Charles Benedict Calvert

Charles Benedict Calvert (August 23, 1808 – May 12, 1864) was an American politician who was a U.S. Representative from the sixth district of Maryland, serving one term from 1861 to 1863. He was an early backer of the inventors of the telegraph, and in 1856 he founded the Maryland Agricultural College, the first agricultural research college in America, now known as the University of Maryland. He was a direct descendant of the Lords Baltimore, proprietary governors of the Province of Maryland from 1631 until 1776. Early life Calvert was born on August 23, 1808, at his family's estate at Riversdale, Maryland. His mother was Rosalie Eugenia Stier (1778–1821), the daughter of a wealthy Flemish aristocrat, Baron Henri Joseph Stier (1743–1821) and his wife Marie-Louise Peeters. The Stiers had fled to America in the late eighteenth century as French Republican armies occupied their hometown of Antwerp. Calvert's father, the wealthy planter George Calvert (1768–1838), was the son of the Loyalist politician Benedict Swingate Calvert (c.1730–1788) – a natural son of the penultimate Proprietary Governor of Maryland, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore – and Benedict's wife Elizabeth Calvert (1731–1788). Education Calvert completed his preparatory studies at Bladensburg Academy of Maryland. Later, he received a certificate of completion from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1827, even though he attended the university spuriously, and engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock breeding. Science and agriculture Calvert inherited a plantation from his family, called Riverdale. He "introduced scientific agriculture to the plantation, adopted ideas published in journals and newspapers, exhibited at county and state fairs, and introduced a number of his own innovations. He could implement these innovations because of the large number of slaves – as many as 55 in 1850 – at his command."