Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
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Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (August 27, 1637 - February 21, 1715) was the second Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland, inheriting the colony upon the death of his father, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, in 1675. He had been his father's Deputy Governor since 1661 when he arrived in the colony at the age of 24. Several years later, about 1667, Charles married Jane Lowe, widow of Col. Henry Sewall of St. Mary's County, Maryland.[1]
Charles had been raised in England and witnessed the religious conflicts of the English Civil War.
The Calverts were Roman Catholic and founded Maryland as a Catholic colony of Great Britain. However, the population of the province had become overwhelmingly Protestant by the time Charles became Governor. He attempted to preseve Maryland's Catholic identity by repressing the rights of the Protestant majority, restricting suffrage to men who owned property worth more than 40 pounds and restricting election to Maryland's House of Delegates to those who owned at least 1,000 acres (4 km²) of land. He also made partisan patronage appointments and ruled the province using arbitrary measures.
During his term he also engaged in an expansion of public services building court houses, jails, roads and highways as well as modernizing Maryland's military defences. Slavery was also made legal during Charles Calvert's governorship and slaves were forced to serve for life rather than be freed at a certain age.
He entered into a conflict with William Penn over the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1684, Charles Calvert was summoned to England to defend himself in the dispute with Penn as well as answer charges that he favoured Catholics in the colony.[1]
While he was in England the country underwent the Glorious Revolution in which the Catholic King, James II of England was deposed and Protestant King William and Mary II of England were installed. Charles Calvert never returned to America and his royal charter to the colony was withdrawn in 1689; the colony was transferred directly to the British monarchy.
A son, Captain Charles Calvert, was Governor of Maryland in 1720. Captain Calvert's daughter Elizabeth married a natural son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore named Benedict Swingate Calvert, who was the father of Eleanor Calvert, the wife of John Parke Custis. They were the parents of George Washington Parke Custis.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Richardson, Douglas (2005). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, p. 169. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN 0806317590.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore |
Proprietor of Maryland 1675–1689 |
Succeeded by Royal Control |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Cecilius Calvert |
Baron Baltimore 1675-1715 |
Succeeded by Benedict Leonard Calvert |
