The ‘Original’ Calvert Legacy
In 1794, orphaned and without anywhere to live, William and Dorothy Wordsworth were given their first home, just outside Keswick, rent free, by the Calvert Family. Raisley Calvert was a childhood friend of Wordsworth and believed in Wordsworth’s potential as a poet.
Raisley died, aged 21, of tuberculosis. In his Will, he left Wordsworth the legacy of £900 that was to give him the independence that would allow him to devote himself entirely to poetry and become the Poet Laureate we know today.
Wordsworth immortalised his friend’s legacy in published word:
‘Calvert! It must not be unheard by them who may respect my name,
that I to thee owed many years of early liberty’
Sonnet to the memory of Raisley Calvert
Thus was born, the spirit of Calvert Giving. Over two centuries later, we are so very grateful that it is still alive and well.
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