Law Commons^™

Calvert Versus Carroll: The Quit-Rent Controversy Between Maryland's Founding Families, Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the historical background behind the 1826 U.S. Supreme Court case of Cassell v. Carroll. The legal merits in the case concerned arcane questions of feudal property law which the Court avoided and left unanswered. Today the case is of little jurisprudential significance. It is the historical record behind Cassell v. Carroll that tells a story that continues to be of interest and importance today. It provides a window on the economic and social life in provincial Maryland. It tells the tale of two dysfunctional dynasties—the Barons of Baltimore (the Calverts), who lost their faith, their fortune …