Carroll Marriages into Titled Nobility

Source: Sidelights on Maryland History by Hester Dorsey Richardson (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995; first published in 1913) pp. 59-61.

“There is no branch of the Carroll family in Maryland that has not been distinguished. The Carrolls of Carrollton—most notable among their representative men was the Signer; the Carrolls of the Caves had the Barrister, the Susquehanna Carrolls, Governor Thomas King Carroll; the Marlboroughs, the Archbishop. These are but the bright particular stars in a galaxy of notable men of the same name, all remotely drawing their origin from the same ancient chief. The descendants of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, have to a remarkable degree married titled foreigners.

Charles Carroll, of Homewood, the only son of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, married Harriet Chew, daughter of the notable Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, whose daughter Peggy became the wife of General John Eager Howard. Among the many foreign marriages were those of the beautiful Caton sisters, granddaughters of the Signer, who were call “the American Graces” at the English Court where they were the reigning belles and beauties.

Of these, Mary married for her second husband the (p. 60) Marquis of Wellesley, brother of the Duke of Wellington; her sister, Louise, who had first been the wife of Sir Fulton Bathurst Hersey, married secondly Francis Osbourne Godolphin D’Arcy, Marquis Carmarthen, eldest son and heir to the Duke of Leeds, and upon his succession to the same, Louise Caton became the Duchess of Leeds. The third foreign marriage was that of Elizabeth Caton to Baron Stafford, of Costessy Hall.

Emily Caton married John Lovat Mactavish, a Scotch gentleman residing in Baltimore as British Consul. To this granddaughter Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, gave Folly Hall, also known as Folly Quarter. Catherine Carroll, one of the daughters of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, married Honorable Robert Goodloe Harper, one of the most eminent lawyers of his day and member of the United States Senate from Maryland.

Among the children of Charles Carroll, of Homewood, only son of the Signer, were Elizabeth Henrietta, who married Dr. Aaron Tucker; Mary Sophia, who married Honorable Richard H. Bayard; Harriet Juliana, who married Colonel John Lee of Needwood, and Louisa, who married Isaac Rand Jackson.

Among the lineal descendants of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who married in titled foreign families may be mentioned Louisa Carroll, who married George Cavendish Taylor, of England, nephew of Lord Waterpark, and Irish peer; Mary Louisa Carroll, who in 1886 became the bride of Comte Jean de Kergolay, of France; Anita Maria, the wife of Baron Louis de la Grange, also of France, both daughters of the Honorable John Lee Carroll, ex-Governor of Maryland.

Agnes Carroll, the daughter of Albert Henry Carroll (p. 61) and Mary Cornelia Read, is the Countess Heussenstam, of Austria, the marriage having taken place during the residence of Colonel and Mrs. James Fenner Lee at the Court of Vienna, while Colonel Lee was American Charge de Affaires."