Edmund Carter (topographer)
Edmund Carter (died in or before 1788) was an English surveyor, topographer and tutor, known as the author of the first county history of Cambridgeshire.
Life
[edit]In earlier life, Carter was a surveyor, and worked in 1731 on a survey of an estate at Weston Longueville in Norfolk. Some years later he lived in Norwich. By 1743 he had moved to Cambridge, and ran a school near St Botolph's Church.[1]
Carter had a wife and children, and on Cole's account was physically disabled. The family went to Ware, Hertfordshire and then Chelsea, Middlesex, where Carter was again a schoolmaster. He predeceased his wife, who died at the workhouse in Enfield on 15 September 1788.[1][2]
Works
[edit]Planning to write on the history of Cambridgeshire and the University of Cambridge, Carter approached the antiquarian William Cole and was rebuffed. He found local helpers, including John Newcome.[1]
- The History of the County of Cambridge from the Earliest Account to the Present Time, Cambridge, 1753; updated by William Upcott, London, 1819. It includes a parish-by-parish account of the iconoclasm of William Dowsing of the 1640s. Carter had manuscripts of Thomas Baker to work from, through Newcome.
- The History of the University of Cambridge from its Original to the year 1753, 1753.
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Bendall, Sarah. "Carter, Edmund". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4781. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
[edit]- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Carter, Edmund". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.