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I am trying to discover the parentage Robert Calvert, my 5th great grandfather, who created Calvert-Riddle cemetary with Matthew Riddle, another 5th great grandfather - in Venago County, Pennsylvania. This is a long explanation, I'm sorry.
I was told that Robert Calvert was a close descendant of "Lord Baltimore" but it always seemed it was said in an "aint that funny" kind of way. I never really thought about Robert Calvert much until I considered I have a small bedside table and a few other artifacts that came from the homesteads he and his sons built, but didn't know anything about them.
When I started looking into it I realized I was more interested in Robert than any "Lord" - given the period of his birth, the turmoil of the American Revolution, and the facts of his life that ARE backed by documentation.
There is a county history that says he arrived in Venango from Ligonier Valley, the area of Fort Ligonier / Fort Preservation, with Matthew Riddle around 1795. It says in 1797 Matthew Riddle and Robert Calvert "moved their families to their frontier home". There is a headstone that says he was 87 (or 84) years old which would put his birth early to mid 1750's, and a headstone for his wife Susannah. I've searched for marriages of a Robert Calvert and Susannah Young in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania and the only one I've found was from Cecil County, Maryland in 1785. There is a newspaper article from the 1960's about the history and sale of his property.
I've found Calverts that could be the right age to be his father, but locations do not match up or they had no sons named Robert.
When I built a tree on Ancestry I noticed that many other users named one man in particular as his father.
I started looking into this with the full expectation of disproving it. This man has a wikipedia page so I read it. It says he had a child named Robert Calvert that "died young" along with other siblings.
Case closed. I continued looking for other proof of potential fathers but can't find any, and over time I peridoically examined the wikipedia sources for Benedict Calvert.
Here is where we get into "red string & thumbtacks across a wall in the basement" territory. Keep in mind I have constantly been trying to prove this theory is NOT true, because if it is, it requires a lot of consideration.
The oldest biographical record I can find that says these Benedict Calvert children died young is not a contemporary source and there is at least one book published in the 1990s that seems to cite that old history.
So why would one question these sources? First, I don't know the funerary customs of the day, but given Benedict Calvert's wealth I would have expected to find burials or some difinitive record of these children who "died young" but have not been able to. When we look at Benedict's children, we see that he and his wife married young and had children steadily for almost 20 years. But, there is a 7 year gap between the eldest two known to have survived into adulthood, and most of the children listed as "died young" were boys. Is it possible not all of these sons died young? That 7 year gap would put any male children at the right age for military service in the Revolution.
While cross-checking Robert Calvert's neighbors and the men he arrived in Venango with, I found Matthew Riddle is DAR recognized along with many other men buried in the area. According to the DAR Matthew Riddle served on Gen. Washington's staff. He also named one of his sons 'Robert Calvert Riddle', with Robert Calvert being about a decade his junior, which seems to indicate a level of respect.
There is documentation about Washington's relationship with Benedict Calvert. Benedict's daughter married General Washington's step-son John Custis, despite both Calvert and Washington being initially opposed to it due to their age.
From Benedict Calvert wikipedia page:
"Calvert did not leave Maryland, nor did he involve himself in the fighting, even though many other Maryland Loyalists went on to form a Maryland Loyalists Battalion. On occasion Calvert supplied the Continental Army with food and provisions.
After the war's end, Calvert had to pay triple taxes as did other Loyalists, but he was never forced to sign the loyalty oath and his lands and property remained unconfiscated.
Calvert's Loyalism does not appear to have affected his cordial relations with the leader of the Revolution, George Washington. Most likely this was because of the marriage in 1774 of Washington's stepson to Calvert's daughter. In 1783, after the war was over, Washington stayed with the Calverts at their Mount Airy plantation, shortly after resigning his commission in Annapolis on December 23. Because Calvert was a known Loyalist, the visit drew much criticism from Washington's political enemies."
There is also a descrepancy between the "known facts" about Benedict's children and his own words, written in a letter to George Washington in 1773.
Benedict had 13 children, 9 of which are documented to have been living in 1773. In that same year though, he writes to Washington about the marriage of their children and the prospects for his daughters inheritance:
" - I can only add, on this subject, that, from the largeness of my family (having ten Children) no very great fortune can be expected."
The documents say he has 9 known living children at the time but he says 10. Could one of his young children have died after this letter? Maybe, but we know that at least his youngest three, born in the 1760's, all survived to adulthood. Maybe one of his older children was still alive to be counted in his mind, but was not named in a will and made no claim on his estate?
Even the 1994 book based on older sources questions if the Custis - Calvert marriage is the only reason for the pleasent relations between Washington and Calvert. Benedict seems to have been an adept politician, capable of maneuvering his family through a period which was difficult for patriot and loyalist alike.
Is it possible he had a son who did not die young, but was allowed, or chose to - abandon the family claims and enlist in the Continental Army?
If the Robert Calvert buried in Venago PA is the child of Benedict Calvert, it only begs more questions.
- The house Robert Calvert and his sons built in the 1830's is still standing today and I have been in correspondence with the PA Historical Preservation Office in an effort to have it registerd and possibly preserved. They have undertaken a multi-year effort to find and assess historic places around the state with the help of the public.