George B. Cary
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George Booth Cary (ca. 1802 – February 26, 1850) was Virginia planter known for breeding thoroughbred horses, who served one term as U.S. Representative as a Democrat from Virginia.[1]
Early and family life
Born to the formerly widowed Elizabeth Booth Yates, the third wife of Southampton County planter Miles Cary (d.1806) at his family estate, Bonny Doon, near Courtland, Virginia. Cary had a slightly younger full sister, as well as elder half-sisters from his father's previous marriages. However, his father died in the summer of 1806 when this man was a toddler, and he was barely a teenager when his mother died in 1815. John Stith of Petersburg, Virginia, the husband of one of his elder half sisters, took responsibility for the boy's education. When Cary reached the legal age of 21, he became the guardian of his younger sister until she reached legal age or married.[2]
On March 1, 1825, having reached legal age, Cary signed a marriage bond in Southampton County to marry the young widow Martha P. Blunt Urquehart, who died about a decade later having given birth to a daughter, who died young.[3]
Career
Cary inherited three plantations in Southampton County, which he (or his guardians until he reached legal age) operated using enslaved labor. He may also have been an attorney.[4] When he married, Cary had a house built, which he called "Midfield" near Capron.[5] Cary became known as one of Southampton County's leading thoroughbred breeders.[6] Cary owned about 75 slaves in 1806, and owned about 4,350 acres in Southampton County (much uncultivatable swamp or pine barrens) and about 120 slaves on his death.[7]
In 1840, voters in the Virginia's 2nd Congressional district (at the time including the city of Petersburg as well as Greensville, Prince George, Southampton, Surry and Sussex Counties) elected Cary as a states' rights Democrat, despite his lack of previous legislative service. He defeated a Mr. Collier, variously identified as an Independent or Whig, and served in the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841 – March 3, 1843). Cary opposed an national bank, and endorsed the veto message for the bank national bank given by fellow Virginian (now U.S. President) Tyler. Cary also unsuccessfully tried to read into the Congressional Record resolutions adopted at a public meeting in Petersburg which denounced protective tariffs. Cary and fellow Virginian John Minor Botts also sponsored a bill to exempt the Petersburg Railway, then under construction, from new tariffs on iron rails, but the bill failed to pass. Cary did not seek re-election.[8]
Death and legacy
Cary spent his final years attending to his plantations and horses. He committed suicide for reasons not now known, probably at his Southampton County home, on February 26, 1850.[9][10] He was probably interred in the family cemetery on Bonny Doon.
1841 election
Cary was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 56.52% of the vote, defeating an Independent identified only as Collier.
References
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- ↑ Christopher J. Leahy,"George Booth Cary (ca. 1802–1850)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2006, rev. 2018 , available at https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cary_George_Booth
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ Thomas C. Parramore, Southampton County, Virginia, (University of Virginia Press for the Southampton County Historical Society, 1978) p.51
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ Leahy
- ↑ 1850 U.S. Federal Census mortality schedule for Southampton County, Virginia p. 1of 5 on ancestry.com
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