Philip Calvert (1626 - 1682)

Born 20 Mar 1626 in Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Wolseley) Calvert — married before 1656 in Province of Maryland

Died 26 Feb 1682 at age 55 in Province of Maryland

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Biography

Philip Calvert was born in Ireland.

Philip Calvert was a Maryland colonist.

Philip Calvert, Esq., (1626-1682/3)

Philip, born in 1626, was the youngest son of George Calvert, Knt., 1st Lord Baltimore, by his second wife Joan.

He married (1) Anne Wolseley, daughter of Thomas Wolseley, Knt., by Ellen Brockton; (2) Jane Sewall, daughter of Henry Sewall and his wife Jane Lowe.

Philip married Anne before 1656, when they immigrated to Maryland. He married his second wife in 1681.

Philip resided at "Pope's Freehold," St. Mary's County until 1679; "St. Peter's," St. Mary's County after 1679.

Philip had no children by either of his wives, although in 1990 "the bodies of Calvert, Anne Wolsely Calvert, and an unidentified infant were found in lead coffins in a brick vault located in the ruins of a brick chapel in the 'Chapel Field' in St. Mary's City, Maryland, the former colonial capital."^[1] However, a 2016 DNA examination of these remains by the David Reich Lab at Harvard University concluded that the adult male and infant male were father and son.^[2]

Philip died in Maryland shortly before 26 February 1682/3. Jane, his widow, was buried at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Middlesex, England 17 May 1692.

Offices

Philip Calvert (1626-1682)^[3]

Upper House, 1658-1682

Council, 1656-1660, 1661-1682

Judge, Provincial Court, 1656-1660, 1661-1682

Secretary of Maryland, 1656-1660

Treasure and Receiver General, 1659-1660

Governor, 1660-1661

Chancellor, 1660-1682

Commissary General, 1672-1682

Mayor, St. Mary's City, 1668-1671

The Public Career section of the Maryland Archives' biography of Philip,^[4] had this to say about Philip:

"His arrival in colony in 1656 was the first time since 1647 that Lord Baltimore had a trusted family member and advisor in the colony; over the next thirty-six years, Calvert provided important stability and leadership, although he often incurred the displeasure of his nephew, Charles Calvert, after the latter arrived to supersede Philip as governor in 1661."

Extended Biography

Following are the opening paragraphs of an extended biography posted by the Maryland State Archives (MSA SC 3520-199), written by Dr. Lois Green Carr, Historic St. Mary's City and Dr. Edward C. Papenfuse, Maryland State Archives. Please visit that page to read more:

"When Philip Calvert died shortly after December 22, 1682, he was about fifty-six years old. Recently wed for a second time to a woman thirty-five years his junior, the proud possessor of the largest mansion built in 17th-century Maryland, and the owner of a magnificent library, he left no known surviving children. His legacy was his work of the previous twenty-six years as one of Maryland's most influential leaders.

"Philip Calvert was the sixth son of George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore. Philip may have been born on his father's Irish estates where his father planned to establish a haven for English Catholics and to which he brought his family to escape religious persecution and the bubonic plague. By 1630, at the age of four, Philip was in London in the care of a waiting maid who barely escaped death from the plague. When his father died suddenly in 1632, Philip was left £300 and placed in the charge of his half brother, Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore for his 'education and maintenance.'"

Sources

Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol III, p 642, LOWE #21.ii; Vol V, p 392, WOLSELEY #18.iii

Musgrave's Obituary. Harleian Society, 1899. Open Library Vol. 44, Page 213

• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVGQ-TTS4 : 15 June 2022), Philip Calvert, ; Burial, Saint Marys City, St. Mary's, Maryland, United States of America, Great Brick Chapel; citing record ID 112532897, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

See also:

Philip Calvert, Exploring Maryland's Roots

A letter from the chancellour of Mary-land to Col. Henry Meese, merchant in London concerning the late troublesin Mary-land. Calvert, Philip, 1626-1682., Meese, Henry. ^[5]

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Phillip Calvert, citing a news article no longer online
2. ↑ "Ancient DNA Analysis of St. Mary's City Lead Coffin Burials," 23 October 2016, David Reich, Kristin Stewardson, Iosif Lazaridis, Swapan Mallick, Nadin Rohland and Douglas Owsley. Pre-publication report from the David Reich Lab at Harvard University; the report posted online in PDF format by the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Accessed 31 Jan 2020. Note: The URL to the genotype allele data extracted by the Harvard lab as show in the pre-publication paper has been found to be deprecated. The raw data can be downloaded from the Reich Lab here.
3. ↑ Offices Held, Philip Calvert, Archives of Maryland, MSA SC 3520-199 (Maryland State Archives)
4. ↑ Philip Calvert, biography, Archives of Maryland, MSA SC 3520-199 (Maryland State Archives)
5. ↑ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A32345.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
   • https://www.hsmcdigshistory.org/clues-to-early-maryland-27-whatever-happened-to-jane/