Robert Wormeley Carter II (January 1,1792 –October 27,1861) was a Virginia planter who served multiple terms in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. In his early and last terms,he represented his native Richmond County in the Virginia House of Delegates (as had his grandfather of the same name),then for eight years represented the counties of the Northern Neck of Virginia in the Virginia Senate (roughly the successor of the Governor's Council on which his great-great-grandfather,King Carter served for many years a century earlier).
Born into the First Families of Virginia on New Year's Day in 1792 at his father's family seat,Sabine Hall. He was named to honor his grandfather Robert Wormeley Carter (who would die five years later) and great-great-grandfather Robert Carter I. His mother was Catherine Griffin Tayloe (1761–1798) the daughter of John Tayloe II who bore four daughters before dying when Robert was still a boy. Only two of those sisters reached adulthood,Lucy Carter (wife of William Travers and later Thomas Beale Hamilton) and Anne Catherine Carter (wife of Williamson Ball Tomlin). His father remarried in 1800,to Mary Burwell Armistead,daughter of John Armistead and Lucy Baylor,with whom he would have four more children,John Armistead Carter (husband of Richardetta DeButts and later a State legislator for Loudoun County),Frances Addison Carter (wife of Major Henry Rozier Dulany of Alexandria),Mary Landon Carter (wife of William A. Eliason) and Landon Carter who would die at the age of 23. [1] [2]
Robert W. Carter married his cousin Elizabeth Merry Tayloe,the daughter of John Tayloe III a planter and state senator. Before her death in 1832,she bore a daughter,Elizabeth Landon Carter,who married Dr. Armistead Wellford. Their son R. Carter Wellford (1853–1919) would inherit Sabine Hall and continued the family's tradition of legislative service at the close of the 19th century. [3]
Like his father and grandfather,Robert Wormeley Carter was groomed to take control of working plantations,which were operated using enslaved labor. Like his great-grandfather Landon Carter,Robert W. Carter was known for his scientific farming techniques,including mixing imported guano with soil from his marsh lands to fertilize his fields,which technique he shared with his father in law John Tayloe (1771–1838) of nearby Mt. Airy plantation. [4] In 1830,Carter was one of Richmond county's largest slaveowners,with 103 enslaved people, [5] and the number grew to 115 slaves in the 1840 federal census. [6] In the 1850 census,which included separate slave schedules,Carter owned 105 enslaved people, [7] and 136 enslaved people in the final federal census of his lifetime (including 1 blind girl). [8]
Richmond County voters first elected Robert W. Carter (who was a Whig as one of their (part-time) representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates alongside veteran Vincent Branham in 1821,and re-elected the pair until 1826,when neither won re-election. After a year's gap,Carter regained his seat,this time alongside Thomas R. Barnes (likewise of a well-established local family),and both were re-elected until 1829,when only Barnes won re-election. Carter again won a seat in the House of Delegates in 1831,following the adoption of a new state constitution following the convention of 1830,and a re-organization which combined Richmond and Lancaster Counties and gave them only one (joint) seat. [9]
In 1837,Carter won election to the Virginia Senate,representing the five counties in the Northern Neck of Virginia,and was re-elected to another four-year term. [10] In October 1845,James M. Smith of Northumberland County defeated Carter. Carter served his final legislative term in the House of Delegates in 1857,representing both Richmond and neighboring Westmoreland Counties. [11]
Carter remodeled Sabine Hall in the 1840s. He also became known for breeding horses (including using imported breeding stock;one of his stud horses in the 1850s was "Senator"). In the 1850s when nearby Essex County formed its first bank,Carter became its first president. [12]
Carter died during the American Civil War on October 27,1861. He was buried at Sabine Hall,which his young grandson would ultimately inherit,as well as continue the family's legislative tradition. Sabine Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Many of the family's papers are held by the University of Virginia library. [13]
Colonel Robert Carter I was a planter,merchant,and government official and administrator who served as Acting Governor of Virginia,Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses,and President of the Virginia Governor’s Council. An agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary,Carter emerged as the wealthiest Virginia colonist and received the sobriquet “King”from his contemporaries connoting his autocratic approach and political influence. Involved in the founding of the College of William and Mary,he acquired at least 300,000 acres and engaged one thousand enslaved laborers on fifty plantations. Carter was the largest land owner in Virginia.
William Cabell Rives was an American lawyer,planter,politician and diplomat from Virginia. Initially a Jackson Democrat as well as member of the First Families of Virginia,Rives served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing first Nelson County,then Albemarle County,Virginia,before service in both the U.S. House and Senate. Rives also served two separate terms as U.S. Minister to France. During the Andrew Jackson administration,Rives negotiated a treaty whereby the French agreed to pay the U.S. for spoliation claims from the Napoleonic Wars. During the American Civil War,Rives became a Delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and the Confederate House of Representatives.
William Fitzhugh Gordon was a nineteenth-century,lawyer,military officer,politician and planter from the piedmont region of Virginia.
Joseph William Chinn was a Virginia lawyer,plantation owner and politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and in the United States House of Representatives.
Walter Coles was a Virginia planter,military officer and Democratic politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates and in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Col. Landon Carter,I was an American planter and burgess for Richmond County,Virginia. Although one of the most popular patriotic writers and pamphleters of pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary-era Virginia,he may today be perhaps best known for his journal,which described colonial life leading up the American War of Independence,The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter.
Sabine Hall is a historic house located near Warsaw in Richmond County,Virginia. Built about 1730 by noted planter,burgess and patriot Landon Carter (1710–1778),it is one of Virginia's finest Georgian brick manor houses. Numerous descendants served in the Virginia General Assembly. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969,and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. At the time of its National Register listing,it was still owned by Carter / Wellford descendants.
Richard Chichester Mason was an American planter,physician and politician in Fairfax County,Virginia,which he twice represented in the Virginia House of Delegates. Mason also practiced medicine in Alexandria,Virginia and spent the American Civil War in Richmond working for the Confederate States Army.
Col. John Tayloe II was the premier Virginia planter;a politician,and colonial Colonel in the Virginia Militia. Virginia. He served in public office including the Virginia Governor's Council,also known as the Virginia Council of State.
Col. John Tayloe III,of Richmond County,Virginia,was the premier Virginia planter;a politician,businessman,and tidewater gentry scion. He was prominent in elite social circles. A highly successful planter and early Thoroughbred horse breeder,he was considered the "wealthiest man of his day". A military officer,he also served in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia for nine years.
John A. Carter was a Virginia lawyer,farmer and politician,who represented Loudoun County,Virginia in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly for two terms each both before and after the American Civil War,as well as in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 and the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861.
Ludwell Lee was a prominent American lawyer and planter who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly representing Prince William and Fairfax Counties and rose to become the Speaker of the Virginia Senate. Beginning in 1799,following the death of his first wife,Lee built Belmont Manor,a planation house in Loudoun County,Virginia,which today is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Edward Hill Carter (1733–1793) was a Virginia planter,military officer and politician,who served terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Virginia House of Delegates,representing Albemarle County. He was a neighbor and correspondent of Thomas Jefferson,and spent winters in Fredericksburg,which his wife preferred. Col. Edward Carter fought in what became known as the French and Indian War,and afterward operated several plantations in Albemarle as well as neighboring Amherst and Nelson Counties using enslaved labor. He was one of the wealthiest men in all three counties following the American Revolutionary War.
Landon Carter (1751-1811) was a Virginia planter who also served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing King George County,Virginia,one of three men of the same name who served in the Virginia General Assembly during the late 18th century.
Robert Wormeley Carter was a Virginia planter and patriot who served in the House of Burgesses,all five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions,and briefly in the Virginia House of Delegates,all representing his native Richmond County.
Ralph Wormeley who like his namesake grandfather was a planter and politician who represented Middlesex County in the House of Burgesses. He and his bookloving and loyalist son also operated Rosegill plantation,now on the National Register for Historic Places,using enslaved labor.
Ralph Wormeley was a Virginia planter who served as a member of the Governor's Advisory Council (1771-1775),was suspected of being a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War,and after the conflict represented Middlesex County,Virginia in the Virginia House of Delegates (1788-1791) as well as at the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788,where he voted in favor of ratification of the federal Constitution.
Gawin Corbin Jr.,although trained as a lawyer in England,became a Virginia planter,loyalist militia officer,customs collector and politician who served in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly as had his father Richard Corbin.
Richard Corbin was a Virginia planter,officer and politician who at times represented Middlesex County and King and Queen County in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Dudley Digges was a Virginia attorney,planter,military officer and politician who served in the House of Burgesses (1752-1776) and all the Virginia Revolutionary conventions representing York County. Possibly the most famous of three related men of the same name who served in the Virginia legislature during the 18th century,this man was the third son of Yorktown merchant Cole Digges who served in both houses of the Virginia legislature.