Robert Carter was an American colonial official and landholder from Virginia.
Background
Robert Carter was born in 1663 in Lancaster County, Virginia, United States, at his father's country seat, Corotoman, situated near the Rappahannock River not far from the Chesapeake Bay; the son of John and Sarah (Ludlow) Carter. It appears that the ancestral home was in Buckinghamshire, England, and that John, the emigrant, was a distressed royalist who sought refuge in Virginia about 1649. Before his death in 1669 he had accumulated considerable wealth and had become prominent in the politics of the colony.
Education
All that is known about Robert's education is derived from the wills of his father and elder brother. The father's will provided that a "man or youth servant" that had been brought up in a Latin school should be purchased for the son, then six years old, to teach him "his books either in English or Latin. " The elder brother out of a considerable library left Robert all his law and Latin books.
Career
At the age of twenty-eight, Robert entered the colonial Assembly as a burgess from Lancaster County, in which office he served during the years 1691-92 and 1695-99. Becoming one of the most prominent members of the Assembly, he was chosen speaker in 1696 and again in 1699. In the latter year he was advanced to the Council and was also made colonial treasurer, an office that he filled for six years. That he served as treasurer while a councillor is evidence of the high esteem in which he was held, for the treasurership by right belonged to a burgess. In the council from 1699 until his death in 1732, he was for the last six years its president. After the death of Gov. Drysdale in 1726, he was for a few months acting governor of Virginia. During the first third of the eighteenth century Carter was the most eminent resident of the Northern Neck (the peninsula bounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers) and one of its chief landowners. Among the local offices that he held were those of colonel and commander-in-chief of Lancaster County, the same for Northumberland County, and naval officer for the Rappahannock River District. In 1702 he became agent for the Fairfaxes, proprietors of the Northern Neck, and he served his opulent employers in this capacity for upwards of twenty years (1702-11 and 1722 - 32). This was a strategic position for the acquisition of a fortune and Carter made the most of it. At his death he was one of the wealthiest of colonials, leaving more than three hundred thousand acres of land, one thousand slaves, and ten thousand pounds.
Carter was a friend and benefactor of William and Mary College, serving it as rector, trustee, and member of the board of visitors. Building at his own expense Christ Church, Lancaster County, still standing, he reserved, in addition to a large pew for his immediate family, one-fourth of the building for the use of his tenants and servants. The tombstones of the "King" and his wives in the churchyard were described in 1838 by Bishop Meade as probably the largest, richest, and heaviest in the United States.
Achievements
Politics
As President of the Governor's Council of the Virginia Colony, he was acting Governor of Virginia in 1726-1727 after the death in office of Governor Hugh Drysdale. He acquired the moniker "King" from his wealth, political power, and autocratic business methods.
Personality
Fairfax Harrison has characterized him as a "man of tremendous energy, shrewd business habits, dominant personality, and accustomed to success in whatever he undertook. " That so powerful a man had his enemies and doubtless his faults cannot be denied. As an antidote to the lofty eulogy composed by his parson and engraved upon his tombstone is the following verse scribbled thereon in chalk by a less friendly hand: "Here lies Robin, but not Robin Hood, Here lies Robin that never was good, Here lies Robin that God has forsaken, Here lies Robin the Devil has taken. "
Possibly because of the great power that he exercised, or possibly, as an enemy said, because of his excessive pride and ambition, he received the sobriquet "King Carter" or "King Robin. "
Connections
Carter had five children with his first wife, Judith Armistead and he had ten children with his second wife, Betty Landon.