Paul CARRINGTON

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  General Notes:

Paul Carrington (Jody's 5th Great Grand Father), statesman, born in Charlotte county, Virginia, 24 February, 1733; died there, 22 June, 1818. He is a brother of Edward, noticed above. His maternal grandfather and his father, who came to Virginia by way of Barbadoes, were both engaged in the expedition of 1736 to fix the boundary-line between Virginia and North Carolina. He was graduated at William and Mary College, studied law in the office of Col. Clement Read, clerk of the county of Lunnenburg, about 1748, married the daughter of his preceptor, began practice at the age of twenty-one, and soon rose to eminence. From 1765 till 1775 he was a member of the house of burgesses, and voted against the stamp-act resolutions of Patrick Henry. He was a member of various conventions in 1775-'6, and of the committee that reported the declaration of rights and the state constitution. He then took his seat in the house of delegates, from which he passed to the bench of the general court in May, 1779, and to the court of appeals in 1789, in which last he remained until 1811. He was a member of the committee of safety during the whole of its existence, and, in the Virginia convention, voted for the adoption of the constitution, and was a member of the committee to report amendments. His son, Paul, born in 1764: died 8 January, 1816, served with his two brothers in the revolutionary army, and was distinguished in the battles of Ouilfort Court-House and Green Spring. After the peace he completed his studies at William and Mary College, became a lawyer, and served in both houses of the legislature and afterward on the bench of the superior court. His brother, Col. Clement, was severely wounded at the battle of Eutaw Springs.

Paul Carrington Sr. was in the Virginia General Assembly, and was a trustee or officer of Hampden-Sydney College

Judge Paul Carrington Sr. (5 Mar 1733/34 — 23{21} Jun 1818) is the most famous member of the Carrington family of Virginia. He was more than six feet in height, with prominent features, bright blue eyes, and sandy hair. He lived in Charlotte County at “Mulberry Hill.” A lawyer and judge, he held public office for forty-two years, serving as deputy clerk of Lunenburg County, clerk of Halifax County, vestryman, King’s attorney for five counties, presiding justice of Charlotte County, and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1765 — 76). Paul Carrington Sr. was a member of the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions (1775 — 1776), the Virginia State Senate (1776 — 78), the Convention of 1788, judge of the General Court (1778 — 88), and Supreme Court of Appeals (1788 — 1807). Like his father and all his bothers, he was a strong supporter of independence. He signed the 1770 Mercantile Association and served on the powerful Virginia Committee of Safety and the Charlotte County Committee of Safety. A founder of Hamden-Sydney College, Paul Carrington Sr. was a trustee for forty-three years, from 1775 until his death.

Judge Paul Carrington, the elder (Mrs. Cabell's father), was born March 5, 1732 (O. S.); that is, March 16, 1733, present style. About 1748-1750, he went to that part of Lunenburg which is now Charlotte County, Va., to write in the clerk's office of Col. Clement Read, which was located at his seat, "Bushy Forest," and to study the law under him. He began to practice at twenty-one, and having practiced in his county as an attorney for twelve months, he was recommended by his county court as worthy, etc., and in May 1755, he received a license to practice, signed by Peyton Randolph, John Randolph, and George Wythe. He met with success in his profession from the first.

He was married October 1, 1755, by Rev. William Kay, to Margaret, second daughter of Col. Clement Read. They resided at "Mulberry Hill," near the junction of the Little Roanoke with Staunton River, on an elevated and beauti­ful site. He was appointed king's attorney of Bedford County, May 3, 1756; major of Lunenburg militia in 1761; and colonel of Charlotte militia, December 3, 1764. He represented Charlotte in the House of Burgesses from its first formation from Lunenburg in March 1765, until 1772. His first wife died May 1, 1766, and he left a record that "she was the best of wives and a woman of innumer­able virtues." He was appointed king's attorney of Meck­lenburg, November 3, 1767; of Botetourt, May 4, 1770; and of Lunenburg, October 18, 1770; county lieutenant and presiding justice of Charlotte, April 11, 1772; and clerk of Halifax County, November 17, 1772. He was for many years a vestryman and churchwarden of Cornwall Parish.

He was a member of the Mercantile Association of 1770; of the Convention of August 1774; and chairman of the Charlotte County Committee, 1774-1776. This com­mittee, at its meeting on January 13, 1775, indorsed the resolutions of the late Continental Congress, and at its meeting on February 6, passed strong resolutions respect­ing persons suspected of disloyalty to the American cause. He was a member of the Convention of March 20-27, 1775, and of that of July 17 to August 26, 1775. He was a member of the first state Committee of Safety, August to December 1775; of the Convention of December 1, 1775, to January 20, 1776; of the second state Committee of Safety, January to July 1776; and of Convention of May 6 to July 5, 1776. He is frequently mentioned in the papers of Col. William Cabell, the elder, of "Union Hill." He was a member of the House of Delegates from 1776 to 1778.

He was elected a judge of the first General Court of the new republican form of government on January 23, 1778, under the act of October session, 1777, and commissioned on February 28, 1778, and so continuing, became one of the judges of the court of appeals, as organized by the act of May session, 1779, which exalted position he continued to fill until the constitution of the court of appeals was changed by the act passed by the General Assembly on December 22, 1788. He was again chosen under the new constitution a member of the same court, and continued to discharge the duties thereof until 1807, when he resigned. He was a member of the celebrated Convention of June 2-27, 1788, and voted for the Constitution.

He married (2d) March 6, 1792, Miss Priscilla Sims, aged 16; she died in September 1803, and he records that her loss was irreparable to him and to her family.

His letter of resignation, dated January 1, 1807, addressed to Gov. William H. Cabell, begins thus: "Having served my country for forty-two years, without intermis­sion, -- twenty-nine of those years devoted to the judiciary Department -- and being now in the seventy-fifth year of my age, I think it time for me to retire from public busi­ness to the exalted station of a private citizen." On August 1, 1807, he wrote to his son-in-law, Col. Wil­liam Cabell: "I had served the public a great many years, and I know with faithful integrity, I had arrived to a time of life that every man ought, in my opinion, to retire, and not remain and die at his post as some of my brethren did." He died on Tuesday, January 23, 1818, at his seat in Charlotte. A notice of him in "The Richmond Enquirer," July 7, 1818, begins: "This venerable and highly respected gentleman was perhaps the oldest of the few surviving patriots who took an active part in the Councils of his Country, in her first struggle for Liberty."

Paul married Margaret READ, daughter of Col. Clement READ and Mary HILL, on 1 Oct 1755 in Bushy Forest, Lunenburg Co., Virginia, USA. (Margaret READ was born in 1734 in Charlotte, Virginia, USA, "Mulberry Hill" and died on 1 May 1766.)

Paul next married Prescilla SIMS on 6 Mar 1792. (Prescilla SIMS was born in 1776.)