Captain Charles Ridgely III (1733–1790) was a colonial Maryland planter and ironmonger.

With his father and brother, he established the Northampton Iron Works just north of future Towsontown /Towson, under what is now Loch Raven Reservoir.

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.

So Charles Carnan Ridgely, became the second master of the Hampton estate and eventually Governor of Maryland.