Robert Carter

• Born: c. 1663
• Birthplace: Lancaster County, Virginia
• Died: August 4, 1732
• Place of death: Lancaster County, Virginia

American planter, merchant, and landowner

Carter was one of the wealthiest men in colonial America, amassing land throughout Virginia that allowed him to generate a fortune from the sale of tobacco and other products.

Sources of wealth: Real estate; trade; agricultural products; slaveholding

Bequeathal of wealth: Children; charity

Early Life

The younger son of well-to-do Virginia planter John Carter, Robert Carter spent his early years at Corotoman, the family farm on Virginia’s Northern Neck. The household included his parents (later a stepmother), elder brother John Carter II, and later John’s wife, as well as dozens of servants and slaves. John Carter died in 1669, leaving Corotoman to Robert’s elder brother, who became Robert’s guardian. In 1672, Robert was sent to England for an education in the classics but also to learn the rudiments of the tobacco trade. Six years later, he returned to Virginia to take up life as a farmer and merchant.

First Ventures

In his will, Carter’s father left him one thousand acres, land sufficient to allow him to live independently. After returning from England, however, he continued to live at Corotoman, and when he married Judith Armistead in 1688, he brought her to live there. Carter learned from his brother the intricacies of managing vast land holdings. In 1690, John Carter II died, and Robert inherited the six-thousand-acre estate.

Mature Wealth

Carter realized that tobacco depleted the land’s nutrients rapidly and that the only way to provide financial security for himself and his family was to increase the size of his land holdings. For the next thirty years, he systematically sought opportunities to purchase other plantations and undeveloped land, both of which he used to produce goods that would generate significant profits when sold in the colonies or abroad. A shrewd businessman, he spent much of his time acquiring land on the Northern Neck and throughout Virginia, hiring overseers to run what quickly became a small empire of tobacco plantations. He was not always a favorite among the gentry, however; he may have acquired the sobriquet King Carter because he often behaved high-handedly in his dealings with others. He was frequently in court, where he brought suit against associates, friends, and even family members in an effort to preserve and expand his holdings for himself and his heirs. Carter sired eleven children—four with his first wife, who died in 1699, and seven more with second wife, Elizabeth Landon.

In colonial Virginia, wealth and land came with political responsibility, and Carter held office for most of his adult life. He served in the House of Burgesses, the colonists’ elected assembly, and for a time was Speaker of the House. The king appointed him to the Governor’s Council, on which he served a term as its president, and he was acting governor of colonial Virginia for a year. Carter was able to use these appointments to supplement his income from farming; at the time, government officials profited from their appointments to positions that allowed them to receive commissions or stipends for their work. Carter made the most of several appointments, especially as an agent for lands granted by the king to Thomas Fairfax, sixth Lord Fairfax of Cameron, in the region of Virginia where Carter lived. In this capacity, Carter was able to obtain large tracts of land in his sons’ names, thereby increasing the family’s holdings.

Carter died at Corotomon on August 4, 1732, and was buried in nearby Christ Church.

Legacy

When he died, Carter was considered the richest man in Virginia. His estate included £10,000 and several plantations with more than 300,000 acres and 1,000 slaves. Always concerned for his children’s welfare, he divided his property among them, ensuring that they had sufficient land and resources to keep them among the colony’s most affluent and influential families. He made small bequests to a number of charities, but his most significant endowment was to Christ Church, the parish to which his family belonged. With his money, religious leaders were able to erect one of the finest churches in the colony.

Bibliography

Brown, Katharine. Robert “King” Carter: Builder of Christ Church. Staunton, Va.: Lot’s Wife Publishing, 2001.

Dowdey, Clifford. The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of “King” Carter and the Golden Age. New York: Bonanza Books, 1969.

Hume, Ivor Noël. Martin’s Hundred. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991.