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Doughoregan Manor, Near Ellicott City, Maryland: Revolution

Both Mr. Carroll's property and his services were at his country's call. From the days of the Stamp Act to the close of the Revolution there was no more ardent patriot than he. He served as a member of the Continental Congress, was for three months with Washington at Valley Forge, by appointment of Congress, was later United States Senator, and was a leader in business as well as in political affairs. With Washington he was a member from the beginning of the Potomac Canal Company, which later was merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.

After the Revolution he spent most of his time at Doughoregan Manor, where he completed the remarkable three-hundred-foot façade by the addition of the chapel which has been used by the family for more than a century.

One by one the sons and daughters went out from the house, carrying the Carroll name or the Carroll training into many sections of Maryland and Virginia. Perhaps the most interesting marriage was that of Charles Carroll, IV, who was mentioned by Washington in his diary for 1798: "March 27-Mr. Charles Carroll, Jr. dinner. • • came to "March 28-Mr. Carroll went away after breakfast."

William Spohn Baker, in "Washington after the Revolution," after quoting these extracts from the diary, says: "The visit of young Mr. Carroll having given rise at Annapolis to a rumor that it was made with the inten- OVER THE MASON AND DIXON LINE 219 tion of paying his addresses to Nelly Custis, her brother wrote to the General in allusion to it, saying, 'I think it a most desirable match, and wish that it may take place with all my heart.' In reply, under date of April 15, Washington wrote, 'Young Mr. Carroll came here about a fortnight ago to dinner, and left on next morning after breakfast. If his object was such as you say has been reported, it was not declared here; and therefore, the less is said upon the subject, particularly by your sister's friends, the more prudent it will be, until the subject develops itself more.' "But youthful alliances are not always made at the nod of Dame Rumor, nor are they always controlled by the wishes of relatives. Nelly Custis married, February 22, 1799, at Mount Vernon, Laurence Lewis, a nephew of Washington; and Charles Carroll, Junior, found, in the following year, a bride at Philadelphia, Harriet, a daughter of Benjamin Chew" [of Cliveden]. A delightful picture of life at the Manor was given by Adam Hodgson, an English visitor, who wrote from Baltimore on July 13, 1820: "I have lately been paying some very agreeable visits at the country seats of some of my acquaintances in the neighborhood.... The other morning I set out, at four o'clock, with General H, on a visit to a most agreeable family, who reside at a large Manor, about seventeen miles distant. We arrived about seven o'clock, and the family soon afterward assembled to breakfast. It consisted of several friends from France, Canada, and Washington, and the children and grandchildren of my host, a venerable patriarch, nearly eightyfive (83) years of age, and one of the four survivors of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. After breakfasting the following morning, the ladies played for us on the harp; and in the evening, I set out on horseback, to return hither, not without a feeling of regret, that I had probably taken a final leave • of my hospitable friend, who, although still an expert horseman, seldom goes beyond the limits of his manor. • " The other three surviving Signers died first, so that when Charles Carroll of Carrollton followed on November 14, 1832, the last Signer was gone. Among his last words were these: "I have lived to my ninety-sixth year; I have enjoyed continued health, I have been blessed with great wealth, prosperity, and most of the good things which this world can bestow-public approbation, esteem, applause; but what I now look back on with the greatest satisfaction to myself is, that I have practiced the duties of my religion."

He was buried under the pavement of the chapel at the Manor.

The present occupants of Doughoregan are Mr. and Mrs. Charles Carroll, who followed Governor John Lee Carroll, after his death in 1911.