Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore

Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (21 March 1679 – 16 April 1715) was a British colonial administrator and politician who represented Harwich in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1714 to 1715. He was the second son of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and Jane Lowe, and became his father's heir upon the death of his elder brother Cecil in 1681.

The 3rd Lord Baltimore was a devout Roman Catholic, and had lost his title to the Province of Maryland shortly after the events of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, when the Protestant monarchs William III and Mary II acceded to the British throne. Benedict Calvert made strenuous attempts to have his family's title to Maryland restored by renouncing Roman Catholicism and joining the Church of England.

In February 1715, Benedict became the 4th Baron Baltimore upon the death of his father, and he immediately petitioned King George I for the restoration of Maryland to his control. However, before the King could rule on the petition, Baltimore died aged 36, outliving his father by just two months. Shortly afterwards the King restored the title to Maryland to Calvert's young son Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore.

Early life and exile

Benedict Calvert served as Governor of Maryland on behalf of his father from 1684 to 1688. Since he was just five years old at the time, this appointment was a purely honorary one, with the real work of governorship being carried out by his deputy, Henry Darnall.

The couple had seven children, all of whom were raised in the Catholic faith, but the union was not a happy one, and the couple separated in 1705. Towards the end of 1713 he began to make overtures to Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, informing Oxford of his: inclinations...to embrace the Protestant religion, which I have become hitherto deterred from by the apprehensions that my father would withdraw my sustinance.

On 1 August 1714 Queen Anne died, leaving the Calverts with a new king and a new court to persuade of the merits of their family's claim to Maryland.

Petition to George I On 2 February 1715 Calvert reaffirmed his devotion to the Anglican faith and proclaimed his loyalty to the new Protestant king George I. Two weeks later the old Lord Baltimore died, aged 78, and Benedict succeeded him to become the 4th Baron Baltimore, immediately petitioning King George I for the restoration of Maryland to his control. However, before the King could rule on the petition, Baltimore himself died, outliving his father by just two months. Barbara Calvert (1704–1704) Anne Calvert

Their descendants included the children of Robert E. Lee through Benedict Swingate Calvert, an illegitimate son of the 5th Baron Calvert. Benedict's daughter, Eleanor married John Parke Custis, a stepson of George Washington. Swingate's mother may have been Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham, an illegitimate daughter of George I of Great Britain, by his mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal.

Legacy Benedict Calvert had arranged for his son Charles to be raised a Protestant,