Latrobe was born in Baltimore, the son of patent lawyer and Latrobe stove inventor John H.B. Latrobe and Virginia Charlotte Claiborne, and the grandson of the American architect and engineer Benjamin Henry Latrobe. In his mother's line, he was the grandson of Gen. Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne and the great-nephew of William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Mississippi, the Louisiana Territory, and the State of Louisiana. Latrobe was educated at the College of St. James in Washington County, Maryland. Latrobe worked as a clerk in a mercantile house in Baltimore and as counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1858. He then studied law with his father and was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1860. In 1860, he was also appointed judge-advocate-general by then Governor of Maryland, Thomas H. Hicks and assisted in reorganizing the Maryland state militia under the Act of 1868, which he authored. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1867, serving until 1872, and was Speaker of the House in 1870. While serving in the House he held the position of Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. In 1875, he was elected Mayor of Baltimore and served until 1877. The same year, Latrobe and then Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll, were present throughout strikes and outbreaks of violence during the Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 that erupted in as part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. He was reelected in 1878 and served two more terms until 1881. In 1883 he was again elected mayor, serving until 1885. During this latter term, a seven-mile tunnel was built to direct water from the Gunpowder River to Baltimore. He was again elected mayor, serving from 1887 until 1889, and served a final two mayoral terms from 1891 until 1895. He served as speaker of the House of Delegates in 1901. In 1860, Latrobe married Louisa Sherlock Swann, daughter of Thomas Swann, who was formerly Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland. They had one son, Thomas, before she died in 1865. Latrobe married Ellen Penrose, the widow of Thomas Swann, Jr., in 1880 and together they had three children: Ferdinande Charlotte, Ellen Virginia, and Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe, Jr.,.
Quotes
"We have always had the most beautiful women and the finest oysters in the world, and now we have the best baseball club."
