George Calvert (Lord Baltimore)

"Lord Baltimore, Sir George Calvert [1579-1632], was born in Kipling, Yorkshire, England, in [1579]. When he was about fifteen years old, he was graduated from Oxford University, and after spending a few years in travel he was made clerk of the privy council and later secretary of state.

While holding the latter office he won the favor of James I, by whom he was made a knight in 1617, and later a peer of Ireland. It was also from the hands of this monarch that he received his grant of land in southern Newfoundland, where he founded a colony, which he visited, but did not remain on account of the extreme cold.

After visiting the southern part of the American coast, he urged Charles I to grant him another patent, consisting of the tract of land now covered by Maryland and Delaware. Lord Baltimore intended to found a state which should be governed by an assembly, and should have an hereditary landed aristocracy." [Calvert died shortly before the patent was finalized.]

— Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States, 1900 (edited)