Charlotte Lee, Lady Baltimore

Charlotte Lee
Lady Baltimore
Spouse(s)	Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore Christopher Crowe
Issue Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Hon. Benedict Leonard Calvert, Governor of Maryland Hon. Edward Henry Calvert Hon. Charlotte Calvert Hon. Jane Calvert Hon. Cecil Calvert Christopher Crowe Catherine Crowe Charlotte Crowe George Crowe
Noble family	Lee House of Stuart (distaff)
Father	Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield
Mother	Lady Charlotte Fitzroy
Born	13 March 1678 (Old Style); 23 March 1678 (New Style) St. James's Park, St. James, London, England
Died	22 January 1721 (Old Style); 1 February 1721 (New Style) Woodford Hall, Woodford, Essex, England

Charlotte Lee, Lady Baltimore (13 March 1678 Old Style – 22 January 1721 Old Style), was an English noblewoman, being the granddaughter of King Charles II of England and his mistress Barbara Villiers. She married firstly in 1699, Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, from whom she separated in 1705; and later she married Christopher Crowe. She was the mother of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore. The famous Lee family of Virginia, which included General Robert E. Lee, descends from Charlotte.

Charlotte Lee was the granddaughter of King Charles II of England and his mistress Barbara Villiers, whose portrait is seen here

Family and lineage

Lady Charlotte Lee was born on 13 March 1678 at St. James's Park, St. James, London. She was the eldest of at least fourteen children of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield (4 February 1663 – 14 July 1716) and Lady Charlotte Fitzroy (5 September 1664 – 17 February 1718), illegitimate daughter of King Charles II by his mistress Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, Duchess of Cleveland.

Lady Charlotte's mother was thirteen years old at the time of her birth, having married the Earl of Lichfield at the age of twelve.

Her paternal grandparents were Sir Francis Henry Lee of Ditchley, 4th Baronet of Quarendon and Elizabeth Pope, daughter of Thomas Pope, 2nd Earl of Downe.

Marriages and children

On 2 January 1699, at the age of twenty, she married her first husband Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore (21 March 1679 – 16 April 1715), son of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and Jane Lowe, by whom she had six children.

Charlotte assumed the title of Lady Baltimore in February 1715, when her husband succeeded to the title of 4th Baron Baltimore upon the death of his father, the third Baron. The title of Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland had been lost to the third Baron during the Glorious Revolution and would be restored to Charles Calvert, the son of Charlotte and Benedict, upon the latter's death on 16 April 1715.

Charlotte and her husband had separated in 1705.

She married her second husband Christopher Crowe (c.1681 – 9 November 1749), Consul of Livorno, sometime before 10 December 1719. Charlotte was three years her husband's senior. This marriage produced four more children.

Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, was the eldest son of Charlotte Lee and her first husband, Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore

Issue

Charlotte's six children from her first marriage to Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, were:

• Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, 18th Proprietor Governor of Maryland, FRS (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751), married Mary Janssen, daughter of Sir Theodore Janssen, 1st Baronet Janssen and Williamsa Henley, by whom he had three children, including Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, Louisa Calvert, and Caroline Calvert. He also had an illegitimate son, by the name of Benedict Swingate Calvert, who settled in Maryland, and married Elizabeth Calvert, by whom he had issue
• Hon. Benedict Leonard Calvert, Governor of Maryland, (1727–1731). He died 1 June 1732 on his passage home to England
• Hon. Edward Henry Calvert (born ca. 1700), held office of Commissary General and President of the council of Maryland, was married without issue.
• Hon. Charlotte Calvert (died December 1744), married Thomas Breerwood, by whom she had a son, Francis Breerwood
• Hon. Jane Calvert (died July 1778), married John Hyde, by whom she had issue John Hyde, Henry Hyde and Mary Calvert Hyde, wife of George Mitchell and mother of George Calvert Mitchell, 1st Earl of Royalton
• Hon. Cecil Calvert (born 1702)

Charlotte's four children from her second marriage to Christopher Crowe were:

• Christopher Crowe (1716–1776), married Barbara Duncombe
• Catherine Crowe (1717 – ?), married Roger Henry Gale
• Charlotte Crowe (1718–1742)
• George Crowe (25 November 1719 – 10 October 1782), married Anne Swift, by whom he had a son Robert

Death

Charlotte Lee died of rheumatism on 22 January 1721 at Woodford Hall, Woodford, Essex. She was buried at Woodford on 29 January 1721. She died intestate and her estate was administered on 4 March 1721 at Woodford Hall.

Her many descendants included General Robert E. Lee, British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, and George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson and adopted son of American President George Washington.

In fiction

Charlotte Lee appears as a minor character in Anya Seton's historical romance Devil Water.

References

1. www.ThePeerage.com.pp. 7641,#76403
2. Antonia Fraser, King Charles II,p. 414

Sources

1. G.E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extanct, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959)
2. Antonia Fraser, King Charles II, Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd., London, 1979