Ridgely was born in
Maryland Province in 1733 to Colonel
Charles Ridgely II ("Charles the Merchant") and Rachel Howard. With his father and brother, he established the Northampton Iron Works just north of future
Towsontown /Towson, under what is now
Loch Raven Reservoir. He married Rebecca Dorsey, the daughter of Caleb Dorsey, an ironmonger in
Anne Arundel County. Caleb was a grandson of
Hon. John Dorsey. Ridgely built the massive
Hampton Mansion (now a
National Historic Site), after the
American Revolutionary War, between 1783 and 1790. By the time it was completed, the
Georgian-style structure was the largest private home in the country. The Mansion is now preserved as the
Hampton National Historic Site and cared for / operated by the
National Park Service of the
U.S. Department of the Interior. Capt. Ridgely died in 1790, and left the inheritance to his nephew Charles Carnan if he would assume the family name and carry on the Ridgely title. So
Charles Carnan Ridgely, became the second master of the Hampton estate and eventually
Governor of Maryland. ==References==