Col. Charles Ridgely II, "Charles The Merchant" (1702–1772), of "Ridgely's Whim", was a Justice, planter, merchant, ironmaster, and member of the General Assembly of Maryland's lower chamber, House of Delegates and one of Baltimore County's commissioners. Charles II was the son of Charles Ridgely I, (known as "Charles the Planter"), (c. 1670 – 1705), and Deborah Dorsey (c. 1685 – 1752), daughter of Hon. John Dorsey.[1]
Ridgely was born in Prince George's County, in the Calvert / Lord Baltimore's proprietary colony of the Province of Maryland, and still a minor at the death of his father in 1705. He inherited the estates "White Wine" and "Claret" from his grandfather Hon. John Dorsey, Capt. (c. 1645 – 1715), although he never lived at either. At the time they totaled 1,400 acres (5.7 km2) between them, and Ridgely later resurveyed them into 2,145 acres (8.68 km2) by adding some surplus land.
- ^ Harry Wright Newman, Anne Arundel gentry : a genealogical history of twenty-two pioneers of Anne Arundel county, Md., and their descendants, John Dorsey and Pleasance Ely