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Delegates to the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 56 delegates who signed the formal break from Britain are all considered Founding Fathers.
Maryland had four delegates. This week's profile features Charles Carroll, the wealthiest of the signers, who had the most to lose if they were not successful.
Carroll was born Sept. 19, 1737, in Annapolis, Maryland. He was an only child of Charles Carroll and Elizabeth Brooke.
When Carroll was 11, his father sent him to school in Europe because Maryland laws restricted Catholic education. He studied in France, earning a master's degree in philosophy. He also studied law in France and London before returning to Maryland after 16 years abroad.
Upon his return to Maryland in 1765, he managed the Carrollton estate that his father had gifted to him. He also changed his name to Charles Carroll of Carrollton to distinguish it from his father's.
Carroll couldn't practice law in Maryland because Catholics were forbidden from that profession, and he was also barred from voting and running for public office because of his faith. He would later be the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.
He married Mary Darnall June 5, 1768. They had seven children, but only three survived to adulthood: Mary, Catherine and Charles Carroll Jr. Carroll's wife and father both died in 1782.
His father's death made Carroll the wealthiest man in the Colonies. His agricultural holdings included the 10,000-acre Carrollton estate and his 10,000-acre country home, Doughoregan Manor.
Carroll was a successful merchant and owned shares in the profitable Baltimore Iron Works, which his father and three others founded in 1731. He would later help fund the Revolutionary War using his wealth.
In 1773, he entered politics with a series of anonymous letters against taxation, published in the local newspaper under the pen name "First Citizen." The following year, Carroll was elected to serve as a delegate to the Second Maryland Convention, which ended the ban on Catholics holding public office in Maryland.
In 1776, he helped draft Maryland's constitution, which protected religious freedom and was elected a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He remained in Congress until 1778, when he returned to Maryland.
From 1781 to 1800, Carroll served as a Maryland state senator, and from 1789 to 1792, he was elected as the state's first U.S. senator. In 1792, the Maryland legislature passed a law banning persons from serving concurrently in the state legislature and Congress.
He retired from politics in 1800, but continued to work, establishing two national banks and serving as an instrumental board member for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Carroll died Nov. 14, 1832, at the age of 95, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He and his wife were buried in the family chapel at Doughoregan Manor, near Ellicott City, Maryland.
Throughout the country, many cities, towns and counties are named for him, including Carroll Counties in Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia. There are also an East Carroll Parish and a West Carroll Parish, both in Louisiana.
New Carrollton, Maryland, is named for him, as are Carroll, Iowa; Carroll, Ohio; Carrollton, Georgia; Carrollton, Texas; Carrollton, Illinois; Carrollton, Ohio; Carrollton, Missouri; and Carrollton, Kentucky. Tampa, Florida, has a section called Carrollwood. Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and Carroll Creek Park is in Frederick, Maryland.
His name also appears on many schools, including Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Carroll Hall, a University of Notre Dame residence hall.
In 1903, the state of Maryland placed a bronze statue of Carroll in the U.S. Capitol.
The Carrollton Viaduct in Baltimore is the world's oldest stone masonry railway bridge still in use; Carroll laid its cornerstone July 4, 1828. Notably, he's the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to see the first railroad in operation in the United States, bridging the Colonial era and the Industrial Revolution.
The attack transport USS Charles Carroll and the Liberty ship SS Charles Carroll were both named for him during World War II.
This is the 15th installment in a series of articles about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, are all considered Founding Fathers.
