2.5: Cecil Calvert and Lord Baltemore (1605–1675)

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From his father George Calvert, Cecil Calvert inherited the title of Lord Baltimore and the charter from King Charles I to establish a colony at the Province of Maryland, comprising ten to twelve million acres of land in what is now the state of Maryland. Calvert governed the colony from England, sending his Instructions to the Colonists by Lord Baltimore to his brother Leonard, who served as the colony’s first governor. Calvert’s instructions served as the foundation for Maryland’s laws.

Throughout his proprietorship, Cecil Calvert fostered religious tolerance in the colony of Maryland. After Leonard’s death, Calvert commissioned a Protestant, William Stone, to serve as governor. He gave Stone a new law to be voted on by the Maryland Assembly, a law that came to be known as the Act of Toleration. This new law allowed colonists freedom of worship in any Christian faith, provided they maintained loyalty to Cecil Calvert and Maryland’s government.