He was the eldest son of James Maccubbin Carroll and Sophia Gough. He and two of his siblings married three siblings from the Ridgley family, who happened to be their first cousins. James married Achsah Ridgley in 1811 and had six children, three of whom survived to adulthood. During the War of 1812, James served in the American militia and found himself riding horseback past Mount Clare in August 1814, bringing dispatches to Baltimore about the Americans’ defeat at Bladensburg.
James and his family lived on Pratt Street in Baltimore and maintained a country house called Summerfield in Baltimore County. He was a slaveholder. The family moved to Mount Clare in 1832 but returned to their Pratt Street home around 1836, likely because of the industrial developments around the plantation. James then began renting Mount Clare to a series of hotel operators.
James, who studied law, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1839 to 1841. He also managed the family businesses and served as a director of the B&O Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
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James Carroll, Jr., a member of the Horticultural Society of Maryland, was still winning accolades for lemons and oranges grown in the orangery in Oct. 1837. Courtesy of the Maryland State Archives.
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James Carroll, Jr. portrait by William James Hubbard, circa 1832. Courtesy of NSCDA-MD
Achsah Ridgley (1792 - 1841)
She was born to Gov. Charles Carnan Ridgley and Priscilla Hill Dorsey who had 14 children, 11 of whom survived into adulthood. She grew up at the Hampton plantation. Achsah married her cousin James Carroll Jr. in 1811 and had six children, three of whom survived into adulthood.
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Achsa grew up at Hampton, pictured in this lithograph by William Birch, 1808. Courtesy of the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Conn.
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Achsah Ridgley by William James Hubbard, circa 1832. Courtesy of NSCDA-MD