The Carrolls: Catholic Founding Fathers

One was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The second was a signer of the U.S. Constitution. The third was the first Catholic Bishop of the United States. These three Carrolls from Maryland each played a key role in the founding of our nation and the establishment of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Charles Carroll was the first Catholic Carroll to emigrate to the new Colony of Maryland in 1688 and he served as Maryland’s first Attorney General. Though Maryland was founded as a Catholic colony, Protestants and Catholics vied for control of the colony and Charles played a prominent role in defending the rights of Catholic settlers. He lost his political position but became a wealthy plantation owner. He died in 1720 and is known as Charles the Settler since he established the Catholic Carroll family in Maryland.

Daniel Carroll was born in 1730 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland and was educated by Jesuits in Europe in his teenage years. He was a grandson of Charles the Settler. In 1781, Daniel was elected to the Continental Congress and signed the Articles of Confederation, which was America’s first governing document adopted after independence was declared. Following the successful conclusion of the war for independence, Daniel served in the Maryland State Senate and participated in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He signed that most historic document in 1787 and was one of the first elected representatives to the House of Representatives that the Constitution established. He died in 1796 at age 65.

Daniel Carroll’s younger brother John was born in 1735. He, too, was educated by Jesuits with cousin Charles and followed a religious calling into the Jesuit Order. He was ordained as a priest in 1761 and served as such in Europe for several years before returning to Maryland. Father John, cousin Charles, Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Chase traveled to Canada in 1776 on an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to solicit the Canadians to join the American independence movement. After the United States won its independence in 1783, Father John was appointed as Superior of the Jesuit mission in the new nation. Then he was appointed as Apostolic Prefect and ultimately as America’s first Bishop by Pope Pius VI in 1789. His new Diocese of Baltimore encompassed the new nation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. He founded Georgetown University in 1789. In April 1808, Pope Pius VII re-organized the Catholic Church in the United States, creating the new Dioceses of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Bardstown, and elevating the Diocese of Baltimore to an Archdiocese with these four new dioceses as suffragans dioceses. Pope Pius VII also elevated John to serve as Archbishop of Baltimore. Archbishop Carroll died in 1815.

Charles Carroll was a cousin of Daniel and John Carroll and grandson of Charles the Settler. He was born in 1737, educated by Jesuits in Maryland and later studied in Paris and London. Like many of his contemporaries and family members, Charles was a slaveholder. Charles was very active in the pro-independence movement in Maryland. In early 1776, Charles accompanied cousin Father John, Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Chase on an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to Canada to solicit the Canadians to join the American independence movement. He represented Maryland in the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He was the only Catholic to sign this historic document. Afterwards, he served as a delegate to Maryland’s convention which drafted its first State Constitution and Declaration of Rights. Independence having been won in 1783, Charles served in both the Maryland State Senate and the U.S. Senate at different times. When he died on 14 November 1832 at age 95, Charles was the last surviving signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

Daniel, John and Charles Carroll each played a significant role in establishing the new United States of America. Charles and Daniel helped create the political and governmental framework under which our country continues to operate. John helped establish the ecclesiastical structure under which our Catholic Church continues to operate.