But while the owner of Doughoregan Manor was careful, he was not penurious. He kept open house to his numerous friends, of whom George Washington was one. In one of the rooms of the Manor Washington sat to Gilbert Stuart for his portrait. Both Mr. Carroll's property and his services were at his country's call. From the days of the Stamp Act to the close of the Revolution there was no more ardent patriot than he. He served as a member of the Continental Congress, was for three months with Washington at Valley Forge, by appointment of Congress, was later United States Senator, and was a leader in business as well as in political affairs. With Washington he was a member from the beginning of the Potomac Canal Company, which later was merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. After the Revolution he spent most of his time at Doughoregan Manor, where he completed the remarkable three-hundred-foot facade by the addition of the chapel which has been used by the family for more than a century. One by one the sons and daughters went out from the house, carrying the Carroll name or the Carroll training into many sections of Maryland and Virginia. Perhaps the most interesting marriage was that of Charles Carroll, IV, who was mentioned by Washington in his diary for 1798: "March 27--Mr. Charles Carroll, Jr. ... came to dinner. "March 28--Mr. Carroll went away after breakfast." William Spohn Baker, in "Washington after the Revolution," after quoting these extracts from the diary, says: "The visit of young Mr. Carroll having given rise at Annapolis to a rumor that it was made with the intention of paying his addresses to Nelly Custis, her brother wrote to the General in allusion to it, saying, 'I think it a most desirable match, and wish that it may take place with all my heart.' In reply, under date of April 15, Washington wrote, 'Young Mr. Carroll came here about a fortnight ago to dinner, and left on next morning after breakfast. If his object was such as you say has been reported, it was not declared here; and therefore, the less is said upon the subject, particularly by your sister's friends, the more prudent it will be, until the subject develops itself more.' "But youthful alliances are not always made at the nod of Dame Rumor, nor are they always controlled by the wishes of relatives. Nelly Custis married, February 22, 1799, at Mount Vernon, Laurence Lewis, a nephew of Washington; and Charles Carroll, Junior, found, in the following year, a bride at Philadelphia, Harriet, a daughter of Benjamin Chew" [of Cliveden]. A delightful picture of life at the Manor was given by Adam Hodgson, an English visitor, who wrote from Baltimore on July 13, 1820: