Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland

by Hoffman, Ronald

• ISBN13: 9780807853474
• ISBN10: 080785347X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Omohundro Inst of Early Amer

Summary

Charles Carroll of Carrollton is most often remembered as the sole Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. In this monumental study of the Carrolls in Ireland and America, that act vindicates a family's determination to triumph without compromising lineage and faith. Ronald Hoffman peels back layer after layer of Carroll family history, from dispossession in Ireland to prosperity and prominence in America. Driven to emigrate by England's devastating anti-Catholic policies, the first Carroll brought to Maryland an iron determination to reconstitute his family and fortune. He found instead an increasingly militant Protestant society that ultimately disenfranchised Catholics and threatened their wealth and property. Confronting religious antagonisms like those that had destroyed their Irish ancestors, this Carroll and his descendants founded a fortune--and a dynasty that risked everything by allying with the American Revolutionary cause. Meeting each crisis with a tenacious will to survive and prevail, the Carrolls earned an esteemed place in the new nation. Hoffman balances private lives against their contentious public role in American history. The journey from Irish rebels to American revolutionaries shaped and shattered the Carrolls--and then remade them into one of the first families of the Republic.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
List of Illustrations and Tables	xv
List of Abbreviations	xvii
Introduction	xix
Prologue. Fields of Hunger: Faith and War	1	(35)
``Anywhere so long as There Be Freedom''	36	(25)
``Marylando-Hibernus''	61	(37)
``A Well-Regulated Economy''	98	(33)
``Sound & Strong'': A Worthy Heir	131	(53)
Affairs of the Heart: 1765-1773	184	(34)
``A Prudent Management''	218	(17)
``The Occupation of Agriculture''	235	(30)
``There Is the 1st: Citizen'': Political Beginnings	265	(38)
A Broader Allegiance: The American Revolution	303	(31)
The Family Economy: 1777-1782	334	(17)
Scenes from a Marriage: Charley and Molly, 1776-1782	351	(38)
Epilogue	389	(4)
Appendix 1. A Poem about the O'Carroll Forces after the Battle of Aughrim	393	(2)
Appendix 2. Ely-Eile	395	(1)
Appendix 3. Incomes of the Wealthy in Early Maryland	396	(2)
Appendix 4. Nineteenth-Century Accounts of Charles Carroll of Carrollton's Birth	398	(4)
Appendix 5. Carroll Real Estate Transactions, Baltimore Town, 1745-1763	402	(2)
Appendix 6. Genealogical Charts	404	(11)
Index	415