Before the English courts could rule on the case, the American Revolution broke out. Caroline Eden would however lose her claim - Harford succeeded in winning his father's inheritance; the rents from the Calvert estates in Britain were awarded to Harford by Act of Parliament - the Estate Act of 1780. But in 1781 the new State of Maryland confiscated all of Henry Harford's estates and used their income to help finance the cash-strapped revolutionary government and its militia. After the war Harford made strenuous efforts to win compensation but without success.