Although a popular governor and an able administrator, Eden's authority was overthrown by the events of the American Revolution, and in June 1776 he was invited by the Maryland Convention to leave for England.

[citation needed] On 30 December 1774 Eden wrote: The spirit of resistance against the Tea Act, or any mode of internal taxation, is as strong and universal here as ever.

I firmly believe that they will undergo any hardship sooner than acknowledge a right in the British Parliament in that particular, and will persevere in their non-importation and non-exportation experiments, in spite of every inconvenience that they must consequently be exposed to, and the total loss of their trade.

In the event, Maryland was the only state that did not forcibly eject its last colonial governor from office, choosing instead a formal and largely courteous transfer of power.

The Maryland Convention had been pressed by the Continental Congress (and the Virginians in particular) to arrest and detain Eden but they demurred, preferring to avoid such an "extreme" measure.

[4] His son Sir Frederick Morton Eden, 2nd Baronet, of Maryland (1766–1809) was a pioneering writer and the author of The State of the Poor, published in 3 volumes in 1797.