Calvert, Cecilius (1605-1675), also called Cecil Calvert, was an Englishman who founded the colony of Maryland. He was also known as the second Lord Baltimore. Calvert inherited the proprietorship of Maryland and the right to the colony’s charter from his father, George Calvert, who died in 1632.
The charter granted Calvert “kingly” powers in the colony, but it required him to consult with a colonial assembly. Although the majority of Maryland’s people were Protestants, Calvert was a Roman Catholic. Calvert drafted a law to grant religious freedom to all people in the colony, and Maryland’s Assembly passed the law in 1649. The law became the first statute for religious freedom in the American Colonies.
Calvert was born on Aug. 8, 1605, in the county of Kent in England. He never visited Maryland. But his brother, Leonard Calvert, lived in the colony, and Cecilius appointed him as the colony’s governor. He died on Nov. 30, 1675.
