Leonard Calvert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leonard Calvert (1606 - 1647) was the younger son of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. On the female line, he had some blood of Plantagenet Kings of England (Plantagenet - Mortimer - Wroth - Mynne - Calvert). Leonard's wife, Anne Brent, also descended from Edward III (Plantagenet - Beaufort - Neville - Willoughby - Greville - Reed - Brent). When Leonard's older brother Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore received a charter for the colony of Maryland in 1632, Leonard was appointed the colony's first governor. He landed there in the spring of 1634, arriving with 17 gentlemen and their wives and about two hundred others aboard the ships Ark and Dove and establishing the town of St. Mary's.

As per his brother's instructions, Leonard at first attempted to govern the country in an absolutist way but in February 1635 he had to summon a colonial assembly. In 1638 the assembly forced him to govern according to the laws of England, and subsequently the right to initiate legislation passed to the assembly.

In 1638 Calvert seized a trading post in Kent Island established by the Virginian William Claiborne. In 1644 Claiborne led an uprising of Maryland Protestants. Calvert was forced to flee to Virginia, but he returned at the head of an armed force in 1646 and reasserted proprietorial rule.

Today, there are many living descendants of Leonard Calvert. Many from the Dulany, Debutts, Hayden, and Onnen families currently live in Virginia and Maryland. There is a sizable number of Leonard Calverts descendants living in Western Kentucky, and there are some in Southern Indiana