Carter Braxton Poindexter

• formal_name: Carter Braxton Poindexter
• first_date: 1811
• last_date: 1820
• function: Bookseller
• locales: Norfolk
• precis: Auctioneer in Norfolk (1811-20) occasionally offering large lots of books.
• notes: Bookseller
  Norfolk
  Auctioneer in Norfolk (1811-20) occasionally offering large lots of books.
  Poindexter was a non-traditional bookseller; styled a "vendue merchant," his business was an auction house that sold books in large lots on occasion; his main offerings were private libraries sold through estate auctions and ship cargoes auctioned for insurance purposes. As a result, Poindexter is only a sporadic figure in the Virginia print trade in the 1810s, not a constant one as would be the proprietor of a bookstore.
  Named after the Virginia revolutionary leader who signed the Declaration of Independence, Poindexter was born in New Kent County during the ensuing war. His subsequent residence in Norfolk indicates that he took part in the post-war revitalization of the war-ravaged port, perhaps apprenticing in a merchant house there after about 1794. It is clear, though, that he was firmly established in his own business by 1811. In 1813, he was elected as one of the borough's two representatives in the General Assembly, and by 1816 he was one of the five deputy sheriffs for the surrounding Norfolk County. It also appears that his business was successful enough to allow him to become a major investor in the Farmers Bank of Virginia before 1815. Poindexter's death in early 1820 was unexpected and mourned prominently in the city's newspapers, noting that the event devastated his large family.
  
  
  Personal Data
  
  Born:
  March
  1780
  New Kent County, Virginia
  
  Married
  Apr. 14
  1809
  Elinor Metcalf @ Norfolk, Virginia.
  
  Died:
  Feb. 25
  1820
  Norfolk, Virginia.
  
  Children:
  Ann Lewis; Carter Braxton Jr.; Mary Elizabeth; Parke Lewis; Sarah Framus; Virginia Georgia; William Lewis; all dates uncertain.
  
  Sources: Advertising notices in Norfolk newspaper (1811-20); obituary in American Beacon, Feb. 26, 1820; Tucker, Norfolk Abstracts; genealogical data from Poindexter family charts posted on Ancestry.com (January 2013).
  
• Related Bios:
  • Archibald Currie

This version of the Index of Virginia Printing was a gift from the estate of the site's creator, David Rawson. The content contained herein will not be updated, as it is part of the Library of Virginia's personal papers collection. For more information, please see David Rawson Index of Virginia Printing website. Accession 53067. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.