John Carter (1748-1817) was an English draughtsman and architect.
Carter was the son of Benjamin Carter, a marble-carver established in Piccadilly, and was born on 22 June 1748. At an early age he was sent to a boarding-school at Battersea, and then to one in Kennington Lane. Leaving school aged about twelve, he went home to his father, making working drawings for the men. About 1764, his father having died, Carter was taken into the office of a Joseph Dixon, surveyor and mason, with whom he remained for some years. In 1774 he was employed to execute drawings for the Builders Magazine, edited by Francis Newbery of St. Paul's Churchyard, and for this he continued to draw until 1786. In one of its numbers he published a design for a sessions house, copied by someone who sent it in as his own original design, for a competition for the building of a sessions house on Clerkenwell Green.
In 1780, on the recommendation of Michael Lort, Carter was employed by the Society of Antiquaries to do some drawing and etching. He was elected a fellow of the society in March 1795, and then worked as its draughtsman. In 1780 he had drawn for Richard Gough, later a patron, the west front of Croyland Abbey Church and other subjects, in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments and other works. From 1781 Carter also met other patrons and friends, among whom were John Soane, John Milner, Sir Henry Charles Englefield, William Bray, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, the Earl of Exeter, and Horace Walpole.
Carter practised little as an architect. Towards the autumn of 1816 his health began to decline. In the spring of the following year dropsy made its appearance, and he died in Upper Eaton Street, Pimlico, on 8 September 1817, aged 69. He was buried at Hampstead, an inscribed stone to his memory being placed on the south side of the church. His collection, including drawings and antiquities, was sold by auction at Sotheby's on 26 February 1818.
His first important published work was his Specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Painting, published in parts from 1780 till 1794.[1] In his introduction to the 'Specimens' Carter states that, 'having explored at different times various parts of England for the purpose of taking sketches and drawing of the remains of ancient sculpture and painting, his aim is to perpetuate such as he has been so fortunate as to meet with by engraving them.' While the 'Specimens' was in progress, Carter also published 'Views of Ancient Buildings in Englsnd' (drawn and engraved by himself), 6 vols. London, 1786-93.[2] In 1785 he began another extensive work, 'The Ancient Architecture of England' (1795-1814). Part i. deals with 'The Orders of architecture during the British, Roman, saxon, and and Norman eras;' its engraved title-page is dated London, 1795, and its dedication (to H.R.H. the Duke of York) 1806. Part ii., 'The Orders of Architecture during the reigns of Henry III, Edward III, Richard II, Henry VI, Henry VII and Henry VIII,' was not completed. Its title-page is dated 1807, but the engravings bear dates from 1807 to 1814. A new and enlarged edition of this work was published in 1845 (two parts, folio) by John Britton. The arrangement of the architectural specimens chronologically was an important feature in Carter's book and prepared the way for subsequent writers on the sequence of styles.
Between 1795 and 1813 Carter was further engaged in preparing plans, elevations, sections, and specimens of the architecture of ecclesiastical buildings, which were published at intervals by the Society of Antiquaries[3]
Another work of Carter's was the series of papers published in the Gentleman's Magazine from 1798 to 1817, as 'Pursuits of Architectural Innovation.' These papers partly consist of a series of attacks on contemporaries engaged in the restoration of buildings and monuments. They were signed 'An Architect,' but Carter's authorship could not be concealed.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Carter, John (1748-1817)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.