 After resigning the Royal secretariat of state in 1625 , the new Baron Baltimore made clear his intention to visit the colony : " I intend shortly , " he wrote in March , " God willing , a journey for Newfoundland to visit a plantation which I began there some few years since . " His plans were disrupted by the death of King James I , and by the <unk> on Catholics with which King Charles I began his reign in order to appease his opponents . The new King required all privy councillors to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance ; and since Baltimore , as a Catholic , had to refuse , he was obliged to step down from that cherished office . Given the new religious and political climate , and perhaps also to escape a serious outbreak of plague in England , Baltimore moved to his estates in Ireland . His expedition to Newfoundland had set sail without him in late May 1625 under Sir Arthur Aston , who became the new provincial Governor of Avalon . 
