Pioneer Information
Born on the Fausley Plantation in Talbot County and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Margaret Tilghman was the sister-in-law of Tench Tilghman, wartime aide to George Washington. At the age of 21 she married Charles Carroll (a distant cousin of Founding Father Charles Carroll, Sr.) and joined him on his Mount Clare estate in Baltimore, Maryland. Six years earlier, her husband had begun to build his mansion there, a two-story brick Georgian plantation house. A skilled and avid horticulturist, Mrs. Carroll designed the estate’s grounds, which overlooked the Patapsco River. The most famous addition to these grounds was the orangery, which displayed orange, lemon, and peach trees and denoted the elite status of the family. Because of her expertise in gardening and technical knowledge of orangeries, George Washington sought Carroll’s advice on his Mount Vernon estate in 1784. As a result, the Mount Vernon greenhouse (which burnt down in 1835) resembled the orangery at Mount Clare, its core forming a square marked by corner chimneys. Carroll further supplied Mount Vernon with saplings from her own greenhouse and advised Washington on how best to grow trees. Surviving her husband by 34 years, Carroll chose not to remarry, dedicating herself instead to remodeling the Mount Clare estate. Carroll died at the age of 75 and is buried at Saint Anne’s Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.
