Dabney Carr (October 26, 1743 – May 16, 1773) was a Virginia lawyer and militiaman who served a partial term in the House of Burgesses shortly before the American Revolutionary War. He is known for his friendship since boyhood with Thomas Jefferson and as the husband of Martha Jefferson, Thomas' younger sister. Carr introduced the Committee of correspondence in Virginia, which after his early death became a leading factor in formation of the Continental Congress. Pursuant to a boyhood pact, Jefferson buried Carr on Jefferson's Monticello estate in a newly created graveyard under a particular tree, and also helped oversee the upbringing of Carr's children, including politicians Peter and Samuel Carr and Judge Dabney Carr.
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Early life and education
Carr was born on October 26, 1743, to planter John Carr (1706–1778) and his second wife, Barbara Overton Carr (died 1794), daughter of Captain James and Elizabeth Overton. The first of John Carr's sons to survive until adulthood was born at Bear Castle, a large farm in Louisa County, Virginia. His planter father John, who attained the title of Colonel, also served as a justice of the peace and sheriff in Louisa County, and provided provisions to the patriot forces as the American Revolutionary War began not long after this man's death. Carr descended from early settlers and men who performed public service and had large landholdings throughout Virginia. His grandfather, Major Thomas Carr (1678-1738) had emigrated from England and developed a plantation in what became Caroline County (but was then King William County, which that Carr represented for a term in the House of Burgesses), as well as acquired lands to the west which his progeny would develop. Dabney had an older half-brother, Thomas who died not long after this boy's birth. His full siblings who reached adulthood were Samuel, Overton, Garland, Mary (who married cousin John Minor of Albemarle County), and Elizabeth.