LI.
ROBERT CARTER.
LI. President of the Council.
LI. July 22, 1726, to October 13, 1727.
According to Hening, "Hugh Drysdale died the 22d
July, 1726, and Colo. Jennings being suspended, Colo.
Robert Carter took upon himself the administration of the
government, as President of the Council. Robert Carter
continued President of the Council till some time between the
17th of August and 13th of October, 1727, when William
Gooch was appointed Govenor."
Robert Carter was born in 1667. He was the son of John
Carter, an emigrant from England, who settled first in upper
Norfolk County and held many important positions under the
colonial government. Robert Carter was for many years the
agent of Lord Fairfax, the Proprietor of the Northern Neck
grant. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses for six
years, long a member of the Council, and as President of that
body presided over the government of Virginia until the
arrival of Governor Gooch. By his large landed possessions
he obtained the title of "King Carter," and those who have
read his letters and studied his character declare that he possessed
some kingly attributes. The old Christ church in
Lancaster County was built by him, and his remains lie
under the tombstone at the east end of the church, which yet
stands, a memorial of the past. The following is a translation
of Governor Carter's Latin epitaph:
"Here lies buried Robert Carter, Esqr., an honorable man, who by
noble endowments and pure morals gave lustre to his gentle birth.
"Rector of `William and Mary,' he sustained that institution in its
most trying times. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and
Treasurer under the most serene Princes, William, Anne, George I. and II.
"Elected by the House its Speaker six years, and Governor of the
Colony for more than a year, he upheld equally the regal dignity and the
public freedom.
"Possessed of ample wealth, blamelessly acquired, he built and endowed,
at his own expense, this sacred edifice—a signal monument of his piety
toward God. He furnished it richly.
"Entertaining his friends kindly, he was neither a prodigal nor a parsimonious
host.
"His first wife was Judith, daughter of John Armistead, Esq.; his
second, Betty, a descendant of the noble family of Landons. By these
wives he had many children, on whose education he expended large sums
of money.
"At length, full of honors and of years, when he had well performed
all the duties of an exemplary life, he departed from this world on the 4th
day of August, 1732, in the 69th year of his age.
"The unhappy lament their lost comforter, the widows their lost protector,
and the orphans their lost father."
