Other
Relations & Interesting Connections:
It's said that there are only six
degrees of separation between any two people on earth. However, Dr.
and Mrs. Stuart and their families were so heavily interconnected
with and/or related to America's and Europe's ruling classes that
they either Mrs. Stuart, Dr. Stuart, or both, were related to or knew a substantial number of
political, social, artistic and civic leaders. In addition, the family played a key role in, or was a witness to, many historic events.
How did Dr.
Richard H. and Julia Calvert Stuart and their families tie into the
following individuals and events?
Presidents, Peers and
Royalty:
|
Famous Americans &
Great Families
|
Artists and
Writers:
|
Military
Leaders
|
Historic Events &
Firsts:
|
Statesmen &
Politicians:
|
Presidents, Peers and
Royalty:
George
& Martha Washington
President Washington's stepson, John Parke Custis, married
Eleanor Calvert, older sister of Julia Calvert Stuart's father George
Calvert. After his death, she remarried to Dr. David Stuart of
Alexandria, uncle of Dr. Richard H. Stuart of Cedar Grove/Cleydael.
Although his uncle died when Dr. Richard Stuart was a very young boy,
he nonethless may have been an inspiration to him to enter the
medical profession. Dr. David Stuart was a friend and confidante of
Washingtons and was mentioned in his will. The Calvert cousins also
kept in close touch with one another. Rosalie Stier Calvert's letters
to her sister refer to "Nellie" Custis Lewis as her favorite niece,
express concern about the failed marriage and general behavior of
niece Betsey Custis Law, speak affectionately of young "Washy" Custis
(also nicknamed "Tub"), later to become the father of Mrs. Robert E
Lee, and talks of staying with her niece Martha "Patsy" Custis Peter
during her trips into Washington City and Georgetown.
President
Monroe and his Family
An ardent Federalist, Julia Calvert Stuart's mother, Rosalie
Stier Calvert had heartily approved of the Jefferson and Madison
administrations, both politically and socially. To her, the incoming
Monroe administration was a breath of fresh air. She became a good
friend of First Lady Eliza Monroe and a member of her social circle
and eldest daughter Caroline became good friends with the Monroe
daughters. For the first time in a long time, Rosalie became
interested in social life, particularly for her daughters sake so
that she coudl make a good match, and got her sister in Belgium to
send finery not otherwise seen in the young Federal City. Dr. Richard
Stuart's family probably had at a least a nodding acquaintance with
the Monroes as they were from King George County.
Back to
top
President and
Mrs. Jefferson Davis:
Dr. Richard Henry Stuart's cousin, Henry Stuart Foote, was an
arch-rival of Jefferson Davis. They served together as Mississippi's
two US Senators and Foote defeated Davis for the Mississippi
Governorship. Dr. and Mrs. Stuart's son in law, Maj. Robert Hunter,
was one of the honorary pallbearers at First Lady Varina Howell
Davis's funeral in 1906, in his capacity as head of Virginia's
Confederate pension system.
The Lords
Baltimore
Charles Calvert, the 5th Lord Baltimore, was Julia Calvert's
great-grandfather. She was doubly descended from the Baltimores as
her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Calvert, was the daughter of
Maryland Governor Charles Calvert, a cousin of the 5th Lord Baltimore
and descendant of the 3rd Lord.
Back to
top
The Royal
House of Stuart
- Dr. Richard Stuart's
Descent: The original immigrant ancestor of Dr. Stuart,
the Reverend David Stuart was a descendant of the Royal House of
Stuart and came to America after the failure of the first Jacobite
revolt. According to some genealogy charts, Rev. David Stuart was
a younger son of the Earl of Moray, and according to others he
came from Invernessshire. This would fit as Castle Stuart, the
seat of the Stuart Earls of Moray, is in Invernessshire. The Earls
of Moray trace their title Back to James Stuart, the first Earl,
who was the illegitimate brother of Mary Queen of Scots and was
appointed Lord Protector for her young son, the future King James
VI of Scotland and James I of England
- Mrs. Julia Calvert Stuart's
Descent: The 5th Baron Baltimore, Charles Calvert, who was
Julia Calvert's great-grandfather, was the son of Benedict Leonard
Calvert, the 4th Baron and Lady Charlotte Lee. Lady Charlotte was
the daugther of the First Earl of Lichfield and Charlotte
Fitzroy, the illegitimate daughter of King Charles the II of
England by Barbara Villiers.
Back to top
King George
I of England
Benedict Swingate Calvert, Julia Calvert Stuart's paternal
grandfather, was the illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Lord
Baltimore. His probable mother was the Countess of Walsingham,
Melusina de Schulenberg, an illegitimate daughter of King George I
and Ermengarde Melusina de Schulenberg, duchess of Kendal. If she was
indeed his mother, that would make King George I of England Julia's
great-great grandfather.
William the
Conqueror & King Henry I of England
The First Lord Baltimore and therefore, all subsequent Lords
Baltimore, were descendants of William the Conquerer, through his son
King Henry I of England
Back to
top
Napoleon
Bonaparte
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte extended an invitation to the Stiers
and other aristocrats in exile to return to France and Belgium and
this was the reason that Rosalie Stier Calvert's parents and brother
and sister returned to Belgium. Her brother Charles was presented at
Napoleon's court, got to know him and was much impressed. Despite
being a native French speaker, Rosalie far preferred the British to
the French and distrusted Bonaparte as an upstart. She also knew
Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte who lived in America for a while
and married, over her parents objections, a girl from a prominent
Baltimore family. He eventually was forced to leave her by his
brother and make a dynastic marriage in Europe. Rosalie in her
letters relates an appearance at a fashionable Georgetown party of
Mrs. Bonaparte in a see-through dress! The other Bonaparte connection
is that when Black Horse Harry Lee left America in the 1820s having
been forced to sell Stratford Hall to pay debts, he went to France.
He was reconciled with his estranged wife, Dr. Stuart's half-sister
Ann McCarty Lee, who joined him in France, where they became close
friends and confidantes of Napoleon's aged mother.
Back to
top
Famous Americans &
Great Families
Mr &
Mrs. Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee was an in-law of Dr. Richard Henry Stuart, as Dr.
Stuart's older half sister (Ann McCarty) had married Lee's older half
brother ("Black Horse Harry" Lee) Mrs. Lee was the first cousin once
removed of Julia Calvert Stuart. Mrs. Stuart's father, George
Calvert, was the younger brother of Mrs. Lee's paternal Grandmother,
Eleanor Calvert Custis. The young Julia Calvert was a bridesmaid at
the Lee's 1831 wedding at Arlington House and the Lee and Stuart
cousins visited each other frequently. For more, see Lee
Family Connections section.
The Lees
of Stratford Hall
As noted, "Black Horse Harry" Lee, eldest son of Gov. Light Horse
Harry Lee and his first wife, cousin Mathilda Lee, was Dr. Stuart's
brother in law . Black Horse Harry married Anne McCarty, Dr. Stuart's
half-sister, who was one of the two daughters of Dr. Stuart's mother,
Margaret Robinson McCarty Stuart's first marriage. The younger of
these two half-sisters, Elizabeth McCarty, went to live with her
older sister and became a ward of her brother in law, who managed to
spend both her and his wife's inheritance in gambling and high
living. When his wife went into a depression over the accidental
death of their only child, Lee seduced his sister in law and got her
pregnant. She lost the baby and wore mourning the rest of her life.
Elizabeth later married Harry Dent Storcke, and he bought Stratford
Hall in 1828, after Harry Lee was forced to sell it to pay debts.
"Aunt Betsey" Storcke willed Stratford to her half brothers Dr.
Richard and Judge Charles Stuart. Dr. and Mrs. Stuart lived there as
a main residence the last few years of their lives. Upon their death,
it passed to Judge Stuart's family, in whose ownership it remained
until sold to the Robert E Lee Memorial Foundation in the 20th
century. Thus, only two families have owned Stratford Hall in its
long history.
Back to
top
The Carters of
Shirley Plantation
Julia Calvert Stuart's older sister, Rosalie Eugenia Calvert (b.
19 Oct 1806 - d. 6 May 1845), was the wife of Charles Henry Carter of
Shirley Plantation (1802-1892). The were married 11 November 1830, at
the height of the Lee family scandal, causing Eugenia's father,
George Calvert to initially disapprove the match. George Washington
Parke Custis had similiar problems initially with Robert E Lee
marrying his daughter, as the family name had been tainted. Charles
Henry Carter was a grandson of Light Horse Harry Lee, through a
daughter of the first marriage who married the heir of Shirley.
(Light Horse Harry Lee also married a Carter as his second wife, Anne
Hill Carter of Shirley, by whom he had a second family, including
Robert E Lee)
George Mason
Ann Stuart, sister of Dr. Richard Stuart's father, married
William Mason, son of Col. George Mason, framer of the Constitution
and author of the Virginia Declaration of Human Rights, and Ann
Eilbeck of Charles County Maryland.
Back to
top
Francis Scott
Key
Francis Scott Key, Georgetown lawyer and author of the Star
Spangled Banner, was a friend of Mrs. Julia Calvert Stuart's parents,
George and Rosalie Calvert and frequently visited their estates,
"Riversdale" outside Washington. Mrs. Calvert called him
"Frank".
Charles
Calvert
While not well known today, Charles Calvert played a major role
in fostering technological development in the early industrial age in
America and the Washington area in particular. An avid patron of
science and learning, he did much to help bring about a number of
modern developments: aiding telegraph inventor Samuel F.B.
Morse, donating land for what became the University of Maryland,
being the first advocate of establishing a Federal Department of
Agriculture, and an early investor in the B&O Railroad. He served
in Congress as a Unionist from 1861-63, having been in the unusual
position in the 1860 elections of being a slave owner who supported
Lincoln. He was an older brother of Julia Calvert Stuart and managed
the bulk of what had been their father's landholdings, including
Riversdale, Mt. Airy and His Lordship's Kindness as the eldest
surviving son, George Henry Calvert, preferred to focus on his
literary career.
Back to
top
Artists and
Writers:
Peter Paul
Rubens
The great Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens was an ancestor of
Baron Henry Joseph Stier on his mothers side. Baron Stier had one of
the largest personal art collections in Europe, which he brought to
America for safekeeping, including a number of works by Rubens, some
inherited, some bought, works by Van Dyck and other greats. There was
a public exhibit of the Stier-Peeters collection at Riversdale before
the painting were sent Back to Belgium. A number of leading American
artists had offered to help pack and catalogue the paintings, simply
to be able to see them, including Thomas
Sully,
Rembrandt Peale and Gilbert
Stuart
German Poets
Goethe and Schiller:
"Mr. Calvert is a scholar of refined tastes and susceptibilities,
educated in the school of Goethe, who looks upon the world, at home
and abroad, in the light not merely of genial and ingenious
reflection, but with an eye of philosophical practical improvement,"
wrote a 19th century reviewer in Literary World magazine, as quoted
by Samuel Austin Allibone, in his 1900 book, A Critical Dictionary
of English Literature and British and American Authors. George H.
Calvert, Julia Calvert Stuart's brother and eldest son of George
Calvert and Rosalie Stier Calvert of Riversdale, had little taste for
business or farming, and instead left such matters to his younger
brother Charles and embarked on a successful literary career. Among
is best known oeuvre are an 1836 translation of Schiller's Don
Carlos, an 1845 translation of Goethe and Schillers letters, and
Goethe: His Life and Works. He also was a prolific travel writer
and poet. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/eaf/authors/second/ghc.html
Back to
top
Painter Thomas
Sully
Sully painted portraits of Julia Calvert Stuart around the time
of her wedding to Dr. Stuart in 1833. In addition, he painted Dr.
Richard Stuart, probably also sometime around the time of their
marriage. Sully was one of the artists who offered to help Rosalie
Stier Calvert pack and catalogue her father's famous painting
collection before its return to Belgium but there is no evidence that
he ended up being one of the cataloguers.
Painter
Gilbert Stuart
The portait of Rosalie Stier Calvert and her eldest daughter
Caroline, featured on the front of Mistress of Riversdale was painted
by Gilbert Stuart, who became famous for his portraits of Washington.
In one of her letters home, Rosalie refers to Gilbert Stuart having
set up a studio at 7th and F Streets in Washington and becoming quite
fashionable and his demeanor was less rude than heretofore. Stuart
was one of the many artists who offered to catalogue the
Stier-Peeters collection at Riversdale
Back to
top
Military
Figures:
General
Philip Stuart (b. 1760, d. 17 Aug 1830)
General Stuart was an uncle of Dr. Richard Henry Stuart. He
fought in the Revolutionary War as a lieutenant in the Third
Continental Dragoons; and distinguished himself in the Battle of
Eutaw Springs, where he was wounded on November 9, 1782. He
transferred to Baylor's dragoons November 9, 1782; and then to the
Second Artillerists and Engineers, June 5, 1798 where he served as a
lieutenant. He resign his commission in 1800. During the War of 1812,
he was a general in the Maryland militia whilst also serving in the
US Congress. As the threat of a British invasion worsened, he offered
a resolution in Congress for the distribution of arms among the
people of the District of Columbia and the members of Congress for
the defense of the capital. A confidante of his commander, General
Washington, the President left him a large china punchbowl in his
will. He also served in the War of 1812 and was a Federalist US
Congressman from Maryland in the 12th-15th Congresses.. He lived in
Washington DC the last 12 years of his life and is buried in
Congressional Cemetery. In his obituary, the National Intelligencer
called him "almost the last relick of Revolutionary worthies in our
community."
Back to
top
Confederate
General Jubal Early
Major Robert Waterman Hunter, husband of the Stuarts' daughter
Margaret, was a staff officer to General Early during the War. After
the War, he was in charge of Virginia's war pension
system.
Union General
David Hunter
General Hunter was a cousin of Major Robert Waterman Hunter, CSA,
husband of the Stuarts' daughter Margaret. His family was originally
from Virginia and most of his relatives fought for the Confederacy.
He was from Washington DC and had broadly been in the same
social circles as the Stuarts and their cousins at Tudor Place in
Georgetown. An interesting quirk is that General Hunter was a member
of the military commission / tribunal investigating the Lincoln
Assassination, before which Dr. Stuart was compelled to give
testimony.
Back to
top
Historic Events &
Firsts:
The
Invention of the Telegraph:
On April 9, 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse successfully tested his
device by transmitting a message from the nation's capital to
Riversdale. This test came 45 days before the more celebrated event
when Morse sent the message 'What hath God wrought!' from Washington
to Baltimore on May 24, 1844. Julia Calvert Stuart's brother,
Charles
Calvert, was a friend an
patron of Morse's.
The fight
between the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimack)
The fabled sea battle between the two ironclads, the US Monitor
and the CS Virgininia in Hampton Roads also connects to Dr. and Mrs.
Stuart's family in that their daughter Julia's husband, Dr. Eusebius
Jones, was the brother of Catesby ap Roger Jones, second in command
of the Virginia, formerly the US ship Merrimack.
Founding of
St. Paul's Church, King George
Rev. David Stuart, Dr. Richard Stuart's great-grandfather and
founder of the Stuart family in America, was the first rector of St.
Paul's Church. His son, Rev. William Stuart (Dr. Richard Stuart's
grandfather) succeeded him and gave the church it's current bible and
church plate.
Back to
top
The Formation of
the District of Columbia (1790)
Dr. David Stuart, uncle of Dr. Richard Stuart of Cleydael and
Cedar Grove, was Virginia's commissioner in charge of determining the
boundaries of the District of Columbia. He also helped lay the first
boundary stone, at Jones Point in Alexandria. Dr. Stuart had earlier
been a signer of a petition of Alexandria and Georgetown worthies to
Congress urging that the Federal City be established on the
Potomac.
The
Founding of the Town of Georgetown (D.C.) (1751)
The first mayor of the Town of Georgetown was Thomas Peter, a
Scots merchant and builder of the spectacular Tudor Place mansion.
His wife was Martha Custis, granddaughter of Martha Washington and
daughter of Eleanor Calvert Custis (Mrs. Julia Stuart's father's
sister) Thus, Mrs. Peter was Julia Calvert Stuart's first
cousin.
Founding
of the University of Maryland
Julia Calvert Stuart's brother, Charles Calvert, was an ardent
agriculturalist and gave land for the purpose of establishing a
Maryland agricultural college which later became the University of
Maryland
Back to
top
Battle
of Bladensburg
The Battle of Bladensburg took place on the Calvert's own land
and was witnessed by the family. Rosalie Stier Calvert writes a
detailed account of the experience in her letters home to her family
in Belgium.
Battle of
the Wilderness
The first husband of Dr. and Mrs. Stuart's daughter, Ada was Col.
William Wellford Randolph. Newly promoted to colonel of his regiment,
he was killed in action in the Battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864.
Ada inherited Cleydael upon her father's death and when she died the
property passed to her son by Col. Randolph, William Wellford
Randolph, Jr., who sold Cleydael to Graham D. Richardson in
1918.
Back to
top
Statesmen &
Politicians
The US
Capitol and Congress
Dr. David Stuart, uncle of Dr. Richard Stuart of Cleydael, was
one of the men who laid the cornerstone of the US Capitol Building,
in his dual role as one of the commissioners on the establishment of
the District of Columbia, and as a member of George Washington's home
Masonic lodge in Alexandria. Benjamin Henry Latrobe,who designed
Riversdale for Baron Henri Stier, was also the architect of the US
Capitol. Several members of the extended Stuart and Calvert/Stier
families served in Congress, including Dr. Stuart's great uncle,
General
Philip Stuart (a Congressman
from Maryland), his cousin, Henry
Stuart Foote (Senator from
Mississippi) and Julia's brother, Charles
Calvert.
Confederate Congress:
Cousin Henry
Stuart Foote served as a
Tennessee member of the Confederate Congress.
Back to
top
Mississippi
Governor Henry Stuart Foote
Henry Stuart Foote (1804-1880) while of Dr. Richard Henry
Stuart's age group, was in fact his father's first cousin and Dr.
Stuart's first cousin once removed. He was perhaps one of the more
interesting political figures of the Civil War and pre-War era. Born
in Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, near Warrenton, VA, the son of
Richard Helm Foote who in turn was the son of Richard Foote and
Margaret Helm of Stafford County. Henry Stuart Foote's father's
sister, Sarah Foote, was the wife of Rev. William Stuart of St.
Paul's Parish, King George County and grandmother of Dr. Richard
Henry Stuart of Cleydael and Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove had originally
been the property of the Foote family but descended to the Stuarts
through Sarah Foote. Governor Henry Stuart Foote served in the United
States Senate before running for Governor of Mississippi on the
Unionist ticket and narrowly defeating Jefferson Davis. He resigned
the governorship five days before the end of his term and moved to
California. In 1858 he returned to Mississippi, but his Unionist
sympathies caused him to move on to Tennessee. He became a member of
the House of the Confederate States Congress but resigned when that
group rejected Abraham Lincoln's peace proposals. He was in Europe
during the Civil War.qv His War of the Rebellion (1866) was an effort
to justify his part in the war. He also wrote Casket of Reminiscences
(1874) and Bench and Bar in the South and Southwest (1876). His first
book, Texas and the Texans (1841) was written when he was in the
state legislature.
Back to
top
The Mayor of
Newport Rhode Island
George
H. Calvert, eldest brother of
Julia Calvert Stuart and noted author and poet, moved to Newport
Rhode Island and served a term as mayor.
Speaker of the
Virginia House of Delegates
Judge Charles Edward Stuart, brother of Dr. Richard Henry Stuart,
served both a judge and speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.
His son also served in the House of Delegates.
Back to
top
