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 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. 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, 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 from 1742 to 1748, where he acquired some proficiency in the classics. Calvert had two sisters, Caroline Calvert, born about 1745, and Louisa Calvert.

Adulthood and inheritance

left|thumb|Frederick Calvert, 6th Lord Baltimore

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.

He had a mutually flattering correspondence in Latin with Carl Linnaeus, and once visited him in Uppsala during his European travels; both were fellows of the Royal Society of London.

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, which 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. They were married at the Cavendish Square residence of Lady Rachael the Duchess of Bridgewater, and the following day they were received by King George II in St James's.

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 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".

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.

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. Her readers were left in no doubt as to whom she was referring to, which further harmed Baltimore's reputation.</blockquote>

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, Paris, on 25 March 1770. He remained on the continent, "constantly moving ... that he might not know where he should be buried",

He was buried in Epsom, Surrey. 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. 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

thumb|Coat of Arms of the Barons Baltimore

thumb|Official flag of the State of Maryland

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". 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).