First Name:  Last Name: 
[Advanced Search]  [Surnames]

Fourth Lord Baltimore Benedict Leonard CALVERT

Male 1679 - 1715  (36 years)


Personal Information    |    PDF

  • Name Benedict Leonard CALVERT 
    Title Fourth Lord Baltimore 
    Birth 21 Mar 1679 
    Gender Male 
    Will 15 Aug 1713 
    Death 16 Apr 1715  Epsom, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Probate 2 May 1716  Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Burial Epsom, Surrey, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • (1) thePeerage.com:

      Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore was born on 21 March 1679. He was the son of Maj.-Gen. Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and Jane Lowe. He married Lady Charlotte Lee, daughter of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield and Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, on 2 January 1698/99. He and Lady Charlotte Lee were separated in 1705. He died on 16 April 1715 at age 36. He was buried on 2 May 1715 at Epsom, Surrey, England. His will (dated 15 August 1713) was probated on 2 May 1716.

      In 1705 he sold Woodstock Park (from his wife) to the Crown as a gift for the Duke of Marlborough. In 1713 he conformed to the established church, and had the province of Maryland restored to him. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) (Tory) for Harwich from 1714 to 1715. He succeeded to the title of 4th Baron Baltimore, of Baltimore [I., 1625] on 21 February 1714/15.

      (2) Maryland Marriages and Genealogies, 1634-1820, Maryland Genealogies, Volume 1, The Calvert Pedigree, Page 132, © The Generations Network, February 22, 2009:

      THE CALVERT PEDIGREE

      (In Vol. I, p. 276 of the Maryland Historical Magazine mention is made of a pedigree drawn up by Benedict Leonard Calvert for the antiquary Thomas Hearne, and published in his Diary. As there have been many erroneous statements about the family, it is here reproduced.)

      This Pedigree was drawn up and written (with his own Hand) by the Honble Benedict Leonard Calvert, Esq., who gave it to me on Mond. Sept 1, MDCCXVIII. Tho. Hearne.

      [Note by compiler: The following portion of this pedigree, which is chart form, has been reformatted by the compiler so that it can be included here.]

      Bendict Leonard, Lord Baltemore, born March 21, 1679, died Apr. 16, 1715, aged 37. And was buried att Epsome in Surry. Married Jan. 2d 1698-9 to Charlotte daughter to Edward Henry Earl of Litchfield, etc., and Charlotte his wife daughter of K. Charles IId of by Barbara, Dutchess of Cleveland.

      [Children:]

      [i.] Charles, Eldest, now Lord Baltemore. Unmarried. Born Sept. 29, 1699.

      [ii.] Benedict Leonard, born Sept. 20, 1700. Now of Xt church, Oxon. Unmarried.

      [iii.] Charlott [twin of Cecil, below], Married to Mr. Brerewood.

      [iv.] Cecil, twin with his Eldest Sister, Charlott. Born Nov. 1702.

      [v.] Jane born Nov. 1703. Unmarried.

      [vi.] Barbara born Oct. 1704. Unmarried.

      (3) Nicklin, John Bailey Calvert, "The Calvert Family," in Maryland Marriages and Genealogies, 1634-1820, Maryland Genealogies, Vol. 1, The Calvert Family, p. 140, © The Generations Network, February 20, 2009:

      BENEDICT LEONARD CALVERT . . . , fourth Lord Baltimore; b. March 21, 1679; d. April 16 (buried May 2), 1715, at Epson in Surrey. He was a Member of Parliament in 1714-5 and married, Jan. 2, 1698, Lady Charlotte Lee (who was divorced in 1705), dau. of Edward Henry Lee (1663-1716, Earl of Lichfield, by his wife, the Lady Charlotte FitzRoy, a daughter of King Charles II., by Barbara (Villiers) Palmer (1640-1709), Countess of Castlemain, Duchess of Cleveland, etc. After the death of Lord Baltimore she married secondly, Dec. 6, 1719, Christopher Crewe and, dying Jan. 21, 1721, was buried at Woodford in Essex.

      ISSUE: . . .

      i. CHARLES, b. Sept. 29, 1699 (of whom later), fifth Lord Baltimore.

      ii. Benedict Leonard, b. Sept. 20, 1700; d. u. June 1, 1732. In 1726 he was a member of Parliament for Harwich and later (1727) Governor of Maryland. While returning to England he died and was buried at sea.

      iii. Edward Henry, b. Aug. 31, 1701; d. 1730; m. Margaret Lee, who survived him and m. (2.), October 13, 1751, James Fitzgerald, Esq. Edward Henry Calvert was Commissary General of Maryland in 1728.

      iv. Cecelius, b. Nov. 6, 1702; d. u. 1765. He was Secretary of the Province and managed the affairs of His Lordship.

      v. Charlotte, b. Nov. 6, 1702; d. 1744; m. Thomas Brerewood, Esq. . . .

      vi. Jane, b. Nov. 19, 1703; d. _____, m. May 4, 1720, John Hyde, of Kingston Lisle, in Berkshire, Esq. They had two sons, John and Henry Hyde.

      vii. Barbara, b. Oct. 3, 1704; d.i.

      viii. Anne.

      (4) Faris, David, Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996, p. 50:

      BENEDICT LEONARD CALVERT, 4th Lord Baltimore, second but first surviving son and heir, by second marriage, born 21 Mar. 1678/9; conformed to the established church in 1713, and thereupon had the province of Maryland restored to him; M.P. (Tory) for Harwich 1714-15; died testate at Epsom, Surrey, 16 Apr. 1715; married 2 Jan. 1698/9 CHARLOTTE LEE, born at St. James's Park, 13 Mar. 1678, died 22 Jan. 1720/1 (M.I.), daughter of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield, by Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, base-daughter of Charles II of England, King of England. Issue.

      (5) Bibbins, Mrs. Arthur Barneveld, The Beginnings of Maryland in England and America, Baltimore, MD: Norman Remington Co., 1934, pp. 39-40:

      She was considered "superb" by MacCauley-the beautiful Barbara Palmer, whose connection with Charles II in a day when such alliances were the custom brought the royal blood of the Stuarts, a generation later, into the Calvert family Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, one of those legendary women for whom even staid historians seek out, now and then, an ecstatic adjective or two.

      It was Lady Charlotte Lee, granddaughter of the Duchess and King Charles, who married Benedict Calvert in 1698. Whether by coincidence or by benefit of the Stuart blood, it is certain Benedict's son and grandson, the fifth and sixth Lords Baltimore, were extremely gallant, were more carefree than their forefathers, and were sought after in the gayest of gay European courts. They possessed charm of personality and held high offices and the friendship of those close to the throne.

      Benedict Leonard Calvert, husband of Charlotte, succeeded to the title of Lord Baltimore upon the death of his father, Charles, in 1715, but as his own death occurred the same year, he held it for a few months only. It was Benedict who, in 1713, paved the way for the restoration of Maryland's proprietary government, for he renounced Catholicism, attaching himself to the Church of England. A generation later this helped his son Charles to restore the proprietary government.

      Divorced in 1705

      As proprietary, however, there is no record of Benedict's acts, because of his death soon after accession to the title. In the scant personal data concerning him, the date of his birth is set at about 1679, as his father had written a letter in July of that year stating that Benedict-who must have been a very, very young nobleman at that time-had not yet cut his teeth.

      The records of his marriage to Lady Charlotte Lee, moreover, are confined to curt facts-they were divorced in 1705 after she had borne him seven children. According to John Calvert, of Philadelphia, Benedict Leonard was married twice after his divorce. The records of children by these subsequent marriages are not at hand. The son of Benedict and Lady Charlotte, Charles, fifth Baron Baltimore, succeeded to the title on the death of his father on April 5, 1715, and perhaps the chief event, so far as concerns Maryland, during his lifetime was that the proprietary government was restored.

      (6) The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk>:

      Description: Will of Benedict Leonard Calvert
      Date [Proved]: 02 May 1716
      Catalogue reference: PROB 11/552
      Dept: Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
      Series: Prerogative Court of Canterbury and related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers
      Piece: Name of Register: Fox Quire Numbers: 88 - 133
      Image contains: 1 will of many for the catalogue reference
    Person ID I18299  Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
    Last Modified 26 Mar 2024 

    Father Third Lord Baltimore Charles CALVERT,   b. 27 Aug 1637   d. 20 Feb 1715 (Age 77 years) 
    Mother Jane LOWE,   b. Bef 14 Oct 1633, Denby, Derby, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1701 (Age > 67 years) 
    Marriage 1666 
    Family ID F8166  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Lady Charlotte LEE,   b. Bef 13 Mar 1680, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage 2 Jan 1699 
    Divorce 1705 
    Children 
     1. Fifth Lord Baltimore Charles CALVERT, II,   b. 29 Sep 1699   d. 24 Apr 1751 (Age 51 years)
    Family ID F8194  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Mar 2024