Charles Carroll

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Charles Carroll (disambiguation) .

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Charles Carroll of Carrollton (born September 19, 1737 in Annapolis ( Province of Maryland ), † November 14, 1832 in Baltimore ) was a politician in Maryland and one of the founding fathers of the United States . He was the only Catholic and the last surviving signer of the US Declaration of Independence of 1776.

14 counties or parishes in the United States were named after him, see Carroll County , and the places Carrollton in Ohio, Carrollton in Kentucky and New Carrollton in Maryland.

Life

Charles Carroll came from a wealthy Irish Catholic immigrant family. His grandfather Charles Carroll, the Settler (1660-1720) emigrated to Maryland, the only Catholic colony among the otherwise strictly Protestant British colonies in North America, in 1688 because of the discrimination against Catholics in Ireland , and served here for Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore as military commissioner. When the Catholic King James II was chased from the English throne in the Glorious Revolution , a rebellion broke out in Maryland as well, with the aim of overthrowing the Catholic colonial administration of Lord Baltimore. Charles Carroll's grandfather lost his public office because of his Catholic faith, but was given six extensive estates in Maryland by Lord Baltimore to compensate, which he and his descendants successfully increased over time. The Carroll family became the wealthiest family in Maryland.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the only son of Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702–1781) and Elizabeth Brooke (1709–1761). His life can be divided into three periods of approximately 30 years each: the years of education, the time in public life and the years in retirement.

Education (1737–1770)

Together with his cousin John Carroll , who later became the first Catholic bishop of the USA, he first received an education in the school at Bohemian Manor, which was illegally operated in secret by the Jesuits . At the age of 12 he went to Europe with his cousin to attend the college in St. Omer in northern France . From 1757 he studied law in France and England and later practiced as a lawyer in Paris and London . After 16 years in Europe, he returned to Maryland in February 1765. His father gave him Carrollton Manor , a vast estate in Frederick County. From then on he always drew papers with Charles Carroll of Carrollton . In 1768 he married Mary (Molly) Darnell (1749–1782), the daughter of Henry Darnell IV (1725–1772) and Rachel Brooke (1731–1781), with whom he had 7 children.

Time in public service (1770–1801)

Carroll campaigned for Maryland's independence from England at an early stage. His political career began in 1770 when he became a spokesman for the resistance movement against unjust colonial taxes. In 1773 Carroll fought under the pseudonym First Citizen in a writer warfare with Daniel Delany, in which he spoke out against any tax that was not approved by American representatives of the people. These articles in the Maryland Gazette made Carroll nationally known and at the same time promoted his political career. He advocated military resistance against England and advocated independence. In 1776 he was therefore sent by the Continental Congress along with Benjamin Franklin , Samuel Chase and his cousin John Carroll on a diplomatic mission to Canada . They wanted to win the Canadians for an alliance against the English colonial power. The mission failed, however, and Canada remained a British colony.

When Maryland decided to support the revolution , Carroll was elected as that state's delegate to the Continental Congress. He arrived at the congress venue too late to approve the declaration, but in time to sign it. Carroll was the only Catholic signatory to the Declaration of Independence.

During his tenure in the Continental Congress, Carroll served on the War Committee of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). In 1780 he refused a new mandate for Congress. From 1781 to 1800 he was an uninterrupted member of the Maryland Senate. On 10 December 1788 he became one of the first two senators for Maryland in the Senate of the United States selected to represent the West Coast, John Henry was elected as a representative of the East Coast. On November 30, he resigned as a US Senator after the Maryland Parliament passed a law prohibiting concurrent state and Union mandates to remain in the Maryland Senate. Richard Potts was elected as his successor on January 10, 1793 .

Retired (1801–1832)

Carroll retired from public life in 1801. In 1827 he was still involved in the establishment and laying of the foundation stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . After Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4, 1826 , Carroll was the last survivor of the men who had signed the Declaration of Independence 50 years earlier. Carroll died in Baltimore in 1832 at the age of 95 and was buried in the Doughoregan Manor Chapel in Ellicott City, Maryland. He was Maryland's richest man during his lifetime.

His property, called Homewood House in north Baltimore, became the campus of Johns Hopkins University in 1876 . The Carroll family home has been preserved as a museum and its architectural style served as a model for the university buildings.

Twelve counties in the United States are named after Carroll . In addition, a number of parishes bear his name and that of his extensive family.

Significant family members

Carroll's extensive family played a large role in the colonial history of Maryland and in the early years of the United States .

• Charles Carroll (1723–1783), barrister and delegate to the Continental Congress from Maryland, married to the daughter of Matthew Tilghman
• Daniel Carroll (1730–1796), signatory to the American Constitution and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States , close confidante of George Washington and involved in the town planning of Washington, DC
• John Carroll (1735–1815), first Catholic bishop and later first archbishop of the United States, founder of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and founder of Georgetown University , now the oldest Catholic university in the United States
• Anna Ella Carroll (1815-1894), was a publicist and lobbyist from Maryland on the side of the Union in the American Civil War , who also advised Lincoln personally.

progeny

Charles Carroll of Carrollton had 7 children with his wife Mary (Molly) Darnell (1749–1782), only 3 of whom reached adulthood:

1. Elizabeth Carroll (* 1769)
2. Mary (Polly) Carroll Caton (1770–1846), married to Richard Caton (1763–1845). One of her daughters, Mary Ann (Marianne) Caton (1788-1853), was married to Robert Patterson († 1822), brother of Elizabeth Patterson , and was therefore related by marriage to Napoléon Bonaparte . In the second marriage Mary Ann married Richard Colley Wellesley (1760-1842), brother of British Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley , the Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo defeated
3. Louisa Rachel Carroll (* 1772)
4. Charles Carroll of Homewood (1775-1825), married to Harriet Chew
5. Anne Brooke Carroll (* 1776)
6. Catherine (Kitty) Carroll (1778–1861), married to Robert Goodloe Harper
7. Elizabeth Carroll (1780–1783)

Web links

• Biography from the American Congress
• Signers of the Declaration of Independence - short biografy
• Charles Carroll of Carrollton in Catholic Encyclopedia
• BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON - Resident of the Mansion and Signer of the Declaration of Independence - Caroll Museums

Individual evidence

1. ^ A New Nation Votes, Maryland 1788 US Senate, Ballot 2 , January 11, 2012, accessed November 25, 2019
2. ↑ CARROLL, Charles (of Carrollton), (1737 - 1832) , Biographical Directory of the United States Congress retrieved November 25, 2019
3. ↑ Charles Curry Aiken, Joseph Nathan Kane: The American Counties: Origins of County Names, Dates of Creation, Area, and Population Data, 1950-2010 . 6th edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8762-6 , p. Xiv.