The Hon. Leonard Calvert (1606 – June 9, 1647) was the first proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He was the second son of The 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), the first proprietor of Maryland. His elder brother Cecil (1605–1675), who inherited the colony and the title upon the death of their father George, April 15, 1632, appointed Leonard as governor of the Colony in his absence. Early life Leonard was born to George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore and his wife Anne Mynne, and was named in honor of his paternal grandfather, Leonard Calvert of Yorkshire. Colonisation of Newfoundland In 1625, when Calvert's father was created Lord Baltimore and received letters patent for the creation of a Province of Avalon in the island of Newfoundland from James I of England, he relocated part of his newly converted Roman Catholic family to Newfoundland. Leonard Calvert accompanied his father to the new colony of Newfoundland in 1628. The colony ultimately failed due to disease, extreme cold, and attacks by the French, and the family returned to England. After a few years, Baltimore declared Avalon a failure and traveled to the Colony of Virginia, where he found the climate much more suitable and temperate, but was met with an unwelcome reception from the Virginians' government and ruling class. Establishment of Maryland In 1632, Baltimore returned to England, where he negotiated an additional patent for the colony of Maryland from King Charles I. However, before the papers could be executed, Baltimore died on April 15, 1632. On June 20, 1632, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, received from the king the charter for the colony of Maryland that his father had negotiated. The charter consisted of 23 sections, but the most important conferred on Lord Baltimore and his heirs, besides the right of absolute ownership in the soil, certain powers, ecclesiastical as well as civil, resembling those possessed by the nobility of the Middle Ages. Leonard Calvert was appointed by his brother as the colony's first governor. The Ark and The Dove Two vessels, The Ark and The Dove, carrying over 300 settlers, sailed from the harbour of Cowes, England, on November 22, 1633, arriving at just inside the huge harbor and bay (later to be named "Hampton Roads") at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, between Cape Charles and Cape Henry and passed off "Point Comfort" at the mouths of the intersecting James, Nansemond,