{ "checked_at": "2026-10-07T23:06:35.299043+00:00", "series_number": 3, "scope": "One biography. A research pass built the claim ledger; the writer then re-read the decisive sources (State Archives extended biography, Hoffman's AAS lecture, the 1979 Biographical Dictionary page images, the Convention and Continental Congress journals, Niles' Weekly Register, Unpublished Letters, Rowland vol. 2, The African Repository, the will's recorded pages 2, 3, 14 and 16, Wheeler's Maryland Press, Gorelic's Prologue article and the institutional object records) before publication. Uncertainties are retained rather than filled with inference.", "sources": [ { "id": "msa-bio", "title": "Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), MSA SC 3520-209, Archives of Maryland Biographical Series (short biography)", "url": "https://www.msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/html/209bio.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Supports birth date/place, parents, education dates, marriage, offices (Md. Senate 1777-1800, president 1783, Continental Congress 1776, 1777-78, 1780, U.S. Senate 1789-92), death 14 Nov 1832 in Baltimore, burial at Doughoregan. Its footnotes all cite Eisenberg, Marylanders Who Served the Nation (1992), so it is a compiled reference, not independent primary evidence." }, { "id": "msa-extbio", "title": "Charles Carroll of Carrollton, MSA SC 3520-209, Extended Biography (incl. 2025-26 revision on his enslaving)", "url": "https://www.msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/html/209extbio.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: 1773 First Citizen role; June 1776 convention resolution rescinding restrictive instructions; chosen delegate 4 July 1776; arrived Philadelphia 18 July; signed 2 Aug; last surviving signer after 1826; 'more than 350' enslaved at his death; and, crucially, that neither the Archives nor Mary Clement Jeske (2022) could find the supposed 1797 gradual-abolition bill in the Senate journals. Does not itself give citations for the 350 figure (refers to its sources page and Jeske 2022). Also says he studied at the Middle Temple and returned 'in 1764' (other sources say Feb 1765 arrival)." }, { "id": "msa-sources", "title": "Charles Carroll of Carrollton, MSA SC 3520-209, Sources page", "url": "https://www.msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/html/209sources.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Lists archival sources: Baltimore County Register of Wills inventories 1833 (vol. 42), his will (Baltimore County Wills vol. 15 pp. 1-28, 1834), 1835 petitions by heirs for sale of 'certain Negroes' on Folly Farm and Doughoregan, and Senate Votes and Proceedings Nov. session 1797. Also cites Jeske, MdHM Winter 2022, 185-225. A finding aid only; supports existence of these records, not their content." }, { "id": "bdml", "title": "Papenfuse, Day, Jordan, Stiverson, 'Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton', A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789, vol. 1 (Johns Hopkins UP, 1979), pp. 197-199 (scan hosted by MSA)", "url": "https://www.msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/pdf/carrollbiodic.pdf", "source_type": "Specialist scholarship", "supports_and_limits": "Detailed, archive-based reference entry: education dates by month, Senate presidency dates (22 May and 23 Dec 1783), congressional elections, resignation from U.S. Senate 30 Nov 1792, wealth figures (loans at interest 1768/1788/1798/1804; 1783 assessment of 453 enslaved; 1800 count of 182 at Doughoregan; 1768 estimate of 'over 300'), acreage, inventory value at death (TEV $1,460,004.86 incl. 259 slaves; final balance $680,250.14), ACS president 1830, B&O 4 July 1828. LIMITS: its 1797 abolition-bill line has since been questioned by MSA itself (see msa-extbio); 1979 work; figures are as the dictionary states them, sourced to Md. records and Hoffman-era research." }, { "id": "jcc-4", "title": "Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, vol. 4 (Jan. 1-June 4, 1776), ed. W. C. Ford (Library of Congress, 1906), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/journalsofcontin04unit", "source_type": "Congressional journal", "supports_and_limits": "Supports the 15 Feb 1776 choice of Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll of Carrollton as the Canada committee, the request that Carroll prevail on John Carroll to accompany, the 20 March 1776 commission text, and a 4 June 1776 payment for a Canada draft. Does not record departure/arrival dates in Canada (see Carroll's journal)." }, { "id": "jcc-5", "title": "Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, vol. 5 (June 5-Oct. 8, 1776), ed. W. C. Ford (Library of Congress, 1906), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/journalsofcontin05unit", "source_type": "Congressional journal", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: 11 June 1776 Chase and Carroll, arrived from Canada, gave account to Congress; 18 July 1776 Maryland delegates laid before Congress the Annapolis convention's 4 July resolution naming Carroll a deputy; same day Carroll named to committee on Lord Howe's letters and elected an added member of the Board of War; 2 Aug 1776 engrossed Declaration 'signed'. The journal does not list who signed on 2 Aug by name in the entry (signature list printed separately); editors' note refers to Friedenwald for the signing question." }, { "id": "md-conv-1776", "title": "Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776 (Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 78), sessions of 21 June-6 July 1776, pp. 163-206", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000078/html/am78--189.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Daily convention journal at Annapolis. Supports: Carroll of Carrollton 'appeared in the house' 24 June 1776; 28 June unanimous resolution recalling restrictive instructions; his recorded votes in divisions of 1 July and 4 July; 2 July 'All members present as on yesterday, except Mr. Sudler'; 4 July election of the seven deputies incl. Carroll. LIMITS: the printed journal does not name the mover of the 28 June resolution (MSA's extended bio credits Carroll); OCR text (verify against page images)." }, { "id": "canada-journal", "title": "Journal of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, during his visit to Canada, in 1776, as one of the commissioners from Congress, ed. Brantz Mayer (Maryland Historical Society, 1876), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/journalofcharles00carr", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "Carroll's own day-by-day journal (with Mayer's 19th-c. memoir and notes, which are secondary). Supports: left New York 2 April 1776; reached Montreal 29 April and were received by General Arnold; Franklin left Montreal 11 May; Chase and Carroll left Montreal 29 May; council of war 30 May decided to prepare an orderly retreat; arrived Philadelphia at 2 a.m. after setting off from Elizabethtown on 10 June. Mayer's notes quote the commissioners' letters to Congress (from Force, American Archives)." }, { "id": "rowland-1", "title": "Kate Mason Rowland, The Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 1737-1832, with his Correspondence and Public Papers, vol. 1 (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/lifecharlescarr01rowlgoog", "source_type": "Secondary (lead only)", "supports_and_limits": "Older biography that prints many letters. Used here only for (a) its explicit rejection of the 'of Carrollton' signing legend and its report that the 'There go a few millions' remark comes from John H. B. Latrobe's sketch in Sanderson's Lives of the Signers; (b) Carroll's 1830 letter to Rev. William B. Sprague. Not used as sole support for any fact. Dates Board of War appointment 19 July (JCC says 18 July)." }, { "id": "rowland-2", "title": "Kate Mason Rowland, The Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, vol. 2 (1898), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/cu31924032753604", "source_type": "Secondary (lead only)", "supports_and_limits": "Lead only: states he was elected president of the American Colonization Society in February 1830 on the death of Bushrod Washington; St. Charles College cornerstone 11 July 1831; prints late letters and funeral accounts." }, { "id": "unpub-letters", "title": "Unpublished Letters of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and of his Father, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan, ed. Thomas Meagher Field (U.S. Catholic Historical Society Monograph Series 1, 1902), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/UnpublishedLettersOfCharlesCarroll", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "Prints letters from family papers. Supports text of Carroll's letter to Edmund Jennings, 23 Nov. 1765 (Letter XXIX, pp. 98-100), including the signature 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton by which appellation...' and the 'definition of freedom' passage. The editor's narrative (e.g., arrival in Feb. 1765) is secondary. Transcription is a 1902 printed edition, not a facsimile." }, { "id": "senate-md-timeline", "title": "U.S. Senate, 'Maryland' state timeline (senate.gov)", "url": "https://www.senate.gov/states/MD/timeline.htm", "source_type": "Institutional historical interpretation", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: Carroll presented credentials and took his seat 13 April 1789; drew Class 1 (term to 1791) on 15 May 1789; resigned 30 Nov 1792 after the Maryland legislature disqualified state senators who held seats in Congress; he preferred his state seat. Also: 31 Jan 1903 Congress accepted Brooks's statue of Carroll for National Statuary Hall. Does not quote the Maryland act itself." }, { "id": "aomol-63", "title": "Archives of Maryland Online vol. 63, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly 1771-1773, Letter of Transmittal pp. x-xi (Barker, Pleasants, Semmes)", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000063/html/am63p--10.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Editorial introduction to the official legislative records. Supports: Gov. Eden's fee Proclamation of 26 Nov 1770; early in 1773 Carroll ('First Citizen') and Dulany ('Antilon') wrote in the Maryland Gazette, Dulany upholding and Carroll criticizing the proclamation; May 1773 election went against Eden's policies and Annapolis staged a mock funeral of the Proclamation (Md. Gazette 20 May 1773). Does not give dates of individual letters." }, { "id": "msa-papenfuse-1995", "title": "Edward C. Papenfuse (Maryland State Archivist), 'On Being a First Citizen', remarks, 17 Feb 1995 (MSA)", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/7047/html/ecpremar.html", "source_type": "Institutional historical interpretation", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: Carroll's first 'First Citizen' essay appeared in the Maryland Gazette of 4 Feb 1773 (printer Anne Catharine Green); Carroll as a Catholic 'could neither vote nor hold office'; exchange of eight letters. Ceremonial speech, not a scholarly article; use for dates corroborated elsewhere." }, { "id": "aomol-33", "title": "Archives of Maryland Online vol. 33, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly 1717-April 1720, Preface p. x", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000033/html/am33p--10.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: 1718 legislation repealing the milder Maryland act to give force to British anti-popery statutes and a law directly depriving Roman Catholics of the vote for the Assembly; Gov. Hart called Charles Carroll (the Signer's grandfather, 'the Settler') 'an enemy of his country on principle'. Does not itself address law practice." }, { "id": "md-const-1776", "title": "Constitution of Maryland and Declaration of Rights, 11 Nov 1776 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School)", "url": "https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ma02.asp", "source_type": "Institutional collection metadata", "supports_and_limits": "Text of the 1776 Declaration of Rights: Art. XXXIII (religious liberty for 'all persons, professing the Christian religion'), Art. XXXV (office test limited to oaths of fidelity/office 'and a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion'). Shows Catholics could hold office under the new state; non-Christians still excluded." }, { "id": "md-conv-aug1776", "title": "Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, 1774-1776 (AOMOL vol. 78), August 1776 session, p. 222", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000078/html/am78--222.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: on Saturday 17 Aug 1776 the convention balloted a seven-man committee (the President [Matthew Tilghman], Carroll barrister, Paca, Carroll of Carrollton, Plater, Samuel Chase, Goldsborough) to prepare a declaration and charter of rights and a form of government. Does not show which member drafted which article." }, { "id": "wheeler-md-press", "title": "Joseph Towne Wheeler, The Maryland Press, 1777-1790 (AOMOL vol. 438), item 57, pp. 92-93", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000438/html/am438--93.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Bibliographic description of the 1779 pamphlet 'A Letter From Charles Carroll, Senior, To The Reader. With His Petition to the General Assembly of Maryland; His Speech in Support of it; And, The Resolutions of the House of Delegates thereon' (Annapolis: Frederick Green, 1779; Evans 16216). Supports: on 13 Nov 1778 Charles Carroll Sr. petitioned to repeal the act making Congress and state bills of credit 'a legal tender in all cases'; the legislature refused, calling it necessary to the cause and public credit. Gives no money figures." }, { "id": "african-repository-1830", "title": "The African Repository and Colonial Journal, vol. 5 no. 12 (Feb. 1830), 'Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the American Colonization Society', pp. 361-372, archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/sim_african-repository_1830-02_5_12", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "The ACS's own journal. Supports: annual meeting held Monday evening 18 Jan 1830 in the Hall of the House of Representatives; tribute to the late President, Judge [Bushrod] Washington; 'The Hon. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was then chosen President of the Society'. OCR text. Does not say how active he was." }, { "id": "mht-doughoregan", "title": "Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland's National Register Properties: Doughoregan Manor (HO-22), NHL 11 Nov 1971", "url": "https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=63", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: house built c. 1727 by Charles Carroll II (of Annapolis), remodeled 1830s by Charles Carroll V; Carroll of Carrollton's country home 1766-1832; he is buried in the family chapel attached to the north end of the mansion; NHL 1971; estate then about 3,000 acres (1971 nomination). Does not address current public access." }, { "id": "csmonitor-2010", "title": "Peter Grier, 'In Howard County, Md., a tie to the Declaration of Independence', Christian Science Monitor, 16 Sept 2010", "url": "https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2010/0916/In-Howard-County-Md.-a-tie-to-the-Declaration-of-Independence", "source_type": "Secondary (lead only)", "supports_and_limits": "Journalism (2010): Doughoregan 'thought to be the only home of a signer still in family hands'; holdings down to about 900 acres; 500 acres put in county agricultural preservation. Dated; does not state public access. Used only, with attribution and date, for the statement that Doughoregan was thought to be the only signer's home still in family hands in 2010." }, { "id": "cch-site", "title": "Charles Carroll House of Annapolis (charlescarrollhouse.org), home page and 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton - The Signer' page", "url": "https://charlescarrollhouse.org/", "source_type": "Institutional historical interpretation", "supports_and_limits": "Supports that the Annapolis house is open seasonally for tours: home page (checked 7 Oct 2026) says the 2026 tour season has ended, updates coming in 2027, private tours by arrangement. Its biography page contains errors/unsourced claims (ACS president '1828-1831'; 'largest slaveholder'; 'nearly 400-500') and should not be used for those." }, { "id": "klugewicz-ic", "title": "Stephen M. Klugewicz, 'A Warm Friend of Toleration: Charles Carroll and Religious Freedom', The Imaginative Conservative (first pub. Aug 2012, reposted Sept 2024)", "url": "https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/09/charles-carroll-carrollton-toleration-religious-freedom-stephen-klugewicz.html", "source_type": "Secondary (lead only)", "supports_and_limits": "Footnoted essay quoting Carroll family letters (MCHC MS 206/220) and Hoffman, Princes of Ireland. Leads: parents' marriage Feb 1757 (marriage agreement 7 Nov 1756), birth given as 8 Sept 1737 (Old Style), 386 enslaved owned by the Carrolls in 1773 (citing Hoffman 250-257), tender-law letters. Not used as sole support for any established claim." }, { "id": "hoffman-aas", "title": "Ronald Hoffman, 'The Carroll Family of Maryland', Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (paper delivered 19 April 2006; copyright 2008), pp. 331-349", "url": "https://americanantiquarian.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/44539656.pdf", "source_type": "Specialist scholarship", "supports_and_limits": "By the editor of the Carroll papers (Dear Papa, Dear Charley) and author of Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland; footnoted to those works. Supports: 15 Feb 1757 marriage certificate of his parents signed by Jesuit Mathias Maners (quoted); Carroll born out of wedlock; abroad at school 1748-1764; Catholic disabilities (no vote, office, law practice, public worship) from 1690-1720 laws until the Revolution; first Catholic in 84 years to hold office; barred from the bar; 1773-74 counts of enslaved people (330 at Doughoregan's ten quarters, 26 Poplar Island, 17 Annapolis Quarter, 13 Annapolis house; total 386) making him 'Maryland's largest slaveholder'; quotations from CCC letters of 20 Aug 1776, 18 Oct 1776, 4 Apr 1777, Nov 1777; father died 30 May 1782 and wife Molly 10 June 1782; son Charles of Homewood died 1825; Carrollton tract described as 10,000 acres. LIMITS: a lecture, not the full scholarly apparatus; OCR of the PDF has errors (verify spellings against the PDF)." }, { "id": "niles-1828-07-12", "title": "Niles' Weekly Register (Baltimore), 12 July 1828, vol. 34 no. 878, account of the laying of the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, pp. ~312-316, archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/sim_niles-national-register_1828-07-12_34_878", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "Contemporary newspaper report. Supports: 4 July 1828 ceremony; John B. Morris's address for the president and directors, which says Carroll 'now declares' the signing the proudest act of his life and the first stone 'the next'; blacksmiths presented the pick, spade, hammer and trowel; stone inscription 'assisted by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of American Independence'; Carroll's own letters of 6 July 1828. LIMITS: the famous first-person sentence 'second only to my signing ... if even it be second to that' does NOT appear in this account; OCR text." }, { "id": "niles-1828-07-19", "title": "Niles' Weekly Register, 19 July 1828, vol. 34 no. 879, p. 329-330 ('Charles Carroll'), archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/sim_niles-national-register_1828-07-19_34_879", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "Prints the certificate Carroll wrote in his own hand on a vellum copy of the Declaration given to the City of New York (received by the mayor on 4 July 1828): 'Grateful to Almighty God ...'. Rowland (vol. 2 frontispiece text) dates it 'Baltimore, August 2, 1826'." }, { "id": "niles-1832-11-17", "title": "Niles' Weekly Register, 17 Nov 1832, vol. 43 no. 1104, death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Baltimore city council proceedings, archive.org scan", "url": "https://archive.org/details/sim_niles-national-register_1832-11-17_43_1104", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: Mayor Jesse Hunt's message of 14 Nov 1832 that Carroll, 'the last surviving signer', died 'at four o'clock this morning'; funeral procession from Mr. Caton's house to the (Baltimore) Cathedral, then by the Ohio rail road to Ellicott's Mills and Doughoregan for burial. OCR is poor in places." }, { "id": "nara-signers", "title": "National Archives, 'America's Founding Documents: Signers Gallery' (archives.gov)", "url": "https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/signers-gallery", "source_type": "Institutional historical interpretation", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: Jefferson and Adams both died 4 July 1826; Carroll 'was the longest-lived and last surviving Signer. He died in 1832 at the age of 95.'" }, { "id": "borail", "title": "B&O Railroad Museum (National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation), 'Founding the B&O Railroad' exhibition page", "url": "https://www.borail.org/explore-learn/exhibitions/founding-the-bo-railroad/", "source_type": "Institutional collection metadata", "supports_and_limits": "Supports that the museum, on the historic Mt. Clare site, displays the tools Carroll used to lay the first stone and interprets him as a founding member of the B&O. Does not give the ceremony quote." }, { "id": "rowland-2-letters", "title": "Rowland, Life of Charles Carroll, vol. 2 (1898): printed letters (to Robert Goodloe Harper, 1820, pp. 320-321; to Rev. John Stanford, 9 Oct 1827, pp. 357-358; Aug. 1826 certificate)", "url": "https://archive.org/details/cu31924032753604", "source_type": "Primary correspondence", "supports_and_limits": "Rowland transcribes Carroll's own letters (from family papers). The transcriptions are usable for quotation with attribution to Rowland's printing; her narrative is secondary and Lost-Cause-inflected (e.g., her comments on the Missouri Compromise)." }, { "id": "gac-faulkner", "title": "Google Arts & Culture (National Archives), 'The Declaration - Barry Faulkner', asset description with numbered key", "url": "https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-declaration-barry-faulkner/ggEG-74W2YPvQQ", "source_type": "Institutional collection metadata", "supports_and_limits": "National Archives' description: murals painted 1935-36, each about 14 x 37.5 ft; key 'front row from left to right, 1-20 then back row from left to right 21-28': 1 Robert Morris, 2 Samuel Chase, 3 Charles Carroll, 4 Stephen Hopkins, 5 Samuel Adams ... Does not interpret Carroll's pose or costume." }, { "id": "prologue-2014", "title": "Lester S. Gorelic, 'Depicting the Creation of a Nation: The Story Behind the Murals About Our Founding Documents', Prologue (National Archives), Spring 2014", "url": "https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/prologue/2014/spring/murals.pdf", "source_type": "Institutional historical interpretation", "supports_and_limits": "Supports that Carroll, Chase and Robert Morris are 'the three men at the extreme left' of The Declaration, grouped as men who 'worked for independence behind the scenes'. LIMITS: says Carroll and Chase were 'commissioned by the Committee of Correspondence' to negotiate with Canada 'as the 14th state' (JCC shows Congress chose them on a committee report, 15 Feb 1776) and implies Carroll sat on the Secret Committee of Trade (not verified). Treat those details as the author's gloss." }, { "id": "nga-harding", "title": "National Gallery of Art open data (objects.csv), object 43671: Chester Harding, 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton', c. 1828, oil on canvas, 1956.15.1, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Dallas Thayer", "url": "https://github.com/NationalGalleryOfArt/opendata", "source_type": "Institutional collection metadata", "supports_and_limits": "NGA's official open-data release (the object page itself returned a 403 bot check). Supports artist, date, medium, accession number, credit line. The location field is blank, so on-view status is unknown." }, { "id": "ycba-reynolds", "title": "Yale Center for British Art, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton', 1763, B1981.25.521 (Paul Mellon Collection)", "url": "https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1005", "source_type": "Institutional collection metadata", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: painted 1763 while Carroll studied law in Britain; record shows 'On view' with a 2026 gallery label (exhibition 'Loyalists and Sons of Liberty', 6 May-31 Dec 2026). LIMITS: the label calls him 'the colonies' largest enslaver' (YCBA's superlative) and repeats that he 'proposed a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery', which MSA now says cannot be found in the journals. Rechecked 2026-10-07 from the catalogue's JSON record: title 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton', 1763, B1981.25.521, Paul Mellon Collection, marked on view (not promised to visitors)." }, { "id": "aoc-statue", "title": "Architect of the Capitol, 'Charles Carroll Statue'", "url": "https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/charles-carroll-statue", "source_type": "Institutional collection metadata", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: bronze by Richard E. Brooks, 1903, given by Maryland to the National Statuary Hall Collection; location: Capitol Crypt." }, { "id": "msa-sully", "title": "Maryland State Archives, Charles Carroll of Carrollton introductory page (Thomas Sully portrait, 1834, MSA SC 1545-1114)", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/html/msa00209.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Supports: full-length portrait by Thomas Sully, oil on canvas, 1834, 94 x 58 in., Maryland Commission on Artistic Property, MSA SC 1545-1114. Does not state where it hangs." }, { "id": "will-1825", "title": "Last Will and Testament of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 2 Sept 1825, with codicils of 5 Feb 1827, 5 Jan 1830 and 18 Nov 1831; recorded Baltimore County Register of Wills, Wills Lib. D.M.P. No. 15, pp. 1-28 (proved 13 Feb 1834); MSA CM188-15 (scan hosted by MSA)", "url": "https://www.msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/pdf/mdsa_cr72247-0018-0033.pdf", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Clerk's recorded copy of the will (read from page images; I examined all pages except the Carrollton Manor conveyance recitals on recorded pp. 13-14 and part of p. 16). Supports: Doughoregan devised to grandson Charles Carroll for life, then (2nd codicil, 1830) to great-grandson Charles Carroll for life and then in tail male, because 'It has always been my desire to secure the said lands, to the male branch of my family'; residue split into three equal parts for the three family branches; enslaved people bequeathed by plantation and by name to grandchildren and trustees (including children born later to named women); a single conditional manumission ('my Servant Bill'); Carrollton Manor (Frederick Co.) already divided by lot in Feb 1821 into twelve parts with a life estate reserved; 27,691 acres in Pennsylvania; advances to the three branches to 20 Nov 1829 stated in dollars; chapel devised to Archbishop Maréchal (later revoked by codicil); in terrorem clause (1831). Witnesses include 'R. B. Taney'. Does not give a valuation of the estate." }, { "id": "msa-inventory-1833", "title": "Baltimore County Register of Wills, Inventories, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 1833, vol. 42 pp. 56-105, 240-241, 296-322 [MSA C340-43] (scan hosted by MSA; not read in this pass)", "url": "https://www.msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000209/pdf/mdsa_c340_43.pdf", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "The estate inventory on which BDML's 'TEV $1,460,004.86 (including 259 slaves...)' presumably rests. Downloaded but not transcribed; counts and values here are taken from BDML, not checked against the inventory." }, { "id": "aa-manumissions", "title": "Anne Arundel County Court, Manumission Records, 1807-1816 and 1816-1844 (Archives of Maryland Online vols. 830 and 831)", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000831/html/am831--25.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Recorded deeds of manumission (OCR transcriptions with page images). I scanned every page of both volumes (vol. 830 pp. 1-421; vol. 831 pp. 1-638) for Carroll's name and found six instruments by him: 25 Apr 1808 (Prudence Mahoney and her six children, immediate; vol. 830 p. 29); 2 Jan 1810 (a woman named Jarr, immediate; vol. 830 p. 82); 18 Dec 1816, recorded 8 Mar 1817 (named people on Poplar Island freed on fixed future dates from 1824 to 1856, their daughters' children at age 35; vol. 831 pp. 25-28); 5 Mar 1817 (Mahala, Lucretia and Ambrose, from Poplar Island and already sold to John Sears and Matthias B. Bordley, to be free after 3 Dec 1856; vol. 831 pp. 23-24); 3 May 1817 (Maria, age 20, free at 28; vol. 831 p. 33); 26 May 1818 (Elizabeth, age 18, immediate; vol. 831 p. 74). LIMITS: Anne Arundel County only (Baltimore County/City and Talbot records not searched); OCR may miss misspelled names; no count of the total freed was found in any source, and people freed on dates after his death depended on his heirs honouring the deeds." }, { "id": "vol830-82", "title": "AOMOL vol. 830, p. 82: deed of manumission by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 2 Jan 1810", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000830/html/am830--82.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Single recorded deed: frees 'a mulatto woman slave named Jarr', under 45 and able to support herself, effective immediately; witnessed by Robert G. Harper." }, { "id": "vol830-29", "title": "AOMOL vol. 830, p. 29: deed of manumission by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, 25 April 1808", "url": "https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000830/html/am830--29.html", "source_type": "State archives", "supports_and_limits": "Frees Prudence Mahoney and her children Thomas, Robert, Joseph, Ann, Charles and Eleanor Mahoney, relinquishing all claim. Does not state why (the Mahoney family's freedom litigation in Maryland courts is a possible context, not verified here)." } ], "claims": [ { "topic": "1776: Canada commission", "claim": "On 15 February 1776 Congress chose Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll of Carrollton as a committee of three to go to Canada, and asked Carroll to prevail on (Father) John Carroll to accompany them.", "exact_quote": "The members chosen, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Mr. S[amuel] Chase, and Mr. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.", "source_ids": [ "jcc-4" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "JCC vol. 4, p. 151-152, Thursday 15 Feb 1776. The resolution required two of the three to be members of Congress; Carroll was not then a member." }, { "topic": "1776: Canada commission", "claim": "Congress adopted the commissioners' formal commission and instructions on 20 March 1776, naming Carroll as 'Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, in the said colony of Maryland, Esq.'", "exact_quote": "Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, in the said colony of Maryland", "source_ids": [ "jcc-4" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "JCC vol. 4, pp. 215-219 (Wednesday 20 March 1776). Shows the 'of Carrollton' style in official use months before the Declaration." }, { "topic": "1776: Canada commission", "claim": "On 11 June 1776 Chase and Carroll, back from Canada, attended Congress and reported on their proceedings and the state of the army there.", "exact_quote": "two of the commissioners being arrived from Canada, attended, and give an account", "source_ids": [ "jcc-5" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "JCC vol. 5, p. 431 (Tuesday 11 June 1776), the same day the committee to draft the Declaration was chosen." }, { "topic": "1776: where he was", "claim": "Carroll took his seat in the Maryland Convention at Annapolis on 24 June 1776 and was there through early July: he is recorded voting in divisions on 1 July and 4 July, and the 2 July minutes record all members present as on 1 July except one (Mr. Sudler). He was therefore in Annapolis, not Philadelphia, when Congress voted independence on 2 July and adopted the Declaration on 4 July 1776, and he did not vote on either in Congress.", "exact_quote": "Convention met. All members present as on yesterday, except Mr. Sudler.", "source_ids": [ "md-conv-1776" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "AOMOL vol. 78 pp. 167 (24 June: 'Mr. Carroll of Carollton ... appeared in the house'), 181 (1 July division), 182 (2 July attendance), 190 (4 July division listing 'Carroll of Carr.')." }, { "topic": "1776: Maryland convention frees its delegates", "claim": "On 28 June 1776 the Maryland Convention unanimously recalled its earlier instructions and authorized Maryland's deputies in Congress to concur in declaring the colonies free and independent states.", "exact_quote": "Resolved unanimously, That the instructions given by the convention of December last ... be recalled", "source_ids": [ "md-conv-1776", "msa-extbio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "The convention journal (vol. 78 p. 176) does not name a mover. MSA's extended biography says 'Carroll introduced the resolution'; treat Carroll's authorship as attributed to MSA." }, { "topic": "1776: election to Congress", "claim": "The Maryland Convention elected Carroll a deputy to the Continental Congress by ballot on 4 July 1776, together with Tilghman, Thomas Johnson Jr., Paca, Chase, Stone and Robert Alexander.", "exact_quote": "Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and Robert Alexander, esqrs., were duly elected for that purpose.", "source_ids": [ "md-conv-1776", "jcc-5", "msa-extbio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "AOMOL vol. 78 p. 189; credentials copied into JCC 18 July 1776." }, { "topic": "1776: taking his seat", "claim": "On 18 July 1776 Maryland's delegates laid the new credentials before Congress; that day Carroll was named (with Jefferson and Paine) to a committee on Lord Howe's intercepted letters and was elected an additional member of the Board of War.", "exact_quote": "Resolved, That a member be added to the Board of War: The ballots being taken, Mr. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was elected.", "source_ids": [ "jcc-5", "msa-extbio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "JCC vol. 5 pp. 574-575. MSA says 'He arrived in Philadelphia on July 18'. The journal does not use the words 'took his seat', but his committee and Board of War elections that day show he was acting as a member." }, { "topic": "1776: signing", "claim": "The engrossed Declaration was signed in Congress on 2 August 1776; Carroll signed it then as 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton'.", "exact_quote": "The declaration of independence being engrossed and compared at the table was signed", "source_ids": [ "jcc-5", "msa-extbio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "JCC vol. 5 p. 626 (Friday 2 Aug 1776); signature as printed from the engrossed original: 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton'. MSA extended bio: 'signed the Declaration on August 2'." }, { "topic": "1776: Canada commission", "claim": "Carroll's journal records the commissioners leaving New York on 2 April 1776, reaching Montreal on 29 April (received by General Arnold), Franklin leaving Montreal on 11 May because of poor health and bad prospects, Chase and Carroll leaving Montreal on 29 May, and their arrival in Philadelphia at 2 a.m. after leaving Elizabethtown on 10 June.", "exact_quote": "Dr. Franklin left Montreal to-day to go to St. John's, and from thence to congress.", "source_ids": [ "canada-journal", "jcc-5" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Journal entries of 2 April, 29 April, 11 May, 29 May, 10 June 1776 (Mayer ed. pp. 47ff.). Mayer's note: the commissioners' letter of 27 May from Montreal was their last from Canada. Father John Carroll left Montreal with Franklin (per his own letter quoted in the notes). Outcome: the mission failed to win Canada; the 30 May council of war resolved to prepare an orderly retreat." }, { "topic": "1776: 'of Carrollton'", "claim": "Carroll was using the style 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton' at least by 23 November 1765, when he signed a letter to Edmund Jennings with it and asked to be addressed by it. Carrollton was the Frederick County estate settled on him; the style distinguished him from his father (Charles Carroll of Annapolis/Doughoregan) and other Charles Carrolls.", "exact_quote": "Your friend Charles Carroll of Carrollton by which appellation, if you favour me with an answer, direct to me your letter.", "source_ids": [ "unpub-letters", "jcc-4", "rowland-1" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Letter XXIX, Unpublished Letters (1902) p. 100. Congress's 20 March 1776 commission also uses 'Charles Carroll, of Carrollton'. Rowland (1898) reports an 1830 letter to Rev. W. B. Sprague in which Carroll said he took the name to distinguish himself from his father (lead; letter not seen directly)." }, { "topic": "Board of War", "claim": "Congress elected Carroll an added member of the Board of War on 18 July 1776, the day his credentials were read.", "exact_quote": "Resolved, That a member be added to the Board of War", "source_ids": [ "jcc-5" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Rowland (1898) dates this 19 July; the printed JCC places it under Thursday 18 July 1776. Use 18 July." }, { "topic": "U.S. Senate", "claim": "Carroll took his seat as one of Maryland's first two U.S. senators on 13 April 1789, drew Class 1 (a two-year term expiring in 1791) when the Senate drew lots on 15 May 1789, and resigned on 30 November 1792 after Maryland barred its state senators from also sitting in Congress; he kept his Maryland Senate seat.", "exact_quote": "chose to resign his seat when the Maryland legislature passed a law", "source_ids": [ "senate-md-timeline", "bdml", "msa-bio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML gives terms 1789-1791 and 1791-1792 (re-elected), resigned 30 Nov 1792. Washington's letter of 9 Dec 1792 regretting the loss of his Senate services is on Founders Online (Washington/05-11-02-0290), but that site did not return content to automated fetches." }, { "topic": "Maryland Senate", "claim": "Carroll sat in the Maryland Senate for the Western Shore from 1777 to 1800 and was elected its president in 1783 (BDML gives 22 May and 23 December 1783).", "exact_quote": "Maryland Senate, Western Shore, 1777-1800; Maryland Senate President 1783", "source_ids": [ "msa-bio", "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML lists Senate terms 1776-1781 through 1796-1801 with sessions through 1800." }, { "topic": "Continental Congress service", "claim": "Besides 1776, Carroll was elected to Congress in February and December 1777 (serving 1777-1778) and in November 1780, but did not attend in 1780 and resigned 3 January 1781.", "exact_quote": "1780 (elected in November 1780, but did not attend; resigned on January 3, 1781)", "source_ids": [ "bdml", "msa-bio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "MSA ext. bio: 'He remained a delegate until 1778.'" }, { "topic": "1773 First Citizen letters", "claim": "Writing as 'First Citizen' in the Maryland Gazette (Annapolis) from 4 February 1773, Carroll attacked Governor Robert Eden's proclamation of 26 November 1770 that set officers' fees by executive order after the Assembly deadlocked; Daniel Dulany Jr., writing as 'Antilon', defended it. The exchange ran from Dulany's January 1773 dialogue to July 1773. The underlying issue was whether fees were in effect taxes that only the elected Assembly could set.", "exact_quote": "While Dulany upheld the Governor's Proclamation of November 26, 1770, Carroll criticized it.", "source_ids": [ "aomol-63", "msa-papenfuse-1995", "bdml", "rowland-1" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML: 'Maryland Gazette, January-July, 1773'. Papenfuse: first First Citizen essay 4 Feb 1773; 'a series of eight letters'. Rowland (lead): Dulany's dialogue 7 Jan 1773; four letters each; Carroll's last 1 July 1773. Rowland's claim that Eden then repealed the proclamation is NOT confirmed by AOMOL, which records only the anti-administration election win and the Annapolis mock funeral (May 1773)." }, { "topic": "Catholic disabilities", "claim": "From 1718 Maryland law barred Roman Catholics from voting for the Assembly (unless they took oaths Catholics could not take), and Catholics were excluded from office; as a Catholic, Carroll could neither vote nor hold office when he wrote as First Citizen.", "exact_quote": "depriving Roman Catholics of the right to vote for members of the Assembly", "source_ids": [ "aomol-33", "msa-papenfuse-1995", "msa-extbio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "MSA ext bio: 'Because of his legal disabilities as a Catholic, Carroll was not a delegate to the First Continental Congress'. Exclusion from law practice and public worship is stated by Hoffman (hoffman-aas; see the companion claim), who also notes his religion barred him from being called to the bar." }, { "topic": "1776 constitution and his standing", "claim": "Carroll was one of seven men the Maryland Convention elected on 17 August 1776 to draft a declaration of rights and form of government. The resulting Declaration of Rights (11 Nov 1776) protected the religious liberty of 'all persons, professing the Christian religion' and limited the test for office to oaths plus 'a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion', opening office to Catholics.", "exact_quote": "all persons, professing the Christian religion, are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty", "source_ids": [ "md-conv-aug1776", "md-const-1776", "msa-extbio" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Arts. XXXIII and XXXV. Non-Christians (e.g., Jews) remained excluded. MSA ext bio calls him 'the first Roman Catholic to hold public office in Maryland for nearly a century'." }, { "topic": "Revolution's money cost: tender law", "claim": "Maryland's wartime tender act made Continental and state bills of credit 'a legal tender in all cases', so debtors could discharge sterling loans in depreciating paper. Charles Carroll of Annapolis, the Signer's father and a large money-lender, petitioned the legislature on 13 November 1778 to repeal it; the House of Delegates refused, and he published his petition, speech and the House resolutions as a pamphlet in 1779.", "exact_quote": "a legal tender in all cases", "source_ids": [ "wheeler-md-press", "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML establishes the family's creditor position (nearly GBP 30,000 sterling lent at interest in 1768). No figure for the family's loss from the tender law was found in an accessible primary or scholarly source; Hoffman et al., Dear Papa, Dear Charley (2001) prints 'CCA's account of paper money paid for sterling, May 6, 1777-Dec. 14, 1778' and a letter on repeal (23 Nov 1778), per a library catalog contents note, but the volumes were not accessible. Do not give a loss figure." }, { "topic": "Revolution's money cost: Carroll's own vote", "claim": "Secondary accounts based on the family letters say Carroll of Carrollton cast the lone vote against the tender bill in the Maryland Senate (1777), that his father called it worse than all the acts of the British Parliament, and that the son counselled yielding to 'popular frensies'. One letter quoted (CCC to CCA, 4 Dec 1779) says that if the war continued 'we may be robbed of our lands, as well as money'.", "exact_quote": "if the war Should continue much longer we may be robbed of our lands, as well as money", "source_ids": [ "klugewicz-ic" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Single secondary source (Klugewicz, citing MCHC MS 206 letters of 13 Mar 1777, 13 Nov 1777, 4 Apr 1777, 4 Dec 1779). The Senate journal for the 1777 sessions is online only as page images (not checked). Use only with attribution, e.g. 'according to letters published by Hoffman' after checking Dear Papa, Dear Charley." }, { "topic": "American Colonization Society", "claim": "After the death of Bushrod Washington, the American Colonization Society at its annual meeting in the Capitol on 18 January 1830 chose Charles Carroll of Carrollton as its president; he held the office until his death in 1832.", "exact_quote": "The Hon. Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, was then chosen President of the Society", "source_ids": [ "african-repository-1830", "bdml", "rowland-2" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML: 'Elected president of the American Colonization Society, 1830.' Rowland says February 1830 (the month the report was published). The Charles Carroll House site's '1828-1831' is wrong. That he held the office until death is inferred from the absence of any successor before his death; James Madison followed (not verified here), so phrase cautiously." }, { "topic": "Doughoregan today", "claim": "Doughoregan Manor (Howard County, near Ellicott City), the Carroll country seat built c. 1727 by his father, was Carroll's country home from 1766 to 1832; he is buried in the family chapel attached to the north end of the house. It is a National Historic Landmark (1971) and remains in Carroll family hands as private property.", "exact_quote": "Charles Carroll of Carrollton is buried in the family chapel", "source_ids": [ "mht-doughoregan", "msa-bio", "csmonitor-2010" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Private ownership: CS Monitor 2010 ('only home of a signer still in family hands'); Wikipedia says not open to the public and Manor Lane closed 1980 (lead only). No official visitor programme found. Acreage today is unsettled: MHT 1971 nomination 'about 3,000 acres'; CS Monitor 2010 'about 900'. Do not state a current acreage." }, { "topic": "Charles Carroll House, Annapolis", "claim": "The Charles Carroll House in Annapolis (his birthplace house and the seat of the Annapolis Carrolls) is operated as a museum open for seasonal tours, with private tours by arrangement; as of 7 Oct 2026 its site says the 2026 season has ended and updates are coming in 2027.", "exact_quote": "The 2026 tour season has ended, thank you for visiting!", "source_ids": [ "cch-site" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Advise readers to check the site before visiting. Birth 'in Annapolis' is established (msa-bio); that he was born in this particular house is commonly said but not verified here." }, { "topic": "Birth and parents", "claim": "Charles Carroll of Carrollton was born in Annapolis on 19 September 1737, the only child of Charles Carroll of Annapolis (1702-1782) and Elizabeth Brooke (1709-1761). His parents were not married when he was born; a Jesuit priest, Mathias Maners, certified that he married them on 15 February 1757, when their son was 19 and at school in France.", "exact_quote": "on the 15th day of February in the year of our Lord 1757 marry Charles Carroll Esq: and Elizabeth Brooke", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas", "msa-bio", "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Hoffman reports Sally Mason found the certificate at the Maryland Historical Society in 1975; MCHC MS 1893 includes a copy of the parents' 1757 marriage certificate (finding aid on mdhistory.libraryhost.com). Birth date: MSA/BDML give 19 Sept 1737; a secondary essay (klugewicz-ic) gives 8 Sept 1737, which is the Old Style equivalent (Britain switched calendars in 1752); say '19 September 1737 (8 September Old Style)' only if you want to explain the discrepancy. Hoffman (and Klugewicz) say the father deliberately withheld marriage to control the inheritance; that motive is Hoffman's interpretation." }, { "topic": "Education abroad", "claim": "Carroll was sent from Maryland at about age ten and spent some sixteen years abroad: Jesuit academy at Bohemia Manor, Cecil County (1747); College of St. Omer in French Flanders (1749-1753 per MSA/BDML); the Jesuit college at Reims (1754); Louis-le-Grand, Paris (1755-1757); civil law at Bourges (1757-Feb. 1759) and Paris (Feb.-Aug. 1759); then law in London at the Middle Temple (1759-Sept. 1764). He reached his father's house in February 1765.", "exact_quote": "studied law in Middle Temple, London, England, 1759-September 1764", "source_ids": [ "bdml", "msa-bio", "hoffman-aas", "unpub-letters" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Dates for the start differ: MSA/BDML put St. Omer at 1749-53; Hoffman says he was at school abroad 'from 1748 to 1764'. Return: Unpublished Letters (1902) says he arrived at his father's house in February 1765; MSA ext bio loosely says 'returned ... in 1764'. Inn: BDML and MSA say Middle Temple (not Inner Temple). Hoffman: 'eleven years of study at Jesuit institutions in France and another five at London's Inns of Court'." }, { "topic": "Catholic disabilities", "claim": "Under laws passed between 1690 and 1720 and in force until the Revolution, Maryland Catholics could not vote, hold office, practise law or worship publicly, though (unlike in Ireland) they could own and inherit land. Carroll studied law in London although his religion barred him from being called to the bar. Under the new state he became the first Catholic in 84 years to hold public office in Maryland.", "exact_quote": "could not vote, could not hold public office, could not practice law", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas", "aomol-33", "md-const-1776" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Hoffman's sentence describes Charles Carroll the Settler at his death in 1720; he says the disabilities 'remained in effect until the American Revolution'. MSA ext bio says 'for nearly a century'." }, { "topic": "Slavery: numbers", "claim": "According to the family's own inventories (1773-74), 330 enslaved people lived on the ten quarters of Doughoregan Manor; with 26 on Poplar Island, 17 at the Annapolis Quarter and 13 in the Annapolis house, the Carrolls held 386 people on the eve of the Revolution, which Hoffman says made them Maryland's largest slaveholders.", "exact_quote": "the total number of slaves owned by the Carrolls ... to 386", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas", "klugewicz-ic" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "The inventories are printed in Dear Papa, Dear Charley vol. 3, Appendix III (pp. 1571-81, 1583-84). The 1773 Doughoregan list is held by MCHC (record blocked, HTTP 403); a search-engine summary of that record also gives 330. In 1773 these were legally his father's slaves (CCA owned Doughoregan until 1782). 'Maryland's largest slaveholder' is Hoffman's characterization; attribute it." }, { "topic": "Slavery: numbers", "claim": "Later counts: in 1768 Carroll expected to inherit over 300 enslaved people; in 1783, after his father's death, he was assessed for 453 enslaved people on his Anne Arundel County properties (416 at Doughoregan); by 1800 there were 182 at Doughoregan, and the number rose again afterward.", "exact_quote": "assessed as owning 453 slaves on his Anne Arundel County properties (416 on 'Doughoregan Manor')", "source_ids": [ "bdml" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Single scholarly reference (BDML 1979, based on Maryland tax and estate records). BDML says he 'tried to reduce his slave holdings' 1783-1800 without explaining how (sales, transfers to children, or manumission are not distinguished). Federal census figures for 1790-1830 were not checked." }, { "topic": "Slavery: numbers at death", "claim": "Counts at his death differ: the 1833 inventory of his personal estate, as summarized by BDML, included 259 enslaved people, while the Maryland State Archives' 2025-26 revision says that at his death he enslaved 'more than 350 human beings'.", "exact_quote": "at the time of his death, Carroll enslaved more than 350 human beings", "source_ids": [ "msa-extbio", "bdml", "msa-sources" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Possible reasons for the gap (not established): the 259 may cover only the personal estate inventoried in Baltimore County, while people already conveyed to heirs or on other properties may be excluded. Report both figures with their sources. In 1835 his heirs petitioned the Baltimore City Register of Wills to sell 'certain Negroes' on Folly Farm and Doughoregan (MSA sources page)." }, { "topic": "Revolution's money cost", "claim": "Carroll expected heavy losses: in April 1777 he told his father he had long considered the 'monied part' of their estate in jeopardy and would be content to save a third of it plus their lands and slaves.", "exact_quote": "If we can save a third of that, and all our lands & negroes I shall think our selves well off.", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "CCC to CCA, 4 April 1777, Dear Papa, Dear Charley 2:988, as quoted by Hoffman. This is an expectation, not a measured loss. Hoffman also quotes CCC (Nov. 1777, DPDC 2:1079) that 'No great revolutions can happen in a State without revolutions, or mutations of private property.'" }, { "topic": "Personal risk", "claim": "Hoffman writes that, had Britain won, Carroll risked losing his property and his life, and that he also feared losses at the hands of Maryland's own discontented population; within weeks of signing he feared he had made a tragic mistake.", "exact_quote": "he faced the risk of losing not only his property but also his life", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Historian's assessment of exposure, not a documented threat. No document found of the British actually moving to confiscate Carroll property or naming him for treason; do not assert one. Rowland's and Sanderson-type 'risked millions' claims are rhetoric." }, { "topic": "Family losses 1782", "claim": "Within three weeks in 1782 Carroll lost his father (died 30 May 1782) and his wife Molly (died 10 June 1782).", "exact_quote": "My Father died the 30th of may Suddenly and my wife on the 10th Ultimo", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas", "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "CCC to Wallace, Johnson and Muir, 9 July 1782 (DPDC 3:1526-27), quoted by Hoffman. Hoffman attributes Molly's decline to opium addiction; treat as his interpretation. Not a consequence of signing the Declaration." }, { "topic": "B&O Railroad", "claim": "On 4 July 1828 Carroll, a director of the new Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, helped lay its 'first stone' in Baltimore in a Masonic ceremony after a huge civic procession; the stone's inscription called him 'the last surviving signer of the Declaration of American Independence'. The museum on the Mt. Clare site displays the tools he used.", "exact_quote": "assisted by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of American Independence", "source_ids": [ "niles-1828-07-12", "borail", "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Niles' (5 July) called it perhaps the most splendid civic procession ever exhibited in America. BDML says he 'turned the first spade of dirt for the cornerstone'. Niles lists him on the board of directors. Niles' speaks of 'Ninety-one summers' having passed over him; use that phrase rather than computing an age." }, { "topic": "B&O Railroad: the famous quote", "claim": "The often-quoted first-person line ('I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to my signing the Declaration of Independence, if even it be second to that') is not in the 1828 Niles' account. What Niles' does print, in John B. Morris's address for the company's president and directors, is the third-person statement that Carroll 'now declares' the signing the proudest act of his life and the laying of the first stone the next.", "exact_quote": "the proudest act of his life ... was the signature of independence; the next, the laying of the first stone", "source_ids": [ "niles-1828-07-12" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "The sentiment is contemporary; the polished first-person wording is later (found in 19th-century railroad histories and modern websites). Present it as reported by Morris, not as Carroll's own words." }, { "topic": "1826 statements", "claim": "In 1826, the fiftieth year of independence, Carroll wrote in his own hand on a copy of the Declaration for the City of New York that he was grateful to have survived to see it, approved the Declaration he had signed on 2 August 1776, 'of which I am now the last surviving signer', and recommended its principles to future generations.", "exact_quote": "Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings which through Jesus Christ our Lord he has conferred on my beloved country in her emancipation", "source_ids": [ "niles-1828-07-19", "rowland-2-letters" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Niles' of 19 July 1828 says the mayor of New York received the copy on 4 July [1828]; Rowland dates the certificate 'Baltimore, August 2, 1826'. In 1826 Carroll also received a gold Erie Canal medal from New York (letter of 9 May 1826) and declined invitations to the 4 July jubilee celebrations in Washington and New York (Rowland, lead)." }, { "topic": "Last surviving signer", "claim": "Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on 4 July 1826, the Declaration's fiftieth anniversary, leaving Carroll the last surviving signer; he was also the longest-lived signer.", "exact_quote": "the longest-lived and last surviving Signer. He died in 1832 at the age of 95.", "source_ids": [ "nara-signers", "msa-extbio", "niles-1828-07-12" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Carroll called himself 'now the last surviving signer' in his 1826 certificate. He survived Adams and Jefferson by six years and four months (from 4 July 1826 to 14 Nov 1832)." }, { "topic": "Death and burial", "claim": "Carroll died at about 4 a.m. on 14 November 1832 in Baltimore, aged 95. His funeral procession left the house of his son-in-law Richard Caton (where he spent his winters) for the Baltimore Cathedral; his body was then carried on the B&O rail road toward Ellicott's Mills and buried at Doughoregan Manor, in the family chapel.", "exact_quote": "closed his eventful life at four o'clock this morning", "source_ids": [ "niles-1832-11-17", "msa-bio", "mht-doughoregan", "nara-signers" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Age 95 is stated by NARA and MSA (Papenfuse). Niles' says only that the procession would 'leave the house of Mr. Caton'; BDML says he spent winters for about his last fifteen years with the Catons at their Lombard Street house. That he died in the Caton house is likely but not stated in the sources read. Funeral planned for Saturday (17 Nov 1832) per the Baltimore American quoted in Niles'." }, { "topic": "Slavery: his stated views", "claim": "In April 1820, during the Missouri controversy, Carroll wrote that slavery was 'admitted by all to be a great evil' but that the question should either be solved by an effective plan or be left to 'sleep forever'.", "exact_quote": "why keep alive the question of slavery? It is admitted by all to be a great evil", "source_ids": [ "rowland-2-letters" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Letter extract dated 23 April [1820], from letters to Robert Goodloe Harper, printed in Rowland 2:320-321. He continued to hold hundreds of people in slavery (see counts) and his will freed at most one man; he had freed a few individuals and set deferred freedom dates for others by deed in 1808-1818 (heirs petitioned in 1835 to sell enslaved people: msa-sources)." }, { "topic": "Faulkner mural", "claim": "In Barry Faulkner's mural The Declaration (painted 1935-36, National Archives Rotunda), Carroll is No. 3 in the front row counting from the left: Robert Morris (1), Samuel Chase (2), Charles Carroll (3), Stephen Hopkins (4). Chase stands between Morris and Carroll, and Hopkins is on Carroll's other side. Prologue (2014) groups Carroll, Chase and Morris as the three men at the extreme left who worked 'behind the scenes'.", "exact_quote": "2. Samuel Chase, Maryland 3. Charles Carroll, Maryland 4. Stephen Hopkins", "source_ids": [ "gac-faulkner", "prologue-2014" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Consistent with the series' No. 2 article ('Chase ... between Morris and Carroll'). Faulkner's scene is allegorical: it shows Jefferson presenting the draft (June/July 1776), when Carroll was not yet a member of Congress and was in Annapolis on 2 and 4 July." }, { "topic": "Portraits and statue", "claim": "Notable likenesses: Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Carroll in 1763 while he studied law in England (Yale Center for British Art, on view in 2026); Chester Harding painted him about 1828 (National Gallery of Art, 1956.15.1); Thomas Sully painted a full-length portrait in 1834, after his death (Maryland State Archives / Maryland Commission on Artistic Property); Maryland's bronze statue by Richard E. Brooks (1903) stands in the U.S. Capitol Crypt.", "exact_quote": "Location Capitol Crypt", "source_ids": [ "aoc-statue", "ycba-reynolds", "nga-harding", "msa-sully", "senate-md-timeline" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Check on-view status before telling readers to visit a painting; YCBA shows it on view for a 2026 exhibition ending 31 Dec 2026. NPG (Smithsonian) records were unavailable (HTTP 403/500)." }, { "topic": "Will and estate", "claim": "Carroll's will is dated 2 September 1825, with codicils of 5 February 1827, 5 January 1830 and 18 November 1831; it was proved in Baltimore County on 13 February 1834. It divided the residue of his estate into three equal parts for the three branches of his family (the Catons, the Harpers, and the children of his late son Charles of Homewood) and left Doughoregan Manor to his grandson Charles Carroll for life, then by the 1830 codicil to a great-grandson for life and on in the male line ('in tail male').", "exact_quote": "It has always been my desire to secure the said lands, to the male branch of my family, as long as the laws of this State will permit", "source_ids": [ "will-1825" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Recorded copy pp. 1, 6-8, 22-23. He had already divided Carrollton Manor (Frederick County) into twelve lots for the family branches by deeds of 6-7 Feb 1821, reserving a life estate (p. 11-12). The third codicil (1831) says anyone who contests the will forfeits their share." }, { "topic": "Will and estate: values", "claim": "The 1833 inventory of his personal estate totalled $1,460,004.86 (including 259 enslaved people, plate, stocks and bonds in roads, banks, the B&O Railroad, the Georgetown Bridge Company, a North Carolina gold mine, and loans to Maryland, Pennsylvania and the United States), with a final balance of $680,250.14; his land at death was about 57,000 acres in four Maryland counties plus lots and land in New York and Pennsylvania.", "exact_quote": "TEV, $1,460,004.86 (including 259 slaves", "source_ids": [ "bdml", "msa-inventory-1833" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Single scholarly reference (BDML), drawn from the probate inventory, which I downloaded but did not transcribe. The will itself directed that 'no Inventory shall be made or returned of my personal Estate' (p. 10), yet an inventory was filed in 1833: worth noting. The will's 2nd codicil records advances to 20 Nov 1829 of $54,332.92 (Caton family), $107,451.67 (late son's family) and $104,305.53 (Harper family). No reliable modern-dollar conversion was found; do not convert." }, { "topic": "Slavery: will", "claim": "Carroll's will did not free the people he enslaved. It handed them on to his grandchildren and trustees, by plantation (the Folly farm, Doughoregan Manor, the Caton house and Brooklandwood) and by name, including children born afterwards to named women. The one exception was a conditional clause for 'my Servant Bill': freed at Carroll's death if under 45, or, if older (when Maryland law barred manumission), released from service with a $50 annuity.", "exact_quote": "I hereby manumit him, and set him free at my death", "source_ids": [ "will-1825", "msa-sources" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Will pp. 2-3, 16; 1st codicil (1827) items 5-7 bequeath named people (e.g., 'Nancy (Gardener Harry's daughter) and her children, and Basil her husband') to granddaughters. Bill's surname is not given. Heirs petitioned in March 1835 to sell 'certain Negroes' on Folly Farm and Doughoregan (MSA sources page). He did free some individuals during his lifetime (see 'Slavery: lifetime manumissions': six deeds, 1808-1818, in Anne Arundel records)." }, { "topic": "Slavery: the 1797 bill", "claim": "The widely repeated claim that Carroll introduced a bill for gradual abolition in the Maryland Senate in 1797 cannot be confirmed. It goes back to his son-in-law Richard Caton after Carroll's death; the Maryland State Archives and the historian Mary Clement Jeske (2022) could not find the bill in the Senate journals for the session that began in November 1797. The MSA's own 1979 Biographical Dictionary had repeated it.", "exact_quote": "unable to locate the introduction of such a bill in the Maryland legislative journals", "source_ids": [ "msa-extbio", "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "MSA allows that he may have proposed such legislation some other year, or that Caton's claim is unfounded. The 1797 Senate journal is online only as page images (AOMOL SC 4872, vol. 3185, from p. 1416) and was not re-read here. Do not write that he 'introduced' or 'proposed' the bill; say his son-in-law later claimed it and the archives can find no record." }, { "topic": "Wealth: superlatives", "claim": "Contemporaries rated Carroll among the richest Americans: John Adams in 1774 put his annual income at £10,000 sterling and 'increasing', and in 1776 called his fortune 'perhaps the largest in America', at £150,000 to £200,000 sterling; Senator William Maclay in 1789 called him 'the richest man in the Union'.", "exact_quote": "Senator William Maclay called Carroll 'the richest man in the Union' in 1789", "source_ids": [ "bdml" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "These are contemporaries' estimates as reported in BDML; attribute each to Adams or Maclay. The YCBA label's 'the colonies' largest enslaver' and Hoffman's 'Maryland's largest slaveholder' are separate superlatives about slaveholding. Wikipedia's figure of GBP 2,100,000 is marked 'citation needed' and was not found in any reliable source." }, { "topic": "Wealth: sources", "claim": "The family fortune rested on land, rents, money-lending and slave labour. BDML reports that the Carrolls had nearly £30,000 sterling lent at interest in 1768, £85,000 sterling (about $375,000 with interest) twenty years later, £128,705 sterling in 1798 and £143,000 sterling in 1804 (46% of his 'monied estate', by then largely bank stock and U.S. securities). He was a partner in the Baltimore Ironworks Company. Doughoregan's profit was $6,900 in 1819; Baltimore lots yielded $2,500 a year by 1804.", "exact_quote": "They had nearly £30,000 sterling lent out on interest in 1768.", "source_ids": [ "bdml", "msa-bio" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Single scholarly reference (BDML 1979). Evidence on the Baltimore Iron Works is thin here: MSA/BDML list only 'Partner, Baltimore Ironworks Company' without dates or share; ironworks of this kind used enslaved labour, but I found no source in this pass stating numbers for the Carroll share." }, { "topic": "Wealth: land", "claim": "Land figures (as sourced): at his first election to the legislature about 11,788 acres in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties plus 12,700 acres in Frederick County, mostly gifts from his father; he inherited at least 16,000 acres more in 1782; a resurvey of Doughoregan Manor totalled 13,361 acres; he held at least 28,000 acres in Pennsylvania by 1820 (the will says 27,691); about 57,000 acres at death.", "exact_quote": "a resurvey of 'Doughoregan Manor' totaled 13,361 acres", "source_ids": [ "bdml", "will-1825", "hoffman-aas" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Carrollton Manor size differs: BDML '12,700 acres in Frederick County'; Hoffman 'the Signer's 10,000 acres in Frederick County'. Pennsylvania: BDML 'at least 28,000 acres'; will '27,691 acres'. Report each with its source; do not average." }, { "topic": "Confiscation", "claim": "Carroll consistently opposed Maryland's confiscation of Loyalist property, calling it impolitic, uncivilized and financially unsound. No source found in this pass documents any British or American move to confiscate Carroll's own property.", "exact_quote": "Consistently opposed Maryland's confiscation of Loyalist properties", "source_ids": [ "bdml" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML. The Maryland convention's July 1776 treason resolutions (death and forfeiture for adhering to Britain; md-conv-1776, p. 191) show the stakes on both sides, but they applied to Loyalists, not to Carroll." }, { "topic": "Marriage and children", "claim": "On 5 June 1768 Carroll married Mary (Molly) Darnall (1749-1782), daughter of Henry Darnall Jr. They had seven children; those who lived to adulthood were Mary (Polly) (1770-1846), who married Richard Caton; Charles (1775-1825) of Homewood; and Catherine (Kitty) (c. 1778-1861), who married Robert Goodloe Harper.", "exact_quote": "MARRIED on June 5, 1768, Mary (Molly) (1749-1782), daughter of Henry Darnall, Jr.", "source_ids": [ "bdml", "msa-bio", "hoffman-aas" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "BDML lists children Elizabeth (1769-1769), Mary, Louisa Rachel (1772-1772), Charles, Anne Brooke (1776-died young), Catherine, Elizabeth (1780-1783). MSA bio lists the same seven names." }, { "topic": "Only Catholic signer", "claim": "Carroll was the only Roman Catholic among the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, a distinction Hoffman says he particularly cherished.", "exact_quote": "the only Roman Catholic among the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence", "source_ids": [ "hoffman-aas" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Hoffman AAS p. 338." }, { "topic": "1773 First Citizen letters", "claim": "Carroll's four First Citizen letters appeared in the Maryland Gazette on 4 February, 11 March, 6 May and 1 July 1773 (Rowland's printing); his best-remembered line, in the second letter, called Eden's fee proclamation an arbitrary use of prerogative that a free people 'will not, must not, be endured'.", "exact_quote": "in a land of freedom this arbitrary exertion of prerogative will not, must not, be endured", "source_ids": [ "rowland-1", "msa-papenfuse-1995", "bdml" ], "confidence": "attributed (sources disagree or single secondary)", "notes": "Dates of letters 2-4 rest on Rowland's Appendix A headings (Feb 4, Mar 11, May 6, July 1, 1773), consistent with BDML ('January-July, 1773') and Papenfuse (first letter 4 Feb 1773). The sentence is in Letter II as printed by Rowland (vol. 1, Appendix A, c. p. 276); in Letter III Carroll says Antilon called these 'naughty words'. Check Onuf, Maryland and the Empire, 1773 (1974) before final publication." }, { "topic": "Slavery: lifetime manumissions", "claim": "Carroll did free some people in his lifetime, though only a small share of those he held. Anne Arundel County's manumission books record six deeds by him: the Mahoney family (Prudence and six children) in 1808; a woman named Jarr in 1810; Elizabeth, 18, in 1818; and three deferred deeds (1816-1817) promising freedom years or decades later (for one group on Poplar Island, on dates from 1824 to 1856, mostly in their forties, and for their daughters' children at 35; Maria, 20, at 28).", "exact_quote": "have released from slavery liberated manumitted and set free ... being part of my slaves settled on Poplar Island", "source_ids": [ "aa-manumissions", "vol830-29", "vol830-82" ], "confidence": "established", "notes": "Deeds read in full from AOMOL OCR (vol. 830 pp. 29, 82; vol. 831 pp. 23-28, 33-34, 74-75). The Poplar Island deed of 18 Dec 1816 names about two dozen people (27 names in the recorded copy by my count; verify against the page images before giving a number). The 1817 deed shows he had sold some Poplar Island people (to John Sears and Matthias B. Bordley) with deferred freedom attached. Maryland law then barred manumitting people over 45 or unable to support themselves (the will's 'Servant Bill' clause turns on this). BDML's statement that he 'tried to reduce his slave holdings' 1783-1800 (to 182 at Doughoregan) does not say how. Meanwhile he still held some 259 to more than 350 people at death, depending on the source." } ], "period_quotations_used": [ { "text": "the definition of freedom is the being governed by laws to which we have given our consent", "date": "1765-11-23", "source_id": "unpub-letters" }, { "text": "If we can save a third of that, and all our lands & negroes I shall think our selves well off.", "date": "1777-04", "source_id": "hoffman-aas" }, { "text": "admitted by all to be a great evil; let an effectual mode of getting rid of it be pointed out, or let the question sleep forever", "date": "1820-04-23", "source_id": "rowland-2-letters" }, { "text": "of which I am now the last surviving signer ... as the best earthly inheritance their ancestors could bequeath to them", "date": "1826-08-02", "source_id": "rowland-2-letters" } ], "timeline": { "1737-09-19": "Born in Annapolis to Charles Carroll of Annapolis and Elizabeth Brooke, who were not then married (msa-bio; hoffman-aas)", "1747": "Attends Jesuit academy at Bohemia Manor, Cecil County (msa-bio; bdml)", "1749": "College of St. Omer, French Flanders, 1749-1753 per MSA/BDML; Hoffman says he went abroad in 1748 (bdml; hoffman-aas)", "1757-02-15": "Parents married by Jesuit Mathias Maners (hoffman-aas)", "1764-09": "Ends law study at the Middle Temple, London (bdml)", "1765-02": "Arrives home in Maryland (unpub-letters)", "1765-11-23": "Letter to Edmund Jennings signed 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton' (unpub-letters)", "1768-06-05": "Marries Mary (Molly) Darnall (bdml)", "1770-11-26": "Gov. Eden's fee proclamation (aomol-63)", "1773-02-04": "First 'First Citizen' letter in the Maryland Gazette (msa-papenfuse-1995)", "1773-07-01": "Last First Citizen letter (rowland-1; bdml: 'January-July, 1773')", "1776-02-15": "Congress names Franklin, Samuel Chase and Carroll commissioners to Canada; asks Carroll to bring Rev. John Carroll (jcc-4)", "1776-03-20": "Congress adopts the commissioners' commission and instructions (jcc-4)", "1776-04-02": "Commissioners leave New York for Canada (canada-journal)", "1776-04-29": "Commissioners reach Montreal; received by Arnold (canada-journal)", "1776-05-11": "Franklin leaves Montreal (canada-journal)", "1776-05-29": "Chase and Carroll leave Montreal (canada-journal)", "1776-06-11": "Chase and Carroll, back from Canada, report to Congress (jcc-5)", "1776-06-24": "Carroll appears in the Maryland Convention at Annapolis (md-conv-1776)", "1776-06-28": "Maryland Convention unanimously frees its deputies to vote for independence (md-conv-1776)", "1776-07-02": "Carroll at the Maryland Convention, Annapolis, while Congress votes independence in Philadelphia (md-conv-1776)", "1776-07-04": "Maryland Convention, with Carroll present and voting, elects him a deputy to Congress (md-conv-1776)", "1776-07-18": "Maryland credentials read in Congress; Carroll elected to the Board of War (jcc-5)", "1776-08-02": "Engrossed Declaration signed; Carroll signs as 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton' (jcc-5)", "1776-08-17": "Elected to the committee to draft Maryland's declaration of rights and constitution (md-conv-aug1776)", "1776-11-11": "Maryland constitution and Declaration of Rights adopted (md-const-1776)", "1778-11-13": "Charles Carroll of Annapolis petitions the legislature to repeal the tender act; refused (wheeler-md-press)", "1782-05-30": "Father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, dies (hoffman-aas)", "1782-06-10": "Wife Mary (Molly) Darnall Carroll dies (hoffman-aas)", "1783-05-22": "Elected president of the Maryland Senate (again 23 Dec 1783) (bdml)", "1789-04-13": "Takes his seat as U.S. senator from Maryland (senate-md-timeline)", "1792-11-30": "Resigns from U.S. Senate, keeping Maryland Senate seat (senate-md-timeline; bdml)", "1800": "Retires from the Maryland Senate after twenty-three years (msa-extbio)", "1808-04-25": "Frees Prudence Mahoney and her six children (vol830-29)", "1810-01-02": "Frees a woman named Jarr (vol830-82)", "1816-12-18": "Deed of deferred manumission for people on Poplar Island, freedom dated 1824-1856 (aa-manumissions)", "1818-05-26": "Frees Elizabeth, age 18 (aa-manumissions)", "1820-04-23": "Writes that slavery is 'admitted by all to be a great evil' but the question should 'sleep forever' (rowland-2-letters)", "1821-02-07": "Deeds dividing Carrollton Manor among family branches, life estate reserved (will-1825)", "1825": "Death of his son Charles Carroll of Homewood (bdml; hoffman-aas)", "1825-09-02": "Signs his will (will-1825)", "1826-07-04": "Jefferson and Adams die; Carroll becomes last surviving signer (nara-signers)", "1826-08-02": "Signs certificate on New York's copy of the Declaration (rowland-2-letters; niles-1828-07-19)", "1827-10-09": "Letter to Rev. John Stanford on religious and civil liberty (rowland-2-letters)", "1828-07-04": "Lays the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road (niles-1828-07-12)", "1830-01-05": "Second codicil puts Doughoregan in tail male (will-1825)", "1830-01-18": "American Colonization Society elects Carroll its president (african-repository-1830)", "1832-11-14": "Dies about 4 a.m. at the Caton house, Baltimore, aged 95 (niles-1832-11-17; nara-signers)", "1834-02-13": "Will proved in Baltimore County (will-1825)" }, "not_asserted": [ "He added 'of Carrollton' to his signature so that King George would know whom to hang: false. He signed and was addressed as 'Charles Carroll of Carrollton' by Nov. 1765 (unpub-letters) and Congress's March 1776 commission uses the style (jcc-4); Rowland (1898) already called the legend 'not tenable as history'.", "'There go a few millions' (said by a bystander as he signed): unverified. Rowland traces the remark (with Carroll's 'Most willingly' reply to Hancock) to John H. B. Latrobe's sketch in Sanderson's Lives of the Signers, written ca. 1824, half a century later; no contemporary witness found.", "'I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to my signing the Declaration of Independence, if even it be second to that' (4 July 1828): not found in the contemporary Niles' Register account; there the ranking is stated in the third person by John B. Morris on behalf of the B&O directors. Use the Niles' version or attribute the first-person line to later retellings.", "Charles Carroll House site's claim that he was ACS president '1828-1831': contradicted by the ACS's own African Repository (elected 18 Jan 1830).", "That Carroll was 'present' at or voted for the Declaration on 2 or 4 July 1776, as Faulkner's composition might imply: he was in the Maryland Convention at Annapolis both days (md-conv-1776) and joined Congress on 18 July.", "YCBA's 2026 label claim that he 'proposed a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery': the Maryland State Archives (2025-26) and Jeske (2022) could not find any such bill in the 1797 Senate journals; the story traces to his son-in-law Richard Caton after his death.", "'He freed his slaves' (as a general statement) or 'introduced a bill to abolish slavery': he freed a small number of individuals by deed (1808-1818) and set deferred freedom dates for others, his will freed at most one man (Bill) and bequeathed the rest to heirs, and the 1797 abolition bill cannot be found in the Senate journals (msa-extbio).", "'His fortune was GBP 2,100,000 in 1775' (Wikipedia): marked citation needed; no reliable source found. Adams's contemporary estimate was GBP 150,000-200,000 sterling (bdml).", "'The richest man in America' stated as fact: only as contemporaries' estimates, which must be attributed (Adams 1776: fortune 'perhaps the largest in America'; Maclay 1789: 'the richest man in the Union'; both via BDML). The Charles Carroll House's 'largest slaveholder at the time of the Revolution' and YCBA's 'colonies' largest enslaver' are likewise institutional characterizations; Hoffman's documented claim is narrower: 'Maryland's largest slaveholder' with 386 people.", "That Carroll 'voted for independence': he was not a member of Congress until 18 July 1776; on 2 July he was at the Maryland Convention in Annapolis (md-conv-1776). He was present (attendance chain from 24 June) when the Maryland Convention on 28 June 1776 unanimously freed its delegates to vote for independence.", "That Carroll was the 'Jesuit' or cousin relationship to John Carroll as stated by some retellings: the article calls John Carroll a priest only.", "The exact entail wording of the 1830 codicil ('as long as the laws of this State will permit'): reported by the research pass but not re-read by the writer, so the article describes the manor provision generally.", "Hoffman's count of 330 people at Doughoregan in 1773-74: in the research ledger, not re-verified in the OCR text checked by the writer, so only the total of 386 is used.", "The time of death (about 4 a.m.) and the Caton house funeral details from Niles' 17 Nov 1832: the scan's text could not be read by the writer, so they are omitted." ], "writer_corrections_to_research_ledger": [ "Wheeler's entry says 'the legislature' refused to repeal the tender act (giving the American cause as the reason); the article does not say 'House of Delegates'.", "The will passes named people to grandchildren and to trustees for the Caton household (recorded p. 3), not only to grandchildren.", "Doughoregan's present ownership is attributed to the dated 2010 press report; the Maryland Historical Trust page confirms the chapel burial but not current ownership." ], "access_failures": [ { "url": "https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/C000187", "result": "HTTP 403 Forbidden to WebFetch" }, { "url": "https://www.mdhistory.org/digital-resource/9572", "result": "HTTP 403 Forbidden (MCHC record 'A list of negroes on Doohoregan Manor ... Dec'r 1, 1773'); not retried by other means" }, { "url": "https://mdhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MdHM_117_2_Fall-Wtr_2022_FINAL.pdf", "result": "HTTP 403 Forbidden (Maryland Historical Magazine 117:2, containing Jeske 2022 article); not retried" }, { "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-7377", "result": "HTTP 202 with empty body to automated fetch (also API endpoint); content not retrieved" }, { "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0266", "result": "HTTP 202 / empty body to automated fetch; content not retrieved" }, { "url": "https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0290", "result": "HTTP 202 / empty body to automated fetch; content not retrieved" }, { "url": "https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes?q=Princes+of+Ireland+Planters+of+Maryland", "result": "HTTP 429 quota exceeded (limit 0); Google Books snippets for Hoffman/Birzer not available" }, { "url": "https://ia801502.us.archive.org/fulltext/inside.php?item_id=princesofireland0000hoff", "result": "HTTP 403 (archive.org search-inside refused for this in-copyright lending item, Hoffman, Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland); same for spiritofdissensi0000hoff. Not retried by other means." }, { "url": "https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/325374", "result": "HTTP 403 (JHU finding aid: 'List of people enslaved at Doughoregan manor ... January 1, 1834')" }, { "url": "https://theclio.com/entry/1884", "result": "HTTP 403" }, { "url": "https://lib.ecu.edu/catalog-preview/catalog/869552", "result": "HTTP 503 (catalog record for Dear Papa, Dear Charley; contents known only from search-engine summary)" }, { "url": "https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.43671.html", "result": "HTTP 403 (bot challenge 'Just a moment...'); used NGA's official open-data CSV on GitHub instead" }, { "url": "https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_56.207_MMA", "result": "HTTP 403 / 'Smithsonian site temporarily unavailable'" }, { "url": "https://archives.nypl.org/mss/8260", "result": "HTTP 403 Access Denied" }, { "url": "Bradley J. Birzer, American Cicero (ISI Books, 2010)", "result": "Not consulted: no legitimate open copy found in this pass (Google Books API quota 0; no archive.org copy located)." }, { "url": "https://www.nga.gov/artworks/43671-charles-carroll-carrollton", "result": "HTTP 403 to automated requests (writer); identification taken from the NGA's CC0 Commons donation record (source purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/43671)" }, { "url": "https://www.mdhistory.org/?p=6429", "result": "HTTP 403 (writer); not used" } ], "portrait": { "object": "National Gallery of Art 1956.15.1 (object 43671)", "artist": "Chester Harding", "year": "c. 1828", "medium": "oil on canvas", "credit": "Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Dallas Thayer", "institution": "National Gallery of Art, Washington (not a Smithsonian museum)", "rights": "CC0, per the Gallery's open access donation", "rights_source": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chester_Harding,_Charles_Carroll_of_Carrollton,_c._1828,_NGA_43671.jpg", "catalogue": "https://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/43671", "download_asset": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Chester_Harding%2C_Charles_Carroll_of_Carrollton%2C_c._1828%2C_NGA_43671.jpg", "download_sha1": "99972cb1b7c84c57ba704c2ed41622732127af7e", "download_sha256": "b99f0d3f6efbf25c7cab9692807c64a2bb81c3dc5917e9e36d124e745f03ee70", "published_rendering": "/images/charles-carroll-declaration-mural.webp, 1600x900, full portrait on neutral padding (rgb 26,22,21), no AI alteration" }, "morris_source_changed": false, "other_biographies_written": false, "full_hub_essay_written": false, "capstone_written": false }