Our Carroll Family tree traces back to Keane Carroll who lived in Ireland in the 1600s and early 1700s. His son, Daniel Carroll, born 1696, left for American in the 1700s where he later became a prosperous merchant. He married Eleanor Darnall, daughter of Henry Darnall II and Anne Digges, about 1727 in Maryland. The family lived in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, southeast of what is now Washington D.C. and south of Baltimore, in Prince George's County.

This Carroll family is said to be related to the family of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, cousins. Keane Carroll was probably related in some way to Charles Carroll's family further back in Ireland, but no direct link to the family has been proven on that side. Daniel Carroll's wife, Eleanor Darnall, was related by marriage. Her father, Henry Darnall II, had a sister, Mary, who married Charles Carroll, the Settler.

Daniel Carroll died in 1751, leaving his widow, Eleanor, and six children, some still quite young. He was only in his mid-fifties. Eleanor, however, lived into her nineties, able to see her children reach adulthood and, for two of them, achieve greatness, each in his own way.





Eleanor Carroll, the second of the four daughters of Daniel Carroll and Eleanor Darnell. Born in 1737 in Prince George's County, Maryland, she married William Brent of Richland in Stafford County, Virginia.

Henry Carroll, the oldest of the Carroll children, drowned while young.

Daniel Carroll II, 1730-1796, was a planter and landowner living at Rock Creek in Maryland. He entered politics later in life, becoming a delegate to the Continental Congress, signing the Articles of Confederation, representing Maryland at the Constitutional Convention and was one of the signers of the Constitution. He was later appointed as one of the three commissioners to survey and lay out the District of Columbia.

Richard, the third son, died in 1814.

Ann Carroll, 1733-1804, the oldest daughter, married Robert Brent of Stafford County, son of George Brent and Catherine Trimingham. They lived at Woodstock, the family home, on Aquia Creek, near today's gated community of Aquia Harbor. Robert died in 1780 but Ann lived until 1804 and was buried in Forest Glen at St. John the Evangelist Cemetery with other Carrolls and Brents.

John Carroll, 1735-1815, also attended St. Omer's and became a Jesuit priest, the first bishop in the United States, in 1789, and was appointed the first archbishop in the United States in 1811. He was the founder of Georgetown University.

Eleanor Carroll, born in 1737, whose photo is above, married William Brent of Richland in Stafford County.

Mary Carroll, 1742-1815, married Notley Rozier Young, of Prince George's County, Maryland, who was one of the original landowners of the site chosen for the District of Columbia.

Elizabeth Carroll, 1743-1821, the youngest child, died in Washington, D.C. and never married.

A letter written by Daniel Carroll II in 1762 to a Mr. James Carroll in Ireland gives information on the family members above as of 1762:
Extract of a letter written by Daniel Carroll II to Mr. James Carroll of Ireland, 20 Dec 1762

Related links:
Descendant report for Keane Carroll of Ireland
Eleanor Darnall Carroll, 1703-1796
Daniel Carroll II, 1730-1796
Memorial stone for Daniel Carroll II, Forest Glen, Maryland
Carroll Cemetery, Forest Glen, Maryland
Gravestone of Eleanor Darnall Carroll, mother of Daniel Carroll II, Forest Glen, Maryland
Robert Brent and Ann Carroll of Stafford County, Virginia