Lived: 1605-1675 Cecil Calvert, known as Lord Baltimore, was founder of the colony of Maryland, which became a haven for repressed English Catholics. By the age of 26, Baltimore had been thrust into the leadership of the young colony of Maryland thanks to an agreement by his father with the English King, Charles I. A Catholic under the reign of a Protestant nation, Baltimore strove to ensure that his new colony would remain a place of safe worship for Catholics in the New World. During the period of the English Civil War, Baltimore's control over Maryland was brought into question, but ultimately the colony remained a bastion of religious equality on par with William Penn's Pennsylvania.