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Anne Arundell, Lady Baltimore (1615-1649)

Women of the Calvert family are often overshadowed by their sons or husbands, but several Calvert women played important supporting roles in the formation and development of Maryland. One of these women was Anne Arundell, the namesake of Anne Arundell County.

Anne Arundell was born in 1615 into an elite English family of noble lineage. Arundell’s father, Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, England, had served under King James I. Her great-grandmother was related by marriage to King Henry VIII.

Anne Arundell was very beautiful, and many men sought to marry her. In 1628, when she was only 13, she married Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore and a close family friend. Like the Calverts, the Arundell family was Catholic. Anne Arundell’s father was arrested several times because he refused to give up his religion.

Cecil Calvert's marriage to Anne Arundell helped establish Maryland. Arundell inherited lands and money from her father, which she and Cecil Calvert used to fund the new colony. But there was more to Arundell than just her money. She played an important role in raising her son Charles Calvert, the future Lord Baltimore, as well as Cecil Calvert's younger half-brother Philip Calvert, who served as Governor and Chancellor of Maryland.

During her 20-year marriage to Cecil Calvert, Anne Arundell gave birth to nine children, but only three lived to become adults. This was very common for the time due to the lack of modern medicine. Arundell was well-loved, and upon her death at age 34, her husband composed a memorial verse for her tomb in England in which he described her as "the most beautiful and best wife." The memorial continued, "Here lieth Anne Arundell, Lady Baltimore. Farewell to you most lovely of earthly beauties."

Although neither she nor Cecil Calvert ever visited the colony that they helped found, Anne Arundell was very interested in Maryland. She decorated the ceiling of their home in England with plaster reliefs of the Ark and the Dove, the ships that brought the first colonists to Maryland.

Indirectly, Anne Arundell played an important role in Maryland's early years, and she seems to have been well loved and respected. In 1649, the Maryland Assembly chose to honor Arundell after her death by naming Anne Arundel County after her.

 

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