The Charles Carroll of Carrollton Papers

FAIN: RQ-50323-09

College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA 23186-0002)
Ronald Hoffman (Project Director: November 2007 to November 2010)

Editorial work on the last three volumes of the papers of plantation owner, businessman, and legislator Charles Carroll (1737-1832), the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. (24 months)

The editors will edit for publication in three volumes selected documents from the last fifty years of the life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the last of the signers to die. Volumes I-III of Carroll's papers, covering his early years through the death of his father in 1782, were published in 2001, under the title Dear Papa, Dear Charley; volumes IV-VI, A Patriarch in the Early Republic: Charles Carroll of Carrollton's Papers, 1782-1832, which are the subject of this application, will conclude the edition. The extraordinary chronological sweep of these records--from pre-Revolutionary times through the age of Andrew Jackson--together with their deeply ingrained personal intimacy, provide a remarkable multifaceted lens through which to examine the formative years of the United States. Editorial work will be completed in 2012, with publication planned for 2013.