The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of 'King' Carter and the Golden Age

x, 438 pp. A survey of Virginia, the northern neck and the proprietary lands of Lord Fairfax, 1732 illustrate endpapers. Illustrated with photographs. ...traces the rise of the fortune-founders who made up the hard core of the ruling class--those men whose many-sided and outsize ambitions, pride and vanity, ruthlessness and personal honor and political responsibility, created this climate for greatness. ...follows the careers of the early Carters, Lees, Randolphs, Byrds, Fitzhughs, Harrisons, Ludwells, as well as the English governors with whom the rising powers dined and bargained and fought. The central thread of the book is the story of Robert Carter, called "Kind" (1663-1732), the richest and politically the most powerful merchant-planter of his age, and ancestor of presidents, revolutionaries, governors, and R.E. Lee. In focusing upon Carter's career, Clifford Dowdey draws upon more than 200 unpublished letters, an unpublished diary, and personal material from Carter's descendants.--jacket