Hundreds of Years in the Making

In 1776, a treasonous move was made when 13 colonies chose to declare their independence from Great Britain. Have you ever wondered what it was like for our founding fathers during those infamous days? Well for Marco Island resident Christine Dowell, she does not need to wonder because she knows exactly what her ancestor was doing – signing the Declaration of Independence!

“My grandfather's sister did our family tree, tracing it back to 232 AD.” Christine pulled out a time-worn and immensely detailed family tree comprised from years of research, visits to Notre Dame, conversations and personal family records, and a visit to a Mormon depository.

A good deal of information also came from Niles Carroll, who was the first Anglo in the Yukon Territory, the first to bring gold out of the territory, and the first to ship oranges into the Yukon.

Starting with a King of Munster in Ireland, tracing through hundreds of years led to Charles Carroll and his cousin, Daniel. Continuing through present day and to her three children – Christine has history quite literally living in her family’s veins.

Charles Carroll’s grandfather was sent by the King of England to be the attorney general of the City of Mary (later called Maryland). However, by the time he had made the crossing, they were persecuting all Catholics.

Upon his arrival, he was fined, stripped of his title, and put in prison for not denouncing his faith. His child was Charles Carroll of Annapolis, and his only son was THE Charles Carroll.

Her family tree spreads to Daniel Carroll, who signed the Constitution and was instrumental in the writing of the Bill of Rights, and his brother, John Carroll, who would end up becoming the first Catholic Archbishop in the United States.

As Christine pointed out the names of many influential people in our country’s early years, she reflected on her own grandfather who had stressed to her, "Somebody needs to keep this alive."

Christine is dedicated to keeping the legacy going through the preservation and sharing of the history within her family and upholding the virtues that were so gallantly fought for.

Charles Carroll, the history books give us a general overview, but with the knowledge passed on from generations combined with in-depth research, a more intimate side is shared about the man he was.

Born in 1737 in Annapolis, Charles was taught by the Jesuits in a secret school in Maryland. When he was 11 years old, he was put on a ship, by himself, and sent to France to finish his education by the Jesuits there. He stayed there 16 years, never seeing his family during this time.

By the time he finished his formal education, he went to England and, as they called it then, read law. When he eventually returned to the colonies, he would go on to study at Harvard.

At this time in the colonies, the British were doing double taxation on Catholic land. Anyone of Catholic faith had to hold their Mass in secret.

Charles returned after 27 years and inherited his father’s estate known as ‘Carrollton Manor ’, a sprawling 10,000-acre estate, along with many other agricultural estates.

In the 1770s, he wrote essays under the pen name, ‘The First Citizen’, as he was not allowed to say who he was. He engaged in debates in the Maryland Gazette about the colonies’ right to control their own taxation.

In 1775, at the start of the American Revolution, he was regarded as the wealthiest man in the colonies. His worth was $375 million in today’s valuation.

In early 1776, George Washington and the Congress sent Charles, Benjamin Franklin (one of Carroll’s best friends), Samuel Chase, and his cousin John Carroll to Quebec, in hopes of securing support in the coming confrontations with Great Britain from the French Canadians. Since Charles spoke fluent French and John Carroll represented the Catholic Church, they were excellent choices since the French Canadians were Catholic.

They figured it would be a shoo-in; however, it was not successful. The French Canadians told Franklin that they did not like the fact that there were no Catholics in their government and pointed to Charles, "When he is in the government, you can come back."

On July 2 came the historic vote to secede from Great Britain, with July 4 being the date of the signing. Charles was elected as a Maryland Representative to the Continental Congress.

Charles arrived at the Second Continental Congress too late to vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence, but John Hancock asked him to sign when he arrived in Philadelphia in early August.

As he bent over the document to add his signature to the growing list of brave, rebellious men who, if found by the British, could be killed for treason, he wrote ‘Charles Carroll’.

However, one of the other signers present commented, "There are a lot of Carrolls." They chuckled, alluding to the fact that he would be hard to find for his treason due to the numerous men with the same surname.

Charles got back up, returned to the document, lifted the pen, and boldly added, ‘Of Carrollton’ to his name, turning to the room, “Now they will know who I am.” He was the only signer of the Declaration to state where they were from, an open form of defiance and display of his belief in the document.

Charles would continue this trend of boldness by accomplishing great things for the country he believed in.

His ability to speak five languages and his lengthy formal time in academics made him one of the most educated signers. He was also the only Catholic who signed.

He was a huge advocate for religious freedom. At its founding, Maryland was supposed to be for religious toleration. But it turned into intolerance of the Catholics after the Protestant Revolution, and so anti-Catholic penal laws then followed.

This deprived Catholics of the right to vote, right to hold office, practice law, worship publicly, or educate their children in their faith, and if they caught you, they would put you in jail. Being the case of his grandfather.

At that time, if you didn't say that you were Protestant, then you couldn't hold office. In 1787, he backed the Convention ban for a religious test to hold office.

He served in the Maryland Senate until 1800.

He introduced failed legislation to gradually abolish slavery in Maryland, because he did own 300 enslaved people.

He was concerned with the anti-Christian influence of the French Revolution on Thomas Jefferson, a deist, who wrote many papers on it.

In private letters in 1802, he took issue with Jefferson supporting Thomas Paine's blasphemous writing against Christian religions.

He was quite vocal about his beliefs and quite the writer.

In 1828, he came out of retirement and started the B&O Railroad with $40,000 of his own money to get it going.

In 1791, his cousin, Daniel, along with Oliver Ellsworth, James Madison, and William Patterson began drafting the Bill of Rights. Daniel had the major role in writing the First Amendment, contributing also to the Tenth Amendment that all rights not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states, which gave us a limited federal government.

George Washington asked Daniel, and a few others, to survey, design, and start constructing the new federal district of DC. The reason being that Daniel owned most of that land.

Christine added that once while visiting Mount Vernon, she shared her connection to Carroll, and a worker there brought her to the greenhouse and gave her an interesting fact: George Washington visited Charles’s house many times in Maryland and had said to him, 'I love your greenhouse. I need the plans.’ He received the plans, and thus the greenhouse at Mount Vernon is the exact blueprint of Charles’s in Maryland.

Christine was also told that the first president and Charles played croquet on the front lawn together, were very good friends, and that when Washington was dying, Charles came to visit with him one last time.

His personal righteousness had national implications in Carroll's worldwide view. Though he expressed a desire in his last years that the Republic, established by the Declaration of Independence, would long secure the blessings of liberty and prosperity, he echoed John Adams' warning that it could not sustain a people who lost their virtue.

In 1828, he wrote, "You observe that republics can exist and that people under that form of government can be happier than any other. That the republic created by the Declaration of Independence may continue to the end of time is my fervent prayer.” He added, “That protracted existence, however, will depend on the morality, sobriety, and industry of the people..."

Charles died at 95 in 1832. He was the last surviving and longest-lived signer of the Declaration of Independence.

As a country, we have reached a milestone of 250 years. Though we have learned many lessons from the past, sometimes we tend to repeat similar patterns of our forefathers. Through the preservation of history, education, and research, we can better equip ourselves in the assistance of upholding the virtues that our founding fathers fought to establish.

For Christine and her family, this task is not taken lightly.