Robert Carter I

American businessman and politician

Colonel Robert Carter I (c. 1664 – 4 August 1732) 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. Born around 1664 at Corotoman in Lancaster County, Carter received a classical education and studied the tobacco trade in London under Arthur Bailey. He returned to Corotoman between 1678 and 1679 and inherited the plantation when his elder half brother, John Carter Jr., died in 1690. He married Judith Armistead of Hesse in 1688. Following her death in 1699, Carter married widow Elizabeth Landon in 1701. Elected a burgess in 1691, Carter represented the electoral constituency of Lancaster County consecutively during the 1695 to 1699 assemblies and served as Speaker from 1696 to 1697 and in 1699. After an appointment as militia commander of Lancaster and Northumberland counties and naval officer in 1699, he served as Treasurer of Virginia from 1699 to 1705. Appointed to the Governor’s Council by Francis Nicholson in 1699, Carter opposed Nicholson’s policies in 1704 and indirectly influenced the governor’s removal in 1705. Carter was appointed agent of the Northern Neck Proprietary in 1702 though lost the lease to his political opponent, Edmund Jenings, in 1711. He regained the proprietary in 1722 and was involved in the dismissal of Alexander Spotswood. In 1726, he was designated President of the Governor’s Council and appointed Acting Governor when his predecessor, Hugh Drysdale, died in office, and he was succeeded by William Gooch in 1727. Afflicted with gout in later life, Carter died on August 4, 1732, at Corotoman and was buried at Christ Church in Lancaster County.

Robert Carter I was born around 1664 at Corotoman in Lancaster County, Virginia. His mother was Sarah Ludlow Carter, John Carter’s fourth wife, who died in 1668. His father died the following year, bequeathing most of his landholdings to Carter’s elder half brother, John Carter Jr., under primogeniture. Carter inherited one thousand acres in Lancaster County, one third of his personal estate, and several of his father’s theology books. They had five children, three of whom survived infancy, including John. Following her death in 1699, Carter married the widow Elizabeth Landon Willis, the daughter of Thomas Landon, in 1701. They had five daughters and five sons, seven of whom reached adulthood.

At age 28, shortly after his elder half brother died Robert Carter entered the General Assembly of Virginia as a Burgess representing Lancaster County. He would serve part time in 1690–1691, and then for five consecutive years (1695 through 1699) before being promoted (by the British Privy Council on the recommendation of Governor Francis Nicholson) to the Governor's Council (also the higher chamber of the Virginia General Assembly). While in the House of Burgesses, Carter served on two important committees (for Elections and Privileges and for Examination of Propositions and Grievances). In the session which began in September 1696, Carter defeated four other burgesses for the position of Speaker, and also served as Speaker for the October 1687 session, but was not re elected in a five candidate field in September 1698. However, the House of Burgesses appointed him as the colony's treasurer, thus giving him responsibility of monies raised by assembly levied taxes in the colony, and assembly mandated spending. Meanwhile, Carter also became a vestryman of Lancaster County's Christ Church Parish in 1690, and the following year became one of the justices of the peace for Lancaster County (the justices jointly in that era also administering the county, with social services provided by the vestry). He would also command the militias of Lancaster and adjacent Northumberland Counties, and secured appointment as the naval officer of the Rappahannock River region (which secured customs duties). The latter was a cousin of the Lords Culpeper, from whom the Fairfaxes had inherited their Virginia holdings. When Carter became agent for Fairfax's interests again in 1722 (holding that position for a decade, until 1732), in addition to forwarding land rents back to Lord Fairfax, he secured for his children and grandchildren about in the Northern Neck, as well as additional land in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. {citation needed} Thus, when Carter died, he held at least

When Lord Fairfax saw Carter's obituary in the London monthly The Gentleman's Magazine, he was astonished to read of the immense personal wealth acquired by his resident land agent. Rather than name another Virginian to the position, Fairfax made arrangements to have his cousin, Colonel William Fairfax, move to Virginia to act as land agent, with the paid position of customs inspector (tax collector) for the Potomac River district. Fairfax himself then visited his vast Northern Neck Proprietary from 1735 to 1737, and he moved there permanently in 1747.