Carroll, Charles, 1723-1783

Charles Carroll (22 March 1723 – 23 March 1783) was an American statesman from Annapolis, Maryland. He was the builder of the Baltimore Colonial home Mount Clare (1760), and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777.

Born in Annapolis, Maryland, he was educated in Europe, spending six years at the English House school in Lisbon, Portugal. He then went to England to complete his education at Eton and Cambridge. After graduating Cambridge in 1746, Charles returned to Annapolis and took up residence there. In 1751 Charles decided on a more specific career. He journeyed to London, took up residence at the Middle Temple, and studied law. He was admitted to the bar at the Inns of Court there before returning to Maryland early in 1755. Since there were now three other relatives named Charles active in public affairs in the area, he began to call himself Charles Carroll, Barrister. However, he never practiced law in Maryland.

Shortly after returning, Carroll was elected to his late father's seat for Anne Arundel County in the Maryland Assembly, legislature in Annapolis for the colony. Carroll continued in the Assembly until it was prorogued at the beginning of the Revolution, and then met with other leaders in the Annapolis Convention and had important roles in all their sessions. He joined the Committee of Correspondence in 1774, and the Committee of Safety in 1775. Later in November 1776, the Convention sent Carroll as a delegate to the Continental Congress to replace his cousin, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He served in that Congress until 15 February 1777.

Declining the position of Chief Justice in the new revolutionary confederation government, he was elected to Maryland's first state Senate in 1777. Later he was re-elected and served in that office until his death at Mount Clare Mansion, the home he had built in 1760. His funeral was held at Old St. Paul's Anglican Church. Initially bried in the cemetery there, his body was later moved to St. Anne's Churchyard (Anglican/Episcopal) off Church Circle in Annapolis.