Charles Carroll the Settler | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Possible portrait by Justus Engelhardt Kühn, c. 1700–1720 | |
| Attorney General of the Maryland Colony | |
| In office 1688–1689 | |
| Attorney General for the Calvert Proprietorship | |
| In office 1689–1717 | |
| Attorney General of the Maryland Colony | |
| In office 1716–1717 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1661 Kingdom of Ireland |
| Died | 1720 Province of Maryland |
| Spouse(s) | Martha Ridgely Underwood, Mary Darnall |
| Children | Anthony, Charles, Charles, Henry, Eleanor, Bridget, Charles (of Annapolis), Anthony, Daniel, Mary, Eleanor |
| Occupation | Planter, Lawyer, Businessman |
Charles Carroll (1661 – 1720), sometimes called Charles Carroll the Settler to differentiate him from his son and grandson,[1] was an Irish-born planter and lawyer who spent most of his life in the English Province of Maryland. Carroll, a Catholic, is best known for his efforts to hold office in the Protestant-dominated colony which eventually resulted in the disfranchisement of Maryland's Catholics. The second son of Irish Catholic parents, Carroll was educated in France as a lawyer before returning to England, where he pursued the first steps in a legal career. Before that career developed, he secured a position as Attorney General of the young colony of Maryland. Its founder George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore and his descendants intended it as a refuge for persecuted Catholics.
Carroll supported Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, the colony's Catholic proprietor, in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the Protestant majority from gaining political control over Maryland. Following the overthrow of the Calvert proprietorship and the subsequent exclusion of Catholics from colonial government, Carroll turned his attention to owning slave plantations, law, business, and various offices in the proprietor's remnant organization. He was the wealthiest man in the colony by the time of his death. In the last years of his life, Carroll attempted to regain some vestige of political power for Catholics in the colony, but the Protestant colonial assembly and Governor John Hart disfranchised them. His son, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, became a wealthy planter and his grandson, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, also wealthy, was the only Catholic signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.