 Calvert took an interest in the British colonization of the Americas , at first for commercial reasons and later to create a refuge for English Catholics . He became the proprietor of Avalon , the first sustained English settlement on the southeastern peninsula on the island of Newfoundland ( off the eastern coast of modern Canada ) . <unk> by its cold and sometimes inhospitable climate and the <unk> of the settlers , Sir George looked for a more suitable spot further south and sought a new royal charter to settle the region , which would become the state of Maryland . Calvert died five weeks before the new Charter was sealed , leaving the settlement of the Maryland colony to his son Cecil , ( 1605 @-@ <unk> ) . His second son Leonard Calvert , ( <unk> @-@ 1647 ) , was the first colonial governor of the Province of Maryland . Historians have long recognized George Calvert as the founder of Maryland , in spirit if not in fact . 
