Peter Carr (1770–1815), eldest son of TJ’s sister Martha and his close friend Dabney Carr (1743–73), was born in Goochland County and spent much of his early life at Monticello under TJ’s informal guardianship. He studied at Walker Maury’s academies in Orange and Williamsburg, attended the College of William and Mary, 1786–89, and read law under George Wythe and TJ before briefly beginning a legal practice in 1793. Carr represented Albemarle County in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1801–04 and 1807–08. In 1808 he was defeated for reelection, and he lost a state senate campaign the following year. TJ regularly counted on Carr’s political support. For example, when a federal grand jury attacked Samuel J. Cabell for opinions expressed in a circular letter to his congressional constituents, TJ drafted a petition defending him and took it for granted that Carr would present it as his own. In 1803 Carr became a founding trustee of the Albemarle Academy. He joined in the moribund institution’s revival in 1814 and became president of its board, to which TJ was added during a process that eventually led to its evolution into the University of Virginia. Carr himself started a short-lived academy at his Carr’s-brook plantation about 1811 (DVB description begins John T. Kneebone and others, eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography, 1998– , 3 vols. description ends ; Elizabeth Dabney Coleman, “Peter Carr of Carrs-Brook [1770–1815],” MACH description begins Magazine of Albemarle County History, 1940– (title varies: issued until 1951 as Papers of the Albemarle County Historical Society) description ends 4 [1943/44]: 5–23; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 32 vols. description ends , esp. 6:379–80, 15:157, 29:490, 31:241; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 223, 227, 231, 247; Carr’s will, 14 Jan. 1815, ViU: TJP-CC and Albemarle Co. Will Book, 6:129–30; Richmond Enquirer, 1, 4 Mar. 1815).