Charles Steuart

Dr Charles Steuart (1750-1798) was a physician and landowner in colonial Maryland. Although a Loyalist by inclination, he was a member of the Flying Camp militia during the American Revolutionary War and was present with General George Washington at the Siege of Yorktown.
Early life
Steuart was born in 1750 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, the third son of the planter and politician George H. Steuart (1700-1784), and Ann Digges. He was raised at Dodon, his family's tobacco plantation on the South River near Annapolis.
Revolutionary War
Steuart's family was divided by the American Revolution. His father, George H. Steuart, held estates in both Maryland and Scotland and so, at the outbreak of war in 1775, he sailed to Scotland, pragmatically dividing his property between his sons.
Charles Steuart's involvement in the Revolutionary War is not wholly clear. His name appears in the Maryland Archives in the Muster Rolls, Volume 18, 1775-1783, at page 647, as a member of:
:"Captain Smith's Company of Militia for service of the Flying Camp - commencing - 19th Sept 1776 - 60 men at £5/10/0 each - certified by Richard Smith".
The Flying Camp was a division of the patriot Militia during the war, loyal to the United States.
However, according to the memoirs of his nephew Richard Sprigg Steuart, he was a Loyalist, being - like his Mother Ann - "decidedly of the Tory faction". This did not, apparently, stop him being with General George Washington at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. According to his nephew's memoirs, both he and his wife's brother were notified at the same time of the birth of their sons:
:"it so happened that both these young husbands were at the siege of Yorktown, in the family of General Washington, when the news came to them that each had a son and heir, born within a few days of each other. I have seen these sons when young men and old men, and I never saw twins more alike".
Family
On June 14th 1780 he married Elizabeth Calvert (1760-1814), the third daughter of Benedict Swingate Calvert (1724-1788), and granddaughter of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore (1699-1751). Elizabeth's sister Eleanor Calvert (1758-1811) was married to John Parke Custis (1754-1781), the stepson of General George Washington, which probably accounts for their presence with Washington at the Siege of Yorktown.
They had four children:
* George Calvert Steuart (1781-?)
* Benedict Steuart (1782-?)
* Elizabeth Steuart (1784-?) died in infancy.
* Dr Charles Calvert Steuart (1784-1836), physician.
In 1784 he remarried, to one Mary Waters.
In 1787 his older brother George Steuart Hume, who held substantial estates in Scotland, died, leaving an infant daughter Sophia as his only heir. Steuart unsuccessfully sued his niece Sophia Hume for the inheritance of his brother's Scottish estates of Argaty, Ballachallan and Annat. According to Alexander B Barty, in his book "Argaty, its Lairds and its Barony":
:"At that time there was a doubt whether under the Entail Sophia Home was entitled to succeed her, or whether George Home's brothers, namely Charles Steuart, was now heir. Was decided in favour of the infant Sophia."

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