 Calvert had long maintained an interest in the exploration and settlement of the New World , beginning with his investment of twenty @-@ five pounds in the second Virginia Company in 1609 , and a few months later a more substantial sum in the East India Company , which he increased in <unk> . In 1620 , Calvert purchased a tract of land in Newfoundland from Sir William Vaughan , ( <unk> @-@ 1641 ) , a Welsh writer and colonial <unk> , who had earlier failed to establish a colony on the large sub @-@ Arctic island off the eastern coast of North America . He named the area of the peninsula as Avalon , after the legendary spot where Christianity was supposedly introduced to Roman Britain in ancient times . The plantation lay on what is now called the Avalon Peninsula and included the fishing station at " Ferryland " . Calvert almost certainly had a fishery project in mind at this stage . 
