Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Lord Baltimore
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| Born | 6 February 1731 |
| Died | 4 September 1771 (aged 40) Naples, Italy
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| Spouse(s) |
Lady Diana Egerton
(m. 1753) |
| Children | Henry Harford (1758–1834) Francis Mary Harford (1759–1822) Sophia Hales (born c.1765) Elizabeth Hales (born c.1765) Charlotte Hope, born 1770 |
| Parent(s) | Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Mary Janssen |
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (6 February 1731 – 4 September 1771), styled The Hon. Frederick Calvert until 1751, was an English nobleman and last in line of the Barons Baltimore. Although he exercised almost feudal power in the Province of Maryland, he never once set foot in the colony, and unlike his father, he took little interest in politics, treating his estates, including Maryland, largely as sources of revenue to support his extravagant, often scandalous lifestyle. Dogged by the criticism and poor health, he contracted a fever and died in Naples at the age of 40.
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Early life
Frederick Calvert was born in 1731, the eldest son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, 3rd Proprietor Governor of Maryland (1699–1751). He was named after his godfather, Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II, and father of George III. The young Frederick was sent to Eton College to be educated, where he acquired some proficiency in the classics. Calvert had two sisters, Caroline Calvert, born about 1745, and Louisa Calvert.
Adulthood and inheritance
In 1751 Charles Calvert died, and Frederick, aged just 20, inherited from his father the title Baron Baltimore and the Proprietary Governorship of the Province of Maryland, becoming at once both a wealthy nobleman in England and a powerful figure in America. Maryland was then a British colony administered directly by the Calverts. Frederick benefited from an income of some £10,000 a month from taxes and rents, an immense sum at the time. In addition, he controlled shares in the Bank of England, and an estate at Woodcote Park, in Surrey.
Maryland
Calvert's inheritance coincided with a period of rising discontent in Maryland, amid growing demands by the legislative assembly for an end to his family's authoritarian rule. Calvert, however, took little interest in the colony and, unlike his predecessors, never set foot there. Instead, he lived in England and on the European continent, particularly in Italy and, for a time in Constantinople, whence he was eventually forced to leave after being accused of keeping a private harem. Calvert lived a life of leisure, writing verse and regarding the Province of Maryland as little more than a source of revenue.
During the 1750s, during the French and Indian War, when funds were needed to finance the common defence of the colonies, Maryland alone refused its share. Calvert was prepared to pass an Act raising taxes but only if his own vast estates were exempted. Benjamin Franklin later wrote: "It is true, Maryland did not then contribute its proportion, but it was, in my opinion, the fault of the Government, and not of the people". The colony was ruled through governors appointed by Calvert, such as Horatio Sharpe and later Robert Eden. Governor Sharpe was keenly aware of the difficulties placed upon his subjects by Lord Baltimore's intransigence, but his hands were tied. Calvert oversaw the end of the long-running Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute.
Marriage
On 9 March 1753, he married Lady Diana Egerton (3 March 1732 – 13 August 1758), youngest daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater by Lady Rachel Russell. The union was not a success, and the couple spent most of their married life apart. They had no children, and in May 1756 they were formally separated due to "incompatibility of temper".
European travels
Calvert's reputation for exotic living spread quickly. In 1764 James Boswell (1740–1795) began his Grand Tour of Europe, having heard that Baltimore was "living at Constantinople like a Turk, with his seraglio all around him"." Boswell also observed that Baltimore "... lived luxuriously and inflamed his blood, then he became melancholy and timorous, and was constantly taking medicines... he is living a strange, wild, life, useless to his country, except when raised to a delirium, and must soon destroy his constitution".
Calvert spent a good deal of time in Italy, where the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) described him as being "one of those worn-out beings, a hipped Englishman, who had lost all physical and moral taste".
Such was Calvert's fascination with the Ottoman Turks that in 1766, on his return to England, he pulled down part of his London house, rebuilding it in the style of a Turkish harem. In 1767 Calvert published an account of his travels in the East, titled A tour to the East, in the years 1763 and 1764: with Remarks on the City of Constantinople and the Turks. Also Select Pieces of Oriental Wit, Poetry and Wisdom. The book, said Horace Walpole, "deserved no more to be published than his bills on the road for post-horses", adding that it demonstrated how "a man may travel without observation, and be an author without ideas". It gains a mention from a character in Tobias Smollett's epistolary novel The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.
Calvert's spending was prodigious, and he spent considerable sums of money on his family estate at Woodcote Park. According to Walpole, Calvert spent a great deal of money making the interior of the house "tawdry" and "ridiculous" in the "French" style.
Family and children
Calvert had numerous illegitimate children by various women, though he does appear to have attempted to support them. He is said to have left, on his death "a whole seraglio of white, black, etc, to provide for",
Calvert had two children by Hester Whelan:
- Henry Harford (1758–1835), the last Lord Proprietor of Maryland.
- Frances Mary Harford (1759–1822) who married William Frederick Wyndham (1763–1828) on 21 July 1784. Their son George Wyndham became the 4th Earl of Egremont.
In 1765, he fathered twin daughters with Elizabeth Dawson of Lincolnshire, Sophia and Elizabeth Hales.
He had another daughter, Charlotte Hope, born in Hamburg in 1770, with Elizabeth Hope of Münster, Germany.
Maryland and the War of Independence
In his will, Calvert left his proprietary Palatinate of Maryland to his eldest (perhaps only confirmed) illegitimate son, Henry Harford, then aged just 13. This was done against the wishes of his family, though Calvert did provide for cash bequests to his sisters, specifically £20,000 to be divided between Louisa and Caroline. The colony, perhaps grateful to be rid of Frederick at last, duly recognised Harford as Calvert's heir. However, the will was challenged by the family of Calvert's sister, Louisa Calvert Browning, who did not recognise Harford's inheritance. Before the case could grind its way through the Court of Chancery, events in America changed Maryland forever. Unfortunately for the young Henry, by the time he had reached adulthood, Maryland had become engulfed by the American Revolution, and by 1776 was at war with Britain. Henry Harford ultimately lost almost all his colonial possessions, though he remained wealthy due to his extensive inheritance in Great Britain.
Reputation and legacy
Calvert was not generally well-regarded by his contemporaries. One characterised him as "Feeble in body, conceited, frivolous, and dissipated, but withal generous and sympathetic ... [a man] who gave himself up to a life of pleasure". Another described him as "a disreputable and dissolute degenerate". Posterity has been little kinder to his reputation.
Some have said that Frederick County, Maryland, is named after the last Baron Baltimore, but this remains unproven. The official flag of the State of Maryland, uniquely among the 50 states, bears witness to his family legacy.
Published works
- A tour to the East, in the years 1763 and 1764: with Remarks on the City of Constantinople and the Turks. Also Select Pieces of Oriental Wit, Poetry and Wisdom, London (1767).
- Gaudia poetica Latina, Anglica, et Gallica Lingua Composita, London (1770).
See also
- Baron Baltimore
- History of Maryland in the American Revolution
- Province of Maryland
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