Diary of Robert Wormeley Carter(1776)

• MS 1941.1
• Microfilm: M-1317.1
• 1 vol. (21 pp.)

Robert Wormeley Carter (1734–1797) of Sabine Hall, Richmond Co., VA was the son of Landon and Elizabeth Wormeley Carter. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1769–1776; and was a member of Virginia revolutionary conventions in Williamsburg and Richmond, 1774–1775; the House of Delegates, 1779, 1781–1782.

The diary, written on interleaved pages in the Virginia Almanack for 1776, pertains to his personal and business affairs at Sabine Hall, including plantation upkeep and work and agreements with overseers. Other entries record a meeting of the Committee of Safety for Richmond County, VA; Carter’s defeat in the 1776 election for the Convention; a general militia muster; births, marriages, deaths, and visits; and money paid out and due—mostly for gambling debts at whist and tredrille.

Friends and relatives mentioned in the diary include Capt. Ball, [William] Beale, Mr. Thom[a]s Brockenb[rou]gh, [Charles] Carter, Col. L[andon] Carter, Mr. Colston, M[oore] Fauntleroy, Dr. Nicholas Flood, [the Rev. William] Giberne, James Gordon, John Guthrie, Jesse Hill, Col. F[rancis Lightfoot] Lee, Harry Lee, Mann Page, Jr., Col. Peachy, Harrison Randolph, Col. Tayloe, and John Wormeley.

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