Leonard Calvert (Governor)

"Leonard Calvert, Governor of Maryland, was born about 1606, second son of George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, and brother of Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore. He was sent as first governor of Maryland by his brother, Cecil, who had obtained a charter for the colony from Charles I on June 20, 1632.

The expedition set sail from Cowes [England] on November 22, 1633, in two ships, called the Ark and the Dove, and consisted of two hundred persons, part Catholics and part Protestants.

They arrived at Point Comfort, Virginia, February 27, and a few days later sailed up the bay and Potomac River, where they purchased from the Indians a tract of land about April, 1654, and laid out St. Mary's.

Before the arrival of Calvert, William Clayborne, a Virginian, had established a trading post on Kent Island, within the bounds of Maryland, but had obtained no grant of the land. Lord Baltimore instructed Calvert to make friendly overtures to Clayborne. These were rejected and Clayborne sent an armed vessel against St. Mary s which the Marylanders captured after some bloodshed. Clayborne then sailed for England and in February, 1638, Calvert took possession of Kent island without resistance.

In February, 1645, while Calvert was in Virginia, an armed English ship seized St. Mary's and about the same time Clayborne re-established

himself on Kent island. Calvert re-entered the province in 1646, and proclaimed a general pardon on April 16, 1647. He died June 9, 1647.

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