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33-550: Charles Grahame , for whom the home is named, was associated with Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore , through Grahame's brother, David Grahame (who married Calvert's cousin, Charlotte Hyde), and with Thomas Johnson , the first elected governor of the State of Maryland, through Grahame's son (who married Johnson's daughter). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. This article about

66-540: A Registered Historic Place in Calvert County , Maryland is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore (6 February 1731 – 4 September 1771), styled The Hon. Frederick Calvert until 1751, was an English nobleman and last in line of the Barons Baltimore . Although he exercised almost feudal power in

99-529: 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. Calvert's reputation for exotic living spread quickly. 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

132-571: 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

165-698: 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 . Calvert's inheritance coincided with a period of rising discontent in Maryland, amid growing demands by

198-428: Is named after the last Baron Baltimore, but this remains unproven. The official flag of the State of Maryland , uniquely among the 50 states, bears witness to his family legacy. [REDACTED] Media related to Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore at Wikimedia Commons Horatio Sharpe Horatio Sharpe (1718 – November 9, 1790) was the 22nd proprietary governor of Maryland from 1753 to 1768 under

231-624: Is named explicitly in the Maryland Confiscation Act of 1780. He was encouraged by the new state of Maryland to return from England to Maryland and reclaim his lands. Barring that, he was permitted to sell or dispose of all his Maryland properties. Sharpe sold or gave his Maryland properties to his long-time secretary, John Ridout, who had stayed in Maryland during the Revolutionary War to protect his former employer's property. Sir Robert Eden , 1st Baronet (1741–1784)

264-463: 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

297-521: 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

330-703: The restored proprietary government of Maryland . Horatio Sharpe was born in Hull, Yorkshire , England in 1718 to parents William Sharpe Sr. and Margaret Beake, of Beak Street, Piccadilly in London and Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was one of 16 children, of whom nine brothers and four sisters survived their father. Sharpe's older brothers were William, John, Nicholas, Joshua, Thomas, Charles, Gregory, and Philip Sharpe. His four sisters were Mary, Elizabeth, Gulielma-Maria, and Anne. His brother Gregory Sharpe (1713–1771)

363-654: The Jacobites. He served with the 20th Regiment of Foot and the Marines . Later, he is found in the West Indies as a Lieutenant-Colonel . He served until his appointment by Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore as the proprietary Maryland colonial governor. (Following Samuel Ogle , who had died.) Horatio Sharpe was the brother of Lord Baltimore's guardian (William). He arrived in Maryland in August 1753. Appointed by

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396-702: The King in 1754 as the Royal Commander in Chief of all British Forces and commander of colonial forces for the protection of Virginia and adjoining Colonies, Sharpe was superseded by the arrival of Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock in 1755. Before Sharpe's service, Colonel James Innes had commanded all provincial soldiers. He was a capable civil and military administrator, gentleman-farmer, enslaver, horse collector, hospitable host, and friend of George Mason and George Washington . Horatio Sharpe also built Whitehall on

429-612: 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. Calvert

462-702: The continent, "constantly moving ... that he might not know where he should be buried", and it was in Naples 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 , Strand , 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

495-472: 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

528-498: The end of the long-running Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute . 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. 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

561-465: 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

594-493: The interior of the house "tawdry" and "ridiculous" in the "French" style. In 1768, Calvert was accused of abduction and rape by Sarah Woodcock, a noted beauty who kept a milliner 's shop at Tower Hill . He was indicted at Kingston Assizes , 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

627-625: 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

660-413: The matter with his fists, it was his practice to set out instantly on his travels again. 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. Calvert never returned to his native England. His mother, Mary Janssen, died at Chaillot , Paris , on 25 March 1770. He remained on

693-503: The outskirts of Annapolis (Whitehall Road, Skidmore, Anne Arundel County ). Now a National Historic Landmark , Whitehall was designed by Joseph Horatio Anderson , who was also the architect of the Maryland State House . It served as Sharpe's residence from his enforced retirement in 1769 until his return to England in 1773. Between 1760 and 1765, according to a 1912 biography, "The governor spent as much of his time as

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726-916: 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 , Surrey . 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: In 1765, he fathered twin daughters with Elizabeth Dawson of Lincolnshire , Sophia and Elizabeth Hales. He had another daughter, Charlotte Hope, born in Hamburg in 1770, with Elizabeth Hope of Münster , Germany. 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

759-487: 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. 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

792-490: 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 '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

825-553: 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

858-523: 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) 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

891-715: 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. 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 , "deserved no more to be published than his bills on

924-566: Was appointed Master of the Temple in 1763 and was chaplain to George III. His brother William Sharpe of Brocklee Hill, Elstree in Hertfordshire (b. abt 1696 – d. 1767) was clerk of the council. His brother John Sharpe Esq. of Lincoln's Inn (abt 1700–1756) was Solicitor to the Treasury. He was commissioned in the King's forces in 1745 as a captain and fought in the Jacobite rising against

957-468: 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 (1717–1768) described him as being "one of those worn-out beings, a hipped Englishman, who had lost all physical and moral taste". Such

990-417: 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

1023-399: 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". Posterity has been little kinder to his reputation. Some have said that Frederick County , Maryland,

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1056-475: Was possible at Whitehall, amusing himself with his favourite pursuit of farming", with most of the labor provided by enslaved people : No kinder master could be found, and his large retinue of negro slaves and indentured white servants were supremely happy. The duty of looking after the welfare and comfort of those under him was faithfully discharged. He returned to England to attend to family matters in 1773 and remained there until he died in 1790. Horatio Sharpe

1089-486: Was sent to Eton College to be educated, where he acquired some proficiency in the classics. Calvert had two sisters, Caroline Calvert, born about 1745, and Louisa Calvert. 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

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