CARTE, THOMAS, the historian, was the son of Mr
Samuel Carte, prebendary of Lichfield, and born in 1686.
When he was reader in the abbey-church at Bath, he took
occasion, in a sermon delivered on the 30th of January
1714, to vindicate Charles I. with respect to the Irish
massacre, which drew him into a controversy with Mr
Chandler the dissenting minister; and on the accession
of the present royal family he refused to take the oaths
to government, and therefore put on a lay habit. He is said to have acted as a kind of secretary to Bishop Atterbury before his troubles; and in the year 1722, being accused of high treason, a reward of L.1000 was offered for apprehending him; but Queen Caroline, the great patroness of learned men, obtained leave for him to return home in security. He published, 1. An edition of Thuanus, in seven volumes folio; 2. The Life of the first Duke of Ormond, three volumes folio; 3. The History of England, four volumes folio; 4. A Collection of Original Letters and Papers concerning the affairs of England, two volumes octavo; and some other works. He died in April 1754. His History of England ends in 1654. His design was to have brought it down to the Revolution; for which purpose he had taken great pains in copying every thing valuable that could be met with in England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and other countries. He had, as he himself says, "read abundance of collections relating to the time of King Charles II. and had in his power a series of memoirs from the beginning to the end of that reign, in which all those intrigues and turns at court, at the latter end of that king's life, which Bishop Burnet, with all his gout for tales of secret history, and all his genius for conjectures, does not pretend to account for, are laid open in the clearest and most convincing manner, by the person who was most affected by them, and had the best reason to know them." At his death, all his papers passed into the hands of his widow, who afterwards married Mr Jernegan, a member of the church of Rome. But they were afterwards deposited in the Bodleian Library, having been delivered by Mr Jernegan to the university in 1778, for a valuable consideration. Whilst they were in this gentleman's possession, the Earl of Hardwick paid L.200 for the perusal of them. For a consideration of L.300 Mr Macpherson had the use of them, and from these and other materials compiled his history and state papers. Mr Carte was a man of a strong constitution and of indefatigable application. When the studies of the day were over, he would eat heartily; and in conversation he was cheerful and entertaining.