John Hart (died ) served as the 12th Royal Governor of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

from 1714 to 1715 and continued as the 12th

Proprietary Governor Proprietary colonies were a type of colony in English America which existed during the early modern period. In English overseas possessions established from the 17th century onwards, all land in the colonies belonged to the Crown, which held ul ...

of Maryland from 1715 to 1720, after the restoration of proprietary control to

Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751) was a British politician and colonial administrator who served as the proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just f ...

. His governorship marked the beginnings of the restoration of the

Calvert family Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore, County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 and ended in 1771, upon the death of its sixth-generation male heir, aged 40. Holders of the title were usually known as Lord Baltimo ...

's control of Maryland.

Early life and family

John Hart was born in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. He was a native of

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...

. He was the son of Merrick Hart, of Crovert, and his wife Lettice Vesey. His maternal uncle was Archbishop John Vesey. Very few details of his early life survive, other than the fact that he served in Spain and Portugal during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

. John Hart married the widow Mary Purefoy, daughter of Henry Hart and Anne Beresford, daughter of Sir Tristram Beresford, 1st Baronet. They had two children: a son Thomas, and a daughter Marylandia.

Governor of Maryland

Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (21 March 1679 – 16 April 1715) was a British colonial administrator and politician who represented Harwich in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1714 to 1715. He was the second son of ...

had witnessed his family's loss of their proprietary

Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...

in 1689, in part because of his family's

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

religion. Calvert calculated that the chief impediment to the restoration of his family's title to Maryland was his Catholicism, and he therefore converted to

Anglicanism Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, deciding to "embrace the protestant religion", and gambling that this move would win back his family's lost fortune in the New World. Such a bold move would come at a cost. Benedict's father

Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (August 27, 1637 – February 21, 1715) was an English colonial administrator. He inherited the province of Maryland in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. He had been his ...

, furious at his son's apostacy, withdrew his annual allowance of £450 and ended his support for his grandchildren's education and maintenance. Benedict was able to persuade the Crown to grant him an allowance of £300 a year, and Queen Anne even acceded to his nomination of John Hart as governor of the province, on condition that Hart would share with Calvert £500 per annum out of his profits from the office. Hart's governorship therefore marked the beginnings of the restoration of the

's control of Maryland. Hart and his family immigrated to Maryland in 1714. In 1715, Hart took a 31 year lease on a 200 acre plantation. They returned to England in 1720.

Governor of the Leeward Islands

After the end of his time as governor of Maryland, Hart was appointed governor of the

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

, a position which he held from 1721–1727. He was succeeded in the position by

Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry Thomas Innes Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry ( 1688 – 12 September 1729) was a British Army officer, speculator and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons from 1713 to 1728. He served as Governor of the Leeward ...

."An Universal History: From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, Vol. 41
pg. 314

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, John Year of birth missing 1740 deaths Colonial governors of Maryland Governors of the Leeward Islands British emigrants to the United States 18th-century American planters Colonial United States (British)