Carte

was admitted a scholar of Trinity-hall, Cambridge, on the 5th of May, 1704, and proceeded LL. B. He was afterwards a member of Symond’s-inn, and practised as a solicitor in Chancery in 1708, in which profession he became eminent. He was also a learned antiquary. Most of his manuscripts and papers relative to antiquities are supposed to have been sold by his widow to the late sir Thomas Cave, bart. He assisted Mr. Jackson, schoolmaster of Coventry, in his account of the benefactions and charities belonging to that city; and was the editor, though | without his name, of Brewster’s “Collectanea Ecclesiastica,” to which he added many learned notes. Mr. Samuel Carte was alive in 1760, but died not long after. Several manuscript letters of his, relative to subjects of antiquity, were in Dr. Ducarel’s possession, and are now in that of Mr, Nichols.

Mr. John Carte was entered at Trinity-hall, Cambridge, Jan. 9, 1707, where he was admitted to the degree of LL. B. Having taken holy orders, he became first vicar ofTachbroke, in the county of Warwick, and was afterwards promoted, by the dean and chapter of Westminster, to the vicarage of Hinckley, in Leicestershire, with the rectory of Stoke annexed. At this place he resided, from the year 1720, till his death, which was on the 17th of December, 1735. Mr. John Carte was very remarkable for his absence of mind. Some years before his decease, he paid his addresses to Miss Dugdale, a descendant of the illustrious antiquary, and the wedding-day was fixed. But he forgot to go to the place appointed for the celebration of the marriage, till the day after the time agreed upon; which the lady, as might justly be expected, resented so much, that she absolutely refused him her hand. Being perpetually absorbed in thought, he was careless in his dress, and destitute of oeconomy. His inattention to money matters he carried to such an excess, that, when the inhabitants of Stoke have brought to him the tithes, which he never took the trouble to ask for, it was not unusual with him, if he chanced to be engaged with a book, to request that they would come at a future time, though perhaps he was the next hour obliged to borrow a guinea for his subsistence. The parsonage-house adjoins to the churchyard; and yet he was frequently so engaged in study, that the sermon -bell used to ring till the congregation were weary of waiting, and the clerk was obliged to remind him of his duty. During the fifteen years in which he was vicar of Hinckley, he neglected to make any demand for tithes of the hamlet of The Hide, belonging to that parish, which afterwards involved the parish in a tedious law-suit. Mr. John Carte’s unaffected piety, his learning, his integrity, his simplicity of manners, and we may probably add, his avoiding to insist upon his legal dues, are still remembered with veneration by his surviving parishioners. He was a most zealous assertor of the rites and ceremonies of the church of England, which, he justly observed, were | equally remote from the extremes of popery and fanaticism, and his opinions were founded on the firm basis of scripture, with which he was so intimately acquainted, as to be, able to repeat the greater part of the Bible. ¹