Kiplin Hall — 1
Kiplin Hall — a Monument to a Forbidden Faith
Built by an Englishman who accidentally forged an American State
Tenacity can mark a person’s whole life. The Calverts employed it across generations.
The pleasant village of Kiplin, in the county of North Yorkshire, has its roots in Anglo-Saxon England, but work on the Jacobean manor house recognisable in the image started in 1622.
As was common at the time, the owner, Sir George Calvert, drew up his own plans in conjunction with his builder, whom he doubtless swore to secrecy. Sir George Calvert, soon to become First Baron Baltimore, County Longford, Ireland, was quietly plotting. And so the ties to Maryland begin with his title.
George Calvert was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I into a Catholic family living in the area. The country’s Protestant Reformation was less than 50 years old, and such were the political and religious tensions of the time that his father, a known upholder of the “old” faith, was forced to board his two young sons with a Protestant tutor 50 miles from home.
Despite familial deprivations, this did George no bad service. From there he went on to Trinity College, Oxford, and then to London to study law at Lincoln’s Inn. At both he would…
