What did the title “lord” mean in old England? Was any land owner a lord? I recently read how there were 6 Lords Baltimore - all of which were of the Calvert family. But, what gave them the title of “lord”? (Was William Penn a lord?) And, for extra credit, what then is the origin of the name “Baltimore”?
It depends on what you mean by “old England.” Pre-Conquest:
L.G. Pine, The Story of Titles 112 (1969).
In the Middle Ages practically all land was held on feudal tenure, and the owner of a manor was always a “lord,” at least with respect to his serfs. In Britain today, the owner of such an old estate that has passed with some of its manorial rights intact is entitled to be styled “Lord of the Manor of ----.” The title carries no privileges or precedence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_manor “Lord” mainly refers to peers of the realm – hereditary peers, life peers, and the bishops and chief judges who formerly made up the House of Lords. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_manor All are styled “Lord X” except for dukes, who are styled “His Grace.” It also refers to elder children of peers who are allowed to use “courtesy titles.”
In 1625, George Calvert was created Baron Baltimore in the peerage of Ireland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Calvert%2C_1st_Baron_Baltimore The title derives from the town of Baltimore in Longford County, Ireland. He founded Maryland as a Catholic colony, and the city of Baltimore was named after him. The title died out in 1771 with Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, who had no legitimate sons. His family still owned the colony as feudal lords – Frederick inherited the proprietary governorship of Maryland, which he willed to his illegitimate son, Henry Harford; but the American Revolution put an end to the claim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Calvert%2C_6th_Baron_Baltimore
Sorry, flubbed a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord
Brainglutton, your explantion is clearer than that presented in the World Book Encyclopedia. I have looked at wikipedia, but found it too hard to navigate through. Maybe I should give it a second try…
William Penn was Lord Proprietor of Pennsylvania.
But not a peer of the realm – i.e., he had no right to sit in the House of Lords. The Lords Baltimore had – but because of their Irish peerage, not because of their proprietorship of Maryland. (BTW, I read once in a description of the state arms/seal of Maryland that it is surmount by an earl’s or count’s coronet, because in Maryland, Calvert was considered not a mere baron but a “count palatine” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_palatine). But that had nothing to do with his status in Britain.)
And although the title ‘Lord Proprietor’ was used in other colonies, most obviously for Baltimore in Maryland, and was sometimes applied to Penn, the 1681 charter referred to him only as the ‘Proprietary’ and he and the colony were careful to refer to him only as such (or as the ‘Proprietor’/‘chief Proprietor’) in their most formal documents.
As for the palatinate rights, Penn had wanted the same ones as Baltimore (the ‘bishop of Durham’ clause), but the government in London had refused.
Their Noble Lordships by Thomas Winchester is a good, humorous study of the modern British peerage. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394524187/qid=1126465184/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8889631-7055829?v=glance&s=books&n=507846