The names of the most prominent Founding Fathers are well-known—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and so on – yet, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll (1737-1832) who was destined to outlive all the other signers of that historic document. Carrollton, his 10,000-acre estate in Maryland’s Frederick County, was given to him by his father, after returning from being educated in Europe. Charles Carroll of Carrollton descended from revolutionary Irishmen once known as the O’Carrolls. It is said that the O’Carrolls trace their ancestry to the early Irish kings, the Ó’Cearbhaill chiefs of Éile. It is also said that his genealogical lineage descends from Irish rebels.
Immigrating to Colonial Maryland
While the ancestry is somewhat speculative, the grandfather of the American clan, Charles Carroll, known as Charles the Settler, immigrated to Maryland in 1659. A friend of Lord Baltimore, Charles the Settler hoped that Maryland would provide refuge from the anti-Catholic sentiments that then pervaded Ireland. The land grants received by Charles the Settler in 1706 enabled his son, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, to develop the family domicile, Doughoregan Manor.
As the son of Charles of Annapolis, the future Charles Carroll of Carrolton was destined for greatness and the elder Charles knew that a Catholic education would be the means needed to achieve it. Due to severe constraints on Catholicism, the boy was first home-schooled and, then, sent to Bohemia Manor across Chesapeake Bay. At the opportune age, he was sent to Saint Omers School in France. Afterwards, for almost fifteen years, he would live and study abroad. He was proficient in French and excelled in literature and philosophy. At that Jesuit school, he acquired the skills and knowledge he would so effectively use later in life.
Charles of Annapolis kept his son well-informed about what was going on in the colonies. During the Seven Years War, when the war between the Catholic French and Protestant British raged in the new world, the plight of Catholic colonists became even bleaker. From St. Omers, he progressed to a collegiate level, studying philosophy in Paris and the humanities in Rheims. Through reading John Locke and Montesquieu—later on Voltaire—the future cries of the American Revolution were seeded in his young mind. Then, he moved to London in an attempt to study British law, but his Catholicism proved to be his undoing. However, his observations of the British Parliament yielded valuable information, which he sent back to his father in Maryland.
After returning to the colony in 1764, Carroll the younger sought to establish himself and built his own manor known as Carrollton. Seeking a suitable partner, his fiancée Rachel Cook died before their wedding; eventually, he married Mary Darnell and they had seven children, though only three survived beyond infancy: Mary, Kitty, and Charles Jr. who was later known as Charles Carroll of Homewood. While his religion prevented him from practicing law, under a pseudonym known as First Citizen, he debated a proposed fee or tax on the colonists with a man named Daniel Dulany. A poorly-kept secret, Dulany decried First Citizen’s Catholicism. Carroll sparred with him against those fees, as well as advocated repeal of the anti-Catholic laws, expansion of religious freedom, and separation of church and state. Twice, he was dispatched to Canada seeking help from the French for the country’s revolutionary cause due to his proficiency in French and his Catholic faith.
On the Fourth of July in 1776, he was made a delegate to the Continental Congress. Then, about a month later, when given the opportunity to sign the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776, Charles Carroll reportedly replied that he would sign “most willingly.” Historical legend claims that when Carroll initially signed, he did so only as “Charles Carroll”. John Hancock challenged his dedication to the cause and the patriot audaciously suggested that “Charles Carroll” was a common enough name that Carroll could escape persecution by claiming a case of mistaken identity. Without argument, Carroll added the designation “of Carrollton,” at which point another member was said to have whispered, “There goes another million,” in reference to the vast sum that Carroll stood to lose by signing. At the time he signed the Declaration, it was against the law for a Catholic to hold public office or to vote.
Although Maryland was founded by and for Catholics in 1634, in 1649 and, later, in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution placed severe restrictions on Catholics in England, the laws were changed in Maryland and Catholicism was repressed. He was a staunch supporter of George Washington, and when the war was going badly at Valley Forge, he was instrumental in persuading the Revolution’s Board of War not to replace Washington with General Horatio Gates. Carroll supported the war with his own private funds; he was widely regarded as the wealthiest of all the colonists, with the most to lose were the fight for independence to fail. Carroll was greatly acclaimed in later life, and he outlived all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Nature and dignity 