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7 CHAPTER ONE • LifebeforetheWar Thomas Henry Carter was born in 1831 at Pampatike, the King William County, Virginia, plantation of his parents, Thomas Nelson Carter and Juliet Muse Gaines Carter. Tom, as the family knew him, was named after his father and his maternal grandfather and was the second son and the third of four children. The Carters occupied a prominent position among the leading families in Virginia. John Carter, the first of that name to arrive in Virginia, came from England sometime before his election to the colony ’s House of Burgesses in 1642, in which he represented Upper Norfolk (later Nansemond) County. That same year, he received a grant of land in Lancaster County, where he established the family seat of Corotoman. By the 1660s, John Carter had amassed more than 4,000 acres through grants, purchases, and patents. With large land ownership came an increase in social prominence and political power, culminating in his election to the governor’s council in 1658.1 As high as John Carter and his wife, Sarah Ludlow Carter, rose, however , no member of the family would match the accomplishments of their son Robert. Born around 1664, Robert Carter followed in his father’s footsteps , serving as a commander in the local militia and representing Lancaster County in the House of Burgesses. From 1699 to 1705, Robert was treasurer of the colony, and from 1700 until his death in 1732, he served on the governor’s council. Where Robert differed from his father—and what established his place in Virginia history—was in his passion for acquiring 1. TNC to IBC, 14 Jan. 1915, THCP, 1850–1915, VHS; Quitt, “John Carter,” 72–73; Heinemann and others, Old Dominion, New Commonwealth, 48. This letter, written by Tom Carter’s son, Thomas Nelson Carter, to his daughter Isabelle is essentially a forty-page memoir about his early life at Pampatike. In it, he describes his grandparents and his father’s early life, Confederate service, and postwar years. Tom Carter’s middle name is occasionally mistakenly identified as “Hill.” For reasons unknown, Jennings Cropper Wise, author of the only comprehensive history of the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia, identified him as “Thomas Hill Carter.” 8 • Life before the War land. Like his father, he accumulated acreage through grants, purchases, and patents, but the amounts varied tremendously. In Robert’s time, vast stretches of land between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers became available in what was known as the Northern Neck Proprietary. Robert acquired at least 295,000 acres of land in the Northern Neck by the time of his death. The political power he wielded and the vast wealth he accumulated through land ownership, tobacco farming, and other ventures earned him the apt nickname of “King” Carter.2 The Carter family remained politically prominent throughout the eighteenth century. “King” Carter’s son John and grandson Charles both served on the governor’s council and managed the vast estates inherited from their illustrious predecessor, including the James River plantation known as Shirley that John II and his wife, Elizabeth Hill, built by 1738. Charles Carter owned more than 13,000 acres in thirteen counties and at least 710 slaves. Like his grandfather, he represented Lancaster County in the House of Burgesses. Charles remained in that body until the outbreak of the American Revolution. Marriage to his second wife, Ann Butler Moore, resulted in the birth of several children, including son Robert Carter in 1774.3 Robert chose a different path than his ancestors. His father gave to him one of the many Carter family properties, a plantation in King William County called Pampatike. The 1,200-acre farm on the north bank of the Pamunkey River promised a prosperous life for Robert. As much as he may have wanted to follow in the tradition of his family, however, Robert was never comfortable with the institution of African slavery. In a letter to his children, written in 1803, he stated: “I conceive a strong disgust to the slave trade and all its barbarous consequences. This aversion was not likely to be diminished by becoming a slaveholder and witnessing many cruelties.” Instead of managing Pampatike, Robert Carter pursued a medical career. He studied under Dr. Benjamin Rush and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1803. Nine years earlier, in 1794, he had married Mary Nelson, a union that enhanced the well-established Carter dynasty. Her father, Thomas Nelson of Yorktown...

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