Sir george calvert lord baltimore
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CALVERT,GEORGE, 1st Baron Baltimore, colonizer in Newfoundland; b. at Kipling, Yorkshire, c. 1580, the son of Leonard Calvert and his wife Alice, daughter of John Crosland of Crosland; d. 15 April 1632 in England.
George Calvert was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and, in 1606, was appointed private sekreterare to Sir Robert Cecil. Advancing rapidly in the public service, he became clerk of the Privy Council in 1608 and was elected M.P. for Bossiney in 1609. Knighted in 1617, two years later he was made sekreterare of state and a member of the Privy Council. One of the leaders of the court party, he proved an effective exponent of the royal policy in Parliament until his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1625 led to his resignation as sekreterare of state. On his retirement from politics he was created Baron Baltimore of county Longford, Ireland, as a reward for his loyalty to the king.
He now had leisure to devote to the colony in Newfoundland
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George Calvert
(Lord Baltimore)
1699–1751•
Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore; 19 August, 1629
Letter to King Charles I
Great Britain, PRO, Colonial Office, CO 1/5 (27), 75.
MHA 16-B-2-011. Transcribed by P.E. Pope.
Most gratious and dread Sovereign,
Small benefits and favours can speak and give thanks, but such as are high and invaluable cause astonishment and silence. I am obliged unto your Majesty for the latter in such a measure as reflecting upon my weakness and want of merit, I know not what to say. God Almighty knows, who is the searcher of hearts, how mine yearns to sacrifice myself for your Majesty's service, if I did but know how to employ my endeavours worthy of that great goodness and benignity which your Majesty is pleased to extend towards me upon all occasions - not only by reaching your gracious and royal hand to my assistance in lending me a fair ship (for which upon my knees I render your Majesty most humble thanks) but by protecting me also against calumny and malice, which hath already sought to m