Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/205

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

which poured into his office with great liberality. He owned a magnificent residence about midway between Saratoga and Lonely Lake, surrounded by an estate of six hundred acres. Here he extended his hospitality to his numerous friends and fairly squandered his money, and the result was inevitable. In September 1877 he saw ruin staring him in the face. His property had to be surrendered into the hands of a receiver, he himself being retained as general manager of the publishing business, with an allowance of twenty per cent. of the profits for his own use. One of his heaviest trade losses was on the publication of the ‘Historical Register of the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876,’ a valuable work, but far from a commercial success. In April 1879, by some judicial proceedings, he was enabled to recover a large portion of his business. The American Institution of New York awarded him the medal for wood-engraving in 1848; the state of New York appointed him her commissioner for the fine arts department in the Paris Exhibition of 1867, and again in 1876; the state of New York named him commissioner to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, where his brother commissioners from the other states elected him their president. His employés for some time numbered upwards of three hundred, and the money paid for their work exceeded 6,000 dollars weekly. He was beloved by them all, as the manner in which he treated them was always remarkably kind, and whenever occasion offered most discriminating and generous. He died of cancer at his residence, Fifth Avenue, New York, on 10 Jan. 1880. Other works brought out by him and not previously mentioned were: ‘F. Leslie's Pictorial History of the American Civil War,’ edited by E. G. Squier, 1862; ‘F. Leslie's Illustrated Almanack and Repository, 1866;’ ‘The Paris Exposition, Report on Fine Arts, by F. Leslie,’ 1868; and ‘California: a Pleasant Trip from Gotham to the Golden Gate,’ written by his wife, M. Florence Leslie, in 1877.

[New York Times, 11 Jan. 1880; Appleton's Annual Cyclopædia, 1880, pp. 427–9.]

CARTER, JAMES (1798–1855), engraver, was born in the parish of Shoreditch in 1798, and in his youth gained the silver medal of the Society of Arts for drawing. He was first articled to Mr. Tyrrel, an architectural engraver, but later on abandoned this class of engraving for landscapes and figures. In this style he attained great proficiency, although he does not appear to have had any instruction after he quitted Mr. Tyrrel. From 1830 to 1840 he was employed largely on engravings for the annuals, especially Jennings's ‘Landscape Annual,’ for which he executed several plates after Samuel Prout, David Roberts, and James Holland. He was also employed by Weale, the fine art publisher, in numerous architectural works. When the engravings from the Vernon Gallery appeared in the ‘Art Journal,’ Carter was entrusted with the task of engraving ‘The Village Festival,’ painted by Goodall. This was followed in the same series by engravings from ‘The Angler's Nook,’ painted by Nasmyth, and ‘Hadrian's Villa,’ painted by Richard Wilson; these works gave so much satisfaction, that Mr. E. M. Ward specially requested that he should be employed to engrave his picture of ‘The South Sea Bubble,’ and subsequently employed him on his own behalf to engrave his picture of ‘Benjamin West's First Essay in Art.’ This plate he completed but a short time before his death, which occurred at the end of August 1855, probably hastened by his devotion to his work. Like many workers in the same profession, Carter found it very unremunerative, and made no provision for a numerous family. Besides the engravings already mentioned, he engraved among others a plate from his own design of ‘Cromwell dictating to Milton the Despatch on behalf of the Waldenses’ and a portrait of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, after Samuel Drummond.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School; Le Blanc's Manuel de l'Amateur d'Estampes; Art Journal, 1855.]

CARTER, JOHN, the elder (1554–1635), divine, born at Wickham, Kent, in 1554, was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, under Dr. Thomas Byng [q. v.], through the generosity of a Mr. Rose of Canterbury. After taking his degree Dr. Byng offered Carter rooms in his own house to enable him to continue his studies, and he thus became intimate with Dr. Chaderton [q. v.], Lancelot Andrewes [q. v.], and Nathaniel Culverwel [q. v.] In 1583 he became vicar of Bramford, Suffolk, and performed his pastoral duties with great zeal. His avowal of puritanism raised up enemies in his parish, and after many disputes with his bishop he was removed to the rectory of Belstead, also in Suffolk, in 1617. He died on 21 Feb. 1634–5. Samuel Carter of Ipswich preached the funeral sermon. His son, John Carter the younger [q. v.], drew up an anecdotal life of his father, which attests Carter's piety, good-humour, and wit. It was first published in 1653 under the title of ‘The Tombstone, or a Broken and Imperfect