Here, for the first time for young people, is the impressive story of the six English Lords who were responsible for founding and developing the colony of Maryland. THE LORDS BALTIMORE provides a valuable picture of the colonists, and of both England and America during the turbulent seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

It was the first Lord Baltimore, George Calvert, who in 1632 chose the land by the Chesapeake Bay for his settlement. Calvert, a Catholic, was determined that in his colony all men could worship in freedom. So, from the beginning, Maryland was marked by a religious toleration unknown elsewhere in America. 

George's son, Cecil, built the young colony into a strong outpost in the New World. Despite continual interference from the English kings and Parliament, Cecil strove to preserve for his people the freedom they had sought. This principle having been established, Maryland was at last ready for independence by the time the title passed to the sixth Lord Baltimore. 

Skillfully written and carefully researched, this biography of the able and enlightened Lords is a welcome addition for readers of American history. Leonard Vosburgh's line drawings capture the adventuresome spirit of the colonial era. 

From the dust jacket