Landon Carter
Col. Landon Carter, I (August 18, 1710 – December 22, 1778) was an American  planter from Lancaster County, Virginia, best known for his account of colonial life leading up the American War of Independence, The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter. For his work he was elected in 1769 to membership of the American Philosophical Society.

Early life and schooling
Landon Carter was the son of Robert "King" Carter, a Virginia-born merchant planter and uncle of Robert Carter III.  In 1719, at the age of nine, Carter was sent to England to be schooled under the early linguist, Solomon Lowe. He returned to Virginia in 1727.

Family connections

"King" Carter died in 1732, and Landon inherited a portion of his father's estate. Shortly thereafter, Carter married Elizabeth Wormeley, daughter of John Wormeley. She died in 1740.  In 1742, Landon married Maria Byrd, daughter of William Byrd II, who died two years later. Carter married his third wife, Elizabeth Beale, in 1746.

Shortly after his first marriage, Carter settled on lands he had inherited in Richmond County. His mansion house, Sabine Hall, which he built about 1734, stood at the heart of his plantation there.

Carter's daughter, Maria, married Robert Beverley, son of Colonel William Beverley and Elizabeth Bland. He was named after his paternal grandfather. The Beverleys were indirectly descended from Pocahontas through their marriage to the Randolphs.

Carter's grave is in the Lower Lunenburg Parish Church cemetery in Warsaw, Virginia. He left his heirs 50,000 acres (200 km2) of land and as many as 500 slaves. The Special Collections Research Center at the College of William and Mary holds papers relating to Landon Carter and many other descendants of King Carter.

References

Further reading
Landon Carter, The diary of Colonel Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, 1752-1778. Edited, with an introd., by Jack P. Greene (Charlottesville, Published for the Virginia Historical Society [by] the University Press of Virginia, 1965).

External links

Excerpts from his diary
Finding aid for the Carter Family Papers
Landon Carter at Encyclopedia Virginia

Archival Records
"Landon Carter Advertisement for Runaway Slave", at Virginia Memory

1710 births
1778 deaths
People from Warsaw, Virginia
People from the State of Franklin
Landon
College of William & Mary alumni
American planters
Byrd family of Virginia
American slave owners