This was Lord Baltimore.
The first Lord Baltimore was a Yorkshire gentleman named Calvert;
he was a favourite of James I, who made him a baron, and he took
his title from a tiny village in Ireland.
Like so many other men of his time Lord Baltimore was interested
in America, and wanted to found a colony there. First he tried to
found one in Newfoundland. There he received a large grant of land
which he called Avalon after the fabled land in the story of King
Arthur, and he had a kind of fairy vision of the warmth and sunny
delights which were to be found in his new land.
But instead of being warm and sunny he found that Newfoundland was
bleak and cold, so his fairy vision shriveled and died, and be came
home and asked for a grant of land on the Potomac instead. In 1632
King James gave Lord Baltimore what he asked and called the land
Maryland in honour of his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria.
But before the grant was sealed "with the King's broad seal" Lord
Baltimore died. Not he, therefore, but his son, Cecilius, was the
first "Lord Proprietary" of Maryland, and for his broad lands all
he had to pay to King James was two Indian arrows, to be delivered
at Windsor Castle every year on Tuesday in Easter week. He had
also to pay one-fifth part of all the gold and silver which might
be found within his borders. But no gold or silver was found in
the colony, so there was nothing to pay.
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