Carroll was the family name of three early American leaders, two brothers and their cousin.
Daniel Carroll
(1730-1796) signed both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States. He favored a strong central government and opposed election of the president by Congress. He first favored direct election by the people, but later urged the Electoral College system. He served in the first Maryland state Senate in 1777, and was president of the Senate in 1783. In 1789, he was elected to the first House of Representatives under the U.S. Constitution. From 1791 to 1795, he was a commissioner of the District of Columbia. He was born in Prince George’s County, Maryland, on July 22, 1730. He is usually called “Daniel Carroll of Rock Creek,” to distinguish him from relatives of the same name. He died on May 7, 1796.
John Carroll
(1735-1815), brother of Daniel, became the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States. American priests elected him bishop in 1789, and he took office in 1790. Bishop Carroll founded Georgetown University in 1789 and helped establish other Catholic colleges. Under his leadership, the Basilica of the Assumption, the first major Catholic cathedral in the United States, was built in Baltimore. In 1808, he was elevated to archbishop. He was born in Upper Marlborough (now Upper Marlboro), Maryland, on Jan. 8, 1735. He was ordained in 1769. He died on Dec. 3, 1815.
Charles Carroll
(1737-1832) was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He always signed his name “Charles Carroll of Carrollton” to distinguish himself from several others who had the same name. Carroll went to Canada in 1776 with his cousin John Carroll, Samuel Chase, and Benjamin Franklin to ask Canadians to help America in the Revolutionary War. Their mission failed.
Carroll was born in Annapolis, Maryland, on Sept. 19, 1737. He was elected to Maryland’s first state Senate in 1777. He served there until 1801. From 1776 to 1778, he was a member of the Continental Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a U.S. senator from Maryland between 1789 and 1792. Carroll retired from politics in 1801, and he devoted the rest of his life to private affairs. At the time of his death on Nov. 14, 1832, he was the last surviving signer of the Declaration. A statue of Carroll represents Maryland in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
