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George Calvert had a dream. He had grown up during the most exciting moments of Elizabeth I’s reign, a time when England was transforming from a backwater to a legitimate Atlantic power. He wanted to found a colony in North America.
After a catastrophic attempt in southern Newfoundland, Calvert negotiated a charter from Charles I for a new form of colony – a “proprietary colony,” for which Calvert would be the “Lord Proprietor,” in the northern reaches of the Chesapeake. It would be known as “Mary Land,” and was the largest individual land grant in English North America. The most important provision in the charter, which conferred vast and personal powers on Calvert, was known as the “Bishop of Durham clause,” and dated from English legal precedent of more than 600 years. The roots of American legal traditions are very old.
Sadly for George, he would die even before his charter “passed through seal.” Fortunately for us, his son Cecil would pick up the project and execute it wisely and effectively.
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Selected references for this episode
Matthew Page Andrews, The Founding of Maryland
Wesley Frank Craven, The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century 1607-1689
Bernard C. Steiner, “The Maryland Charter and Early Explorations of That Province,” The Sewanee Review, April 1908.
