University of Virginia Library

CARR.

Major Thomas Carr, of King William, commenced entering
land within the present bounds of Albemarle in 1730. Up
to 1737 he had patented more than five thousand acres along
the north fork of Rivanna, and on the west side of the South
West Mountain. The most of this land he gave to his son
John, of Bear Castle, Louisa. John, who died about 1769,
was twice married, first to Mary Dabney, and secondly to
Barbara Overton. His children were Thomas, Dabney,
Samuel, Overton, Garland, and Sarah, the wife of Nathaniel
Anderson, who resided on the old glebe of St. Anne's.
Thomas married Mary Clarkson, and his children were John
Manoah, Dabney, Thomas, Samuel, and Mary, the wife of
Howell Lewis, of North Garden. He lived on the south
fork of the Rivanna, and died in 1807. John M. was the
Clerk of the District Court of Charlottesville, and the first
Clerk of the Circuit Court of Albemarle, which office he filled
till 1819. His home was at Belmont, the residence of the late
Slaughter Ficklin. His wife was Jane, the daughter of Colonel
Charles Lewis, of North Garden, and his children Charles
Lewis, a physician, who married Ann, widow of Richard P.
Watson, and practised in North Garden, John H., who
married Malinda, daughter of Manoah Clarkson, Nathaniel,
Willis, a physician, who married Mary Ann Gaines, and
practised in the vicinity of Ivy, and Jane. Most of this
family, it is believed, emigrated to Kentucky. Dabney
married Lucy, daughter of John Digges, of Nelson, lived in
he southwest corner of North Garden, near the foot of Israel's
Gap, and died in 1862, about ninety years of age.

Dabney, the second son of John, was the rising orator of
Revolutionary times, mentioned by Wirt in his Life of
Patrick Henry. He married Martha, sister of Mr. Jefferson.
He lived in Goochland, but died in 1773 in Charlottesville,
whither he had come on business. He was buried at old
Shadwell, but in consequence of an agreement made in youthful
friendship, Mr. Jefferson had his remains removed to
Monticello, where it was the first of a long list of distinguished
interments in the present cemetery. His children
were Peter, Samuel, Dabney, Martha, the wife of Richard
Terrell, Jane, the wife of Miles Cary, and Ellen, the wife of Dr.
Newsom, of Mississippi. Peter studied law, was some time
Mr. Jefferson's private secretary when President, married
Hester Smith Stevenson, a young widow of Baltimore, lived
at Carrsbrook, was appointed a magistrate, but soon resigned,
and died in 1815. He left three children, Dabney, minister
to Turkey six years from 1843, Ellen, wife of William B.
Buchanan, of Baltimore, and Jane Margaret, wife of Wilson
M. Cary. Samuel lived at Dunlora, was a magistrate, Colonel
of cavalry in the war of 1812, member of the House of
Delegates and the State Senate, married first his cousin Ellen
Carr, and secondly Maria, sister of Major William S. Dabney,
was the father of James Lawrence, of Kanawha, and Colonel
George, of Roanoke, and died in Kanawha in 1849. Dabney
began life as a lawyer in Charlottesville, married his cousin
Elizabeth Carr, lived where Ira Garrett so long resided, and
after being Chancellor of the Winchester District, became
Judge of the Court of Appeals in 1824. He died in Richmond
in 1837.

Samuel, the third son of John Carr, was an officer in the
Navy, married a Mrs. Riddick, of Nansemond, and died
without children. He devised his place Dunlora to his
nephew and namesake, Samuel.

Overton, fourth son of John, married a Mrs. Anderson,
and resided in Maryland. His two daughters, Ellen and Elizabeth,
became the wives of Colonel Samuel and Judge Dabney.
A son, Jonathan Boucher, came to this county, married his
cousin Barbara, daughter of Garland Carr, settled in Charlottesville

as a lawyer, was Commonwealth's Attorney for
eleven years from 1818, bought Dabney Carr's place, and sold
it to Ira Garrett when he moved to the country, lived where
Dr. H. O. Austin recently resided, and finally emigrated to
Missouri. He was the father of Mary Ann, wife of Hugh
Minor. Another son, Overton, was for many years Doorkeeper
of the House of Representatives at Washington.

Garland, youngest son of John, was a magistrate of the
county, and lived at Bentivar, where he died in 1838. He
married Mary, daughter of William Winston, of Hanover,
and his children were Francis, Daniel Ferrel, James O.,
Barbara, the wife of J. Boucher Carr, Elizabeth, the wife of
Rev. John D. Paxton, of Rockbridge, and Mary, the wife of
Achilles Broadhead, who succeeded William Woods as
County Surveyor, removed to Missouri, and was the father of
the late Hon. James O. Broadhead, of St. Louis, and Professor
Garland C., of the University of Missouri. Francis
was in many ways a useful man, a physician, a teacher, an
editor, Secretary of the County Agricultural Society, Secretary
of the Faculty of the University, and for many years an
active magistrate. He also served as Sheriff in 1839. He
married first Virginia, daughter of Richard Terrell, and secondly
Maria, daughter of Richard Morris. He had two sons,
Peter, who removed to Missouri, and the late F. E. G. He
lived in town in the one story frame in the rear of the late
Thomas Wood's, and in the country at Red Hill, where he
died in 1854. Daniel Ferrel succeeded his father at Bentivar,
married Emily, daughter of William Terrell, and died in
1847, leaving his estate to his son, Dr. W. G. Carr. James
O., married Mary, daughter of Richard H. Allen, lived at the
Meadows, the present residence of H. C. Michie, and near
the close of his life removed to Amherst, where he died in
1864.

William Carr was the patentee of upwards of four thousand
acres on the north fork of the Rivanna, above that
entered by Major Thomas Carr, and embracing the region
lying west of the Burnt Mills. He was also granted a tract

of four hundred acres on Buck Mountain Creek. These
entries were made from 1737 to 1740. After the death of
William, his widow Susan was married to Lodowick O'Neal.
He had a son Thomas, and a daughter Phoebe, the wife of
Walter Chiles; these persons who sold portions of the land
above mentioned, belonged to Spotsylvania. A part of this
land also was the property of Mordecai Hord, during his
residence in the county. It is likely William had another
son named Charles, as in 1780 a part of the same land that
William had entered, and that "had formerly belonged to
Charles Carr," was sold by Walter Carr (presumably a son
of Charles) and his wife Elizabeth.

Three other Carrs, heads of families, lived on the west side
of the South West Mountain, south of Stony Point. What
relation they bore to each other, or to those already mentioned,
is not known; but there can scarcely be a question
that they were all derived from the same source. Their
names were Gideon, Micajah and John. Gideon died in 1795.
His children were William, Thomas, Mary, the wife of
Thomas Travillian, John, Gideon, Nancy, the wife of Benjamin
Thurman, Micajah, Elizabeth, the wife of John Fitch,
and Meekins. It is probable most of the descendants of this
family emigrated to the West. A notice of the death of
Thomas Carr is extant, in which it is stated that he was the
son of Gideon Carr, a pioneer settler on the Little Mountain
in Albemarle, that he removed to Wilson County, Tennessee
in 1807, and that he died in 1821 in the seventy-ninth year
of his age.

Micajah died in 1812. He was at one time the owner of
Colle. He and his wife Elizabeth had ten children, Mary,
the wife of W. J. Blades, Martha, the wife of Daniel Shackelford,
Mildred, the wife of James Travillian, David, James,
John, Henley, the wife of Gideon C. Travillian, Sarah, the
wife of John H. Maddox, George, who in early life taught
school in Charlottesville, and at the time of his death in 1886
was the Nestor of the Albemarle bar, and Burton, who
removed to Green County, Kentucky.

John Carr was a successful man. He became the owner

by purchase of more than fifteen hundred acres in different
parts of the county. He died in 1809. He and his wife
Elizabeth had nine children, David, who married Eliza,
daughter of Achilles Bowcock, Thomas D., Mary, the wife
of Wiley Dickerson, Malinda, the wife of Drury Wood,
Nancy, the wife of Allen Jones, Elizabeth, the wife of
Thomas Salmon, Sarah, the wife of James Early, Anderson,
who removed to Montgomery County, Tennessee, and John
F., who removed to Nelson County.