Archibald Cary

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Archibald Cary (January 24, 1721 – February 26, 1787)^[1] was a member of the House of Burgesses. He was a member of the Virginia General Assembly from 1756 to 1776. He was also a member of the committee chosen by the House of Burgesses to write the Virginia Resolves. He was later the chairman of the Committee of correspondence. During the Revolutionary War, Cary was placed in charge of recruitment and supplies in central Virginia. He married Mary Randolph, the daughter of Richard Randolph of Curles. One of their daughters married Thomas Mann Randolph. Archibald Cary was known among Baptists for arresting many Baptists for preaching without a license. There was one incident were a Baptist preacher continued to preach from his cell window. To solve the problem, Cary put a wall around the prison. The ghost of Archibald Cary is thought to haunt his Ampthill home.

Archibald Cary was asked by Thomas Jefferson, his colleague in the House of Burgesses [ and fellow graduate of William and Mary College ] , to loan the Virginia Colony the funds to underwrite the cost of the Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War, on the promise by Jefferson he would be repaid later [ he never was repaid ] . He did fund the Virginia Militia for the following reason: though he had always been loyal to the Crown [ he had a Charter from the Crown for all his thousands of acres of property ], he had grown tired of British attempts to continue promoting the sale of slaves in America. He had come to the conclusion that everything about the slave trade and the owning of slaves was only going to create major problems from what he had already observed [ he owned some 200 slaves ]. His nickname was "Old Iron". He operated a mill which fabricated iron. He owned British thoroughbred horses and traded with England.

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