Charles Ridgely II

[1] Ridgely was born in Prince George's County, in the Calvert / Lord Baltimore's proprietary colony of the Province of Maryland, and still a minor at the death of his father in 1705.

Upon his marriage to Rachel, he acquired the estate known as "Howard's Timber Neck" from his father-in-law, just southwest of Baltimore Town, which had been established in 1729, and laid out the following year.

In 1735, Ridgely began leasing parcels of land in "Ridgely's Delight", now a southwestern Baltimore city neighborhood, just outside the downtown area and adjacent to the sports stadiums complex of Camden Yards, of 1992–1998, built on top of the former railyards of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and its historic Camden Street Station and former headquarters, built 1857–1865.

The later historic district and rowhouse tight neighborhood which remains today and is still known as "Ridgely's Delight", and is situated on what was first a Susquehannock Indian path leading south from the Susquehanna River valley further north, and in the Federal period of the late 18th century, a main East Coast post road /highway from Philadelphia southwest through Baltimore and on to Georgetown, Maryland, then an active sailing port on the upper Potomac River (now part of the District of Columbia containing the new national capital Washington, D.C. after 1800).

The earliest houses within today's boundaries of the pie-shaped wedge community of "Ridgely's Delight" date from about 1804.

In 1745, he acquired "Northampton", near future Towsontown / Towson, and was founder of the Ridgely family of "Hampton Mansion".

By 1750, "Charles The Merchant" had taken up or purchased altogether 26 parcels in Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, aggregating 8,000 acres (32 km2).

These parcels were not all contiguous, and they included areas as distant as the present neighborhoods further south of Roland Park, Guilford and Blythewood in later northern Baltimore City.

The tract of land was originally granted to Col. Henry Darnall, Sr. (1645–1711), who immigrated to Maryland from Hertfordshire, England.

In the early 1760s, Col. Ridgely established several large ironworks, which thrived from the easily mined deposits of iron ore in the area.

The large mansion "Hampton Mansion" was built on the tract of land containing 10,000 acres (40 km2), called "Northampton", after the end of the American Revolutionary War between 1783 and 1790 by Col. Ridgely's youngest son Captain Charles Ridgely III, known as "Charles The Mariner" (1733–1790), who died after its completion.

In 1760 Ridgely and his two sons built Northampton Ironworks, which included a furnace on Patterson's Run and forges at Long Cam near Gunpowder Falls.

At the time of his death in 1772, Ridgely's estate was valued at £6,285.16.9 British pounds sterling, then current money, including 36 slaves, 6 servants, 121 oz.

plate, his one-third interest in the Northampton Ironworks valued at £322.9.3, and 603 pounds worth of goods shipped by London merchants.

He died at "Northampton", (at future Hampton Mansion and near Towsontown/Towson), Baltimore County, Maryland, and his will was probated on June 8, 1772.