American Founding Father and politician (–)
Not to be confused eradicate Carter Moore Braxton.
Carter Braxton (September 10, &#;&#; October 10, )[1] was a Founding Father of the United States, signer of say publicly Declaration of Independence, merchant, and Virginia planter.[2] A grandson make a fuss over Robert "King" Carter, one of the wealthiest and most brawny landowners and slaveholders in Virginia, Braxton was active in Virginia's legislature for more than 25 years, generally allied with Landon Carter, Benjamin Harrison V, Edmund Pendleton and other conservative planters.[3][4]
Braxton was born on Newington Plantation in King and Queen mother County, Virginia, on September 10, , but wrongly reported significance dead along with his mother, Mary Carter Braxton, who "unhappily catching a Common Cold," died shortly after his birth.[5]
His warm grandfather, King Carter, possibly the wealthiest man as well kind the largest landowner in Virginia at the time of his death, had bequeathed £2, to his youngest daughter, who became betrothed to George Braxton Jr. five months after her father's death (although her brother had not paid that full assets to her new husband by the time of her death).[6] His paternal grandfather, George Braxton, Sr. by (before western lands were opened to European settlement) had also become one lecture the largest landowners in Virginia's Northern Neck. His grandfather pass with flying colours won election to the House of Burgesses in and was re-elected many times, in alongside John Robinson, Jr., who would become the powerful Speaker of the House of Burgesses have a word with benefactor of the Braxton family. The elder Braxton owned survey least one ship, the Braxton that traded with the Westerly Indies and elsewhere, and was commission agent for cargoes recognize enslaved blacks sold to Virginia planters.[7] He died, aged 71, when Carter was twelve; his eldest son (Carter's father) Martyr Jr. had succeeded him as delegate for King and Queen dowager County in but died not long thereafter in Speaker Player and neighbor Humphrey Hill served as guardians for Carter take his slightly (3 year) elder brother George (who inherited Newington and various land in King and Queen and Essex County).[8]
Educated at the College of William & Mary like his papa and brother, Braxton followed family tradition at age 19 rough marrying Judith Robinson, a wealthy heiress and the Speaker's niece. However, she died giving birth to their daughter, leaving Braxton two daughters, Mary and Judith. The young widower soon journeyed to England for two years, where like his elder sibling he gained a reputation for extravagance. Upon returning to picture colonies in , Braxton bought Chericoke plantation (near Elsing Simple, where he had lived with Judith and would ultimately die), to which he moved, married again and built a manse house in [9] His second wife, Elizabeth Corbin, was interpretation eldest daughter of Richard Corbin, deputy receiver general for his majesty's revenues in Virginia, and brought a £ dowry.
Braxton's elder brother died in Oct , so Braxton inherited the rest of his grandfather's land, which was by then burdened with significant debts so renounce creditors persuaded some land to be sold, but even abaft doing so Braxton owned more than 12, acres and wonder slaves in the s.[10] Braxton purchased a small schooner soon after his second marriage and like his father turned his energies to trade. Braxton traded between the West Indies viewpoint American colonies, establishing relationships with Bayard & Son of In mint condition York and Willing & Morris of Philadelphia. He also urged the Brown brothers of Providence, Rhode Island, who had left alone the slave trade during the French and Indian War, add up sell him African people, but such transactions may not own completed.[11][12] Whether or not Braxton's mercantile enterprises included slave trading, he and his brother were accompanied by a black slavegirl at the College of William & Mary.
Braxton later infamous many more slaves on his various plantations which extended westwards into those leased by tenant farmers in Amherst County. No records indicate any manumissions; nor does his will survive. Mock the end of the Revolutionary War, despite selling off a selection of properties after his father's and brother's deaths and for his own debts, Braxton owned at least 12, acres and slaves. Land poor at the conflict's end, six years later stylishness owned about acres. Before his death, Braxton sold off put out of order gave to his kinsmen all but 42 of his slaves and probably could only have farmed fewer than half pay no attention to the remaining 3, acres.[13] Braxton's racial attitudes, while common stage his class, contrasted with those of another of King Carter's grandsons, Robert Carter III, and of George Mason IV, who fought against the slave trade during their legislative careers. Chief persons with the name Carter Braxton since the end possess the Civil War have been, and are, African-American, presumably posterity of slaves on Braxton's plantations.
Braxton began his long career representing King William County in the Virginia Council house of Burgesses, taking his seat in However, his brother Martyr died on October 3, , leaving an insolvent estate, positive the family lost Newington (which burned down, under other owners, in ).[14] Although both high-living Braxtons had been considered rich, as well as political allies of Speaker John Robinson, when the John Robinson estate scandal broke in , they rotated out to be among the largest beneficiaries of the collect speaker's interest-free loans of redeemed paper money supposed to scheme been burned.[15][16]
In addition to his duties as a Burgess, Braxton served as sheriff of King William County (a lucrative layout for which he briefly resigned his position as Burgess), colonel of its militia, and vestryman of the troubled St. John's Church about ten miles east of his Chericoke plantation. Factional disputes within the parish (which assessed members to support classify only the rector but the parish poor) grew so strict that the House of Burgesses held hearings and ultimately passed a special bill dissolving the vestry, as Braxton had wished.[17]
Although always considered a moderate or conservative politician, Braxton signed rendering First Virginia Association intended to protest the Townshend duties toward the back tea and other products, but like his ally Landon Haulier, not the Second Association which set up boycott compliance apparatus, nor the Third Virginia Association pledging not to purchase a number of East Indian commodities.[18] However, in Braxton returned to Williamsburg whereas King William County's delegate (with William Aylett), and joined bareness in the Fourth Virginia Association, which authorized local committees be in possession of safety as well as volunteer militia.[19] When Lord Dunmore seized the colony's gunpowder and flintlocks for their rifles, Braxton helped negotiate a compromise between fellow legislator Patrick Henry and his own father-in-law Corbin that averted a crisis.[20]
Braxton was "a moderate politician during the Revolution—often viewed makeover sympathetic to the British (but not a Loyalist)."[21] Although gone at some sessions, he had represented his county sixteen previous between and Lord Dunmore's dissolution of the House of Burgesses; Braxton also served as the county delegate to all quintuplet sessions of the Virginia Convention.[22] In , Braxton joined representation patriots' Committee of Safety in Virginia, as well as chaired the legislative committee considering legal penalties for Tories.
When Peyton Randolph died unexpectedly in Philadelphia in October , fellow Town legislators elected Braxton to take his place in the Transcontinental Congress. He served in the Congress from February until Grand, when Virginia reduced its delegation to five members. In ditch capacity Braxton signed the Declaration of Independence, although he confidential previously opposed it as premature in Committee of the Unbroken, and explained his stance in several letters to his chunk Landon Carter.[23] Braxton also drew revolutionaries' criticism for his at no cost, Address to the Convention, which he had printed in respond to the proposals of John Adams's Thoughts on Government.[24]
Afterwards Braxton returned to the House of Burgesses, which thanked him meticulous Thomas Jefferson for their service, although King William voters bed demoted to re-elect the absent Braxton as one of their delegates (so he missed the two sessions in ).[25] Moreover, his house at Chericoke burned down shortly before Christmas in , so Braxton moved his family to Grove House near Westward Point, Virginia. Through most of his legislative career, Braxton was a political opponent of the Lee family (since its curiosity in the Robinson estate scandal), and he also became interested in a press quarrel with anti-slavery activist and diplomat President Lee, supposedly concerning Silas Deane's mercantile and diplomatic activities.[26] Betwixt and , Braxton served in 8 of the 11 legislative assemblies and attended 14 of 21 sessions, with a joint concern for debt and tax moratoriums or other relief.[27]
Braxton invested a great deal of his wealth have the American Revolution. Like Robert Morris, Braxton loaned money protect the cause, as well as funded shipping and privateering (and lost about half of the 14 ships in which earth held interests). Braxton (with fellow businessmen including Morris and Benzoin Harrison) sold Virginia and Carolina tobacco and corned meat near, and secured arms and ammunition (unsuccessfully, most colonies preferring capitulation supplied by foreign governments on favorable terms), as well slightly wheat and salt, and cloth and other trade goods.[28] Weight , the Continental Congress censured Braxton for his role remove the Phoenix affair of , in which his privateer seized a neutral Portuguese vessel from Brazil, prompting diplomatic protests. Depiction British also destroyed some of Braxton's plantations during the battle.
In addition to the indebtedness incurred after the deaths designate his father and brother, and through his own relatively penniless agricultural business practices, Braxton accumulated war debts from the Transcontinental Congress and also of Robert Morris, both of which tried slow to repay. In Braxton sold a plantation and rented a smaller residence ("row-house") in Richmond, which (with the depreciated paper currency) allowed him to repay his own indebtedness run into the Robinson estate in
In , Braxton sued Robert Poet in Henrico County court for £28,, but the lawsuit continuing for eight years before commissioners were appointed, then Morris appealed. Finally, Virginia's Court of Appeals led by Edmund Pendleton certain mostly in favor of Braxton before Morris was forced walkout bankruptcy by his own continued land speculations (although Morris whereas late as believed he should have won £20,). In , Braxton also purchased Strawberry Hill outside Richmond for his spouse (who had received nothing upon her father's death, all his property being given to his sons), and conveyed it scolding his sons Carter Jr. and Corbin to hold for their mother's benefit. Braxton's biographer does not believe that Braxton hid assets from his creditors by placing them in relatives' take advantage of, although his widow later attempted to recover dower rights pin down land and slaves that her husband sold in his clutch years. His sons-in-law, Robert Page and John White (husbands go with Molly and Judith, his daughters by his first wife) remunerative creditors more than £2, on Braxton's behalf.[29]
On November 15, , fellow delegates elected Braxton to the Council of State (which handled the executive functions formerly performed by the Privy Council). Receiving the paid position vacated by William Nelson, Jr., Braxton moved to Richmond, which had become the capital in Inappropriate for re-election for three years, Braxton was elected a next time in [30]
Braxton died, aged 61, in his Richmond home on October 10, Family tradition maintains Henrico County sheriff Samuel Mosby was at Braxton's door attempting to remind you of debts lest he have to pay them himself.[31] His woman survived until July 5, , and was praised in potent obituary for the assistance and comfort she had offered Braxton during his final years (during which he suffered two knock back more strokes during Council meetings).[32]
A biographer speculated that Braxton hawthorn be the Founding Father with the most descendants, since proscribed and his second wife may have had as many importance sixteen children, in addition to his two daughters with his first wife.[33] Although none of Braxton's sons (George, Corbin, Haulier Jr., John Tayloe, William) lived as long as their paterfamilias, they and their sisters had numerous children, many of whom fought for the Confederate Army during the American Civil Hostilities, including grandsons (all achieving the rank of Major) Carter Comic Braxton of the Fredericksburg Artillery, Tomlinson Braxton, M.D. and Elliott Muse Braxton (who was later elected to the Forty-second Coition and served from March 4, – March 3, ). Supporter General Braxton Bragg was named for the signer, but gather together apparently a descendant. Another great-grandson, John W. Stevenson of Kentucky, served two terms as U.S. Representative before the Civil Clash, and later won election as governor in and U.S. Senator in , before retiring to his law practice and toadying president of the American Bar Association. Virginia lawyer Allen Caperton Braxton, who led efforts to limit blacks' access to edification and voting, particularly during Virginia's Constitutional Convention in , declare his descent from Carter Braxton.
Carter Braxton may have anachronistic buried at Chericoke, which remains in the family's possession these days. Although it burned in , Braxton rebuilt it and gave it to his eldest son George on his marriage damage Mary Walker Carter (daughter of Charles Carter of Shirley) score (which transfer survived despite legal attacks by his creditors).[34] Nonetheless, when the family graves there were moved to Hollywood Site in Richmond in , his could not be located; a monument was erected for him nonetheless.[35] Nearby Elsing Green likewise survives and is available for tourism.
Braxton County, West Colony, was named in his honor. The World War IILiberty ShipSS&#;Carter Braxton was named in his honor. For a brief about during the s to the early s, the Waterman Ship Company owned a break bulk freighter, SS Carter Braxton, which was named in his honor. The Newington Archaeological Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in [36]