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| Carter Braxton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, 1736-1797 Mini Biography for May By Gary Wilson |  |
Carter Braxton is known as the most conservative signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia. Braxton opposed independence until there seemed little choice but to break from Briton. Even if the decision to make the revolutionary leap was difficult, Braxton served the Commonwealth of Virginia in a long and distinguished career that is well worth noting and honoring.
If Carter Braxton was a reluctant father of his country, he had no hesitation in being a father for his country. Marrying immediately upon graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1755, he started a family that would result in the birth of 18 children. After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1761, the same year he started his public career in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Education and home life for Carter Braxton were cushioned by wealth and position. His father was a wealthy land owner in King and Queen County (Newington Plantation), and well connected politically while his mother was the daughter of the great planter, Robert “King” Carter owner of Carter’s Grove near Williamsburg. Braxton lived in Elsing Green, an estate in King William County where he began his political career.
Even though the scion of privilege, Braxton responded to the British challenge to American rights by signing the Virginia Resolves and the Virginia non-importation agreement called the Virginia Association.
After Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the Royal Governor in Virginia, Dunmore, raided the powder magazine in Williamsburg. Political moderates were angry but frustrated into inaction while Patrick Henry took action and began to march his militia from Hanover County to take the powder back. Braxton took an active but different approach to the problem.
(Readers of the last two mini-biographies will note that Braxton’s actions fills the gap in those previous mini-biographies involving Henry and Pendelton in the powder incident.)
Braxton was concerned that Henry’s militia would only make the situation worse, and result in bloodshed and a political situation that could not be retrieved from a political split or outright rebellion. Braxton communicated with Henry and took on the task of communicating with Dunmore representative Richard Corbin, Braxton’s father-in-law, who was also a crown official. By working the “back channel” through his relative in government, Braxton was able to convince Dunmore to pay for the powder and diffuse the explosive situation. Subtle and connected, Braxton was an effective politician when others were inactive or threatening violence.
Braxton’s place on the national stage came as a representative at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia as a replacement for Peyton Randolph who died. Not a supporter of independence, Braxton struggled with the issue and finally gave in to sign the Declaration. Braxton is instructive in that even the best actions that result in great achievements are not always enthusiastically adopted. For Braxton, the Declaration may have seemed the best action among bad alternatives.
Carter Braxton returned to Virginia where he worked as a strong conservative statesman for the rest of his life. The revolution was hard on Braxton’s holdings and investments. Though he retained a family home at Chericoke, he made his home in Richmond. Braxton is buried at Chericoke, a great Virginian who served the interests of the Commonwealth and Nation.