Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/192

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY


made a member of the council and was present at its sessions from that year until the close of 1761. His long will, disposing of a very large estate an 1 dated 1756, is on record in Middlesex. He was the father of Philip Ludwell Grymes of "Brandon," burgess for Middlesex county 1769, member of the house of delegates 1778, and appointed to the state council in 1803; who died May 18, 1805.

Carter, Robert Jr., son of Robert Carter of "Nomini Hall," Westmoreland county, Virginia, and grandson of Col. Robert Carter, of "Corotoman," Lancaster county, Virginia, was born in 1728, and inherited large possessions of lands and houses in Virginia and Maryland. He removed in 1761 from Westmoreland to Williamsburg, where he had a fine residence. In 1764 he was made a member of the council, and in 1772 returned to his country seat at "Nomini Hall." Like a few of the other wealthy men of Virginia, he did not approve of separating from England, but when independence was declared he threw in his future with his native land. After the revolution, he freed many of his slaves, and changed his religion several times. On this account he has been referred to as the "Eccentric Robert Carter, of "Nomini Hall." But he was a man of great culture, possessed one of the finest libraries in America, and was the author of many noble deeds of kindness. He married Frances Anne Tasker, youngest daughter of Hon. Benjamin Tasker, of Maryland, and left issue.

Ludwell, Philip, the third of that name, of "Green Spring," James City county and son of Hon. Philip Ludwell of the same place,, was born about the twenty-ninth of Dec, 1716. He was a member of the house of burgesses for Jamestown in 1748 and at that session was appointed one of. the committee to make a general revision of the laws. He was a member of the house again in 1749 and probably in other years. The exact date of his appointment to the council does not appear, but the earliest mention of him as present was on March 26, 1752. From this time until 1761, he seems to have been a regular attendant. Soon after he probably went to England and spent the remaining years of his life there, though still retaining his position as councillor for the "Gazette" in speaking of his death calls him "one of his majesty's council in Virginia." He died on March 25, 1767, and was buried at Bow Church near London. With him became extinct, in the male line, the family of Ludwell, which for more than a hundred years had been possessed of large estate and great political influence in the colony, and whose members had so frequently defended the rights of the people and the legislature against the encroachments of the governors. For their own services and as ancestors of so many Virginians of fame, the Ludwells, though extinct, are held in honored memory.

Randolph, Peter, of Chatsworth, Henrico county, and son of Hon. William Randolph of "Turkey Island," was born about 1713. His first public office seems to have been clerk of Albemarle county, which he held only during the year 1749, and then only by deputy. In 1751, he was a member of the house of burgesses for Henrico, and in the next year, was appointed to the council, of which he remained a member until his death. Some years after he became a councillor, he was appointed by the King, surveyor general of the customs for the middle district of America. Col. Randolph strongly opposed the measures taken by the more advanced friends of American liberty, and Jefferson relates how, on the