George Carrington(1 July 1711–7 February 1785), surveyor, member of the House of Burgesses, and founder of the Carrington family in Virginia, was born in Saint Phillips Parish, Barbados, and was the son of Paul Carrington, a physician, and his second wife, Henningham Codrington Carrington. About 1723 he and his kinsmen, the merchant Joseph Mayo and the surveyor William Mayo, immigrated to Virginia. He worked as an assistant storekeeper with Joseph Mayo, but a family tradition that he accompanied William Mayo on the 1728 expedition to survey the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina is not corroborated by the records of the survey. Surveying, however, led Carrington to become a large landowner. Like William Mayo and William Cabell (1700–1774), with whom he was occasionally associated, Carrington eventually patented several thousand acres of land in the area that became Albemarle, Buckingham, Cumberland, and Goochland Counties. On 26 June 1732 he married William Mayo's daughter, Anne Mayo. They had three daughters and eight sons, including Edward Carrington, a member of the Confederation Congress, and Paul Carrington (1733–1818), a member of the Conventions of 1776 and 1788 and judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals.

Carrington served as a justice of the peace and sheriff of Goochland County, churchwarden and vestryman for Southam Parish, and member of the House of Burgesses beginning in the February 1746 session, when he replaced the recently deceased William Randolph. Completing that term, Carrington represented the county again during the 1748–1749 sessions, at which he was a member of the Committee for Courts of Justice.

Carrington's Boston Hill estate was in the southern part of Goochland County that in 1749 became Cumberland County. Carrington was the first surveyor of the new county and a justice of the peace for more than three decades. In 1752 he was named a colonel in the militia and presiding judge of the court. Carrington represented Cumberland County in the House of Burgesses from 1752 to 1765 and was appointed to the Committees for Courts of Justice, Claims, and Trade. During the October 1764 session he accepted the position of county sheriff and was succeeded in the House by Thomas Prosser. During the 1765 session, however, Carrington returned to replace Prosser, whom the burgesses had expelled. Carrington became county lieutenant in September 1775 and was an organizer and chair of the Cumberland County Committee in 1775 and 1776.

Carrington represented Cumberland County in the House of Delegates during the 1778–1781 and 1783 terms. A well-respected, senior member of the assembly, he served on the major standing committees including Courts of Justice, Propositions and Grievances, and Trade. Several times he also was appointed ranking member of the Committee of Public Claims and the Committee of Privileges and Elections or chair of the Committee for Religion. On 4 November 1783 a fellow delegate nominated Carrington to substitute for the absent Speaker of the House, but he declined.

George Carrington died at Boston Hill on 7 February 1785. His wife died eight days later, and they were buried together there in the same grave. Carrington died without completing his will. His estate, by one estimate, consisted of about 32,000 acres of land and personal property, including eighteen enslaved workers, worth more than £1,300. His children tried to divide the estate equitably, according to his stated intentions.

Sources Consulted:
James C. Brandow, "The Origin of the Carrington Family of Virginia," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 70 (1982): 246–270; birth, marriage, and death dates and other family history in Carrington family Bible records, Peyton Rodes Carrington Collection, Accession 22517, Personal Papers Collection, Library of Virginia (LVA); Carrington Family Papers, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Richmond; Alexander Brown, The Cabells and Their Kin: A Memorial Volume of History, Biography, and Genealogy, 2d ed., rev. (1939), 54–55, 171–173, 182–183; numerous references in Henry R. McIlwaine, Wilmer L. Hall, and Benjamin J. Hillman, eds., Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia (1925–1966), vols. 4–6, Henry R. McIlwaine and John Pendleton Kennedy, eds., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619–1776 (1905–1915), Virginia General Assembly, House of Delegates, Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1776– ), and William J. Van Schreeven, Robert L. Scribner, and Brent Tarter, eds., Revolutionary Virginia, the Road to Independence: A Documentary Record (1973–1983), vols. 2–7; incorrect assertion that Carrington was a member of the Conventions of 1774–1776 and 1788 (Carrington family Bible records) repeated in Alice Read, The Reads and Their Relatives (1930), 123–126, Garland Evans Hopkins, Colonel Carrington of Cumberland (1942), 75–76, and Cumberland County Historical Society, Inc., Cumberland County Virginia and Its People (1983), 87–88; estate records in Cumberland Co. Will Book, 2:348–356, 399–404, and Cumberland Co. Order Book (1784–1786), 200; obituary in Richmond Virginia Gazette or the American Advertiser, 5 Mar. 1785.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by John G. Deal.

How to cite this page:
John G. Deal, "George Carrington (1711–1785)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2006 ({url}, accessed [today's date]).

Return to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography Search page.