John Carter of Corotoman

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The Carter Tree created by Robert R Carter https://archive.org/details/cartertreecompil00cart

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Carter_John_ca_1613-1670

John Carter was a member of the governor's Council and the House of Burgesses. His family had familial and business connections with the Virginia Company of London, and Carter left England for Virginia during the 1630s. In 1642 he began acquiring the extensive property on the north bank of the Rappahannock River that became the family seat known as Corotoman. Carter married five times and founded one of the greatest of the colonial Virginia families. During the 1640s and 1650s Carter served in the House of Burgesses, which elected him to the governor's Council in 1658. He was again a burgess in 1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne, and Governor Sir William Berkeley reappointed Carter, a royalist, to the Council. He remained a councillor until his death ten years later.

Carter was born into an English family with commercial and kinship connections to members of the Virginia Company of London. He was probably the son of John Carter, a London vintner, and his second wife, Bridget Benion Carter. Historians once described Carter as an unhappy royalist who fled England after the execution of Charles I in 1649, but he had traveled to Virginia as early as 1635, when he gave his age as twenty-two on boarding the Safety on August 10. He may have been the John Carter, of London, age about twenty-three, who sailed to Virginia in 1637 but whose ship was captured by the Spanish. Literate in English and probably in Latin, Carter was better prepared to succeed than some of his contemporaries. Like many other young men with commercial connections, he may have made multiple crossings of the Atlantic while learning the tobacco trade. Carter's familial relationship to Edward Carter (d. 1682), who served with him in the House of Burgesses and on the governor's Council, was probably close but is unknown.

Carter almost certainly decided to settle permanently in Virginia sometime before he was elected a burgess from Upper Norfolk County (later Nansemond County) for the assembly that met in January and June 1642. He also sat in the assembly that met on March 2, 1643, when for the first time the burgesses convened as a separate house. He represented Nansemond County again in the 1649 assembly. In 1642 Carter obtained the first of several grants of land on the north bank of the Rappahannock River in what became Lancaster County nine years later. There he established Corotoman, which became the family seat, and during the next quarter century amassed several thousand acres by patents and purchases. He received his largest single grant, for 4,000 acres, in 1665 for transporting to Virginia eighty people, including twenty-one of African origin or descent.

By 1652 Carter was a major in the county militia and soon thereafter became a colonel. Representing Lancaster County in the assemblies of 1654–1655 and 1658, Carter in the spring session of 1658 chaired committees that presented proposed revisions of the colony's laws to Governor Samuel Mathews (d. 1660) and that defended the burgesses' rights when the House got into a dispute with the governor and Council. On March 13, 1658, the burgesses elected Carter to the governor's Council, a selection the House confirmed on April 3 of that year, but on March 15, 1659, the assembly postponed a decision whether to reelect him. Carter served in the House of Burgesses again in the spring of 1659 and was present in Jamestown when news arrived of the death of Oliver Cromwell and the succession of his son, Richard Cromwell, as lord protector. A royalist, Carter objected so sternly that on April 8, 1659, the governor issued a warrant for his arrest. How long Carter remained in custody and the result of the arrest are not known. He returned to Jamestown again as a burgess for the March 1660 assembly, which elected Sir William Berkeley governor pending receipt of a commission from the restored king Charles II.

After Berkeley's reelection, Carter won reappointment to the Council. Records of the governor's Council are scarce, a consequence of the destruction of most of the official documents, and the date of his appointment is not known. Carter joined other Council members and Berkeley in March 1663 in complaints after the king granted the Northern Neck to several court favorites, and that same spring he took part in negotiating an agreement that the Virginia and Maryland Councils concluded to reduce tobacco production in hopes of raising the crop's price. Carter was busy with his own affairs and could not attend all the recorded Council meetings in Jamestown, but he was present in June 1667 when the governor and Council wrote the king concerning the colony's defense during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667) and remained a member until his death.

Carter exemplified the success that young men of urban backgrounds could attain in the middle third of the seventeenth century by entering the tobacco trade and becoming Virginia landowners and planters. The inventory of his estate, taken in July 1670, listed more than thirty indentured servants, with the amount of time left in each of their terms of service, and more than forty persons of African origin or descent, none of whom had a stated limit on future service. The distinction suggests that Carter, like other leading planters of his time, was shifting to a greater reliance on black laborers held in lifetime service.

Carter's success in business and in acquiring land, together with his political prominence, made him an increasingly attractive marriage partner in a society in which women were still in short supply. He founded one of the greatest of the colonial Virginia families. Carter married Jane Glyn, perhaps before settling in Virginia. The date and place of their marriage and the time of her death are not known. They had a daughter, who married a member of the Maryland governor's Council, and two sons. One of them died young, and the other, John Carter (d. 1690), served in the assembly during the summer of 1676. Carter married Eleanor Eltonhead Brocas, the recent widow of the Council member William Brocas, in 1655. They are not known to have had any children before her death not long thereafter. On a trip to England in 1656 Carter married Anne Carter, who soon died, also without having any recorded children. By early in the 1660s Carter had married Sarah Ludlow. They had one daughter, who died in infancy, and one son, Robert Carter (ca. 1664–1732), before her death. On October 24, 1668, Carter executed a marriage agreement and then or very soon afterward married Elizabeth Sherley. Their son died probably early in the 1690s.

Carter died, probably at Corotoman, on January 10, 1670, and was buried at the first Christ Church in Lancaster County, a parish and a church he had helped build. His fifth wife, one daughter, and three sons survived him, among them Robert Carter, who eclipsed him and who, because of his vast accumulation of wealth, other Virginians called King Carter.

Time Line

ca. 1613 - John Carter is born. He is probably the son of John Carter, a London vintner, and his second wife, Bridget Benion Carter.

1642 - John Carter is elected a burgess from Upper Norfolk County (later Nansemond County) for the assembly that meets in January and June of this year.

1642 - John Carter obtains the first of several grants of land on the north bank of the Rappahannock River in what will become Lancaster County. March 2, 1643 - John Carter sits in the assembly when for the first time the burgesses convene as a separate house.

1649 - John Carter represents Nansemond County in the assembly.

1652 - By this year John Carter is a major in the Lancaster County militia and will soon become a colonel.

1654-1655 - John Carter represents Lancaster County in the assemblies of these years.

1655 - John Carter marries Eleanor Eltonhead Brocas. They will have no known children and she dies not long thereafter.

1656 - John Carter marries Anne Carter. They will have no known children and she dies not long thereafter.

1658 - John Carter represents Lancaster County in the assembly of this year.

March 13, 1658 - The burgesses elect John Carter to the governor's Council.

April 8, 1659 - Following the death of Oliver Cromwell and the succession of his son, Richard Cromwell, John Carter objects so sternly that the governor issues a warrant for his arrest.

Early 1660s - By this time, John Carter marries Sarah Ludlow. They will have one daughter, who dies in infancy, and one son.

March 1660 - John Carter returns to Jamestown as a burgess.

March 1663 - John Carter joins other members of the governor's Council and Governor Sir William Berkeley in complaints after the king grants the Northern Neck to several court favorites.

1665 - John Carter receives his largest single grant, for 4,000 acres, for transporting to Virginia eighty people, including twenty-one of African origin or descent.

October 24, 1668 - John Carter executes a marriage agreement and soon afterward marries Elizabeth Sherley.

January 10, 1670 - John Carter probably dies on this day at Corotoman.

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To return to the family at the time of the great struggle between the King and his Parliament. Most of the Cornish gentry sided, as is well known, with the King, and behaved with such marked valour and success as to elicit from Charles the well-known letter of thanks which still hangs in many of the churches in the county. One of the St. Aubyns of the day,[132] however, seems, according to Hals, to have thrown in his lot with the Parliament; he was at the siege of Plymouth, in 1644; and was present at the defeat of his party at the battle of Braddock Down, near Lostwithiel.

Hals tells us that, after the rout of the Roundheads, 'it was resolved by Essex's council that he should desert his army, and, privately by night, in a boat, go down the river to Fowey, and from thence take ship for Plymouth; which expedient was accordingly put in execution, and the General Essex, the Lord Robartes, and some others, the next day got into Plymouth, being the 31st August, 1644. On the same day Sir William Balfour, with two thousand five hundred of the Parliament horse, with divers officers, viz., Colonel Nicholas Boscawen, his Lieutenant Colonel James Hals, of Merther, Henry Courtenay, of St. Bennet's in Lanyvet, _Colonel John Seyntaubyn, of Clowans_, and his Lieutenant Colonel Braddon, Colonel Carter, and several other officers and gentlemen of quality, early in the morning forced their passage over St. Winnow, Boconnock, and Braddock Downs, though the body of the King's army, which lay encamped on the heath in those places, maugre all opposition to the contrary; from thence they rode to Leskeard, from thence to Saltash Passage, and from thence to Plymouth safely the same day, amidst their own garrison and confederates.'

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46530/46530.txt

Emigrated to Virginia in 1635 at age 22 on ship Safety.

http://www.christchurch1735.org/history/john_carter.html

This website will give you background data on John, as well as information about his plantation Corotoman.

http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I042634&tree=Her...

"John, the emigrant, was not commonplace or inert. He came to Virginia and settled in upper Norfolk (now Nansemond County), which he represented as Burgess in 1649. He removed to Lancaster, and represented it in 1654. He was a vestryman (the most prominent men in the community always were), and the power of these Colonial vestries was enormous. He built a church where old Christ Church, in Lancaster, now stands. The vestry received it complete from his son, John, six months after the emigrant's deat

"John Carter's estate lay upon the Rappahannock, and he, indeed, chose the 'pick' of Tidewater Virginia. The house faced the Rappahannock where it is nine miles wide, full in sight of Chesapeake Bay. On one side is Carter's Creek, a veritable little bay itself, and on the other is Corotoman River; so 'Corotoman,' this lordly estate, striking over an area of nine miles, was bounded on three sides by salt water. What a chance for fish, crabs and oysters--to be sure! From this spacious mansion house a line of cedars stretched to the parish church, about two miles distant, on the 'Corotoman' land, and these cedars (thinned, of course, by time) may be seen to-day. In themselves they are full of suggestion of the power and lordly ideas of our early planters. 'Corotoman,' builded by John Carter, passed to his oldest son, John, who dying early, and without issue, the estate passed from him to John Carter's second son, Robert. From Robert it went to Robert's oldest son, John, who married Elizabeth Hill, of 'Shirley,' John3 left 'Corotoman' to his son, Charles4, who lived there until the death of his mother, who had married, second, Bowler Cocke, and continued to live at 'Shirley.' At her death Charles4 Carter removed to 'Shirley.' At his death he left 'Shirley' to his oldest son, John5, and 'Corotoman' to his second son, George. 'Corotoman' was burned about this time.

"George married Lelia Skipwith, and had Dr. George, of 'Corotoman,' and one daughter, Polly Carter, who married Dr. Joseph C. Cabell. Dr. George Carter married a Miss Corbin, and had one daughter, Parke, who inherited 'Corotoman.' She died unmarried, and left 'Corotoman' to her aunt, Polly Cabell. This Mrs. Polly Cabell died possessed of a very large estate, and her will is one of the most remarkable Virginia documents. The motif' of her will is the ever recurrent injunction that no lawyer should have anything to do with any part of her estate, but by the perversity of fate it is said the lawyer got three-fourths of it.

"George Carter, the last male Carter who owned 'Corotoman,' died before his wife, Lelia Skipwith, and she married, secondly, Judge St. George Tucker. He was one of the lawyers who directed the sale of 'Corotoman' after Mrs. Cabell's death. She left no issue. Mrs. Polly Carter Cabell was the last Carter to own this famous estate. The house evidently was never rebuilt, an outhouse, probably a negro quarter, was there a few years ago. The magnificent site is now but a cornfield, and nothing in Lancaster, but the ragged cedars, the church and the tombs, toll of the magnificent estate of the Carters.

The Armistead Family

Virginia Armistead Garber

_____________________________________________________________

Was the first of the well known Virginia family of that name to come from England. He settled in Upper Norfolk which he represented in the house of burgesses in March, 1642-43. He was a burgess for Nansemond in Oct., 1649 and for Lancaster from 1654 to 1660. He was justice in Lancaster in 1653 and, at the division of the county on Dec. 13, 1656, he was appointed presiding justice and colonel commandant of Lancaster. In Nov., 1654, the assembly directed that an attack be made upon the Rappahanock Indians and that Maj. John Carter be appointed commander-in-chief. He was elected to the council on March 13, 1657-58, but was not sworn until the assembly adjourned. On March 8, 1659, Gov. Matthews issued an order to the sheriff of Lancaster to arrest Col. John Carter "for conternpt of the late commission of Government sent out by his Highness (Cromwell) and the lords of the Council, to appear before the Governor and Council at Jamestown." He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1663, by the governor of Virginia to confer with the commissioners from Maryland as to a restriction of tobacco planting. He was a vestryman of Christ Church Parish in Lancaster and the original church there was built under his direction. The present edifice, one of the finest specimens of colonial architecture standing, was built by the councillor's son, Robert Carter. He died on the 10 of June, 1669, as stated on his tomb in Christ Church.

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I III--Colonial Councillors of State

Born: 1613 Christ Church Parish, Newgate Street, London

Died: January 10, 1669/70 Corotoman plantation

Buried: Christ Church with four of his five wives and two infant children

Marriages:

• Jane Glyn--Married ca. 1637. Died 1652. Mother of John Carter II, George and Elizabeth
• Eleanor Eltonhead--Married 1655. Died 1656
• Anne Carter--Distant cousin. Married ca. 1657
• Sarah Ludlow--Born in England. Married ca. 1662. Mother of Robert Carter
• Elizabeth Sherley--Married 1668. Widow from Gloucester County, Virginia. Went to England with her son Charles shortly after John Carter I's death

Chi ldren: George--born ca. 1638; died in infancy Elizabeth--born ca. 1639; married 1) Nathaniel Utie of Maryland 2) Henry Johnson John II--born ca. 1640; died 1690 Sarah--born ca. 1661; died in infancy Robert--born 1663; died 1732 Charles--born 1669; went to England with mother

Histor y: Immigrated to Virginia in 1635 at age 22 on ship Safety First settled in Upper Norfolk County (later became Nansemond County) Traveled several times between England and Virginia in trade Served seven terms in House of Burgesses Upper Norfolk County 1641/42; 1642/43 Nansemond County 1649 Lancaster County 1654-1655; 1657/58-1658; 1658/59; 1659/60 Served on Governor's Council (1657 and ca. 1664-1667) Patented 6,160 acres of land in Lancaster County between 1642-1665 In 1652-53 moved to Lancaster County and established Corotoman plantation on Rappahannock River between Carter's Creek and Corotoman River Served as Justice, Lancaster County (1653-1669) Served as Vestryman, Christ Church Parish (ca. 1661-1669/70) Served as undertaker, or builder, of first Christ Church, a frame structure completed in July 1670 six months after his death

Immigrated to Virginia in 1635 at age 22 on ship Safety First settled in Upper Norfolk County (later became Nansemond County) Traveled several times between England and Virginia in trade Served seven terms in House of Burgesses Upper Norfolk County 1641/42; 1642/43 Nansemond County 1649 Lancaster County 1654-1655; 1657/58-1658; 1658/59; 1659/60 Served on Governor's Council (1657 and ca. 1664-1667) Patented 6,160 acres of land in Lancaster County between 1642-1665 In 1652-53 moved to Lancaster County and established Corotoman plantation on Rappahannock River between Carter's Creek and Corotoman River Served as Justice, Lancaster County (1653-1669) Served as Vestryman, Christ Church Parish (ca. 1661-1669/70) Served as undertaker, or builder, of first Christ Church, a frame structure completed in July 1670 six months after his death From another source:

. John Carter, Col., b. 1613, Edmonton, Middlesex, England, d. 10 Jan 1669, Corotoman, Lancaster Co., VA, m. (4) ca. 1650, in Lancaster Co., VA, Sarah Ludlow b. ca. 1629, d. 1668, Corotoman, Lancaster Co., VA, (daughter of Gabriel and Phillis (?) Ludlow). John was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses 1642-49, 1653-58; member of the Council of Virginia, 1658-59; commanded against Rappahannock Indians, 1654; Colonel of Lancaster County in 1656. . (Horace Edwin Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, [Wilkes-Barre, PA, 1891], .225). Clifford Dowdey, The Virginia Dynasties, [Boston: Little, Brown, n.d.], p.18). (One ref. states he was b. Garston, Hertford, England). Virginia Lineages, Letters & Memories, by Alice Nelson, 1984;p.194) Anne: Her father was of Ratcliffe Highway, St. Dunstans, Stepney, England. Sarah: The Colonial Genealogist, vol.8, no.2 [Apr 1976],pp.65-66: by Dom W. Wilfrid Bayne, O.S.B., of Portsmouth Priory, RI). (A History of the Carter Family, Copyright 1972 by Amer. Gen. Research Inst., Wash., DC). John first settled in Upper Norfolk, now Nansemond County, and later Lancaster Co., VA. Both himself and his eldest son, John appear on the vestry book as members of the vestry in the year 1666, the father having been acting in that capacity before – how long not known. The father, who died in 1669, had previously built by contract, the first church standing on the spot where Christ Church now is, and the vestry received it at the hands of his son John, in six months after the father’s death. John Carter, Sr., was buried with his 5 wives, near the chancel, in the church which he built, and the tombstone covers all of them, being still in the same position in the present church. [Old Churches, Families, II, 110, et seq.]. The epitaph from his stone, which lies on the right hand of the chancel, reads: Here lyeth buried ye body of John Carter, Esq., who died ye 10th of June, Anno Domini 1669; and also Jane, ye daughter of Mr. Morgan Glyn, and George her son, and Elenor Carter, and Ann, ye daughter of Mr. Cleave Carter, and Sarah, ye daughter of Mr. Gabriel Ludlow, and Sarah her daughter, which were all his wives successively, and died before him.

John, the emigrant, was not commonplace or inert. He came to Virginia and settled in upper Norfolk (now Nansemond County), which he represented as Burgess in 1649. He removed to Lancaster, and represented it in 1654. He was a vestryman (the most prominent men in the community always were), and the power of these Colonial vestries was enormous. He built a church where old Christ Church, in Lancaster, now stands. The vestry received it complete from his son, John, six months after the emigrant's deat

"John Carter's estate lay upon the Rappahannock, and he, indeed, chose the 'pick' of Tidewater Virginia. The house faced the Rappahannock where it is nine miles wide, full in sight of Chesapeake Bay. On one side is Carter's Creek, a veritable little bay itself, and on the other is Corotoman River; so 'Corotoman,' this lordly estate, striking over an area of nine miles, was bounded on three sides by salt water. What a chance for fish, crabs and oysters--to be sure! From this spacious mansion house a line of cedars stretched to the parish church, about two miles distant, on the 'Corotoman' land, and these cedars (thinned, of course, by time) may be seen to-day. In themselves they are full of suggestion of the power and lordly ideas of our early planters. 'Corotoman,' builded by John Carter, passed to his oldest son, John, who dying early, and without issue, the estate passed from him to John Carter's second son, Robert. From Robert it went to Robert's oldest son, John, who married Elizabeth Hill, of 'Shirley,' John3 left 'Corotoman' to his son, Charles4, who lived there until the death of his mother, who had married, second, Bowler Cocke, and continued to live at 'Shirley.' At her death Charles4 Carter removed to 'Shirley.' At his death he left 'Shirley' to his oldest son, John5, and 'Corotoman' to his second son, George. 'Corotoman' was burned about this time.

"George married Lelia Skipwith, and had Dr. George, of 'Corotoman,' and one daughter, Polly Carter, who married Dr. Joseph C. Cabell. Dr. George Carter married a Miss Corbin, and had one daughter, Parke, who inherited 'Corotoman.' She died unmarried, and left 'Corotoman' to her aunt, Polly Cabell. This Mrs. Polly Cabell died possessed of a very large estate, and her will is one of the most remarkable Virginia documents. The motif' of her will is the ever recurrent injunction that no lawyer should have anything to do with any part of her estate, but by the perversity of fate it is said the lawyer got three-fourths of it.

"George Carter, the last male Carter who owned 'Corotoman,' died before his wife, Lelia Skipwith, and she married, secondly, Judge St. George Tucker. He was one of the lawyers who directed the sale of 'Corotoman' after Mrs. Cabell's death. She left no issue. Mrs. Polly Carter Cabell was the last Carter to own this famous estate. The house evidently was never rebuilt, an outhouse, probably a negro quarter, was there a few years ago. The magnificent site is now but a cornfield, and nothing in Lancaster, but the ragged cedars, the church and the tombs, toll of the magnificent estate of the Carters.

The Armistead Family

Virginia Armistead Garber

____________________________________________________________________________________

Was the first of the well known Virginia family of that name to come from England. He settled in Upper Norfolk which he represented in the house of burgesses in March, 1642-43. He was a burgess for Nansemond in Oct., 1649 and for Lancaster from 1654 to 1660. He was justice in Lancaster in 1653 and, at the division of the county on Dec. 13, 1656, he was appointed presiding justice and colonel commandant of Lancaster. In Nov., 1654, the assembly directed that an attack be made upon the Rappahanock Indians and that Maj. John Carter be appointed commander-in-chief. He was elected to the council on March 13, 1657-58, but was not sworn until the assembly adjourned. On March 8, 1659, Gov. Matthews issued an order to the sheriff of Lancaster to arrest Col. John Carter "for conternpt of the late commission of Government sent out by his Highness (Cromwell) and the lords of the Council, to appear before the Governor and Council at Jamestown." He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1663, by the governor of Virginia to confer with the commissioners from Maryland as to a restriction of tobacco planting. He was a vestryman of Christ Church Parish in Lancaster and the original church there was built under his direction. The present edifice, one of the finest specimens of colonial architecture standing, was built by the councillor's son, Robert Carter. He died on the 10 of June, 1669, as stated on his tomb in Christ Church.

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I

III--Colonial Councillors of State

John Carter, born in England, came to Virginia on the ship "Prosperous". He first married one of the Eltonhead sisters (Eleanor). The 5 Eltonhead sisters came to America (Virginia) in 1640's. Possible the same boat as Carter. ANother Eltonhead sister Alice married the Honerable Henry Corbin. Their great great grandchild, Nathaniel Burwell, was the son of Carter Burwell of WIliamsbrug VA.

Colonel John Carter, Esq. was born in 1613.

John Carter, Esq. first came to Virginia in 1635 as a merchant traveling for a few years in that capacity between England and the Colony. By 1640 he had settled in Upper Norfolk County, Virginia and was elected to the House of Burgesses from the Upper Norfolk County (which later changed to Nansemond County).

In 1642, John Carter obtained title to 1300 acres of the north side of the Rappahannock River (in what is now the community of Weems in Lancaster County), on the peninsula between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers (known as the Northern Neck). It was not until 1654 that John settled on this new land and the Carter dominance and legacy on the Northern Neck began.

John Carter built his first house on a piece of land between what we now call Carter’s Creek and the Crotoman River. He began planting tobacco which was a thriving crop in Virginia.

He also built Christ Church in 1669. Christ Church was rebuilt and relocated in 1730 by Robert “King” Carter, John’s son. Robert offered to bear the cost of rebuilding the new church if it were kept at the same site, and “provided always the Chancel be preserved as a burial place for my family as the present Chancel is.” The rebuilding gift was accepted by the vestry.

The gravestones of John Carter, four of his five (5) wives and two (2) children, are embraced by the present church and they lie to the north of the chancel. John died June 10, 1669 in Lancaster, VA. His fifth (5) wife, Elizabeth Shirley of Gloucester, returned to England after his death, along with their youngest son, Charles.

John had five wives: Jane Glynn, Elenor Eltonhead (Widow Brocas), Anne Carter, Sarah Ludlow (Married 1662) and Elizabeth Shirley.

"John, the emigrant, was not commonplace or inert. He came to Virginia and settled in upper Norfolk (now Nansemond County), which he represented as Burgess in 1649. He removed to Lancaster, and represented it in 1654. He was a vestryman (the most prominent men in the community always were), and the power of these Colonial vestries was enormous. He built a church where old Christ Church, in Lancaster, now stands. The vestry received it complete from his son, John, six months after the emigrant's deat

"John Carter's estate lay upon the Rappahannock, and he, indeed, chose the 'pick' of Tidewater Virginia. The house faced the Rappahannock where it is nine miles wide, full in sight of Chesapeake Bay. On one side is Carter's Creek, a veritable little bay itself, and on the other is Corotoman River; so 'Corotoman,' this lordly estate, striking over an area of nine miles, was bounded on three sides by salt water. What a chance for fish, crabs and oysters--to be sure! From this spacious mansion house a line of cedars stretched to the parish church, about two miles distant, on the 'Corotoman' land, and these cedars (thinned, of course, by time) may be seen to-day. In themselves they are full of suggestion of the power and lordly ideas of our early planters. 'Corotoman,' builded by John Carter, passed to his oldest son, John, who dying early, and without issue, the estate passed from him to John Carter's second son, Robert. From Robert it went to Robert's oldest son, John, who married Elizabeth Hill, of 'Shirley,' John3 left 'Corotoman' to his son, Charles4, who lived there until the death of his mother, who had married, second, Bowler Cocke, and continued to live at 'Shirley.' At her death Charles4 Carter removed to 'Shirley.' At his death he left 'Shirley' to his oldest son, John5, and 'Corotoman' to his second son, George. 'Corotoman' was burned about this time.

"George married Lelia Skipwith, and had Dr. George, of 'Corotoman,' and one daughter, Polly Carter, who married Dr. Joseph C. Cabell. Dr. George Carter married a Miss Corbin, and had one daughter, Parke, who inherited 'Corotoman.' She died unmarried, and left 'Corotoman' to her aunt, Polly Cabell. This Mrs. Polly Cabell died possessed of a very large estate, and her will is one of the most remarkable Virginia documents. The motif' of her will is the ever recurrent injunction that no lawyer should have anything to do with any part of her estate, but by the perversity of fate it is said the lawyer got three-fourths of it.

"George Carter, the last male Carter who owned 'Corotoman,' died before his wife, Lelia Skipwith, and she married, secondly, Judge St. George Tucker. He was one of the lawyers who directed the sale of 'Corotoman' after Mrs. Cabell's death. She left no issue. Mrs. Polly Carter Cabell was the last Carter to own this famous estate. The house evidently was never rebuilt, an outhouse, probably a negro quarter, was there a few years ago. The magnificent site is now but a cornfield, and nothing in Lancaster, but the ragged cedars, the church and the tombs, toll of the magnificent estate of the Carters.

The Armistead Family

Virginia Armistead Garber

____________________________________________________________________________________

Was the first of the well known Virginia family of that name to come from England. He settled in Upper Norfolk which he represented in the house of burgesses in March, 1642-43. He was a burgess for Nansemond in Oct., 1649 and for Lancaster from 1654 to 1660. He was justice in Lancaster in 1653 and, at the division of the county on Dec. 13, 1656, he was appointed presiding justice and colonel commandant of Lancaster. In Nov., 1654, the assembly directed that an attack be made upon the Rappahanock Indians and that Maj. John Carter be appointed commander-in-chief. He was elected to the council on March 13, 1657-58, but was not sworn until the assembly adjourned. On March 8, 1659, Gov. Matthews issued an order to the sheriff of Lancaster to arrest Col. John Carter "for conternpt of the late commission of Government sent out by his Highness (Cromwell) and the lords of the Council, to appear before the Governor and Council at Jamestown." He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1663, by the governor of Virginia to confer with the commissioners from Maryland as to a restriction of tobacco planting. He was a vestryman of Christ Church Parish in Lancaster and the original church there was built under his direction. The present edifice, one of the finest specimens of colonial architecture standing, was built by the councillor's son, Robert Carter. He died on the 10 of June, 1669, as stated on his tomb in Christ Church.

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I

III--Colonial Councillors of State

Col. John Carter was b. 1620, in England; d. 1669, at "Corotoman," Lancaster Co., Va.; he came to the Colony in 1649, and located in lower Norfolk, which he represented as Burgess, 1649; he later removed to Lancaster Co., where he built the ancestral home of "Corotoman." He served as a Burgess from Lancaster, 1653-58, and was an influential member of the King's Council, 1658-59; Commander against the Rappahannock Indians, 1654; Col. of Lancaster, 1656; liberal supporter of the Established Church, he gave the first Church which stood on the land where Christ Church was later built, and was a Vestryman.

He made will in 1669; m. (first) Jane Glyn, dau. of Morgan Glyn, of England; (second) Eleanor (Eltonhead) Brocas, wid. of Hon. William Brocas, and dau. of Richard and Ann (Sutton) Eltonhead, of England; (third) Anne Carter, dau. of Cleave Carter, of England; (fourth) Sarah Ludlow dau. of Gabriel Ludlow, of "Dinton;" (fifth Elizabeth Sherley, of Gloucester Co., Va.

"Col. of "Carotoman", Lancaster Co. came to VA about 1643, probably from Middlesex 1643-4 - became member of VA house of Burgesses from Lower Norfolk Co. county justice and member of the Governor's council, 1657."

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mysouthernfamily/myff/d003...

History: Immigrated to Virginia in 1635 at age 22 on ship Safety First settled in Upper Norfolk County (later became Nansemond County) Traveled several times between England and Virginia in trade Served seven terms in House of Burgesses Upper Norfolk County 1641/42; 1642/43 Nansemond County 1649 Lancaster County 1654-1655; 1657/58-1658; 1658/59; 1659/60 Served on Governor's Council (1657 and ca. 1664-1667) Patented 6,160 acres of land in Lancaster County between 1642-1665 In 1652-53 moved to Lancaster County and established Corotoman plantation on Rappahannock River between Carter's Creek and Corotoman River Served as Justice, Lancaster County (1653-1669) Served as Vestryman, Christ Church Parish (ca. 1661-1669/70) Served as undertaker, or builder, of first Christ Church, a frame structure completed in July 1670 six months after his death ......................................................... John Carter of Corotoman, his manor house, [another source states High Shipley, England], the first of the family in Virginia, left England about 1649. He was probably one of the "Distressed Royalist Cavaliers" who sought refuge in the colony from Cromwell's faction in control of England.

John settled first in Upper Norfolk (now Nansemond County), where he built the ancestral home of "Corotoman.". He represented the county in the House of Burgesses from Lancaster, 1653-58, and was an influential member of the King's Council, 1658-59; Commander against the Rappahannock Indians, 1654; Col. of Lancaster, 1656; liberal supporter of the Established Church, he gave the first Church which stood on the land where Christ Church was later built, and was a Vestryman.

In 1665, he was listed as Col. John Carter, Esquire, Councillor of State. He was granted 4,000 acres of land for bringing 80 persons to the colony. He moved to Lancaster County in 1654 where he was Justice of the Peace and a Burgesses.

Father: William CARTER

Family 1 : Jane GLYN Family 2 : Eleanor ELTONHEAD

John CARTER II  Family 3 : Anne CARTER  Family 4 : Sarah LUDLOW of Dinton  +Robert "King" CARTER Colony of Virginia  Family 5 : Elizabeth SHERLEY 

In his will, Col. John CARTER manumitted two of his negro slaves who were married to each other, leaving them a cow, a calf, three barrels of Indian corn, some land for cultivation, a house and other items necessary for their comfort and well being.

Contributed by Martin H. Quitt and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography

John Carter was a member of the governor's Council and the House of Burgesses. His family had familial and business connections with the Virginia Company of London, and Carter left England for Virginia during the 1630s. In 1642 he began acquiring the extensive property on the north bank of the Rappahannock River that became the family seat known as Corotoman. Carter married five times and founded one of the greatest of the colonial Virginia families. During the 1640s and 1650s Carter served in the House of Burgesses, which elected him to the governor's Council in 1658. He was again a burgess in 1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne, and Governor Sir William Berkeley reappointed Carter, a royalist, to the Council. He remained a councillor until his death ten years later.

Carter was born into an English family with commercial and kinship connections to members of the Virginia Company of London. He was probably the son of John Carter, a London vintner, and his second wife, Bridget Benion Carter. Historians once described Carter as an unhappy royalist who fled England after the execution of Charles I in 1649, but he had traveled to Virginia as early as 1635, when he gave his age as twenty-two on boarding the Safety on August 10. He may have been the John Carter, of London, age about twenty-three, who sailed to Virginia in 1637 but whose ship was captured by the Spanish. Literate in English and probably in Latin, Carter was better prepared to succeed than some of his contemporaries. Like many other young men with commercial connections, he may have made multiple crossings of the Atlantic while learning the tobacco trade. Carter's familial relationship to Edward Carter (d. 1682), who served with him in the House of Burgesses and on the governor's Council, was probably close but is unknown. Title: Map of the Northern Neck

Map of the Northern Neck

Carter almost certainly decided to settle permanently in Virginia sometime before he was elected a burgess from Upper Norfolk County (later Nansemond County) for the assembly that met in January and June 1642. He also sat in the assembly that met on March 2, 1643, when for the first time the burgesses convened as a separate house. He represented Nansemond County again in the 1649 assembly. In 1642 Carter obtained the first of several grants of land on the north bank of the Rappahannock River in what became Lancaster County nine years later. There he established Corotoman, which became the family seat, and during the next quarter century amassed several thousand acres by patents and purchases. He received his largest single grant, for 4,000 acres, in 1665 for transporting to Virginia eighty people, including twenty-one of African origin or descent. Title: Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

By 1652 Carter was a major in the county militia and soon thereafter became a colonel. Representing Lancaster County in the assemblies of 1654–1655 and 1658, Carter in the spring session of 1658 chaired committees that presented proposed revisions of the colony's laws to Governor Samuel Mathews (d. 1660) and that defended the burgesses' rights when the House got into a dispute with the governor and Council. On March 13, 1658, the burgesses elected Carter to the governor's Council, a selection the House confirmed on April 3 of that year, but on March 15, 1659, the assembly postponed a decision whether to reelect him. Carter served in the House of Burgesses again in the spring of 1659 and was present in Jamestown when news arrived of the death of Oliver Cromwell and the succession of his son, Richard Cromwell, as lord protector. A royalist, Carter objected so sternly that on April 8, 1659, the governor issued a warrant for his arrest. How long Carter remained in custody and the result of the arrest are not known. He returned to Jamestown again as a burgess for the March 1660 assembly, which elected Sir William Berkeley governor pending receipt of a commission from the restored king Charles II. Title: Sir William Berkeley

Sir William Berkeley

After Berkeley's reelection, Carter won reappointment to the Council. Records of the governor's Council are scarce, a consequence of the destruction of most of the official documents, and the date of his appointment is not known. Carter joined other Council members and Berkeley in March 1663 in complaints after the king granted the Northern Neck to several court favorites, and that same spring he took part in negotiating an agreement that the Virginia and Maryland Councils concluded to reduce tobacco production in hopes of raising the crop's price. Carter was busy with his own affairs and could not attend all the recorded Council meetings in Jamestown, but he was present in June 1667 when the governor and Council wrote the king concerning the colony's defense during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667) and remained a member until his death.

Carter exemplified the success that young men of urban backgrounds could attain in the middle third of the seventeenth century by entering the tobacco trade and becoming Virginia landowners and planters. The inventory of his estate, taken in July 1670, listed more than thirty indentured servants, with the amount of time left in each of their terms of service, and more than forty persons of African origin or descent, none of whom had a stated limit on future service. The distinction suggests that Carter, like other leading planters of his time, was shifting to a greater reliance on black laborers held in lifetime service.

Carter's success in business and in acquiring land, together with his political prominence, made him an increasingly attractive marriage partner in a society in which women were still in short supply. He founded one of the greatest of the colonial Virginia families. Carter married Jane Glyn, perhaps before settling in Virginia. The date and place of their marriage and the time of her death are not known. They had a daughter, who married a member of the Maryland governor's Council, and two sons. One of them died young, and the other, John Carter (d. 1690), served in the assembly during the summer of 1676. Carter married Eleanor Eltonhead Brocas, the recent widow of the Council member William Brocas, in 1655. They are not known to have had any children before her death not long thereafter. On a trip to England in 1656 Carter married Anne Carter, who soon died, also without having any recorded children. By early in the 1660s Carter had married Sarah Ludlow. They had one daughter, who died in infancy, and one son, Robert Carter (ca. 1664–1732), before her death. On October 24, 1668, Carter executed a marriage agreement and then or very soon afterward married Elizabeth Sherley. Their son died probably early in the 1690s. Title: Virtual Tour of Christ Church

See Panoramas

Virtual Tour of Christ Church

Carter died, probably at Corotoman, on January 10, 1670, and was buried at the first Christ Church in Lancaster County, a parish and a church he had helped build. His fifth wife, one daughter, and three sons survived him, among them Robert Carter, who eclipsed him and who, because of his vast accumulation of wealth, other Virginians called King Carter. Time Line

   ca. 1613 - John Carter is born. He is probably the son of John Carter, a London vintner, and his second wife, Bridget Benion Carter.

   1642 - John Carter is elected a burgess from Upper Norfolk County (later Nansemond County) for the assembly that meets in January and June of this year.

   1642 - John Carter obtains the first of several grants of land on the north bank of the Rappahannock River in what will become Lancaster County.

   March 2, 1643 - John Carter sits in the assembly when for the first time the burgesses convene as a separate house.

   1649 - John Carter represents Nansemond County in the assembly.

   1652 - By this year John Carter is a major in the Lancaster County militia and will soon become a colonel.

   1654-1655 - John Carter represents Lancaster County in the assemblies of these years.

   1655 - John Carter marries Eleanor Eltonhead Brocas. They will have no known children and she dies not long thereafter.

   1656 - John Carter marries Anne Carter. They will have no known children and she dies not long thereafter.

   1658 - John Carter represents Lancaster County in the assembly of this year.

   March 13, 1658 - The burgesses elect John Carter to the governor's Council.

   April 8, 1659 - Following the death of Oliver Cromwell and the succession of his son, Richard Cromwell, John Carter objects so sternly that the governor issues a warrant for his arrest.

   Eatly 1660s - By this time, John Carter marries Sarah Ludlow. They will have one daughter, who dies in infancy, and one son.

   March 1660 - John Carter returns to Jamestown as a burgess.

   March 1663 - John Carter joins other members of the governor's Council and Governor Sir William Berkeley in complaints after the king grants the Northern Neck to several court favorites.

   1665 - John Carter receives his largest single grant, for 4,000 acres, for transporting to Virginia eighty people, including twenty-one of African origin or descent.

   October 24, 1668 - John Carter executes a marriage agreement and soon afterward marries Elizabeth Sherley.

   January 10, 1670 - John Carter probably dies on this day at Corotoman.

Categories Colonial History (ca. 1560–1763) Colonial Government
Further Reading Currer-Briggs, Noel. The Carters of Virginia: Their English Ancestry. London: Phillimore, 1979. Quitt, Martin H. "John Carter (ca. 1613–1670)." In Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 3, edited by Sara Bearss et al., 72–73. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006. Cite This Entry

   APA Citation:

Quitt, M. H., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. John Carter (ca. 1613–1670). (2016, December 27). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Carter_John_ca_1613-1670.

   MLA Citation:

Quitt, Martin H. and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "John Carter (ca. 1613–1670)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 27 Dec. 2016. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.
First published: April 18, 2013 | Last modified: December 27, 2016

Contributed by Martin H. Quitt and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.

Carter, Planter Colonel John Esquire It is known, however, that one of the several wives of the first John was Anne, daughter of Cleave Carter, and it is most probable that she was also his cousin. The published lists of London marriage licenses includes one, on October 25, 1611, for "John Carter of 'Stepney,' Middlesex, to Jane Cleaves of All Hollows Barking, widow of John Cleaves, and this John and Jane are possibly the parents of John Carter,^ of Corotoman.' This John had large ideas of the matrimonial privileges of a planter. He married only five times — first to Jane Glyn, second to Eleanor Eltonhead, who aforetime was the wife of William ' Brocas ; third, to Anne, daughter of Cleave Cairter ; she died in 1662, and Carter was certainly married within the year; fourth to Sarah Ludlow, and fifth to Elizabeth Shirley, of Gloucester County, spinister, who survived him. "The first, second and fourth are buried with him. Why the third was not we cannot tell. "John Carter's will was made in 1669. The pedigree of his various wives is not clear, Sarah Ludlow was the daughter of Gabriel and Phillis Ludlow, Gabriel Ludlow was a lineal descendant of that William Ludlow, of 'Hill Deverill,' Wilts, who was butler to the King and member of Parliament, and who died in 1478. "John Carter had two children by Jane Glyn, who died early, and are buried beneath his tomb, and another daughter, Elizabeth who married Nathaniel Utie. He had three sons and one daughter presumably by Sarah Ludlow ; the daughter Sarah is buried with her mother in the very comprehensive Carter tomb, John, the eldest son by this marriage, married and had issue, but they all must have died early, as Robert inherited 'Corotoman,' and all the emoluments vouchsafed at that time to an eldest son. He represents the ancestor of the noble army of Virginia Carters, who have been citizens of high standing in this and other generations, and his blood is commingled with almost every family in position and out of position in the State, John Carter also had a son, Charles who must have died early. John Carter, the father of Robert, was born in England, set- tled in Lancaster County in 1649, ^^^^ there in 1669, his son, Robert, then being only six years old. The mother of Robert Carter was Sarah Ludlow, John Carter's third wife. "John, the emigrant, was not commonplace or inert. He came to Virginia and settled in upper Norfolk (now Nansemond County), which he represented as Burgess in 1649. He removed to Lancaster, and represented it in 1654. He was a vestryman (the most prominent men in the community always were), and the power of these Colonial vestries was enormous. He built a church where old Christ Church, in Lancaster, now stands. The vestry received it complete from his son, John, six months after the emigrant's death. "John Carter's estate lay upon the Rappahannock, and he, in- deed, chose the 'pick' of Tidewater Virginia. The house faced the Rappahannock where it is nine miles wide, full in sight of Chesapeake Bay. On one side is Carter's Greek, a veritable little bay itself, and on the other is Corotoman River ; so 'Corotoman,' this lordly estate, striking over an area of nine miles, was bounded on three sides by salt water. What a chance for fish, crabs and oysters — to be sure! From this spacious mansion house a line of cedars stretched to the parish church, about two miles distant, on the 'Corotoman' land, and these cedars (thinned, of course, by time) may be seen to-day. In themselves they are full of suggestion of the power and lordly ideas of our early planters. 'Corotoman,' builded by John Carter, passed to his oldest son, John, who dying early, and without issue, the estate passed from him to John Carter's second son, Robert. From Robert it went to Robert's oldest son, John, who married Elizabeth Hill, of 'Shirley.

Col. John Carter Esq.1 M, b. circa 1613, d. 10 June 1669

Father (--?--) Carter1

Charts Carter, Col. John, Esq. - c. 1613-1669 - Descendants Chart Last Edited 28 May 2005

Birth Col. John Carter Esq. was born circa 1613 in England.2 He was the son of (--?--) Carter.1 Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Jane Anne Glyn, daughter of Morgan Glyn, circa 1640 in Virginia.3,4 Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Eleanor (--?--).5 Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Anne Carter, daughter of Cleve Carter.5 Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Sarah Ludlow, daughter of Gabriel Ludlow and Phillis (--?--), circa 1662.1,4 Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Elizabeth Shirley circa 1668. Will Col. John Carter Esq. left a will on 3 January 1669 in Corotoman, Lancaster County, Virginia. Death Col. John Carter Esq. died on 10 June 1669 in Corotoman, Lancaster County, Virginia.1,6

Family 1 Jane Anne Glyn Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Jane Anne Glyn, daughter of Morgan Glyn, circa 1640 in Virginia.3,4 Children

George Carter5 b. c 1650 Elizabeth Carter5 b. c 1651 Col. John Carter Jr.5 b. c 1653

Family 2 Eleanor (--?--) Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Eleanor (--?--).5

Family 3 Anne Carter Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Anne Carter, daughter of Cleve Carter.5

Family 4 Sarah Ludlow b. 1635, d. 1668 Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Sarah Ludlow, daughter of Gabriel Ludlow and Phillis (--?--), circa 1662.1,4 Children

Sarah Carter1 b. bt 1663 - 1669 Col. Robert Carter+1 b. 4 Aug 1663, d. 4 Aug 1732 John Carter7 b. c 1665

Family 5 Elizabeth Shirley Marriage Col. John Carter Esq. married Elizabeth Shirley circa 1668. Child

Charles Carter b. c 1669

Citations:

[S7] Scarborough Genealogy, Harvey Morgan Scarborough, online http://www.scarboroughgenealogy.com/, , e-mail address, last viewed 26 May 2005. [S68] Heritage Consulting, compiler, Family Data Collection - Millennium File ([database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2003). [S7] Scarborough Genealogy, Harvey Morgan Scarborough, online http://www.scarboroughgenealogy.com/, last viewed 27 May 2005. [S67] Edmund West, compiler, Family Data Collection - Marriages ([database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2001). [S7] Scarborough Genealogy, Harvey Morgan Scarborough, online http://www.scarboroughgenealogy.com/, last viewed 28 May 2005. [S66] Edmund West, compiler, Family Data Collection - Deaths ([database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2001). [S65] Edmund West, compiler, Family Data Collection - Births ([database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2001).

Col. John CARTER b: c. 1613 Edmonton, Middlesex,  England                                                                                                       d: 10 June 1669 ‘Corotoman’, Lancaster Co., VA Buried at ChristChurch, Lancaster Co., VA         

                                                                                                                      He came to the Colony c. 1635 on the ship - Safety, and located in lower Norfolk, which he represented as Burgess, 1649; he later removed to Lancaster Co., where he built the ancestral home of "Corotoman." He served as a Burgess from Lancaster, 1653-58, and was an influential member of the King's Council, 1658-59; Commander against the Rappahannock Indians, 1654; Col. of Lancaster, 1656; liberal supporter of the Established Church, he gave the first Church which stood on the land where Christ Church was later built, and was a Vestryman.   

1st Marriage: Jane Anne GLYNN, daughter of Morgan GLYNN of England, circa 1640 in VA Children: George CARTER ( b: c. 1638 d: infancy) Buried at Christ Church, Lancaster Co., VA

         Elizabeth CARTER  ( b: c 1639)                                                                                                                               Married Col. Nathaniel UTIE 1667; 1st husband, 2nd wife. 

                                       Married Capt. Henry JOHNSON, 2nd husband

                                John CARTER Jr.   (b: c 1653 d:1690)                                                                    Married Elizabeth HULL, 1st wife.                                                                                                                   Married Elizabeth TRAVERS, daughter of Capt. Raleigh TRAVERS, in 1684                 

2nd Marriage: Eleanor (BROCAS)ELTONHEAD, widow of Hon. William BROCAS, and daughter of Richard and Ann (SUTTON) ELTONHEAD of England No Children

3rd Marriage: Anne CARTER, daughter of Cleve CARTER of England b: c. 1635 d: c. 1662 of measles No Children

4th Marriage: Sarah LUDLOW (b: 1635 d: 1668), daughter of Gabriel LUDLOW, of “Dinton” and Phyllis circa 1662 Children: Sarah CARTER (b: between 1663-1669 died infancy) Buried at Christ Church, Lancaster Co, VA Robert CARTER (b: 4 Aug 1663 d: 4 Aug 1732) John CARTER (b: c. 1665) 5th Marriage: Elizabeth SHIRLEY (b? d?), of Gloucester Co. VA circa 1668 Children: Charles CARTER b: c. 1669 d: after 1690 in England

Will: Col. CARTER left a will on 3 January 1669 in Corotoman, Lancaster Co., VA

"John, the emigrant, was not commonplace or inert. He came to Virginia and settled in upper Norfolk (now Nansemond County), which he represented as Burgess in 1649. He removed to Lancaster, and represented it in 1654. He was a vestryman (the most prominent men in the community always were), and the power of these Colonial vestries was enormous. He built a church where old Christ Church, in Lancaster, now stands. The vestry received it complete from his son, John, six months after the emigrant's death.

"John Carter's estate lay upon the Rappahannock, and he, indeed, chose the 'pick' of Tidewater Virginia. The house faced the Rappahannock where it is nine miles wide, full in sight of Chesapeake Bay. On one side is Carter's Creek, a veritable little bay itself, and on the other is Corotoman River; so 'Corotoman,' this lordly estate, striking over an area of nine miles, was bounded on three sides by salt water. What a chance for fish, crabs and oysters--to be sure! From this spacious mansion house a line of cedars stretched to the parish church, about two miles distant, on the 'Corotoman' land, and these cedars (thinned, of course, by time) may be seen to-day. In themselves they are full of suggestion of the power and lordly ideas of our early planters. 'Corotoman,' built by John Carter, passed to his oldest son, John, who dying early, and without issue, the estate passed from him to John Carter's second son, Robert. From Robert it went to Robert's oldest son, John, who married Elizabeth Hill, of 'Shirley,' John3 left 'Corotoman' to his son, Charles4, who lived there until the death of his mother, who had married, second, Bowler Cocke, and continued to live at 'Shirley.' At her death Charles4 Carter removed to 'Shirley.' At his death he left 'Shirley' to his oldest son, John5, and 'Corotoman' to his second son, George. 'Corotoman' was burned about this time.

"George married Lelia Skipwith, and had Dr. George, of 'Corotoman,' and one daughter, Polly Carter, who married Dr. Joseph C. Cabell. Dr. George Carter married a Miss Corbin, and had one daughter, Parke, who inherited 'Corotoman.' She died unmarried, and left 'Corotoman' to her aunt, Polly Cabell. This Mrs. Polly Cabell died possessed of a very large estate, and her will is one of the most remarkable Virginia documents. The motif' of her will is the ever recurrent injunction that no lawyer should have anything to do with any part of her estate, but by the perversity of fate it is said the lawyer got three-fourths of it.

"George Carter, the last male Carter who owned 'Corotoman,' died before his wife, Lelia Skipwith, and she married, secondly, Judge St. George Tucker. He was one of the lawyers who directed the sale of 'Corotoman' after Mrs. Cabell's death. She left no issue. Mrs. Polly Carter Cabell was the last Carter to own this famous estate. The house evidently was never rebuilt, an outhouse, probably a negro quarter, was there a few years ago. The magnificent site is now but a cornfield, and nothing in Lancaster, but the ragged cedars, the church and the tombs, toll of the magnificent estate of the Carters.

The Armistead Family Virginia Armistead Garber ____________________________________________________________________________________

Was the first of the well known Virginia family of that name to come from England. He settled in Upper Norfolk which he represented in the House of Burgesses in March, 1642-43. He was a burgess for Nansemond in Oct., 1649 and for Lancaster from 1654 to 1660. He was justice in Lancaster in 1653 and, at the division of the county on Dec. 13, 1656, he was appointed presiding justice and colonel commandant of Lancaster. In Nov., 1654, the assembly directed that an attack be made upon the Rappahanock Indians and that Maj. John Carter be appointed commander-in-chief. He was elected to the council on March 13, 1657-58, but was not sworn until the assembly adjourned. On March 8, 1659, Gov. Matthews issued an order to the sheriff of Lancaster to arrest Col. John Carter "for conternpt of the late commission of Government sent out by his Highness (Cromwell) and the lords of the Council, to appear before the Governor and Council at Jamestown." He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1663, by the governor of Virginia to confer with the commissioners from Maryland as to a restriction of tobacco planting. He was a vestryman of Christ Church Parish in Lancaster and the original church there was built under his direction. The present edifice, one of the finest specimens of colonial architecture standing, was built by the Councillor's son, Robert Carter. He died on the 10 of June, 1669, as stated on his tomb in Christ Church.

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I III--Colonial Councillors of State

John Carter, immigrated to Virginia from England in 1625 aboard the "Prosperous". Living in James City, no one know why he came to the Virginia colony, perhaps to leave the political strife in Great Britain, possible to better his station in an already hard world. Within a year his neighbors were so taken with his character, they asked him to represent them at the House of Burgesses.

In 1642, after acquiring some 13,500 acres in the Northern Neck between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers building his family estate called "Corotoman". He became a successful planter and businessman, also serving first as an elected Burgess, and then, as a member of the Governor's Council.

Marrying in 1650, his first wife, Jane Glyn, gave him three children, George, who dies young, Elizabeth and John II. After the early death of his wife, he married Eleanor Eltonhead Brocas in 1656. It was about this time he was elected to the House of Burgesses that automatically made him the commander of the local militia. This militia was responsible for ridding the area of the last of the Rappahannock Indians that brought to its commander more accolades. Eleanor died the next year leaving no children.

His third wife, Anne Carter, daughter of Cleve Carter of England, whom he married in 1658, died within the first year of their marriage, leaving no children.

In 1660, he married Sarah Ludlow, and had two more children, Sarah, who died young, and Robert Carter. Sarah Ludlow Carter died in early 1668 and her family had inscribed on her tombstone, "May her descendants make their mother's virtues and graces the pattern of their lives and actions". Little did anyone realize to what great heights her son Robert would achieve.

John Carter took a fifth wife marrying Elizabeth Shirley in late 1668. A son, Charles, was born in 1669. That same year John died. As a young man, Charles moved to England to live and died there sometime after 1690. John Carter the émigré, achieved prominence, wealth, political power, material goods and social prestige that he had earned for himself, but his sons and grandsons were to carve out an empire, such as he had never envisioned.

Upon his death, John's main estate, holdings and slaves went to his oldest son, John II, with 6,000 English pound's going to his wife, Elizabeth. Robert Carter was seven years old when his father died. Upon gaining his majority, being a second son, his prospects were not exceptionally bright. He had inherited 1,000 acres near the Corotoman River and one third of his father's personal estate valued at 1,000 English pounds consisting of a library of Latin books, a few slaves, and some other personal items.

Then by a sudden turn of events, his older half brother, John II, who ad married twice and had one daughter, Elizabeth (1675-1693), died at age 43, leaving Robert the sole adult male representing the family and inheriting the family estate.

Birth: 1613 - Christ Church, London, Middlesex, England Death: June 10 1669 - Corotoman, Lancaster Co, Va Parents: John Carter, Bridget Benion Wife: Eleanor Eltonhead, Jane Glyn, Anne Carter Children: George Carter, Elizabeth Carter, John Carter, Sarah Carter, Col. Robert 'King' Carter, Charles Carter

Colonel Jonathan Carter FamilySearch Family Tree Birth: Oct 7 1613 - Edmonton, Middlesex, England Death: June 10 1669 - Corotoman, Lancaster, Virginia, United States

https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I2440...

Research Notes from Robert Lumsden

The FamilyTreeDNA Carter Y-DNA Project clearly shows unrelatedness in genealogical time between John Carter of Corotoman, Thomas Carter "of Barford" and Thomas Carter of Isle of Wight. They are all R1b haplotype, so they did have a common ancestor back in time.

The major problem with any of these early colonial settlers is that none of them, that I am aware of, left a single bit of proof as to who their families were in England.

A lot to learn here
John Carter of Corotoman