Catholicism in Maryland in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

One can reasonably argue that the founding of Maryland, one of the original thirteen colonies in the New World, was the result of the close relationship between the Calvert family and the Stuarts. George Calvert (c. 1580–1632) was the son of Leonard, a prosperous but obscure cattle farmer, and his wife Alicia (née Crossland), ‘living in the little Yorkshire village of Kiplin in the valley of the Swale’. Whether he was born Catholic is a matter of some dispute. He matriculated, however, as a commoner at Trinity College, Oxford when he was thirteen or fourteen, and all who matriculated had to accept the thirty-nine articles of the Established Church. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1597, following which he travelled to Europe as part of ‘the grand tour’ typical of English educated gentlemen. The MA Oxford degree was granted in 1605 ‘on the occasion of the first visit of the new king… The master’s degree was conferred upon forty-three candidates, including many members of the nobility.’