| Various materials relating to Robert Goodloe Harper and the Carroll family, including various letters from Harper to other lawyers, Harper's speeches, and testimony on the will of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Harper was born in 1765. He served in the Revolutionary War beginning at age 15. In 1783 he graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and went on to study law in Charleston, South Carolina. He was admitted to the bar in 1789.
He was a member of the South Carolina House from 1790-1795 and then became a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, 1795-1801. In 1801 Harper moved to Maryland and married Catherine Carroll, the daughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (signer of the Declaration of Independence).
Harper served in the War of 1812 and attained the rank of major general. He was briefly, in 1816, a U.S. Senator from Maryland and an unsuccessful Federalist Vice Presidential candidate in both 1816 and 1820.
Harper was also an active member of the American Colonization Society. He suggested the name for "Liberia" (Africa) and the town of Harper was named for him. He died in 1825 in Baltimore. |
