USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Volume II > Part 58
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Lord Baltimore had long been interested in colonization schemes in Ameri- ca, having been a member of the second Virginia Company in 1609, and one of the provisional council for the management of the affairs of that colony af- ter the revocation of the charter. He was one of the eighteen councilors of New England in 1622. In 1620 he purchased a plantation on the island of Newfoundland, which he called Avalon, to which he sent out a number of colonists with implements and supplies under charge of one Captain Wynne, and in 1622 received a grant of the whole island, which however, was super- seded in 1623 by a re-grant which by royal charter erected the southeastern peninsula of the island into the Province of Avalon, over which Calvert was given a palatinate with quasi-royal authority. In June, 1627, Lord Baltimore paid a visit to Newfoundland, and in the following year brought over his wife and family, with the exception of his eldest son Cecilius. The climate not proving agreeable to Lady Calvert, she sailed for Jamestown, Virginia, in 1628,
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and he wrote the Privy Council asking for a grant of land in Virginia, and fol- lowed her in October, 1629, but being coldly received by reason of his religion, returned to England, and pressed his claims for a grant, to which the king ac- ceded, granting him a tract of land between the James and Chowan rivers, which he called Carolina, in honor of King Charles I, who had succeeded his father in 1625, and with whom Lord Baltimore was in high favor though the baronet declined to retain a seat in his Privy Council.
The grant of Carolina being objected to by the Virginia Company, and it being thought desirous to colonize the territory lying between Virginia and the Dutch settlements on the Delaware, he surrendered his grant, and received in its stead the grant of the present State of Maryland. He, however, died April 15, 1632, before his patent therefor had passed the great seal.
The will of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, dated April 14, 1632, was proved April 21, 1632. Having transferred to his "noble and antient ffriends Lord Viscount Wentworth and the Lord Cottinton," whom he also names as overseers of his will, a large fund in trust for the use of his surviv- ing younger children, he devised all his "lands, goods and chattels of what na- ture soever" to his "eldest sonne Cicill Calvert", charging him with the pay- ment of his debts and certain specific legacies to some of these younger chil- dren, to his servants, and a legacy of twenty pounds "to be disposed of at the discrecon of my Executor and sonne Ci Calvert because he knoweth the par- ties, amongst my kindred att Kiplie in the North."
Lord Baltimore married (first) about 1604, Anne, daughter of John Mynne, Esquire, of Mertingfordbury, by his wife Elizabeth Wroth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wroth, of Durance, in Enfield, County Middlesex, Knight. She died August 8, 1622, leaving him ten children, seven of whom survived him, viz: Cecilius, second Lord Baltimore; Leonard, second son, who was made gover- nor of Maryland by his elder brother, Lord Baltimore, in 1633, and arrived there in February, 1634, holding the office of governor until his death at St. Mary's, Maryland, June 9, 1647; George Calvert, who accompanied his brother Leonard to Maryland, and died soon after his arrival; Henry, who died un- married at sea, in 1635; Ann, who married William Peaely, of London, Eng- land, prior to the death of her father; Grace, who married Sir Robert Talbot, a kinsman of the earl of Tyrconnel; and Helen, unmarried at the death of her father ; all are mentioned in his will.
Lord Baltimore, by his second wife Joane, whom he also survived, had one son, Philip Calvert, who was appointed by his half-brother, Lord Baltimore, in 1660, Secretary of Maryland, and was commissioned Deputy Governor by his nephew, Charles Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, 1669-71.
CECILIUS CALVERT, (or Cecil Calvert, as he is generally known and as he is named in his father's will), eldest son of Sir George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, and his first wife Anne Mynne, inherited the honors and estates of his father and became second Lord Baltimore. He was born about the year 1606, and entered Trinity College Oxford in 1621. In June, 1632, two months after the death of his father, the charter for the Province of Maryland, promised to his fath- er, was issued to him, making him and his successors absolute lords of the province, and in the following year he appointed and sent out his next young- er brother, Leonard Calvert, as first Governor of Maryland. He also sent out
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colonists and successfully promoted the interests of the colony, so that at his death on November 30, 1675, the little settlement of 300 colonists "sheltered in Indian wigwams at the mouth of St. Mary's River," at the time of the grant to him had increased to 16,000 or 20,000 souls, and ten counties had been or- ganized with complete civil and military organization. He was a member of Parliament in 1634, and continued to reside in England until his death. His brother Leonard, just prior to his death in 1647, named Thomas Greene a member of his council, as his successor as governor ; he was succeeded by Wil- liam Stone in 1648, and the latter by Josias Fendall in 1658, who ruled until 1661, when Charles Calvert, eldest son of Cecil, Lord Baltimore became gov- ernor and filled that position until he became third Lord Baltimore by the death of his father in 1675.
Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, married, in 1629, Anne, daughter of Thomas, Lord Arundel, of Wardour, and his second wife, Anne, daughter of Miles Philipson, of Crooke, Westmoreland. They had at least two children- a daughter, and Sir Charles Calvert, of whom presently.
CHARLES CALVERT, third Lord Baltimore, was born in 1630. He came to Maryland as its governor by appointment of his father in 1661, and remained until the death of his father, in 1675. Returning to England in 1676, he named his infant son Cecil Calvert as governor, his uncle Philip Calvert serving as deputy governor. He remained but a short time in England however, and on his return to Maryland resumed the governorship. In 1684 he again returned to England to look after his interest in the dispute with William Penn over the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and did not again return to his province, dying February 20, 1714-15. On his departure for England in 1684 he named his son, Benedict Leonard Calvert, as governor, (his eldest son Cecil having died a minor before this date) vesting the actual governing power in a board of deputies, of which his kinsman George Talbot was presi- dent. Talbot proved an unwise and indiscreet ruler, and an insurrection was raised by the Protestants of Maryland, the Council was forced to surrender the government, and, through petition of the disaffected colonists, William of Orange, in 1691, appointed Sir Lionel Copley royal governor, and the author- ity of the Lords Baltimore was reduced from absolute lords to that of Pro- prietaries.
Sir Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, married (first) Jane (Lowe) Sewall, daughter of Vincent Lowe, and widow of Henry Sewall, one time Secretary of the Province of Maryland. He married twice later, but the names of his wives are unknown. Honorable Charles Calvert, Governor of Mary- land, 1720-27, is said to have been his son by one of these later marriages.
BENEDICT LEONARD CALVERT, fourth Lord Baltimore, was born in Mary- land, January 1678-9, and died in England, April 5, 1715, less than two months after the death of his father. Though named as Governor of Maryland at the departure of his father for England in 1684, when an infant in his sixth year, the family did not long remain in America, and practically his whole life was spent in England. He married, January 2, 1698-9, Lady Charlotte Lee, eldest daughter of Edward Henry, first Earl of Litchfield, and granddaughter of Charles II, King of England, through her mother, Lady Charlotte Fitzroy. He was elected to Parliament for Warwick, Essex, in 1715, and succeeded to
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the titles and estates of his father in the same year. In 1713 he renounced the Catholic faith and became a member of the Church of England, at which his father was much displeased and entirely cut off his allowance, whereupon he appealed to Queen Anne, who granted him a pension of £300 per annum dur- ing his father's lifetime. At his request the Queen appointed John Hart, Gov- ernor of Maryland, and Hart allowed him £500 per annum out of the emolu- ments.
Benedict Leonard, fourth Lord Baltimore, and his wife, Lady Charlotte Lee, had four sons: Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore; Benedict Leonard Cal- vert, born 1700, member of Parliament for Harwich, Essex, 1726, came to Maryland as its governor in 1727, resigned on account of ill health and died on his return voyage to England, June 1, 1732; Edward Henry, born Au- gust 31, 1701, died in Maryland, May, 1730, having been appointed commis- sary general of that Province, February 1I, 1728, and member of Council on June 19, same year, married, but left no issue; and Cecilius Calvert, born No- vember 1702, died without issue, 1765, who was appointed Secretary of Mary- land by his brother Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore, January 1729-30, and re- appointed by his nephew Frederick, sixth Lord Baltimore on his accession to the title in 1751, but continued to reside in England.
CHARLES CALVERT, fifth Lord Baltimore, was born September 29, 1699, and died April 24, 1751. He succeeded to the titles and estates of his father in 1715, including the proprietorship of the Province of Maryland, and, being a Protestant, on his accession the government was restored to him with the abso- Inte powers contained in the original charter granted to his great-grandfather, after an abeyance of twenty-three years. John Hart continued as governor un- til 1720, when he was succeeded by Captain Charles Calvert, uncle to Lord Baltimore, who was in like manner succeeded by Benedict Leonard Calvert, brother of the Lord.
Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore, was several years a member of Par- liament, was a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1741 he was appointed Lord of the Admiralty, and in 1747 Cofferer to the Prince of Wales and Surveyor General of the Prince's lands in Cornwall. His principal residence was Wood- cote, in the county of Surrey, and his London residence, Roselyn House, corner of Russell Square and Guildford Street, where he died April 24, 1751. He married, July 20, 1730, Mary, daughter of Sir Theodore Jansen, Baronet, of Wimbledom, County Surrey, a director of East India and South Sea Com- panies, and a member of Parliament from Yarmouth, by his wife Williamza, daugther of Sir Robert Henley, of The Grange, Hampshire. Lady Baltimore died September 22, 1748. They had at least five children: Frederick Calvert, sixth Lord Baltimore, born February 6, 1731-2, died September 14, 1771, without lawful issue, whereby the title of Lord Baltimore became extinct; Dorothy Calvert, died young; Louisa, became the wife of John Browning, Esq .; Caroline, married Robert Eden, Governor of Maryland, 1769-76, last Colonial Governor of the Province; and Benedict Calvert, of whom presently.
BENEDICT CALVERT, son of Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore, was sent to Mary- land by his father when quite a youth, in charge of a tutor, Onorio Razolini, and through his father's influence was appointed by the Commissioners of Cns- toms, November 16, 1744, Collector of Customs at Patuxet, and he qualified
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before Governor Bladen at Annapolis, July 19, 1745. He married, April 21, 1748, his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Charles Calvert, then deceased, who had been Governor of Maryland under his nephew, Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore, and his wife, Rebecca Gerard. This Charles Calvert is said to have been a son of Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, by his second or third wife. In May, 1720, when Lord Guildford, as guardian for Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore, petitioned the King and Council for the removal of John Hart as governor and for permission to appoint Charles Calvert governor in his stead, he was a captain in the First Regiment of Foot Guards. The petition was granted, and Captain Charles Calvert came to Maryland with a commis- sion as governor and presided over the Assembly in October, 1720. He con- tinued in office until 1727, when Benedict Leonard Calvert became governor as before stated. He was then appointed Commissary General of Maryland, in which office he was superseded by Edward Henry Calvert, another brother of Lord Baltimore, but was reappointed on the death of the latter in 1730 and served until his death in 1733. He married, November 21, 1722, Rebecca Ger- ard, who died in 1735, daughter of John and Elizabeth Gerard, of Prince George's County, Maryland, and Elizabeth was their only surviving child at the date of her marriage to Benedict Calvert in 1748.
A number of original letters are still among the Calvert papers, written by Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore, to his son, and by the latter in return to his father. In one of these letters from his father dated February 18, 1745- 6, Benedict Calvert is directed to take possession of "some Lands and Negroes with all ye Stocks of What kind soever which Samuel Hyde has transferred to me this day * * * and as I design this for you you will take Immedi- ate Possession of them." These lands comprised two plantations in Prince George's County, Maryland, one of 6700 acres and the other of 2500 acres, which were later sold by Lord Baltimore and eventually purchased by Bene- dict Calvert "by deed dated June 3, 1751. They included the estate later known as Mt. Airy", the home of Benedict Calvert, and of his descendants for three generations, possessed by the family until 1903. The original deed is in pos- session of the subject of this sketch, John Calvert, of Philadelphia. They were devised by the will of Benedict Calvert to his son, Edward Henry Calvert. Benedict Calvert acquired numerous other tracts of land, wharves, warehouses, a fifth interest in Hampton Furnace in Frederick County, etc. These lands and estates were divided by his will among his children, his second surviving son, George Calvert, inheriting Cool Spring Manor and several other tracts in Maryland, and a lot and warehouse in the town of Upper Marlboro; the third surviving son, John, several tracts and two lots in the town of Bladensburg, and the youngest son, William, several tracts in Frederick County, and the tes- tator's interest in "The Hermitage".
Benedict Calvert died at Mt. Airy, his seat in Prince George's County, Mary- land, January 1788. His death is thus noted in the Maryland Journal and Ad- vertiser, for Tuesday, January 15, 1788; "A few days ago died at an ad- vanced age at his seat in Prince George's County, in this State the Hon. Ben- edict Calvert Esq .- a Gentleman whose benevolence of Heart and many other exalted virtues endeared him to his Relations and a numerous and respectable Acquaintance, who have sustained an irreparable Loss by his Death." He was buried under the chancel of St. Thomas's Church, at Croom, Prince George's County. His widow Elizabeth survived him until July, 1798.
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They had thirteen children, five of whom died in infancy or childhood, and four others, including his eldest son Charles and younger sons, John and Wil- liam, died unmarried. The eldest surviving daughter, Eleanor Calvert, mar- ried (first) John Parke Custis, son of Martha Washington by her first hus- band, and (second) Dr. David Stuart, and Elizabeth, the third daughter, mar- ried Dr. Charles Stuart. George Calvert, the second surviving son (1768-1838) married Rosale Eugenia Stier, and has left numerous descendants; his eldest child, Caroline Maria Calvert, married Thomas Willing Morris, of Philadel- phia, and had one son and one daughter who survived childhood. Charles Cal- vert, the eldest son, died in 1777, at the age of twenty-one years, in England, where he had been sent to be educated.
EDWARD HENRY CALVERT, eldest son of Benedict and Elizabeth (Calvert) Calvert, was born November 7, 1766, and died at "Mt. Airy", the old family seat in Prince George's County, Maryland, which he had inherited at the death of his father, July 12, 1846. He married, March 1, 1796, Elizabeth Biscoe, born October 9, 1780, died March 26, 1857, daughter of George and Araminto (Thompson) Biscoe, and granddaughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Bennett) Biscoe. They had thirteen children, but three of whom have left surviving issue, viz: three sons-George (1798-1845) ; John (1809-69) and William B. Calvert (1813-76).
JOHN CALVERT, seventh child of Edward Henry and Elizabeth (Biscoe ) Cal- vert, was born in the old family mansion at "Mt. Airy", Prince George's Coun- ty, Maryland, January 8, 1809, and died March 9, 1869. He married, June I, 1854, Julia Stockton Rush, born in Philadelphia, July 21, 1826, died January 20, 1858, daughter of Hon. Richard Rush, and granddaughter of Dr. Benja- min Rush.
DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, one of the most distinguished physicians and schol- ars of Philadelphia, noted for famous physicians, has produced, came of a family among the earliest English settlers in the vicinity of Philadelphia, where he was born December 24, 1745. He graduated at the College of New Jersey now Princeton University, in his sixteenth year, and choosing the medical pro- fession, devoted the next six years to the study of medicine in Philadelphia for nearly six years with Dr. John Redman and others as preceptors, and then went abroad and studied at Edinburgh, later at Paris and London hospitals, being assisted and encouraged in his foreign studies by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He returned to Philadelphia in 1769, bringing with him chemical apparatus for the newly founded Medical College, presented by Thomas Penn, and assumed the duties of Professor of Chemistry in the new college, to which position .he had been appointed in his absence.
Dr. Rush was an assiduous and critical student, supplementing his earliest medical studies by studying and translating the works of Hippocrates. He early entered upon authorship both on medical and scientific subjects and politics. While in England he was a member of a debating club, and eloquently defended the rights of the American Colonies in reference to the recent Stamp Act, when this subject came up for discussion. One of his early literary efforts was an oration delivered before the American Philosophical Society, on the history of medicine among the American Indians, with a comparison of their diseases and remedies with those of civilized nations, and a discussion of the evils resulting
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from intemperate use of ardent spirits, then an entirely new subject. With the stirring incidents connected with the early struggle for independence he was closely identified. When the Pennsylvania delegation in the Continental Congress failed to vote for the Declaration of Independence on its first coming to a vote on Lee's resolution, he was not yet qualified as a member, but took his seat in time to vote on its final adoption and was one of its signers. In 1777 he was ap- pointed Physician-general of the military hospitals for the middle department of the Continental Army. He wrote a series of papers on the constitution of Penn- sylvania, and was a member of the convention that ratified the Federal Constitu- tion. He founded the Philadelphia Dispensary in 1785, the first in the United States, and was one of the most active in founding the College of Physicians in 1787. In 1789 he became Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Philadelphia Medical College, and in 1790, when that college was united with the University of Pennsylvania, he took the chair of Institutes of Medicine and Clinical Practice, to which was added the professorship of Practice of Physic in 1796. As a lecturer he was very popular, uniting with great fluency of expres- sion a profound knowledge of all subjects relating to his profession. He con- tributed largely to medical literature of his day. As a physician and surgeon he was eminently successful. He was especially successful in his treatment of yel- low fever during the plagues of that disease in Philadelphia in 1793-94, adopting a heroic treatment of purging and bleeding, sometimes attending over one hun- dred patients per diem, his labors being so unremitting that he sometimes fainted in the street. After the close of the epidemic he wrote a history of it in his series of publications, which reached several volumes, entitled "Medical Inquir- ies and Observations", which reached several editions at home and abroad. He was for many years one of the physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital; was treasurer of the United States Mint, from 1779 to his death on April 19, 1813, and filled many other positions of trust in the midst of a busy professional life.
Dr. Rush married Julia, daughter of Richard Stockton, the eminent New Jer- sey patriot, member of the Continental Congress, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, etc., and left two distinguished sons-Dr. James Rush, 1786-1869, hardly less distinguished than his father as a physician and medical writer, and Hon. Richard Rush.
Richard Rush, son of Dr. Benjamin and Julia (Stockton) Rush was born in Philadelphia, in 1780. He graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1797, stud- ied law, and was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1800. He defended William Duane, editor of the Aurora, in his trial for libel on Governor Thomas Mckean, with such ability as to give him quite a reputation as a lawyer. He however gave much attention to political matters and wrote a number of treatises on different subjects. He was made Attorney-General of Pennsylvania in 1811, but re- signed in the same year to accept the position of Comptroller of the United States Treasury, which he filled until appointed Attorney General of the United States in 1814, a position he filled for three years, serving some time in 1817 as Secre- tary of State in the cabinet of President Monroe, as well. He then became United States Minister to England, remaining at the Court of St. James until recalled by John Quincy Adams in 1825. to serve in his cabinet as Secretary of the Treas- ury. He was candidate for vice-president of the United States with Adams in 1828, but was closely associated with the new administration under Jackson, be-
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ing appointed on a number of commissions to negotiate loans, establish State lines, etc., and in 1836 was sent to England by President Jackson to secure the legacy of James Smithson for establishing the Smithsonian Institution, in which he was successful. In 1847 he was appointed by President Polk, Minister to France, and was the first of the foreign ministers at Paris to recognize the French Republic in 1848. He resigned in 1849, and, returning to Philadelphia, gave the remainder of his days to private and literary pursuits. He died at Sydenham, his country seat, near Philadelphia, July 30, 1859. Among his published works, are "Laws of the United States", 1815; "Memoranda of a Residence at the Court of St. James", 1833; "Incidents, Official and Personal, from 1819 to 1825"; a second volume on the same theme in 1845; "Washington in Domestic Life", 1857, etc. A number of his earlier papers on political subjects were published after his death under the title of "Occasional Productions of Rich- ard Rush."
Hon. Richard Rush married, August 29, 1809, Catharine Eliza Murray, of Anne Arundel county, Maryland, and they were the parents of Julia Stockton Rush, who married John Calvert above mentioned.
John and Julia Stockton (Rush) Calvert had two sons-John Calvert, the subject of this sketch; and Madison Rush Calvert, born January 12, 1858, married (first) August 4, 1881, Josephine R. Wheeler, (second) Margaret Agnes Mahoney.
JOHN CALVERT, eldest son of John and Julia Stockton (Rush) Calvert, was born in Washington, D. C., March 9, 1855. He graduated at Lehigh Univer- sity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the class of 1876, as a civil engineer, and the following year entered the employ of the prominent shipbuilding firm of Peter Wright & Sons. He was later connected with the publishing firm of J. B. Lippincott & Company, and finally with the Pennsylvania Company for In- surance on Lives and Granting Annuities, until 1905, when he engaged in the general real estate business in Philadelphia, in which he has since been en- gaged. He is a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity; of the Rittenhouse and University Barge Clubs; of the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution ; and of the Society of Descendants of The Signers, holding the office of Gov- ernor for Pennsylvania in the latter society.
John Calvert married, October 26, 1881, Victoria Baltzell Elliott, daughter of Jacob Thomas Elliott and his wife, Victoria Baltzell, and they have one child, Cecilius Baltimore Calvert, born September II, 1882, who graduated at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1905, and is a mem- ber of the St. Anthony and Philadelphia Country Clubs, and of the Delta Psi fraternity. He is in partnership with his father in the real estate business.
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