Henry Harford - Maryland and The American Revolution

Maryland and The American Revolution

Despite his illegitimacy, the people of Maryland initially supported Harford and welcomed him as their new Lord Proprietor, even naming Harford County, Maryland after him in 1773. However, Governor Robert Eden disputed Harford's inheritance, and in 1774 tried to claim a part of the estate on behalf of his wife Caroline Calvert, sister of the deceased Baron Baltimore, and a legitimate daughter of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore.

Before the English courts could rule on the case, the American Revolution broke out. Maryland, initially the most Loyalist colony of the original thirteen, soon found its revolutionary spirit growing. Eden, the figurehead of English presence in the colony and a well-liked man as well as a good governor, left for England in June 1776, his authority having been fatally undermined by the Maryland Convention and the rapid erosion of British rule.

In England, Harford succeeded in his claim to his father's inheritance; the rents from the Calvert estates in Britain were awarded to Harford by Act of Parliament - the Estate Act of 1780. However, events in America moved against his interests, and in 1781 the new State of Maryland confiscated all of Henry Harford's estates and used their income to help finance the cash-strapped revolutionary government and its militia. On September 3, 1783 the Treaty of Paris at last brought a formal end to the war.