The family of Alexander Contee Hanson with enslaved child by Robert Edge Pine, c. 1787. A member of the wealthy gentry class, he was an attorney and served as a judge in Maryland.

The family of Alexander Contee Hanson with enslaved child by Robert Edge Pine, c. 1787. A member of the wealthy gentry class, Hanson was an attorney and served as a judge in Maryland. Courtesy of the Maryland Center for History and Culture.

Planter Class

In the Chesapeake Bay society of Maryland and Virginia, social prestige and political influence were determined mainly by economic power. Large-scale tobacco planters, high-volume merchants, and powerful lawyers made up the planter class of wealthy families. Although at least 80 percent of the free male population in this region could participate in the political process, they tended to leave these responsibilities to the wealthy. As a result, the planter class dominated local government, including the county courts and provincial assemblies. Given the absence of banks and the scarcity of paper money in the Chesapeake, the planter class had the capital and long-term credit to take advantage of new business ventures. The Carrolls of Mount Clare were part of Maryland’s planter class.

One-dollar colonial currency from the province of Maryland, 1790.

One-dollar colonial currency from the province of Maryland, 1770. Courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, Smithsonian Institution.

Reverse of the 1770 Maryland paper currency.

Reverse of the 1770 Maryland paper currency showing a tobacco leaf. Tobacco was one of the first forms of money used in the colony. Courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, Smithsonian Institution.

  1. Dr. Charles Carroll, Chyrugeon

    1691 – 1755

    There are no portraits of Dr. Charles Carroll. However, this map cartouche approximates his life as a Mid-Atlantic tobacco planter sitting outside his warehouse, while enslaved workers prepare hogsheads of tobacco for shipment, by Francis Hayman, 1751.

    Born in Ireland, he attended medical school then immigrated to Maryland about 1715. Dr. Carroll settled in Annapolis, built a thriving medical practice, and began investing his profits in various business ventures, including land speculation, ship building, and money lending. He founded the Baltimore Iron Works, bought Georgia plantation, and built grist mills, all of which laid the foundation for his family's wealth. He married Dorothy Blake and had three children.

  2. Charles Carroll, Barrister

    1723 – 1783

    Portrait of Charles Carroll, Barrister, with portico columns from the carriage front of Mount Clare, by Charles Willson Peale, 1770.

    Charles, the eldest son of Dr. Charles Carroll and Dorothy Blake, was born in Annapolis. He was educated in Portugal and England where he studied law. Upon returning to Maryland, he built Mount Clare. At age 40, he married his 21-year-old cousin Margaret Tilghman. They were childless, so he left his estate to two nephews who took his surname. A devout Patriot, he helped write the founding documents for Maryland’s first state government.

  3. Margaret Tilghman Carroll

    1742 – 1817

    Portrait of Margaret Tilghman Carroll with the garden front of Mount Clare, by Charles Willson Peale, 1770.

    She was the eldest of five children born to Mathew Tilghman and Anna Lloyd. Margaret was raised at Rich Neck Manor on the Eastern shore. At the age of 21, she married her cousin, 40-year-old Charles Carroll, Barrister. Her twin daughters did not survive infancy. She was an avid horticulturist and helped make Mount Clare a beautiful estate that showcased her family's wealth and influence.

  4. Mary Clare Carroll Maccubbin

    1727 – 1781

    Mary Clare Carroll, the Barrister’s sister, who married Nicholas Maccubbin, an Annapolis merchant. Portrait by John Hesselius, circa 1747.

    She was born in Annapolis to Dr. Charles Carroll and Dorothy Blake. She married Nicholas Maccubbin with whom she had seven children, including five sons. When her older brother, Charles Carroll, Barrister, died without leaving an heir, two of her sons, Nicholas and James, assumed the Carroll last name and inherited his fortune.

  5. Nicholas Maccubbin

    1710 – 1787

    Detail of a painting believed to depict an enslaved groom, Charles Carroll Barrister, and his brother-in-law Nicholas Maccubbin in a landscape of Mount Clare, by Charles Willson Peale, 1775.

    He was the son of Zachariah Maccubbin and Susana Nicholson. He was a merchant and High Sheriff in Annapolis. At 37, he married 20-year-old Mary Clare Carroll and they had seven children. He served as a Captain in the Anne Arundel County Militia and the Maryland Militia during the Revolution.

  6. Nicholas Maccubbin Carroll

    1751 – 1812

    Miniature of Nicholas Maccubbin Carroll by Charles Willson Peale, watercolor on ivory, circa 1774.

    He was the eldest son of Nicholas Maccubbin, a merchant and High Sheriff of Annapolis, and Mary Clare Carroll. He and a younger brother James, changed their last names to Carroll to inherit their childless uncle’s estate. He predeceased his aunt, Margaret Tilghman Carroll, so his wife and children did not inherit any of the Carroll property.

  7. James Maccubbin Carroll

    1761 – 1832

    James Maccubbin Carroll by Robert Edge Pine, circa 1787. This was likely a wedding portrait that matched one of his wife, Sophia Gogh Carroll.

    He was the youngest son of Nicholas Maccubbin and Mary Clare Carroll. He became his uncle's sole heir after his brother Nicholas died. He inherited Mount Clare and embraced the industry growing around it, including the B&O railroad and brick makers mining clay.

  8. Sophia Gough Carroll

    1772 – 1816

    Sophia Gogh Carroll, by Richard C. Poultney c. 1890 after Robert Edge Pine c. 1787. The original portrait was destroyed by fire.

    She was the only child of Harry Dorsey Gough and Prudence Carnan Gough and grew up at Perry Hall. At age 15, she married 25-year-old James Maccubbin Carroll. They had seven children, but she died before her husband inherited Mount Clare.

  9. Harry Dorsey Gough

    1745 – 1808

    Harry Dorsey Gough, a prominent Maryland merchant, planter, politician, and Methodist, attributed to Gilbert Stuart circa 1800.

    He was born in Annapolis to British merchant Harry Gough and his wife Sophia Dorsey. Gough became a successful merchant and at age 26 married 18-year-old Prudence Carnan. They had one daughter, Sophia Gough. They lived at Perry Hall in northeastern Baltimore County. 

  10. Prudence Carnan Gough

    1755 – 1822

    Prudence Carnan Gough, by John Wesley Jarvis, circa 1810.

    Born in Anne Arundel County, she was the daughter of John Carnan and Achsah Ridgley. Her brother was Charles Ridgley Carnan, a governor of Maryland. At 18, she married Harry Dorsey Gough, a successful merchant. She became a devout Methodist and adopted their abolitionist stance. She had one daughter Sophia Gough who married into the Carroll family.

  11. Harry Dorsey Gough Carroll

    1793 – 1866

    Harry Dorsey Gough Carroll, portrait by William James Hubbard, circa 1832.

    He was the second son of James Maccubbin Carroll and Sophia Gough. He married his cousin Eliza Ridgley in 1811 and had five children, only two of whom survived. He inherited Perry Hall.

  12. James Carroll, Jr.

    1791 – 1873

    James Carroll, Jr. portrait by William James Hubbard, circa 1832.

    He was the eldest son of James Maccubbin Carroll and Sophia Gough. He inherited Mount Clare and embraced the industrialization that was encroaching the former plantation. He moved out in 1837 renting Mount Clare to a series of hotel operators. 

  13. Achsah Ridgley

    1792 – 1841

    Achsah Ridgley by William James Hubbard, circa 1832.

    She was one of the 11 children born to Gov. Charles Carnan Ridgley and Priscilla Hill Dorsey. She grew up at Hampton Plantation. Achsah married her cousin James Carroll Jr. and had six children, three of whom survived into adulthood.