North Americans have a long and distinguished history at Stonyhurst, dating back to Andrew White, an early St. Omers student who in the early 1600s led the first Jesuit mission in North America and later established a mission in what is now Maryland.

Notable North American alumni include:

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Charles Carroll (1737-1832), of Carrollton, former St Omers pupil, was the only Catholic signatory to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, elected to Congress, served as Senator for Maryland until 1800, and influenced the shaping of the constitution of both Maryland and the United States;

David Carroll (1730-1796), who helped draft the American Constitution;

John Carroll (1735-1815) the first Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore and founder of Georgetown University;

The signatures of Charles Carroll and his cousin John in a book of odes in the Arundell Library

Leonard Neale (St Omers and Bruges 1761-7), the second Archbishop of Baltimore;

Robert Plunkett (born 1752) and Robert Molyneux, the first two presidents of Georgetown University;

Thomas Meagher (1823-1866), who served as a general on the Union side in the American Civil War and later became the governor of Montana;

George Herbert Walker (Stonyhurst 1892-4), grandfather of President George Bush snr and founder of the USA - Great Britain amateur golf competition for the Walker Cup;

General Vernon Walters

and the late General Vernon Walters (Stonyhurst 1928-31), who had a long and illustrious military career before becoming President Reagan’s Ambassador at Large, Ambassador to the United Nations, and finally Ambassador to Germany until he retired in 1991.

These are just some of our North American alumni. Many more have returned to their home countries from Stonyhurst and put their education and moral training to work in so many valuable ways.

Today over 120 OS live and work across the United States, from Massachusetts to California and from Washington to Florida.