Dabney Carr (1773-1837)

Dabney Carr (April 27, 1773 – January 8, 1837) was the son of Thomas Jefferson's sister Martha (1746-1811) and his close friend Dabney Carr (1743-1773).^[1] Following his father's death in 1773, young Dabney spent much of his early life at Monticello under Thomas Jefferson's care.

Prior to leaving for Europe in 1784, Jefferson entrusted his eleven-year-old nephew to the care of James Madison, who enrolled the boy at Hampden-Sydney College. Carr attended Hampden-Sydney from 1786 to 1789, but did not take a degree. In 1790, he entered the Reverend Matthew Maury's boarding school in Albemarle County to expand his knowledge of Greek and French. Three years later Carr decided to study law, and Jefferson gave him full access to his library. Carr was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1796 and set up practice in Charlottesville. He  married a cousin, Elizabeth Carr, in June of 1802.

From 1801 to 1811, Carr served as commonwealth's attorney for Albemarle County. In March 1811, he was appointed a state judge on an interim basis but failed to win confirmation from the general assembly. He was appointed and confirmed as a judge of the new chancery court at Winchester in January 1812.

In 1825 Jefferson hoped to convince Carr to oversee instruction in law at the fledgling University of Virginia; but, in February 1824, Carr had been elected a judge on the Virginia Court of Appeals and he served in that capacity for the rest of his life.^[2] He died on January 8, 1837, and was buried in Shockoe Cemetery in Richmond.^[3]

Further Sources

• ANB.
• "Biography of Dabney Carr." Southern Literary Messenger 4, no. 2 (1838): 65-70.
• DAB.
• Miller, F. Thornton. "Carr, Dabney (27 April 1773 - 8 January 1837)." Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Volume 3. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006.
• PTJ, 9:520, 16:88-99, 24:578, 25:544.
• Stanard, W. G. "Library of Dabney Carr, 1773, with a Notice of the Carr Family." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 2, no. 2 (1894): 221-28.
• Jefferson Quotes and Family Letters.
• Wirt, William. The Old Bachelor. Richmond: Ritchie & Lucas, 1814. Carr contributed an untitled essay to this collection under the pseudonym "Obadiah Squaretoes." See pages 48-54.
• Look for further sources in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.