CARROLL, CHARLES, of Carrollton (1737 1832). An American patriot. Ile was born in Annapolis, Md., but at an early age went abroad and was educated in the Jesuit colleges of Saint-Omer, Rheims, and Louis he Grand. He then studied law in Bourges, Paris, and London, and returned to America iu 1764. Ile inherited the largest of the old manorial estates of Nary land, and was considered the wealthiest private citizen in the thirteen Colonies. In 1775 he was chosen a member of the 'Committee of Observa tion' at Annapolis, and in the same year was sent to the provincial convention. In 1776 he was one of the commissioners sent to persuade the Canadians to join in the war against Eng land. Returning to :Maryland, he became promi nent as an advocate of union and independence, and in July, 1776, was sent to Congress, where on August 2 he signed the Declaration, writing `of Carrollton' after his name, so that there could be no doubt concerning his identity, 'Carrollton' being the name of the family mansion. In Con
gress he was a member of the Board of War. In 1776 he was one of the committee that drafted the :Maryland Constitution, and was chosen to the State Senate. In 1777 he was again sent to Congress. and in subsequent years was repeatedly elected to the State Legislature. In 1789 he was United States Senator, and in 1799 was a member of the Maryland and Virginia boundary commission. His last public act was the laying of the corner-stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, July 4, 1828. He died in Baltimore on November 11, 1832, aged 95, the last survivor of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence-. Consult his Life, by J. H. B. Latrobe (Philadelphia, 1824). Consult, also, Mayer (editor), Journal of Charles Carroll of Tarollto» During His Visit to Canada in 1776, as One of the Cwounissioners front Congress (1Ia It i more, 18451 : and Rowland, Life of Charles Car roll of Carrollton (2 vols., New York, 1,898).