George Booth Cary (ca. 1802–26 February 1850), member of the House of Representatives, was born probably at one of the Southampton County estates of his parents, Miles Cary and his third wife, Elizabeth Booth Yates Cary, who had been a widow at the time of their marriage. His father owned three plantations in Southampton County and about seventy-five slaves when he died in the summer of 1806, leaving Cary the principal heir. Cary probably lived with his mother at the place of his birth, but she evidently died about 1815, and responsibility for overseeing his education and managing his inheritance then fell to John Stith, of Petersburg, husband of one of Cary's elder half sisters. During the interval of two or three years between his own twenty-first birthday and that of his younger sister, Cary served as her guardian.

Little is known of Cary's personal and professional life. He probably received a good education and may have practiced law as well as managing his plantations. On 1 March 1825 Cary executed a marriage bond in Southampton County and on that date or soon afterward married a young widow, Martha P. Blunt Urquhart. She died about a decade later. They had one daughter, so far as is known, who died young. About the time of his marriage Cary built a large frame house that was later named Midfield, near the community later known as Capron. He was acknowledged locally as a breeder and racer of fine horses.

Insofar as records show, Cary was not active in elective politics until April 1841, when he defeated a Whig candidate to win election to the House of Representatives from the district comprising the counties of Greensville, Prince George, Southampton, Surry, and Sussex and the city of Petersburg. He was a states' rights Democrat and an opponent of reestablishing a national bank. During the politically explosive sessions of the Twenty-seventh Congress, the Whigs expelled Cary's acquaintance, President John Tyler, from the party after he vetoed two bills to charter a new national bank. Cary took little part in the acrimonious political battle, but he endorsed and unsuccessfully tried to read into the records of the House the resolutions adopted by a public meeting in Petersburg on 20 August 1841 denouncing protective tariffs and public debt and endorsing states' rights and Tyler's first bank-veto message. Cary served on the relatively insignificant Committee on Accounts and tended to the business of his constituents. He engaged in debate on the floor only once, in January 1843, when he and another Virginian, John Minor Botts, unsuccessfully tried to persuade Millard Fillmore, chair of the Committee of Ways and Means, to bring up a Senate bill for the relief of the Petersburg Railroad Company, which sought to complete the installation of new iron rails it had already imported without having to pay the tariff imposed by a new bill. Cary's service in the House of Representatives was not distinguished, and he did not seek reelection in 1843.

Cary resumed the life of a planter after his retirement from Congress. By 1850 he owned about 4,350 acres of land in Southampton County, but much of it was regarded as of little value; and he owned about 120 slaves. On 26 February 1850 George Booth Cary committed suicide. Extant official records do not disclose the details, but local tradition suggests that he cut his throat in the smokehouse of his Southampton County home. He was buried in a family cemetery on land about five miles west of Courtland that he had sold to Thomas Ridley (1809–1875) and was known as Bonny Doon (sometimes Bonnie Doone).

Sources Consulted:
Fairfax Harrison, The Virginia Carys: An Essay in Genealogy (1919), 71, with birth year of 1803; most reference works give birth year of 1811 and death date of 5 Mar. 1850; father's will and estate inventory in Southampton Co. Will Book, 6:361–365, 419–423; Southampton Co. Marriage Bonds and Consents; Richmond Enquirer, 27 Apr., 30 Apr., 4 May 1841, 28 Apr. 1843; Congressional Globe, 27th Cong., 1st sess., 373, 3d sess., 196; Charlotte L. Gholson et al. v. Administrator of George B. Cary, Southampton Co. Chancery Causes, 1850-007, and John H. Stith et al. v. Charlotte L. Gholson et al., Southampton Co. Chancery Causes, 1850-018 (with death date and itemized property holdings at time of death); "died in February 1850" on gravestone inscription, Southampton Co.; cause of death at age forty-eight in United States Census Schedules, Mortality Schedule, Southampton Co., 1850, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Christopher J. Leahy.

How to cite this page:
Christopher J. Leahy,"George Booth Cary (ca. 1802–1850)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2006, rev. 2018 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cary_George_Booth, accessed [today's date]).

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