Glossop Connections - Charles Calvert, Raisley Calvert & William Wordsworth

Glossop Famous Connections
The Calvert Family - A Celebrated Artist. Charles Calvert Junior.

In my last post I had mentioned that Charles's first son, was Frederick Baltimore Calvert but it is in fact it was his second. I have managed to trace that Charles had in fact eight children. His first child was also born at Glossop Hall and was named after his father on 23rd September 1785. Records show that Charles Calvert Junior was taught at the hall itself in Glossop, Derbyshire. He became an apprentice to his father within the family cotton business. He seems to become a very successful cotton merchant until, however, he abandoned cotton for art and became a landscape painter.

His influences for this drastic change of mind came from his uncle, Raisley Calvert who was a renowned sculptor. Raisley Calvert, was in fact, the Steward to the Duke of Norfolk, and looked after his estates at Greystoke. Raisley not only had a great career but great connections as he was a close friend and admirer of William Wordsworth. They were at Cambridge University together where they became very good friends, this is their story...

William & Raisley 

William Wordsworth

William was sent to school at Hawkshead where he made friends with a boy from Cockermouth called William Wordsworth. The two boys were the same age and from similar backgrounds. Wordsworth’s father was an agent for Sir John Lowther, the Earl of Lonsdale. When they left school Wordsworth went to Cambridge, travelled abroad and lived for a while in London while William joine
d the Duke of Norfolk’s Regiment (then known as the 12th Regiment of Foot) of the Militia. In 1791 William’s father died, and he and Raisley inherited a sizeable fortune.

In July 1793 William Calvert invited Wordsworth to accompany him on a tour of the West Country, all expenses paid. Wordsworth wanted to become a poet but had no job and no income. He eagerly accepted William’s offer and the two young men set off. They spent about a month on the Isle of Wight where they watched the English fleet preparing for the war with France. They then headed west, but near Salisbury their horse dragged the carriage in which they were travelling into a ditch and it broke into pieces. The two men decided to separate. William took the horse and rode home to Keswick while Wordsworth set off on foot and walked across Salisbury Plain. He travelled through very bad weather, rested at Stonehenge and had some visions: an experience which led to the writing of his poem ‘Salisbury Plain’. Later that year he visited William and his brother Raisley at their family farm at Windy Brow on the slopes of Latrigg near Keswick. 

In early April of the following year William invited Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, to stay at Windy Brow. Wordsworth and Dorothy were delighted. They had been separated since childhood. After the death of their mother in 1778 Dorothy had been sent away to live with relatives. They had met up again in Halifax for six weeks but now they looked forward to a holiday together. They travelled by coach to Kendal then walked the eighteen miles to Grasmere and a further fifteen miles to Keswick. William Calvert was away with his regiment but Wordsworth and Dorothy stayed with his tenants at the Windy Brow farmhouse (Right). Dorothy loved staying at Windy Brow. She wrote to her friend, Jane Pollard, saying how delighted she was with the situation of the house.

She described, in glowing terms, the view from her window which looked out over the River Greta, Keswick town and Derwent water. She described how cheaply she and her brother could live, with milk for breakfast and supper and mainly potatoes for dinner. There was a terrace path on the slopes of Latrigg, above the house, where Dorothy enjoyed walking and admiring the view of the vale of Keswick . They spent a month at Windy Brow and it was during this time that Dorothy first started to copy out Wordsworth’s poems: a job which she would continue to do for the rest of her active life. 

Later in 1794 Wordsworth returned to Windy Brow to find that William’s brother, Raisley, was very ill with consumption. William was with his regiment in Tynemouth, Northumberland. Wordsworth suggested that he might accompany Raisley on a visit to Portugal to improve his health if William would cover the costs. At the same time Raisley decided to write a will. He left everything to his brother except for a £600 legacy (later increased to £900) to Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote to William asking for money for the trip to Portugal. William responded immediately and offered to pay all costs. Wordsworth and Raisley set off but they only got as far as Penrith and had to turn back the next day because Raisley was worse. Wordsworth stayed to nurse Raisley at Windy Brow but Raisley died in January 1795. Raisley’s legacy was a valuable asset for Wordsworth at this time.

There are records to show the visited family and went to a "hunting lodge" which is strong evidence that they visited Glossop at this time. During the early periods of Glossop Hall it was used as a holiday home and a hunting lodge. it is just wonderful to think that this great man made his presents in Glossop itself.

This friendship was so strong that William Wordsworth visited Raisley on his deathbed and personally cared for him right up until his death in 1794. Unknown to William, Raisley had left him a legacy of nine hundred pounds, a small fortune of the day, as a mark of gratitude. William never forgot this as he wrote later:

 Manchester and Liverpool Railway in 1825 by Charles Calvert

"Calvert! It must not be unheard by them
Who may respect my name, that I to thee
Owed many years of early liberty.
This care was thine when sickness did condemn
Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem."

Charles Calvert Junior became a great landscape painter and teacher of art. One of his most famous paintings was of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway in 1825. He was one of the founders of the Manchester Royal Institution now the Manchester City Art Gallery. He gained the Heywood gold medal for a landscape in oil, and the Heywood silver medal for a landscape in watercolour. He loved to spend his spare time in the Lake District. When he died he was buried at Bowness-on-Windermere.

Compiled By Matthew Cox

In Addition:

William Wordsworth died in 1850. A few years later the Greta Bank estate was sold to Mr Anthony Spedding. The house at Greta Bank was substantially rebuilt and has now been converted into apartments known as ‘Brundholme Country Houses’. Calvert’s Bridge has given its name to the nearby ‘Keswick Bridge’ Timeshare Lodges. In 1978 John Fryer Spedding set up the Calvert Trust to provide outdoor adventure activities for people with disabilities. The name was chosen in memory of Wordsworth’s benefactor, Raisley Calvert, ‘to represent friendship, support and the desire to help somebody to fulfill their potential’. The Windy Brow Farm where Wordsworth nursed Raisley is now owned by the Trust. Calvert was an interesting character. He had some influence on the Lake Poets, he took a keen interest in agricultural development and he was a kind and generous friend to those around him.

More Information & Sources

Calvert, Charles (1785–1852), landscape painter, born at Glossop Hall, Derbyshire, on 23 September 1785, was the eldest son of Charles Calvert (1754–1797), land agent, and his wife, Elizabeth Holliday (1751/2–1842). His father was agent of the duke of Norfolk's estate in Derbyshire and an amateur artist. Charles Calvert senior died on 13 June 1797 and was buried in St Mary's churchyard, Manchester. Calvert began business as a cotton merchant in Manchester, having been apprenticed to the cotton trade, but abandoned commerce for art and became a landscape painter. He was instrumental in the foundation of the Manchester Royal Institution (which later became Manchester City Art Gallery) and gained the Heywood gold medal (awarded to local artists) for a landscape in oil, and the Heywood silver medal for a landscape in watercolour. The Manchester Courier reported in 1828 that, of local artists, Calvert's paintings were the most consistently sold. He was not well known outside his region, however, and exhibited only two works in London, one of which, at the British Institution in 1825, was entitled Near Rustom, Cheshire.

Calvert devoted much of his time to teaching, and spent the remainder painting in the Lake District. Although confined to his bed in later years, he continued to paint landscapes from memory. He died at Bowness, Westmorland, on 26 February 1852, and was buried there. Examples of his work are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Manchester City Galleries.

Charles Calvert's brothers included , actor and lecturer on elocution, , surgeon, Henry Calvert (1785–c.1869), sporting and animal painter, and Michael Pease Calvert, painter. He was father-in-law to the portrait painter .

In the Dictionary of National Biography Raisley Calvert (bap. 1773, d. 1795), friend and benefactor of William Wordsworth, is incorrectly described as Charles Calvert's younger brother. Raisley Calvert was baptized on 16 September 1773, the younger son of Raisley Calvert senior (1728/9–1791), steward of the duke of Norfolk's estate at Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland. His elder brother was William Calvert (1771–1829), who was at school with Wordsworth at Hawkshead, Lancashire, where he later became schoolmaster. On the death of his father, William Calvert became a man of independent means, inheriting, with other property, the estate of Bowness on the east shore of Bassenthwaite, near Keswick. Raisley Calvert inherited from his father several farms near Keswick, the income from which was held in trust until he attained his majority in 1794. He was admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 14 February 1793, where he became friends with Wordsworth, but left soon afterwards with a resolve to educate himself by travel on the continent. Though described in the Dictionary of National Biography as a sculptor, no evidence has come to light of any works sculpted by Raisley Calvert. On falling ill with consumption, he returned to the Lake District, where he died at Penrith after 7 January 1795, when Dorothy Wordsworth mentioned that he was ‘barely alive’ (Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, 139). He was buried on 12 January. In his will, signed on 23 October 1794, Raisley Calvert left £900 to Wordsworth. The poet subsequently wrote a sonnet, ‘To the Memory of Raisley Calvert’, and later mentioned him in lines 349–67 of the thirteenth book of The Prelude:

A Youth (he bore

The name of Calvert.

(lines 349–50)

Sources  

W. E. A. Axon, rev. L. R. Houliston, Art Journal, 14 (1852), 150 · S. Urbans, GM, 2nd ser., 37 (1852), 630 · T. Fawcett, The rise of English provincial art: artist, patron and institution outside London, 1800–1830 (1974) · G. Meissner, ed., Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, [new edn, 34 vols.] (Leipzig and Munich, 1983–) · M. Hall, The artists of Cumbria (1979) · D. Child, Painters in the northern counties of England and Wales (1994) · Bryan, Painters (1903–5) · Redgrave, Artists · Mallalieu,Watercolour artists · M. H. Grant, A chronological history of the old English landscape painters, rev. edn, 8 vols. (1957–61) · IGI · H. M. Cundall, A history of British water colour painting (1908), 193 · The letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. E. De Selincourt, 2nd edn, rev. C. L. Shaver, M. Moorman, and A. G. Hill, 8 vols. (1967–93), vol. 2, pp. 81, 97, 126n., 139–40 · W. Wordsworth, Poems, in two volumes, and other poems, 1800–1807, ed. J. Curtis (1983), 151–2