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Norfolk Highlights 1584 - 1881
By George Holbert Tucker
Chapter 12
A Colorful Pre-Revolutionary Mayor
It took a cool head and plenty of self-confidence to charge into a
mob of brawling sailors and come out unscathed. Fortunately, Maximilian
Calvert (1722-1782), Norfolk's most colorful pre-Revolutionary mayor,
had both qualities in abundance. This is how his daughter, Mrs. Helen
Calvert Maxwell Read, tells the anecdote in her memoirs:
"My father was for many years an alderman of the Borough Court
and sometime Mayor of Norfolk. One night, it seems, there was a great
riot in Portsmouth, from the sailors of a Spanish ship who had broken
loose and taken the streets and were carrying all before them. The trustees
and citizens came out to stop them, but without effect, when they bethought
themselves to send over to the Mayor of Norfolk for help. My father,
of course, repaired with all dispatch to the scene, dressed out in his
best coat with his long cane, and a posse of gentlemen and constables
in his train, and rushing into the midst of the mob, commanded them
all to disperse in the name of the Commonwealth. This, however, though
somewhat awed by his voice (which he had been used to raise in a gale
of wind), they were rather unwilling to do, (and) demanded who he was
that they should obey him. To which, aware of the respect which they
all attached to long names, he dexterously replied, assuming his most
dignified air, 'I am Don Maximilian Calverto, Grand Magistrate de Norfolco
Boro' -- upon which, not doubting he was a grandee of the first rank,
they all took off their hats to him and returned very peacefully to
their ship. This exploit, of course, got him great fame in those days."
Calvert, mayor of Norfolk in 1765 and 1769, was a picturesque character.
He was the second of thirteen children of Cornelius Calvert, the founder
of a well-known old Norfolk family, and Mary Saunders Calvert, the daughter
of an Anglican clergyman. He went to sea at an early age, and by the
time he was in his late teens he was captain of a vessel sailing between
Norfolk and the West Indies, all of which made his daughter recall another
good story concerning him.
"He had been ashore one day while his ship was lying in the harbor
of Bridgetown to dine with a gentlman of that place, and returning on
board rather late in the evening after having dined and drunk pretty
freely, of course, as the fashion was, he found that the mate had turned
in and fastened the cabin door, and unwilling to wake him up he threw
himself on the deck and slept the whole night.
But the next morning he found that his knee was stiff, from the effect
of the night air, and all the doctors whom he consulted were unable
to restore it again. This defect, however, did not diminish but somewhat
increased the stateliness of his gait, by making him carry himself still
more erect, and his walk and carriage were imposing. He used to dress
well, and wore the fine old-fashioned coat with large cuffs and ruffles
at the hand. He was of gay and sociable disposition, fond of talking
and joking, and lived on the best terms with his friends and neighbors."
Mayor Calvert also liked high living and this is how his daughter recalled
his eating and drinking habits for posterity.
"My father was fond of good living, and kept a famous cook --
poor old Quashabee, the ugliest creature my eyes ever beheld, but a
capital cook, and made the best soups, sauces, gravies, and all such
things, in the world. He was also fond of good drinking, though he never
drank to excess. He was particularly fond of arrack punch (which, however,
he drank weak), and always kept his silver tankard by him holding three
pints, which he would empty two or three times a day, till the doctors
began to be afraid he would fall into a lethargy, of which he showed
some symptoms, and limited him to one."
 Chapter
13
Paul Loyall and the Press Gang
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