At age 39, Carter Braxton (1736-1797), was a delegate from Virginia to the Second Continental Congress. Though he often voted among his peers within the Whig rebellious movement, he was more conservative than most delegates. Rather than a complete break with England, he sought arbitration to settle colonial differences with the mother country. In the end, he came around and by the summer of 1776, his was the 46th signature fixed to independence.
Early Life
Like the other delegates from Virginia, Braxton was among the wealthy plantation class called ‘planters.’ His grandfather, George Braxton, Sr., immigrated to Virginia from London around 1690 and later received large land grants from King George II. George Braxton, Sr. became one of the leading planters and was active in politics, serving on the House of Burgesses from 1718 to 1734.
Carter entered the world on September 10, 1736 at the Newington Plantation in Livingston, Fairfax County, Virginia. He was the son of George Braxton Jr. (1705-1749) and Mary Carter (1712-1736), daughter of Robert ‘King’ Carter, the richest man in Virginia and largest slaveholder. Mary died aged 24 seven days after giving birth to Carter. The father never remarried and shortly after Carter attended the College of William Mary, George Jr. died, leaving thirteen-year-old Carter the family estate at Newington. With some assistance from family and friends, the young boy soon became quite adapt at the business of farming and trading tobacco. In 1753, at age 17, he came into possession of the impressive manor house and plantation of Elsing Green.
In 1755, Braxton married the wealthy and beautiful Judith Robinson (1736-1757), whose dowry extended his considerable estates; both were age 19. Like Braxton’s mother, Judith died two years later giving birth, this to their second child. The grieved husband was left with two young daughters; Mary and Judith. In 1757, shortly after his wife Judith’s death, Braxton moved his family to England. He remained there for three years before returning in 1760.
Remarries and Enters Politics
In 1761 Braxton married Elizabeth Corbin, the daughter of wealthy planter Colonel Richard Corbin and Elizabeth Tayloe. Between the two marriages, Braxton would father sixteen children. While establishing his numerous farm estates he also entered the mercantile business. Early on he considered investing in the slave trade, exchanging letters with the Brown brothers of Providence, Rhode Island, but nothing ever came of it. He later entered business ventures with Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, another signer of the Declaration. By 1767 the Chericoke Plantation in King William County, Virginia was Braxton’s home upon which in 1770, he built a large estate. Braxton enjoyed a life of comfort amidst his numerous employees and slaves. According to early biographer Charles Goodrich, he “lived in considerable splendor, according to the fashion of the landed aristocracy at that day.” He would remain at Chericoke until he could no longer maintain the estate due to financial concerns, forcing him to leave in 1786.
In 1765 he was elected to the House of Burgesses where he became an active and prominent member. Carter Braxton was loyal to Virginia, but held the more conservative views of the Tidewater leaders. He was present in the House of Burgesses when Patrick Henry’s resolutions condemned the Stamp Act. In 1769, along with Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, and others, he signed the Virginia Resolves, which declared that the House of Burgesses had the sole right to tax the inhabitants of the colony. Though doing so would hurt his business interests, Braxton also signed the Virginia Association, a non-importation agreement. In 1775, he was appointed a member of the Virginia Committee of Safety; the defensive military arm of the early Committees of Correspondence and provincial legislatures. He would continue in the House of Burgesses until 1775, whereupon fate set him on a new course.
Second Congress and Declaration of Independence
The sudden death by stroke of Virginia delegate to Congress, Peyton Randolph on October 22, 1775, caused Carter Braxton to be chosen the following month to replace the powerful leader. Throughout his time as a member of the Burgesses, and years in Congress, serving until 1785, Braxton maintained his fame as an able and faithful public servant. Considered a worthy, upright man who was a sentinel in the cause of freedom. Though he favored the revolution, his views on independence were more cautious than the other Virginia delegates. A parallel could be argued between this and his connection to and extended time in England. It may also have been a conscious aversion to violence. During the Dunmore gunpowder crisis, April 21, 1775, when Royal Governor Dunmore ordered Captain Henry Collins of the armed schooner Magdalen to remove fifteen barrels of gunpowder from the magazine at Williamsburg, Braxton convinced his father-in-law, Richard Corbin, who was receiver general of the colony, to pay for the powder, thus averting bloodshed.
A fellow Signer of the Declaration, Dr. Benjamin Rush described Carter Braxton as a sensible speaker, and an accomplished gentleman. His oratory was described as easy and flowing and conversation smooth. He was peculiarly agreeable among his colleagues. One of a ‘cultivated mind and respectable talents’; however, thought of as strongly prejudiced against the firebrand New Englanders (of which many southern delegates shared the accusation). Despite his later financial adversities and trying circumstances, mainly from actions he took in support of the war, his reputation never suffered.
War had already erupted by the time Braxton was selected to Congress. New Englanders, especially the influential Samuel Adams, led the hawkish faction who pushed for extremes in dealing with England. Braxton was hesitant at first to support the growing sentiment for independence, and argued strongly against it. In April, 1776, he wrote, “Independence is in truth an elusive bait which men inconsiderably catch at, without knowing the hook to which it is affixed.” He pointed out that in Europe, one republic after another had come to an unhappy ending. During the debate that followed fellow Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee’s June 7, 1776 resolution for independence, Braxton continued to argue against separation from England. But on July 2nd, when Congress voted on independence, Braxton joined his fellow Virginia delegates by casting a yea vote. And on August 2nd, 1776, affixed his name to the treasonous document, declaring liberty from England. While in Congress, Braxton remained active and influential in the Virginia Legislature from 1777 to 1785.
During the War
Throughout the war, Braxton had invested a great deal of his wealth supporting the revolution. He loaned money to the cause and funded shipping and privateering. Unfortunately, the British destroyed several ships he funded including the irreplaceable loss of cargo. When turncoat Benedict Arnold suddenly invaded Virginia in early 1781, the war struck Virginia with a vengeance. During this time, several of Braxton’s plantations and land holdings were ravaged; a loss he struggled to replace. So too, money he loaned to individuals and businesses supporting the war failed to pay back their debts, leading to further financial strain on Braxton’s reserves.
After the War and Death
By war’s end, he had accumulated a great deal of debt and in 1786, was forced to leave his beloved estate at Chericoke and move to a smaller residence in Richmond. Though hounded by perpetual debts and suffering financial hardships, he remained active in state politics; appointed to the Virginia State Council, 1786 – 1791, and again from 1794 to his death in 1797. It was reported that towards the end of his life, he was stricken with two strokes while attending Council meetings. The final one claimed his life at home, aged sixty-one, on October 10, 1797. Family tradition maintains that on the day of his death, Henrico County sheriff Samuel Mosby was at Braxton’s door attempting to collect debts.
Braxton was buried at Chericoke, in the family graveyard on the side of a hill. Braxton’s widow Elizabeth survived until July 5, 1814. Years later, several bodies of the Braxton family were removed from the family gravesite near the family home to the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond; there a memorial to the family now sits. It was reported that Carter’s body was not located and his remains are at Chericoke in an unmarked grave.
Chericoke remained with the Braxton family. In 1828, Carter’s grandson, Dr. Corbin Braxton rebuilt the home in brick and Federal style. Now, the property is in the possession of and maintained by Alice Horsely Siegel, who has since significantly renovated with the addition of several other small houses, though the structure of the original house, known as the “Big House,” has largely remained unchanged.
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RESOURCE
Decedents of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. “Braxton Carter, 1736-1797”
Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence… 1836: Thomas Mather Publisher, New York, NY.
History of American Women. “Elizabeth Corbin Braxton.”
Ross, George E. Know the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. 1963: Rand McNally, Chicago, IL.
Waln, Robert Jr., John Sanderson Editor. Biography of Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Vol. 6. 1823: R. W. Pomeroy, Philadelphia, PA.