Calvert’s Proceedings Against Kirke

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS CALVERT'S PROCEEDINGS AGAINST KIRKE SIR GEORGE CALVERT, first Lord Baltimore, purchased in 1620 from a prior grantee an extensive tract in southeastern Newfoundland. He named it Avalon. Here, in 1621, he founded the settlement Ferryland, but, daunted by the severe climate, he gave over his plans in 1629 and left the region. His death in 1632 made Cecil Calvert heir to whatever rights remained to him in the abandoned colony. By some arrangement with Cecil Calvert the Avalon property was occupied about 1634 by William Hill and partners, apparently under a lease. In 1637 a new group of proprietors obtained a royal patent for Newfoundland. They sent as their governor Sir David Kirke, who ousted Hill and seated himself at Ferryland. From this point he ruled the fishing coast on behalf of the new proprietors. Calvert, now deeply engaged with the colonization of Maryland, took no legal action against the new occupants. According to his petition he contented himself with informal protests to the king. While Kirke ruled in Avalon, the Puritan revolution swept England, dispersing the Newfoundland proprietors, and destroying royal authority. Kirke held his place throughout the struggle and until, by order of the parliamentary government, he came back to England about August, 1651, to face threats of prosecution. Then it was that Cecil Calvert came forward with a demand that recompense be made by Kirke for the alleged usurpation of Avalon by the Newfoundland grantees. Calvert first filed suit in admiralty against Kirke. This move was followed by an effort to obtain direct governmental action in his favour. The first document here presented is a petition by Calvert to the Council of State aski~g its intervention. The original is a printed broadside, undated, but clearly belonging to some time within the months immediately following Kirke's return to England. Extant records of the Council of State show that Calvert filed petitions in December, 1651, and in May, 1652. As the text here given seems to imply that Calvert had made no previous 132 NOTES AND DocU:MEN'TS 133 request for the Council's aid, the paper may fairly be presumed to be the petition of December 23, 1651. The Council ordered at that time that "he be left to pursue his cause in law, and that as things concerning the same are offered at the Council they will take notice thereof as there shall be occasion.'' It is of record that Calvert duly prosecuted his claim against Kirke in the courts. The second document here presented is an affidavit which probably was obtained as a basis for his suit. Its value to the historian lies not so much in its connection with Calvert's pretensions as in its data concerning the time and manner of Kirke's establishment of proprietary rule in 1638. Both of these documents are among the Calvert family papers obtained in England by the Maryland Historical Society. They are transcribed by permission. L. D. SCISCO [Petition.] The Lord Baltemore's Case, concerning the Province of Avalon in New-found-land, an Island in America. Sir George Calvert Knight, late Lord Baltemore, purchased Jong since (to wit in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty) a great part of New-found-land, which afterwards was also granted to him and his heirs, by a Patent from King James, under the then Great Seal of England, And the said Tract of Land, was by the said Patent erected into a Province, and called Avalon, the bounds and limits whereof , are described in the said Patent (bearing date the fourth day of April in the one and twentieth yeer of the Reign of King James, and in the yeer of our Lord one thousand six hundred twenty and three) whereby also for his better encouragement to make a Plantation there, many privileges and immunities were granted to him and his heirs, amongst which, one was, to have and enjoy all Customes and Imposts, which should be payable there for any Goods or Merchandizes whatsoever, to be laden or unladen within any part of the said Province by forreigners , reserving to the English free liberty of taking...