John Carroll was the first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop in the United States. He was born in 1735 and founded Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in America. Carroll joined the Society of Jesus at age 18 and was ordained as a priest in 1769. He taught philosophy and theology until 1773, when the Society of Jesus was suppressed. Carroll was then elected as the first bishop of Baltimore in 1789 and oversaw the growth of the Catholic church in America until his death in 1815.