Early Years Carter was born about 1707 to Robert “King” Carter, a land baron and member of the governor’s Council, and Elizabeth Landon Willis Carter. It was the second marriage of both his parents. His elder half brother John Carter (d. 1742) became secretary of the colony and also a councillor, and his younger brother, Landon Carter, served with him in the House of Burgesses. Carter and his brothers were educated in England. After his return to Virginia early in 1724 he moved to one of his father’s estates near Urbanna, in Middlesex County. The governor appointed Carter naval officer, or customs official, for the Rappahannock District on November 1, 1729, and on the following April 29 named him a justice of the peace for Middlesex County.