Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (6 February 1731 – 4 September 1771), styled The Hon. Frederick Calvert until 1751, was a British landowner who was the last
Baron Baltimore
Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore, County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 and ended in 1771, upon the death of its sixth-generation male heir, aged 40. Holders of the title were usually known as Lord Baltimo ...
. Although he exercised almost feudal power in the
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...
, 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. 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 that surrounded the trial. Dogged by the criticism and poor health, he contracted a fever and died in Naples at the age of 40.
Early life
Frederick Calvert was born in 1731, the eldest son of
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751) was a British politician and colonial administrator who served as the proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just f ...
, 3rd Proprietor Governor of Maryland (1699–1751). He was named after his godfather,
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales (Frederick Louis, German: ''Friedrich Ludwig''; 31 January 1707 – 31 March 1751) was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain. He grew estranged from his parents, King George and Queen C ...
, the eldest son of
George II, and father of
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
.
The young Frederick was sent to
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
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 Governor
Proprietary colonies were a type of colony in English America which existed during the early modern period. In English overseas possessions established from the 17th century onwards, all land in the colonies belonged to the Crown, which held ul ...
ship of the
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...
, 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
Woodcote Park is a Grade II* listed stately home and estate of about near Epsom, Surrey, England, currently owned by the Royal Automobile Club. It was formerly the seat of a number of prominent English families, including the Calvert family, B ...
, in
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
.
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
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, which he was eventually forced to leave after being accused of keeping a private
harem
A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...
. 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
The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
, 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
Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...
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
The Penn–Calvert boundary dispute (also known as ''Penn vs. Baltimore'') was a long-running legal conflict between William Penn and his heirs on one side, and Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and his heirs on the other side. The overlapping ...
.
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.
[Walpole, Horace, p. 278, ''A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland: With Lists of Their Works:'', Vol 5.](_blank)
Retrieved 24 January 2010. They were married at the
Cavendish Square
Cavendish Square is a public square, public garden square in Marylebone in the West End of London. It has a double-helix underground commercial car park. Its northern road forms ends of four streets: of Wigmore Street that runs to Portman Square ...
residence of Lady Rachael the
Duchess of Bridgewater, and the following day they were received by King George II in
St James's
St James's is a district of Westminster, and a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End of London, West End. The area was once part of the northwestern gardens and parks of St. James's Palace and much of ...
.
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".
In 1758, Lady Diana died, "from a hurt she received by a fall out of a
Phaeton carriage", while accompanied by her husband. Although Calvert was suspected of foul play, no charges were brought.
European travels

Calvert's reputation for exotic living spread quickly. On Friday 6 July, 1764, it was reported Calvert sold his house and park, to an undisclosed buyer.
In 1764
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 ( N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, '' Life of Samuel ...
(1740–1795) began his
Grand Tour of Europe, having heard that Baltimore was "living at
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
like a Turk, with his seraglio all around him"."
[Lamb, Susan, p. 47, ''Bringing Travel Home to England: Tourism, Gender, and Imaginative Literature in the Eighteenth Century'', University of Delaware Press, (2009)](_blank)
Retrieved 24 January 2010. 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
Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( ; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenism (neoclassicism), Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Ancient Greek art, Greek, Helleni ...
(1717–1768) described him as being "one of those worn-out beings, a hipped Englishman, who had lost all physical and moral taste".
[Cross, Anthony, p. 344, ''By the Banks of the Neva: Chapters from the Lives and Careers of the British in Eighteenth-Century Russia'', Cambridge University Press (2007)](_blank)
Retrieved 24 January 2010
Such was Calvert's fascination with the
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...
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
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
, "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
Tobias George Smollett (bapt. 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish writer and surgeon. He was best known for writing picaresque novels such as ''The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' ...
'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.
Trial, scandal and decline

In 1768, Calvert was accused of abduction and rape by Sarah Woodcock, a noted beauty who kept a
milliner's shop at
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...
.
He was indicted at
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
Assizes
The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...
, and put on trial,
pleading not guilty by reason of consent.
After deliberating for an hour and twenty minutes the jury acquitted Calvert,
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 willing sexual partners, Sophia Watson, found it opportune to write a salacious autobiography entitled ''Memoirs of the Seraglio of the Bashaw of Merryland, by a Discarded Sultana'' (London, 1768)
[ Flynn, Carolo Houlihan, p. 55, ''The body in Swift and Defoe''](_blank)
Retrieved 26 January 2010 Her readers were left in no doubt as to whom she was referring to, which further harmed Baltimore's reputation.
Sultana Watson offered many intimate details of life in the seraglio, including the predictable, unkind suggestion that Baltimore himself was barely able to satisfy one, let alone eight, mistresses.
Following his acquittal Frederick left England, presumably hoping that his notoriety did not extend to Europe.
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."
Nevertheless, Calvert's brush with the law does not appear to have affected his unconventional living arrangements. Count Maximilian von Lamberg wrote of his travels:
In 1769, my Lord was travelling with eight women, a physician, and two negroes, which he called his ''corregidores,'' who were entrusted with the discipline of his little ''seraglio.'' With the aid of his physician, he conducted odd experiments on his houris: he fed the plump ones only acid foods and the thin ones milk and broth. He arrived at Vienna with the train I have described; when the chief of police requested him to declare which of the eight ladies was his wife, he replied that he was an Englishman, and that when he was called upon to give an account of his sexual arrangements, if he could not settle the matter with his fists, it was his practice to set out instantly on his travels again.[Lamb, Susan, p. 46, ''Bringing Travel Home to England: Tourism, Gender, and Imaginative Literature in the Eighteenth Century'', University of Delaware Press, (2009)](_blank)
Retrieved January 24, 2010.
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, apparently to a wealthy Soho upholsterer.
Death in Naples
Calvert never returned to his native England. His mother, Mary Janssen, died at
Chaillot
Chaillot () is a quarter of Paris, France, located in the 16th arrondissement, on the Right Bank. It is adjacent to Passy to the southwest (administratively part of la Muette) and is bound by Avenue de la Grande-Armée to the north.
It is home ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, on 25 March 1770. He remained on the continent, "constantly moving ... that he might not know where he should be buried",
and it was in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
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
The Exeter Exchange (signed and popularly known as Exeter Change) was a building on the north side of the Strand in London, with an arcade extending partway across the carriageway. It is most famous for the menagerie that occupied its upper fl ...
,
Strand
Strand or The Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* ...
, 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".
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".
He was buried in
Epsom
Epsom is a town in 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 Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
.
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
A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary".
Origin
In the beginning of the Europe ...
of Maryland.
*Frances Mary Harford (1759–1822)
[Russell, George, p. 9,''The Ark and the Dove Adventurers''.](_blank)
Retrieved 28 January 2010 who married William Frederick Wyndham (1763–1828) on 21 July 1784. Their son
George Wyndham
George Wyndham, PC (29 August 1863 – 8 June 1913) was a British Conservative politician, statesman, man of letters, and one of The Souls.
Background and education
Wyndham was the elder son of the Honourable Percy Wyndham, third son of G ...
became the 4th
Earl of Egremont
Earl of Egremont was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1749, along with the subsidiary title Baron Cockermouth, in Cumberland, for Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, with remainder to his nephews Charles Wyndham, 2 ...
.
In 1765, he fathered twin daughters with Elizabeth Dawson of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
, Sophia and Elizabeth Hales.
He had another daughter, Charlotte Hope, born in Hamburg in 1770, with Elizabeth Hope of
Münster
Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...
, 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
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, 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 ...
manwho 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,
Room, Adrian, p. 27, ''Dictionary of World Place Names Derived from British Names''.
Retrieved 6 January 2010 but this remains unproven. The official flag of the State of Maryland
The flag of Maryland is the official flag of the U.S. state of Maryland and the 17th-century heraldic banner of arms of Cecil, 2nd Baron Baltimore. It consists of the arms of his father George, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), quartered wi ...
, 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
Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore, County Longford, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1625 and ended in 1771, upon the death of its sixth-generation male heir, aged 40. Holders of the title were usually known as Lord Baltimo ...
* History of Maryland in the American Revolution
*Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...
Arms
References
*Andrews, Matthew Page, ''History of Maryland'', Doubleday Doran & Co, New York City (1929)
Cross, Anthony, ''By the Banks of the Neva: Chapters from the Lives and Careers of the British in Eighteenth-Century Russia'', Cambridge University Press (2007)
Retrieved 24 January 2010
Flynn, Carolo Houlihan, p. 55, ''The body in Swift and Defoe''
Retrieved 26 January 2010
Lamb, Susan, ''Bringing Travel Home to England: Tourism, Gender, and Imaginative Literature in the Eighteenth Century'', University of Delaware Press, (2009)
Retrieved 24 January 2010
Russell, George, p. 9, ''The Ark and the Dove Adventurers''.
Retrieved 28 January 2010
Shearer, Benjamin F., p. 546, ''The Uniting States: Louisiana to Ohio''.
Retrieved 28 January 2010
Walpole, Horace, p. 278, ''A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland: With Lists of Their Works:'', Vol 5.
Retrieved 24 January 2010
Yentsch, Anne E., p. 262, ''A Chesapeake Family and their Slaves: a Study in Historical Archaeology''.
Retrieved 22 March 2010
External links
Retrieved 24 January 2010
Calvert Family Tree
Retrieved 10 July 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baltimore, Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron
1731 births
1771 deaths
People educated at Eton College
Barons Baltimore
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (6 February 1731 – 4 September 1771), styled The Hon. Frederick Calvert until 1751, was a British landowner who was the last Baron Baltimore. Although he exercised almost feudal power in the Province of ...
English expatriates in Italy
English expatriates in the Ottoman Empire
Fellows of the Royal Society
People acquitted of rape