was returned to parliament for Bossiney in
1609. He assisted James I. in his discourse against Vorstius, the Arminian
theological professor of Leiden, and in 1613 took charge of the Spanish and
Italian correspondence. The same year he was sent on a mission to Ireland
to investigate grievances. For these services he was rewarded by knighthood
in 1617, followed by a secretaryship of state in 1619 and a pension of
L2000 a year in 1620. He represented successively Yorkshire (1621) and
Oxford University (1624) in the House of Commons, where it fell to him in
his official capacity to communicate the king's policy and to obtain
supplies. He was distrusted by the parliament, and was in favour of the
unpopular alliance with Spain and the Spanish marriage. Shortly after the
failure of the scheme he declared himself a Roman Catholic, and on the 12th
of February 1625 threw up his office, when he was created Baron Baltimore
of Baltimore and received a grant of large estates in Ireland. Henceforth
he was seen little in public life and his attention was directed to
colonial enterprise, with which his name will be always associated. He had
established a small settlement in Newfoundland in 1621, for which under the
name of Avalon he procured a charter in 1623, and which he himself visited
in 1627. In consequence of disputes and the unsuitable nature of the
climate he sailed thence for Virginia, but was forbidden to settle there
unless he took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. He returned home, and
died on the 15th of April 1632 before a new concession was secured, the
charter of Maryland passing the great seal on the 20th of June 1632 in
favour of his son Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore, who founded the colony.
Baltimore married Anne, daughter of George Mynne of Hurlingfordbury,
Hertfordshire, by whom he had six sons and five daughters. He wrote _Carmen
funebre in D. Hen. Untonum_ (1596); _The Answer to Tom Tell-Troth ..._
(1642) is also attributed to him, and Wood mentions Baltimore as having
composed "something concerning Maryland." His letters are to be found in
various publications, including Strafford's _Letters_, _Clarendon State
Papers_ and the _Calendars of State Papers_.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--_George and Cecilius Calvert_ by William Hand Browne (1890);
article by C. H. Firth in the _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ with references there
given; Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_ (Bliss) ii. 522; Doyle's, _The English
in America_; _Discourse on the Li