Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (21 March 1679 – 16 April 1715) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the second son of

Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (August 27, 1637 – February 21, 1715), inherited the colony of Maryland in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, (1605–1675). He had been his father's Deputy Governor sin ...

(1637–1715) by Jane Lowe, and became his father's heir upon the death of his elder brother Cecil in 1681. The 3rd Lord Baltimore was a devout

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

, and had lost his title to the Province of Maryland shortly after the events of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, when the Protestant monarchs William III and Mary II acceded to the British throne. Benedict Calvert made strenuous attempts to have his family's title to Maryland restored by renouncing

ism and joining the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. In February 1715 Benedict became the 4th Baron Baltimore upon the death of his father, and he immediately petitioned King George I for the restoration of Maryland to his control. However, before the King could rule on the petition, Baltimore died aged 36, outliving his father by just two months. Shortly afterwards the King restored the title to Maryland to Calvert's young son

Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751) was a British nobleman and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just fifteen, on the death of his father and gra ...

Early life and exile

Benedict Calvert served as

Governor of Maryland The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

on behalf of his father from 1684 to 1688. Since he was just 5 years old at the time, this appointment was a purely honorary one, with the real work of governorship being carried out by his deputy,

Henry Darnall Colonel Henry Darnall (1645 – 17 June 1711) was a planter, military officer and politician in colonial Maryland. Darnall served as the Proprietary Agent in the colony for Lord Baltimore; he also briefly served as Deputy Governor of Mar ...

. Like his father, Benedict's Catholicism caused him political difficulties. While still a boy he served as a cavalry officer in the regiment of James Cecil, 4th Earl of Salisbury; Salisbury was appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Catholic

King James II James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

in 1688 and he duly converted to Roman Catholicism and served the king as

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

of a regiment of

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

. Unfortunately, Salisbury's timing could not have been worse. The King was soon overthrown by the Glorious Revolution of October to December 1688, and both Salisbury and Calvert were outlawed by the new Protestant regime. Worse was to come. The events following the Glorious Revolution also cost the Roman Catholic Calverts their rule in Maryland, which in 1688 became a Royal Colony, following a Puritan revolt known as the Protestant Revolution. Benedict Calvert's name was entered at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1690, but again his religion proved an impediment to his career. and he went into exile in St Germain, France, where he remained for 10 years.

Return to England

In 1698 Calvert was able to secure a license to return to England, and on 2 January 1699 he married the twenty-year-old Lady Charlotte Lee, daughter of the 1st Earl of Lichfield and Lady Charlotte FitzRoy. Charlotte Fitzroy was the illegitimate daughter of King Charles II. The couple had seven children, all of whom were raised in the Catholic faith, but the union was not a happy one, and the couple separated in 1705. In 1711 Calvert petitioned for a divorce from his wife on the grounds of her "open adultery", but the petition was unsuccessful and the divorce was not granted.

Religion and the Restoration of Maryland to Calvert control

Coat of Arms of Cecil Calvert, Baron Baltimore

Benedict Calvert correctly calculated that the chief impediment to the restoration of his family's title to Maryland was the question of religion.Hoffman, Ronald, p.79, ''Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga, 1500–1782''
Retrieved 9 August 2010 Towards the end of 1713 he began to make overtures to

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, Order of the Garter, KG Privy Council of Great Britain, PC Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724) was an English statesman and peer of the late Stuart dynasty, Stu ...

, informing Oxford of his:

inclinations...to embrace the Protestant religion, which I have become hitherto deterred from by the apprehensions that my father would withdraw my sustinance.

Accordingly, he converted to Anglicanism in 1713, gambling that this move would win back his family's lost fortune in the New World. Such a drastic move came at a cost, however. Benedict's devoutly Catholic father

, furious at his son's apostasy, withdrew his son's annual allowance of £450 and ended his support for his grandchildren's education and maintenance. Fortunately 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. For Calvert, the political benefits associated with his new religion came quickly. He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

as Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1714 to 1715, though he was not listed in any division lists, and was not an active member.Hayton, David, p.443, ''The House of Commons 1690–1715, Volume 2''
Retrieved October 2010 On 1 August 1714 Queen Anne died, leaving the Calverts with a new king and a new court to persuade of the merits of their family's claim to Maryland.

Petition to George I

On 2 February 1715 Calvert reaffirmed his devotion to the Anglican faith and proclaimed his loyalty to the new Protestant king

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgor ...

.Hoffman, Ronald, p.80, ''Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga, 1500–1782''
Retrieved 9 August 2010 Two weeks later the old Lord Baltimore died, aged 78, and Benedict succeeded him to become the 4th Baron Baltimore, immediately petitioning King George I for the restoration of Maryland to his control. However, before the King could rule on the petition, Baltimore himself died, outliving his father by just two months. Shortly afterwards, on 15 May 1715, the King restored the title to Maryland to Benedict's son, the fifteen-year-old 5th Baron Baltimore.

Family

Calvert married on 2 January 1699 Lady Charlotte Lee, daughter of the

Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield (4 February 1663 – 14 July 1716) was an English peer, the son of a baronet, who at 14 years of age married one of the illegitimate daughters of King Charles II, Charlotte Lee, prior to which he was made ...

, and his wife, Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, an illegitimate daughter of Charles II of England by

Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine (née Barbara Villiers, – 9 October 1709), was an English royal mistress of the Villiers family and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of En ...

. He and his wife had seven children, including: *

, 18th Proprietor Governor of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

(29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751), married on 20 July 1730 Mary Janssen (died

Chaillot The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, 25 March 1770), daughter of

Sir Theodore Janssen, 1st Baronet Sir Theodore Janssen of Wimbledon, 1st Baronet (1650s, Angoulême, France – 22 September 1748, Wimbledon, London) was a French-born English financier and member of parliament who, after a long and successful career in commerce, was ruined and d ...

, and wife Williamza or Williamsa Henley. * Edward Henry Calvert (

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

, 31 August 1701 - Annapolis, Calvert House, 1730), held office of Commissary General and President of the Council of Maryland. Married in 1726 Margaret Lee (born 1705), but had no children. *

Benedict Leonard Calvert Benedict Leonard Calvert (September 20, 1700 – June 1, 1732) was the 15th Proprietary Governor of Maryland from 1727 through 1731, appointed by his older brother, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore (1699–1751). He was named after his fath ...

(1700–1732), Governor of the Maryland colony from 1727 through 1731, appointed by his brother, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore. His health was poor and he died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

on 1 June 1732 on his passage home to England. * Cecil Calvert (6 November 1702 - 1765) * Charlotte Calvert (born 6 November 1702, died December 1744), married Thomas Brerewood, by whom she had a son, Francis Brerewood. (Her father-in-law

Thomas Brerewood Thomas Brerewood (c.1670 - 22 December 1746), was a 'Gentleman Entrepreneur & Fraudster'. He was deeply involved in the "Pitkin Affair" of 1705, a bankruptcy fraud that was surpassed in scale only by the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Despite the disgra ...

owned My Lady's Manor, in Maryland.) * Jane Calvert (

, 19 July 1703 - July 1778), married 4 May 1720 John Hyde (1695–1746), with whom she had many children. * Barbara Calvert (1704–1704) * Anne Calvert Their descendants included the children of Robert E. Lee through

Benedict Swingate Calvert Benedict Swingate Calvert (January 27, 1722 – January 9, 1788) was a planter, politician and a Loyalist in Maryland during the American Revolution. He was the son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, the third Proprietor Governor of Mar ...

, an illegitimate son of the 5th Baron Calvert. Benedict's daughter, Eleanor married

John Parke Custis John Parke Custis (November 27, 1754 – November 5, 1781) was an American planter. He was a son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington. Childhood A son of Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter with nearly three hundred enslave ...

, a stepson of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. Swingate's mother may have been Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham, an illegitimate daughter of

George I of Great Britain George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first ...

, by his mistress,

Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal, Duchess of Munster (25 December 166710 May 1743) was a longtime mistress to King George I of Great Britain. Early life She was born at Emden in the Duchy of Magdeburg. She was a daught ...

Legacy

Benedict Calvert had arranged for his son Charles to be raised a Protestant, and in 1721 the young Charles came of age and assumed control of the colony of Maryland, which remained under the control of the Calvert family until 1776. However, Charles Calvert, like his father, had to embrace the Anglican faith to retain authority over his family's province. The Calvert family's dream of a haven in the Americas for Roman Catholics was at an end, and it took an

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

and the overthrow of the Calvert proprietary government to restore religious tolerance to Maryland. Benedict's portrait, along with those of the other Barons Baltimore, still hangs today in the

Enoch Pratt Free Library The Enoch Pratt Free Library is the free public library system of Baltimore, Maryland. Its Central Library and office headquarters are located on 400 Cathedral Street (southbound) and occupy the northeastern three quarters of a city block bounded ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, the city that bears his family name.Calvert family history at www.prattlibrary.org
. Retrieved October 2010

References

*Andrews, Matthew Page, ''History of Maryland'', Doubleday, New York (1929).
Hayton, David, p.443, ''The House of Commons 1690–1715, Volume 2''
Retrieved October 2010
Hoffman, Ronald, ''Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga, 1500–1782''
Retrieved 9 August 2010
Yentsch, Anne E, ''A Chesapeake Family and their Slaves: a Study in Historical Archaeology'', Cambridge University Press (1994)
Retrieved Jan 2010

Notes

External links

Calvert Family Tree
Retrieved 10 July 2013 * Retrieved 23 January 2010

Retrieved 30 January 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Baltimore, Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron 1679 births 1715 deaths 17th-century American people 18th-century American people Barons Baltimore Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1713–1715 Colonial Governors of Maryland Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism