Notes for Charles Carroll

!NOTE: Charles Carroll of "Carrollton" and signer of "The Declaration of Independence" 2 Aug. 1776, was married to Mary Darnall June 1768.They had three children.His elder kinsman Charles Carroll "Barrister" was married to Margaret Tilghman, they had twins that died in infancy. Charles Carroll of Carrollton signed the "Declaration of Rights" at the convention in Maryland; 3 Nov.1776. It was the Barristers' sister Mary Clare Carroll that married Nicholas Maccubbin.
Charles Carroll of Annapolis' extraordinary drive to enlarge his fortune was matched by his determination to have an heir who was mentally and morally fit to receive and preserve the legacy. He married Elizabeth Brooke on February 15, 1757. They had only one child, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (called "Charley".)
Daniel Carroll signed the Constitution and Charles signed the Declaration of Independence. These two Carroll men however were not related. Two separate Carrolls, arriving from Ireland 30 years apart. Their only relationship is that both their forebears married into the Darnall Family. There is no blood relationship. They are "cousins" by marriage only. In 1787 Daniel Carroll was a member of the Constitutional Convention from Maryland, not Charles Carroll as some here claim. Furthermore, the Constitutional Convention finished their work on the final language of the Constitution on September 17, 1787, and the 39 delegates present and agreed, signed it. Only later, on September 28, 1787, was the Constitution sent to the States for ratification.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton has always been most widely acclaimed for an honor he received by default: on July 4, 1826 with the almost simultaneous deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, he became the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He married Mary Darnall on June 5, 1768. Molly was pretty and spirited and the Carroll's led an active social life in Annapolis where they lived. The first baby, a daughter named Elizabeth was born in 1769. By 1780, Molly had delivered seven children and buried three. Molly died in 1782.
Charles served as a state senator from February 1777 but was ousted in 1800 by the Democrats. When the United States government was created, the Maryland legislature elected him the first United States Senate (1788). In 1792 Maryland passed a law the prohibited any man from serving in the State and national congresses at the same time. Since he preferred to be in the Maryland Senate, he resigned from the U. S. Senate on November 30, 1792 His political, economic and social successes were enormous, but he had one very personal failure, and that was his son Charles Carroll of Homewood. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was hopeful that his son's marriage in July 1800 to Harriet Chew of Philadelphia, daughter of the Chief Justice of the state court of Pennsylvania and sister of Colonel John Eager Howard's wife Peggy, would have a settling effect, but again was to be disappointed. Young Charles' refusal to keep correct and clear accounts in the cost of building and furnishing the house at Homewood which the elder Carroll had promised the newlyweds. It cost $40,000, four times what Carroll had intended to spend. In June 1816 Harriet and her four daughters, Elizabeth, Mary Sophia, Harriet and Louisa moved permanently to Philadelphia (son Charles Carroll V shortly left for school abroad.)
Charles retired from public life in 1801, although he did help to create the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1827. After Jefferson and Adams died, on July 4, 1826 he became the only surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He died in November 14, 1832 at Baltimore, and is buried in the Doughoregan Manor Chapel at Ellicott City, Maryland. A number of states created a Carroll County, named in his honor.
His 140-acre estate in northern Baltimore, Homewood, was made the main campus of Johns Hopkins University in 1876. The Carroll family manor is preserved as a museum, and its beautiful Georgian architecture serves as a model for the university halls.
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