Edward Carrington (February 11, 1748 – October 28, 1810) was a lawyer, planter, Continental Army officer and politician from central Virginia. During the American Revolutionary War he became a close friend of George Washington. Although his highest rank was lieutenant colonel of artillery in the Continental Army, Carrington distinguished himself as quartermaster general in General Nathanael Greene’s southern campaign. He commanded artillery at Monmouth and Yorktown. He was also present at Cowpens, Guilford Court House, and Hobkirk's Hill. Carrington also served in the 3rd Continental Congress and several times in the Virginia House of Delegates, and later became the first US Marshal appointed from his state and served a term as mayor of Richmond, Virginia. He was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Early and family life
Carrington was born on February 11, 1748, on his father's Boston Hill Plantation near the town of Cartersville in future Cumberland County, Virginia. He was the eighth of 11 children of George Carrington and Anne Mayo. His father arrived in Virginia in 1727 from Barbados and married Anne around 1732 when he was 21 and she was 20. He became a wealthy planter, and in addition to leading the local justices of the peace (which jointly governed the county in that era) served in the House of Burgesses (1752-1765) and the Virginia House of Delegates (1778-1781;1783). Edward's oldest brother Paul Carrington also served in the Virginia General Assembly before becoming an eminent jurist.
Early career
After returning from Barbados, where he had collected part of an inheritance on his father's behalf, Carrington read law and in 1773 was admitted to the Virginia bar in Cumberland County. Carrington opened a law practice, and also helped his father (who died in February 1785 as did his wife) manage a plantation which operated at least in part using enslaved labor. He was also captain of the Cumberland Company of militia. On December 1, 1775, the state of Virginia established an artillery company. On February 13, 1776, state authorities appointed James Innes the captain and Charles Harrison, Samuel Denney, and Carrington as lieutenants. The Continental Congress accepted the artillery unit into the Continental Army, on March 19 and requested a second company from Virginia to be formed. Innes soon transferred to the infantry. The other innovation which Carrington proposed and successfully implemented with the help of his father as well as successive Cumberland County lieutenants including John Woodson late in the conflict (the county executive as distinguished from the military rank, most county lieutenants having previously served as colonel of the county militia, and as lieutenant responsible for supplying the militia in the field) was to locate nine principal supply and storage depots for the Continental Army, one of which was at Carter's Ferry. However, when Carrington was in New York, Powhatan County voters elected him as one of their representatives. Patrick Henry and his local allies objected to Carrington serving in both legislatures, and he missed one summer Virginia session while attending the Continental Congress in New York, but Powhatan voters re-elected him nonetheless. Carrington also sought to become a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788, but lost to antifederalist allies of Henry, and he also made an unsuccessful campaign to be presidential elector in 1789, so he didn't run for Congress.
After being elected president, Washington appointed Carrington as the first U.S. Marshal for Virginia, a position he held from 1789 until March 1791, which included administering the first federal census in his native state. After moving to Richmond, Carrington became one of its leading citizens. He joined the Henrico Parish vestry in 1797 and in 1803 was a founding trustee of the Richmond Academy.