ful and social disposition. He worked with indefatigable industry from early morning until evening. His historical collections were left to his wife, a daughter of Colonel Arthur Brett, who, in turn, left them to her second husband, Nicholas Jernegan, for his life, and afterwards to the Bodleian. Jernegan, after receiving large sums for the use of them, among others as much as 200l. from Lord Hardwick, and 300l. from Macpherson, who used them for his ‘History’ and ‘State Papers’ (1775), finally disposed of them to the Bodleian for a good price, during his lifetime, at some period subsequent to 1775. Besides the works mentioned above, Carte published: 1. ‘Preface to a Translation, by Mrs.Thomson, of the History of the Calamities of Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England,’ by Michael Baudier, 1736. 2. ‘Advice of a Mother to her Son and Daughter.’ Translated from the French of the Marchioness de Lambert. 3. ‘The History of the Revolutions of Portugal from the foundation of that kingdom to the year 1567; with letters of Sir Robert Southwell during his embassy there to the Duke of Ormonde,’ 1740. 4. ‘Preface to Catalogue des Rolles Gascons, Normands et François, conservés dans les Archives de la Tour de Londres,’ fol. 1743. This preface, according to Lowndes, was afterwards cancelled by order of the French government. A new edition of his History was published at Oxford in 1851, 6 vols. 8vo.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 471–518, and elsewhere; Nichols's Illustrations of Lit. Hist. v. 152–66; Gent. Mag. 1748; Biographia Britannica, ed. Kippis; Hearne's Remains, ii. 154, ed. 1869.]
CARTER, EDMUND (fl. 1753), topographer, was a poor disabled writing-master, who, while keeping school by St. Botolph's Church in Cambridge, conceived the design of compiling a history of the university and county, an undertaking for which he was by no means qualified. Among others whom he applied to for aid was William Cole, who treated his humble labours with contempt; but afterwards he was greatly assisted by the Rev. Robert Smyth, rector of Woodstone, near Peterborough, and occasionally by Dr. Newcome, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, who communicated some of Baker's manuscripts, and by the Rev. Robert Masters, to whom Carter used to send the whole budget of his correspondence. Carter, ‘having a small family and a bad wife,’ was forced to desert his school at Cambridge, and settled for some time during the compilation of his histories at Ware in Hertfordshire, whence he removed to Chelsea, where he taught a school as he had done at Ware. The date and place of his death are not known; his widow died in Enfield workhouse on 15 Sept. 1788 (Gent. Mag. lviii. ii. 841).
Carter was the author of 1. ‘The History of the County of Cambridge from the Earliest Account to the Present Time,’ 8vo, Cambridge, 1753 (reprinted and brought down to date by William Upcott, 8vo, London, 1819). Although badly arranged and full of errors, the book is not altogether destitute of interest. Under each parish are the particulars of the ravages committed in the churches by the wretched fanatic William Dowsing and his rabble soldiery, appointed, under a warrant from the Earl of Manchester in 1643, to destroy and abolish all the remains of popish superstition in them, a task which they performed very effectually. 2. ‘The History of the University of Cambridge from its Original to the year 1753,’ 8vo, London, 1753. In the British Museum is a copy filled with additions and corrections as for a second edition in the author's beautiful handwriting.
[Manuscript notes by Craven Ord and Dr. R. Farmer in copies of Carter's Hist. Univ. Camb. in Brit. Mus.; Gough's British Topography, i. 193, 218; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 694, v. 47, 48, vi. 112, 201.]
CARTER, ELIZABETH (1717–1806), poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Deal in Kent on 16 Dec. 1717. She was the eldest daughter of the Rev. Nicholas Carter, D.D., perpetual curate of Deal Chapel, and one of the six preachers at Canterbury Cathedral, by his first wife, Margaret, only daughter and heiress of Richard Swayne of Bere Regis, Dorsetshire. Her mother lost her fortune, which had been invested in the South Sea stocks, and died of a decline when Elizabeth was about ten years old. Her education was undertaken by her father, who was a good Latin, Greek, and Hebrew scholar. So slow at first was she in learning the dead languages that, weary of teaching her, he frequently entreated her to give up the attempt. By incessant application, however, she overcame her natural incapacity for learning. She read both late at night and early in the morning, taking snuff, chewing green tea, and using other means to keep herself awake. By this vigorous course of study she injured her health, and as a consequence suffered from frequent and severe headaches for the rest of her life. Beginning with Latin and Greek, she afterwards learnt Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, and German; later in life she taught herself Portuguese and Arabic. She took a great interest in astronomy, ancient and modern history, and ancient geography, played both the spinnet
