Carter Braxton
Born: September 16, 1736
Died: October 10, 1797
Colony/State: Virginia
Occupation / Public Role: Planter, merchant, legislator, delegate to the Continental Congress
Contribution to the Founding Era: Delegate to the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of Virginia’s revolutionary political leadership.
Carter Braxton was born at Newington Plantation in King and Queen County, Virginia, into a wealthy Virginia planter family. He studied at the College of William and Mary and later spent time in England, where he also attended Cambridge University before returning to Virginia.
Before independence, Braxton was already active in Virginia politics. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1761 to 1771 and again in 1775 to 1776, placing him inside the colony’s political life during the years when the imperial crisis was hardening into revolution. He was one of those Virginia founders who came out of the planter class rather than the lawyer-or-philosopher lane.
Braxton entered the Second Continental Congress in February 1776 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Peyton Randolph. The U.S. House records that he served in Congress until August 1776, when Virginia reduced its representation from seven delegates to five. During that short but important period, he signed the Declaration of Independence as one of Virginia’s seven signers.
After leaving Congress, Braxton remained active in Virginia public life. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates for a number of years after independence and later sat on the Virginia Council of State. He died in Richmond, Virginia, in 1797 and was buried at his estate, Chericoke, in King William County.
Carter Braxton is not one of the loudest names in the founding generation, especially standing in Virginia’s absurdly crowded room of famous men. But he was still part of the inner machinery of the Revolution in his state: planter, legislator, Continental delegate, and signer. Not the flashiest Virginian in the pile, but definitely one of the bricks in the wall.
Related Links
- Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Declaration of Independence
- Benjamin Harrison
- Thomas Jefferson
- Richard Henry Lee