Meet the Ancestors: Charles Wallace

Charles Wallace was born in Annapolis in 1727, and he, along with his sister Mary Wallace, symbolizes the entrepreneurial spirit of many Americans before and after the Revolutionary War. He was a staymaker who supplied corsets to some of the richest women in the colony. He was a merchant and land owner who owned 5 acres from the State House down to City Dock, which would include the land between Cornhill and Fleet Street.

He quickly moved from staymaker to storekeeper who imported luxury goods from England and attended club meetings of prominent citizens, including Sir Robert Eden and George Washington, among others. He was contracted to build the new State House, with the cornerstone laid in 1772 when Wallace was only 45 years old. There is evidence that he was involved with the building of the second St. Anne’s church.