Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/437

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

849

of Burgesses 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 this sacred edifice, a signal monument of his piety towards God. He fur- nished 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 house of Landon. By these wives he had many children in 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 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.

JMr. Blackford was descended from the second wife, Betty Landon, born in 1684, married in 1701, and died July 3. 1710. Her epitaph, together with that of the first wife, Judith Armistead, is carved on a tombstone found at the east end of Christ Church, Lancaster county:

To the memory of Betty Carter, second wife of Robert Carter, Esq. Youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Landon and Mary (St. Leger) his wife, of Grednal, in the county of Hereford, England, the ancient seat of the family, and place of her nativity.

She bore to her husband ten children, five sons and five daughters, three of whom, Sarah, Betty and Ludlowe, died before her and are buried near her. She was a person of great and exemplary piety and charity in every relation in which she stood, whether considered as a Christian, a wife, a mother, a mistress, a neighbor, or a friend, her conduct was equalled by few, excelled by none.

She changed this life for a better on the 3rd of July, 1710, in the 36th year of her age, and the ninth of her marriage. May her descendants make their mother's virtues and graces the pattern of their lives and actions.

Mr. Blackford writes of the Carters :

It is an enormously large family and doubtless has in it some black sheep, but in reviewing it I think any candid man must be well satisfied to have the blood in his veins. Unlike the Minors and their collaterals, the Carters and their collaterals have taken much part in public affairs and have ever been leaders of public sentiment and thought. From Robert Carter of Corotoman (King Carter) many men of great distinction and honor have de- scended. Among them we have two Presidents of the United States, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison; four Governors of Virginia, a Governor of Kentucky and two of Louisiana, a Governor of Maryland, a Judge of the Supreme Court, and numberless Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, Generals and Colo- nels, including General Robert E. Lee, who, and V1R_&1

whose wife, were both direct descendants. Few families in so short a time have so great a record. The descendants of Robert Carter intermarried with every prominent family in the State, and their progeny find their aptest illustration in the count- less sands of the sea.

The third child of Robert Carter's mar- riage with Betty Landon was Charles Car- ter, of Cleve, King George county, born in 1707, and died in 1764, having married three times. His second wife was Ann Byrd, daughter of Colonel William Byrd, of West- over, sister of the famotis Evelyn Byrd. The fifth child of this marriage (Charles Car- ter's ninth child) was Landon Carter, of Cleve — so called to distinguish him from his uncle, Landon Carter, of Sabine Hall — born July II, 1751, died December 10, 181 1. At nine years of age he was sent to England to be educated, as was the custom of the time, but on the death of his father in 1764, he was recalled by his guardian, Landon Carter, of Sabine Hall. He married (first) in 1771, Mildred Washington Willis, daugh- ter of his brother-in-law, Lewis Willis, of Willis Hall, Fredericksburg, by his first marriage with Mary Champe. She was a granddaughter of Henry Willis, and of his wife, Mildred Washington. This Mildred Washington was a daughter of Lawrence Washington and Mildred Warner, and hence a full sister of Augustine Washing- ton, and aunt of General Washington, for whom she stood godmother, when she was Mrs. Gregory, before her marriage with Henry Willis.

The third child of this marriage was Lucy Landon Carter, the grandmother of Mr. Blackford, who married John Minor, of Hazel Hill, Fredericksburg (see ante. p. 847). She was born in 1776, at her father's beau- tiful country seat "Cleve," on the Rappa- hannock river, in King George county, and died in Fredericksburg, January 7, 1856. She was a most remarkable woman — of great piety, beauty, energy and intelligence. She inherited a large estate, and was the executor of her husband's, which was also large, and managed all with great ability (see ante.).

The children of General Minor and his wife. Lucy Landon Carter, were :

John Minor, of Fredericksburg, born 1797, died unmarried. January 12, 1862.

Overton Cosby Minor, who died young.