Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carter, Francis
CARTER, FRANCIS (d. 1783), traveller, made a journey through Moorish Spain in 1772. In 1777 he published, in two volumes, ‘A Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga, with a view of that Garrison and its Environs, a particular account of the Towns in the Hoya of Malaga, the antient and natural History of these Cities, of the Coast between them, and of the Mountains of Ronda. Illustrated with medals of each municipal town and a chart; perspective and drawings taken in the year 1772.’ Richard Gough, writing under date ‘6 March 1776,’ says that ‘Arabia Jones’ (i.e. Sir William Jones) corrected the proof-sheets of the book. The plates were sold in a separate volume; but the work was reissued in 1778 in two volumes, with the plates inserted. Carter was well known as a collector of Spanish coins and Spanish books. Many of the former he purchased from the collection of Flores, the well-known medallist. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 1 May 1777, and soon afterwards began an elaborate ‘historical and critical account of early printed Spanish books.’ His plan embraced a full history of Spanish literature, nearly the whole of which was represented in his own library. He completed the work in manuscript, and printed the first sheet, but died immediately afterwards at Woodbridge, Suffolk, on 1 Aug. 1783. A friend, ‘Eugenio,’ contributed to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for October of the same year (pp. 843–5) a specimen of this undertaking, with the promise of a continuation, which was not fulfilled. A letter from Carter, giving anecdotes of Dr. William Battie [q. v.], is printed in Nichols's ‘Anecdotes,’ iv. 607.
[Gent. Mag. 1783, pt. ii. 716, 843; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 237–8, iv. 607, viii. 618.]