Carroll was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania in May, 1797 to poor Irish immigrant parents (his father was Roman Catholic).

[1] He then enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary and took the three-year curriculum, staying for another six months of study after graduation.

Then early in March, 1829, he accepted a call from the First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York though this pastorate ended in 1835, due to a severe throat ailment.

Carroll, unknown to most at the school, was elected to the position almost entirely on the testimony of one old friend who was among the College's trustees.

After a brief tour of service for the Colonization Society, he died, in Philadelphia, at the age of fifty-four, on November 23, 1851.