Charles Calvert (MP)

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For the British noble and Governor of the Province of Maryland, see Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore.

Charles Calvert (30 August 1768 – 8 September 1832) was a wealthy English brewer and Member of Parliament in the early 19th century.

Calvert was the third son of Southwark brewer Felix Calvert, and was educated at Tonbridge and Harrow Schools. In 1802, he inherited a half-share in his father’s brewery.

A Whig, he stood for Parliament and was elected as MP for Southwark from 1812 to 1830 and then from 1830 until his death in 1832.

In Parliament, he allied himself with brewers’ interests, often opposing taxes on tobacco, beer and tea for their impacts on the working classes and on manufacturers. He opposed the blockage of Norway in 1814 and the resumption of hostilities with Napoleon, and supported parliamentary reform.

He married Jane, youngest daughter of Sir William Rowley of Tendring Hall, Suffolk, in 1823, and lived at Ockley Court in Surrey and Kneller Hall in Twickenham, west London, up to his death from cholera in September 1832.