Carroll was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1702, the third child and second son of Charles Carroll the Settler and Mary Darnall, daughter of the wealthy Roman Catholic planter Henry Darnall, a strong ally of the Carrolls and the ruling Calvert family.
His older brother Henry died shortly before their father, in 1719.

Charles Carroll the Settler came to the colony in 1688 with a commission as Attorney General from the colony's Catholic proprietor, Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, but after only a year lost that position as a result of the Province's so-called "Protestant Revolution", a rebellion of Protestant settlers associated with the Glorious Revolution in England.
The royal government that took over the Colony, after moving the founding capital from the Catholic stronghold of St. Mary's City on the shores of the Potomac and Chesapeake in southern Maryland to the more central and renamed Annapolis near Kent Island in 1694; banned Catholics from holding office, bearing arms, serving on juries, and eventually from voting.
Barred therefore from a political career, Carroll the Settler turned his attention to business, amassing a fortune so large that he was eventually the wealthiest man in Maryland at the time of his death in 1720.
Thus, while the younger Carroll was born into a religious minority with few rights, he had all the advantages that wealth could provide.

Like many sons of wealthy Marylanders, Carroll was sent to England to study law, but he returned to Maryland on his father's death in 1722 in order to inherit the family estates.
Carroll was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1702, the third child and second son of Charles Carroll the Settler and Mary Darnall, daughter of the wealthy Roman Catholic planter Henry Darnall, a strong ally of the Carrolls and the ruling Calvert family. His older brother Henry died shortly before their father, in 1719.
Charles Carroll the Settler came to the colony in 1688 with a commission as Attorney General from the colony's Catholic proprietor, Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, but after only a year lost that position as a result of the Province's so-called "Protestant Revolution", a rebellion of Protestant settlers associated with the Glorious Revolution in England. The royal government that took over the Colony, after moving the founding capital from the Catholic stronghold of St. Mary's City on the shores of the Potomac and Chesapeake in southern Maryland to the more central and renamed Annapolis near Kent Island in 1694; banned Catholics from holding office, bearing arms, serving on juries, and eventually from voting. Barred therefore from a political career, Carroll the Settler turned his attention to business, amassing a fortune so large that he was eventually the wealthiest man in Maryland at the time of his death in 1720. Thus, while the younger Carroll was born into a religious minority with few rights, he had all the advantages that wealth could provide.
Like many sons of wealthy Marylanders, Carroll was sent to England to study law, but he returned to Maryland on his father's death in 1722 in order to inherit the family estates.
Charles Carroll of Annapolis