1625.] DEATH OF KING JAMES I. 263 



the palace, where he remained conducting routine 

 pubHc business between the king and the Council 

 (which calls for no comment), until the 23rd of that 

 month, when the king and court removed to Chester- 

 ford Park, en route to Royston, which was reached on 

 the 27th. Here the Prince of Wales joined his father, 

 who was visibly approaching his end. The next, and 

 last, remove was to Theobalds, where the court arrived 

 on the I St of March ; and, about noon of the 27th of 

 that month, James I. breathed his last, and Charles I. 

 was instantly proclaimed king."^^ 



^•'^ Sir George Calvert, son and heir of Leonard Calvert, 

 Esq., of Danbywiske, Yorkshire, and Alecia, daughter of John 

 Crossland, Esq., of Crossland, in the same county, was born in 

 1578. Having served as secretary to Sir Robert Cecil when 

 Secretary of State, and afterwards as a clerk to the Privy 

 Council, he received the honour of knighthood in 161 7, and 

 was appointed, in the beginning of the ensuing year. Secretary 

 of State to the king, who employed him in the most impor- 

 tant affairs, and settled, in 1600, a pension of i^iooo a year 

 upon him beyond his salary. Sir George changing his 

 religion, however, and turning Roman Catholic in 1624, 

 voluntarily resigned his post. The king continued him, 

 nevertheless, in the Privy Council, and, having made him 

 large grants of lands in Ireland, elevated him to the peerage 

 of that kingdom, at Newmarket, February 16, 1624, as Baron 

 Baltimore, county Longford, Sir George being at the time 

 representative in Parliament for the University of Oxford. 

 Whilst Secretary of State, his lordship obtained a grant of the 

 province of Avalon, in Newfoundland, with the most extensive 

 privileges, and expended ;^2 5,000 in the settlement thereof. 

 This place he visited thrice in the reign of James I., but after 

 contending with great spirit against the French encroachments, 



* State Papers, Dom., vols, clxxxi. — chiycsx .., passim. 



