Charles Carroll MacTavish (January 18, 1818 – March 12, 1868), sometimes known as Carroll MacTavish, was an American landowner who briefly served as an Irish Repeal Association politician in the United Kingdom.
MacTavish was the great-grandson of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, an American founding father, and was born into a wealthy family in Maryland. He was named for his great-grandfather, who had a strong influence on his early life, ensuring that he was brought up devoutly Catholic. His mother's family had married into English aristocracy, and with their support, MacTavish began a career with the British diplomatic service. In the 1840s, he became interested in politics, and stood for election as a candidate in an Irish seat at the 1847 general election. He was narrowly elected, but the result was overturned following an election petition, which challenged both the conduct of the election and his status as a British subject. The committee ruled that some votes had been cast illegally, but did not find that it was proven he was ineligible to sit.
MacTavish later returned to America, where he married a daughter of General Winfield Scott, and took over a large family plantation in Maryland with around fifty slaves. He remained a slaveholder until the end of the Civil War, when he sold the estate, though he was considered a loyal Union citizen. He died in 1868.
Early life
MacTavish's father, John MacTavish, was a Scottish fur trader with the North West Company in Canada. He married Emily Caton, the daughter of Richard Caton, a wealthy Baltimore merchant, in 1816, and they took up residence in Montreal; through her mother, Emily Caton was the granddaughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Their first child, Charles Carroll MacTavish, was born in January 1818 in Maryland, while his mother was visiting her parents. Emily's sisters had married into the British aristocracy; MacTavish's uncles by marriage included Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, former Governor-General of India, Foreign Secretary, and later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Francis D'Arcy-Osborne, 7th Duke of Leeds.
In 1819, the family moved to Maryland, where John MacTavish was appointed as consul-general to the United States in 1829, and later consul for Maryland and the District of Columbia. From 1832, they resided at Carrollton Hall, a short distance from Baltimore, an estate gifted by his great-grandfather.
MacTavish and his siblings were raised in a strongly Catholic environment, influenced heavily by the wishes of their great-grandfather. He was a pupil at Stonyhurst College in England, a Jesuit school, between 1830 and 1834. During his time at Stonyhurst, he attended the coronation of William IV. At this time, he was interested in a military career, though this did not come to pass. In 1834, his uncle Wellesley, then Lord-Lieutenant in Dublin, met him on a visit to Ireland and wrote that he "is receiving the education of a Catholic priest and both his understanding and his person will soon decline".
In 1839, MacTavish left America to travel to Russia and then onward to the United Kingdom, with ambitions of a diplomatic career. He was presented at court in London in April 1839 by Andrew Stevenson, the American ambassador. He lived for some time in Paris, where he perfected his French, and then with the support of his uncle, the Marquess of Wellesley, was attached to the British diplomatic service. He is recorded as being associated with Henry Wellesley's embassy to the Ottoman Empire, which would suggest he went to Constantinople around 1845. In 1845, his sister Mary married Henry George Howard, the youngest son of the Earl of Carlisle; at the time, Howard was an attaché to the British Embassy in Paris.
Election controversy
After living for some years in the United Kingdom, MacTavish became involved in Irish politics, and stood for election to the House of Commons in the 1847 general election, as a Repeal Association candidate in . At the hustings, his proposer drew a link to his great-grandfather, noting that as "Charles Carroll was instrumental in effecting American independence, so he hoped that Charles Carroll MacTavish would yet be instrumental in achieving the independence of Ireland"; MacTavish said that he "long had his eye on Ireland, and though an American by birth, was an Irishman in feeling". He was declared elected, polling 124 votes against 121 for William McCullagh, the Whig candidate. A full list of electors (and some non-voting supporters) was published as a poster by MacTavish's supporters shortly after the election.