruntled representatives of Virginia, the 2nd Baron Baltimore remained in London and never made the journey to Maryland. To govern in his stead, he sent two of his younger brothers, Leonard and George Calvert. Leaving England in late November 1633, Leonard led the Ark and the Dove into Atlantic storms that nearly wrecked the enterprise. Celebrating Christmas at sea with tainted wine, a dozen prospective colonists fell ill and died. In early 1634, the Ark and the Dove sailed into Chesapeake Bay and took on vital supplies at Jamestown. On March 25, 1634 – a day to be celebrated as Maryland Day – they anchored at an island in the Potomac River, where Catholics erected a cross. Jesuit father Andrew White conducted the first mass in Maryland; indeed, it was the first Catholic mass conducted in the English colonies. Grateful for their safe passage, Catholics gave thanks to the patron saint of mariners – on whose feast day, November 23, 1633, they had lost sight of England – and in his honour christened the island ST CLEMENT'S.

Although Protestant settlers outnumbered Catholics, they would still be subject to the Calverts' Catholic rule. In England the worship of saints was widely regarded as an abominable legacy of popish influence, but in Maryland the saints could be honored openly. On March 27, 1634, Leonard Calvert founded the colony's first capital, explicitly invoking the woman under whose protection he hoped Maryland would thrive: ST MARY'S. This small town became the provincial capital, engendering St Mary's County. Between Spanish Florida and French Canada, it was the only county in the British colonies baptized in the name of a saint.

More saints followed. A new parish south of St Mary's was christened ST INIGOES, for St Ignatius of Loyola, baptized Inigo, who founded the Jesuit order. The Jesuits played a decisive role in establishing Maryland: Father Andrew White was credited with converting first Baron Baltimore to Catholicism, while he and other Jesuits recruited many of Maryland's first Catholic colonists. A creek and small village took the name of ST LEONARD, the patron saint of Governor Leonard Calvert. They named yet another Potomac island ST GEORGE'S, for the patron saint of George Calvert, who died six months after arriving in the colony, and for the patron saint of England. In New England, John Endecott had the English flag cut up because it bore the red cross of St George. How much more odious must it have been for Protestant colonists to live under a saint's name?

With the death of his younger brother, George, Governor Leonard Calvert found himself isolated in Chesapeake Bay – heavily outnumbered by Indians, Virginians, and Protestants. The governor would form a close alliance with the Brent siblings, a wealthy Catholic family who arrived in the colony in the late 1630s. Indeed, Leonard probably maintained a de facto marriage to Ann Brent, and may have secretly wed her. He also provided generous land grants to her siblings: Margaret and Mary Brent became the first female landowners in Maryland with their "Sisters Freehold." In his absence, Leonard allowed Giles Brent to serve as acting governor.

After arriving in Virginia in the 1620s, William Claiborne earned repute as a surveyor, planter, fur trader, and political firebrand. In 1631, Claiborne sailed to the largest island in Chesapeake Bay, where his servants set up a small trading post and plantation; in memory of his home county, he named the island KENT. Loyal to the Church of England and Virginia, he begrudged the Catholic colony of Maryland and its new territorial claims – which included Kent Island. By the late 1630s, Maryland authorities evicted him and seized his property – granting valuable island tracts to the Brent family. Since the 2nd Baron Baltimore had been born in Kent County, England, Marylanders retained the name of Kent Island.

Claiborne continued the quarrel in colonial courts and in English parliament. During the English Civil War of the 1640s, Maryland Catholics and Virginian Anglicans remained loyal to the Royalist cause. But Claiborne allied himself with the Parliamentarians, stirred up anti-Catholic sentiment in Virginia, and incited civil war in Maryland. In 1645, he joined forces with Richard Ingle, a Puritan privateer who sailed into Chesapeake Bay and stormed St Mary's. For the next 18 months, Ingle and Claiborne's Puritan soldiers brutalized Maryland's Catholics, plundering homes and burning churches. Father Andrew White was shipped back to England in chains. Governor Leonard Calvert fled to Virginia. Exploiting this political turbulence, Claiborne briefly reoccupied Kent Island and effectively ruled Maryland as de facto governor.

Governor Leonard Calvert returned to establish control over Maryland in 1646, but he died suddenly the following year. His will stipulated that Margaret Brent serve as executor of his estate. Wielding unprecedented power in the colonies, Margaret distributed pay to soldiers and officials, represented herself in the courts, and tried to vote in the colonial assembly. But back in England, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore objected to the unnatural power given to a woman in his colony. Stripped of their privileges, most of the Catholic Brents crossed the border and settled in Protestant Virginia.

The 2nd Baron Baltimore soon appointed William Stone as governor. In 1649, under Stone's direction, the colonial assembly passed a Toleration Act guaranteeing freedom of religion in Maryland – provided the religion was Christian. But in these turbulent years of the English Civil War and its aftermath, the Catholic Calverts' rule over Maryland faltered. And as Protestants rolled back Catholic rule in Maryland, St Mary's and other saintly settlements were all but abandoned. Maryland would need a new set of placenames – acceptable to both Protestants and Catholics.

Taking a more active role in shaping Maryland from the far side of the Atlantic, the 2nd Baron baptized many of the colony's first counties. After his marriage to the 13-year-old Anne Arundel, ten years his junior, the 2nd Baron Baltimore fathered nine children. Anne's death in 1649 devastated Cecil, who expressed his love on her epitaph, "Ann Arundell, ye most beautiful and best wife of Cecil Calvert…" Calvert dedicated a more conspicuous memorial to her the next year, when he created the county of ANNE ARUNDEL.

Through the 1650s, the Calverts stamped their names onto the maps of Maryland, with the family name first stamped on CALVERT County. Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, named CHARLES County "in honour of our only son and heir apparent, Charles Calvert Esquire," who would inherit the colony as the 3rd Baron Baltimore. BALTIMORE County honored the first and second barons, as well as the third to come. Noting that nothing had yet taken the second baron's Christian name, colonial administrators proposed CECIL County – though it was not officially created until the 1670s, coinciding with the first attempts to found "Ceciltowne" or CECILTON.

Having already lost two brothers in Maryland, the 2nd Baron Baltimore sent a third brother to rule the colony in 1660, Philip Calvert. The following year, the 2nd Baron sent his son and heir to assume the governorship, Charles Calvert. While delegating administrative tasks to his family, the 2nd Baron retained the privilege of naming counties. Having already exhausted his own family's names, he began to honor the names of his in-laws, many of which echoed English placenames.

The 2nd Baron Baltimore named TALBOT County after a noble Irish Catholic family with whom he had many ties. His sister, Grace Calvert, was now styled Lady Talbot, after her marriage to Robert Talbot, 2nd Baronet Talbot; Thomas Talbot, Robert's brother, was a Franciscan friar who served as chaplain to Henrietta Maria. Another of the baron's sisters, Helen Calvert, married another member of the same clan, James Talbot. And the baron's sister-in-law, Frances Arundel, had married another distant Catholic cousin, John Talbot, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury, and 10th Earl of Waterford. Steadfast in their support for the crown during the Civil War, both branches of the family had their property seized as Puritans gained the ascendency in England and Ireland.

The 2nd Baron named SOMERSET County "in honor to our dead Sister, Lady Mary Somersett." The name, in fact, honored his sister-in-law, born Mary Arundel, who married another Catholic nobleman, Sir John Somerset – a Royalist cavalry officer in the Civil War. Another of the baron's brothers-in-law, Thomas Arundel – brother of Anne, Frances, and Mary Arundel – married Blanche Somerset, the aunt of John Somerset. In May 1643, while Thomas was mortally wounded fighting for the Royalist cause, Blanche commanded the defence of Wardour Castle against Parliamentary forces; their son, Henry Arundel, would serve as Master of the Horse to Henrietta Maria. The Somersets were among the wealthiest Catholic families in the kingdom; their financial support sustained the young colony of Maryland. Their support for the crown would also lead to the Puritan seizure of their property.

When the baron named WORCESTER County in the late 1660s, it applied to a long section of Maryland coast extending north along the shores of Delaware Bay; the name was retained in the 17th century, when a much smaller county was separated from Somerset County. The name probably honored John Somerset's brother, Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester. Despite his unwavering support for King Charles, he would face accusations of treason from both Royalists and Puritans. Withdrawing from politics in the 1660s, he published a list of 100 new inventions, including a "water commanding engine" to harness the power of steam.

In Massachusetts Bay, Puritans had already named Dorchester after their old hometown – the county town of Dorset. In Maryland, the Catholic baron probably intended to honor a sympathetic Anglican lord in DORCHESTER County – Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset. The Earl had served as Lord Chamberlain to Henrietta Maria throughout the 1630s, and to King Charles in the mid-1640s. As a close confidant of both king and queen, the earl had helped shape their favorable attitudes towards the Barons Baltimore and the prospective colony of Maryland.