| Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore | |
|---|---|
| Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1731 Epsom, Surrey, England |
| Died | 1771 Naples, Italy |
| Spouse(s) | Lady Diana Egerton, numerous mistresses |
| Relations | Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (grand father), Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore (father), Henry Harford (son) |
| Children | Henry Harford (1758–1834) Francis Mary Harford (1759–1822) Sophia Hales (born c.1765) Elizabeth Hales (born c.1765) Charlotte Hope, born 1770 |
| Residence | Woodcote Park, Epsom, Surrey. |
| Occupation | writer |
| Religion | Anglican |
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, 4th Proprietor of Maryland (February 6, 1731/1732 – September 4, 1771) was an English nobleman and last in the line of 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 and often scandalous lifestyle. In 1768 he was accused of abduction and rape by Sarah Woodcock, a noted beauty who kept a milliner's shop at Tower Hill. The jury acquitted Calvert but he left England soon afterwards, and never recovered from the public scandal which surrounded the trial. Dogged by criticism and poor health, he died in Naples at the age of 39.
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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.[1] The young Frederick was sent to Eton College to be educated, where he acquired some proficiency in the classics.[2] Calvert had two sisters, the Hon. Caroline Calvert, born circa. 1745, and the Hon. Louisa Calvert.
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 colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain, administered directly by the Calverts. Frederick benefited from an income of around £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.[3]
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. Frederick, however, remained aloof from the colony and never set foot in it in his lifetime. Instead, he spent time in England and on the European continent, particularly in Italy. He also lived for a time in Constantinople, but had 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. The colony was ruled through governors appointed by Calvert, such as Horatio Sharpe and Robert Eden. Frederick's frequent travels made him difficult to contact and meant that Maryland was largely ruled without him.
On March 9, 1753, he married Lady Diana Egerton (March 3, 1731/1732 – August 13, 1758), youngest daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater by Lady Rachel Russell.[4] 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 an "incompatibility of temper".[1] In 1758, Lady Diana "died from a hurt she received by a fall out of a Phaeton carriage", while accompanied by her husband. Although Frederick was suspected of foul play, no charges were ever brought.[1]
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"."[5] 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".[1]
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".[6]
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.[2] 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".[4]
Calvert's spending was prodigious, and he spent considerable sums of money on his family estate at Woodcote Park, Surrey. According to Horace Walpole, Frederick spent a great deal of money making the interior of the house 'tawdry' and 'ridiculous' in the 'French' style.[1]
In 1768, Frederick was accused of abduction and rape by Sarah Woodcock, a noted beauty who kept a milliner's shop at Tower Hill.[2] He was indicted at Kingston Assizes, and put on trial[4]., pleading not guilty by reason of consent.[2] After deliberating for an hour and twenty minutes the jury acquitted Calvert[2] , believing that Woodcock did not make adequate attempts to escape.
Much salacious gossip accompanied the trial, and in the same year one of Calvert's mistresses, Sophia Watson, wrote an autobiography titled Memoirs of the Seraglio of the Bashaw of Merryland, by a Discarded Sultana (London, 1768) [7] Such was Baltimore's reputation that her readers were in no doubt as to whom she was referring.[5] Sultana Watson offered many intimate details of life in the seraglio, including the perhaps unkind suggestion that Baltimore himself was barely able to satisfy one, let alone eight, mistresses.[7]
Following his acquittal Frederick left England, presumably hoping that his notoriety did not extend to Europe.[6] In this he seems to have been at least partly correct, as in July 1769 the British Ambassador to Russia reported that "Lord Baltimore arrived here last week from Sweden, I had the honour to present him to the Empress who was pleased to receive his Ld extremely graciously".[6] In any event, Calvert's brush with the law does not appear to have affected his unconventional living arrangements. Count Maximilian Von Lamberg wrote of his travels:
By this time it is evident that he was suffering from financial difficulties, and in 1768 he sold the family's great estate at Woodcote Park,[9] apparently to a wealthy Soho upholsterer.[10]
Calvert would never return to his native England. He remained on the continent, "constantly moving...that he might not know where he should be buried",[1] and it was in Naples in September 1771 that he contracted a fever and died. His body was returned to London, lying in state at the Great Room of Exeter Exchange, Strand, and was interred in his family's vault at St. Martin's "with much funeral pomp, the cavalcade extending from the church to the eastern extremity of Epsom".[1] According to Gentleman's Quarterly: "His Lordship had injured his character in his life by seduction, so that the populace paid no regard to his memory when dead, but plundered the room where his body lay the moment it was removed".[11]
He was buried in Epsom, Surrey. [12]
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",[5]
Baltimore had two children by Mrs Hester Whelan:[1]
In addition, he fathered twin daughters with Elizabeth Dawson of Lincolnshire.
He had another daughter, Charlotte Hope, born in Hamburg in 1770, with Elizabeth Hope of Münster, Germany.[1][14]
In his will, Frederick left his proprietary Palatinate of Maryland to his eldest illegitimate son, Henry Harford, then aged just 13. This was done against the wishes of his family, though Frederick did provide for cash payments to his sisters, specifically £20,000 to be divided between Louisa and Caroline. [12] The colony, perhaps grateful to be rid of Frederick at last, duly recognized Harford as Calvert's heir. However, the will was challenged by the family of Frederick's sister, Louisa Calvert Browning, who did not recognize Harford's inheritance. Before the case could grind its way through the Court of Chancery, events in America would change Maryland for ever. 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 would remain wealthy due to his extensive inheritance in Great Britain.
Calvert was not generally well regarded by his contemporaries. One characterized 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".[1] Posterity has been little kinder to his reputation.
Frederick County, Maryland, is named after the last Baron Baltimore,[15] and the official flag of the State of Maryland, uniquely among the 50 states, bears witness to his family legacy.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Lord Baltimore |
Proprietor of Maryland 1751–1771 |
Succeeded by Henry Harford |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by Charles Calvert |
Baron Baltimore 1751–1771 |
Extinct |