Charles Carter (of Cleve)

Carter operated several plantations using enslaved labor, and exported tobacco to England. Initially, he operated his father's plantations in Middlesex County, where he became an ally of fellow planter John Robinson, who represented the county for decades in the House of Burgesses and became its Speaker. After his father's death, Charles Carter moved north to King George County, after buying a plantation he would develop and called "Cleve".

Carter held many local political offices, and continuously (but part-time, as was the custom) represented King George County in the House of Burgesses from 1736 until his death in 1764. He served alongside fellow planters Thomas Turner and Henry Turner for many years, and alongside his son Charles Carter Jr. from 1756 until his death in 1764 (although he would disinherit Charles in his 1762 will).^[4]

The Cleve manor house Carter commissioned and built was grand, and Carter entertained many dignitaries there. Not only was it built of brick, it featured carved stones around its windows and doors, as well as corner quoins. Carter also commissioned portraits of his family and ancestors from John Hesselius and other painters. However, that elegance barely survived the century, for fire gutted the interior in 1800, and another fire in 1917 caused its demolition.^[5]

Perhaps more noteworthy were Carter's winemaking efforts. Following a collapse in tobacco prices, and aware of that crop's high nutrient demands, Carter experimented with wine grapes, and corresponded with English wine expert Peter Wyche. In 1761, Wyche wrote Carter about the poor quality of American grapes and how another winemaker had failed, but offered to send Carter European vines. However, Carter was already managing to grow over a thousand European-derived vines on his Cleve property, as well as making palatable wine. Perhaps to show Wyche wrong, the following year (two years before Carter's death), Carter sent the London Society for the Encouragement of the Arts a dozen bottles of his wine, made from a blend of juices of an American grape and a white Portugal summer grape. The Society awarded Carter a gold medal for his effort, and in August 1763, Governor Francis Fauquier reviewed a report of several eminent men who visited Cleve and praised both the red and white wines made from European stock.^[6][7][8] In 1768, several years after this man's death, Virginians exported 135 gallons of wine to England, but the General Assembly's ambitious 1769 plan to hire a French winemaker to establish a vineyard east of Williamsburg failed.^[9] Perhaps inspired by accounts of this late planter's success, in 1771 Thomas Jefferson planted 5 grape vines sent to him by his mentor George Wythe in Albemarle County, but despite also luring Italian winemaker Filippo Mazzei to Albemarle County in 1773, that winemaking experiment also failed.^[10]

Carter died on April 26, 1764, leaving behind a widow and several children, some under legal age. His nephew William Fitzhugh (son of this man's sister) had more success both as a planter and politician, and represented King George County during the American Revolutionary War.

While the planter wanted all his sons to study law, that course proved problematic, for his 1762 will was contested. While his firstborn son Charles Carter Jr. continued his father's political efforts, he continued to fail economically as a planter. However, with the assistance of political allies, Charles Jr. successfully contested his disinheritance in the General Court, then sold the contested property in King George County and moved to Stafford County. Charles Jr.'s legal success may have caused his uncle Edward Carter to enlist Thomas Jefferson's assistance in dismantling the entail system because of financial problems with his own son. In any event, this man's eldest son by his next wife, John Hill Carter (perhaps named to honor his uncle who never reached legal age) married Philadelphia Claiborne of King William County in 1771 and assisted the patriots in the American Revolutionary War. Although claimed reimbursement for provisions supplied to patriots in 1777, as well as fathered a daughter Anne who married lawyer John Lyon, he was dead or left the Commonwealth by 1787. The son continuing his man's traditions as a planter and legislator was his youngest son, Landon Carter (1751-1811) named to honor his uncle, who also became his guardian until he reached legal age. He would marry twice, first to Mildred Washington Willis (who died in 1778), then to his widowed cousin, Elizabeth Carter Thornton, daughter of his brother Landon Carter's firstborn son and successor Robert Wormeley Carter.^[11] By 1787, Landon Carter of King George held what remained of his father's formerly extensive plantations in King George County. He paid taxes on 47 enslaved laborers and 42 enslaved children, as well as 27 horses and 159 other livestock.^[12] Some of the Carter family papers are held by the University of Virginia library. Decades after Charles Carter's death, in 2008, a lawyer descendant, Philip Carter Strother, decided to honor this ancestor by buying a winery in Fauquier County, which he renamed the Philip Carter winery, and named some wines after Cleve.^[13][14]