 Little is known of the ancestry of the Yorkshire branch of the Calverts . At George Calvert 's knighting , it was claimed that his family originally came from Flanders ( a Dutch @-@ speaking area today across the English Channel in modern @-@ day Kingdom of Belgium ) . Calvert 's father , ( an earlier ) Leonard was a country gentleman who had achieved some prominence as a tenant of Lord Wharton , and was wealthy enough to marry a " gentlewoman " of a noble line , Alicia or Alice Crossland ( or sometimes spelled : " Crosland " ) . He established his family on the estate of the later @-@ built Kiplin Hall , near Catterick in Richmondshire , of Yorkshire . George Calvert was born at Kiplin in late 1579 ( birth month and day yet to be researched ) . His mother Alicia / Alice died on 28 November 1587 , when he was fifteen years old . His father then married Grace Crossland ( or sometimes spelled : " Crosland " ) , Alicia 's first cousin . 
