(Biographical Series)
Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832)
MSA SC 3520-209
Delegate to the Continental Congress, Signer ofthe Declaration of Independence; U.S. Senator
The only son of Charles Carroll of Annapolis, Charles Carroll of Carrolltonstood heir to a vast fortune which enabled him an extraordinary education.Carroll was sent abroad for his education, first attending the French collegesof St. Omer's and Louis-le-Grand where he received a civil law degree,and then the Middle Temple in London where he was a student of Englishcommon law. Carroll returned to Maryland seventeen years later, in 1764.
In 1774, Carroll served in the Maryland Convention and on the Committeeof Correspondence. He was a member of the Council of Safety in 1775, anda member of the committee which drafted the Maryland Constitution in 1776.Because of his legal disabilities as a Catholic, Carroll was not a delegateto the First Continental Congress, but did join the delegates at Philadelphiaas an unofficial observer and advisor. In March of 1776, Carroll accompaniedSamuel Chase and Benjamin Franklin on their unsuccessful mission to Canada.He was chosen for this venture, as John Adams later reflected, not onlyfor his French fluency, but also because "he continues to hazard his all,his immense Fortune...and his life."
At the June 1776 session of the Maryland Convention, Carroll introducedthe resolution which finally rescinded the instructions restricting thecongressional delegates. On July 4, Carroll was at last selected as anofficial delegate to the Continental Congress. He arrived in Philadelphiaon July 18 and signed the Declaration on August 2, "most willingly" manifestinghis long-held intention "to defend the liberties of my country, or diewith them..." He remained a delegate until 1778.
In 1800, after twenty-three years in the Maryland Senate, Carroll retiredfrom public life, and spent the last three decades of his life as a businessmanand entrepreneur. When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, CharlesCarroll of Carrollton, Maryland's "First Citizen," became America's lastsurviving Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
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