Background
Harford's father was Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, 4th (February 6, 1731/1732 – September 4, 1771) and last in the line of Barons Baltimore. The Calvert family had been granted a royal charter to the Maryland colony in the 17th century. Since then, successive Lords Baltimore had increased the family holdings and their wealth: the Calverts owned shares in the Bank of England as well as a large family seat at Woodcote Park, in Surrey. Although Frederick Calvert exercised almost feudal power in 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 and 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 the public scandal which surrounded the trial. He had many mistresses, including Hester Whelan, Henry Harford's mother.
Read more about this topic: Henry Harford
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