Dabney Carr (1773–1837), the youngest son of TJ’s sister Martha and his close friend Dabney Carr (1743–73), spent much of his early life at Monticello. Following his father’s premature death TJ served as his surrogate father and oversaw his education. Carr attended the grammar school at Hampden-Sydney College, 1786–87, and the college itself, 1787–89, before entering Matthew Maury’s boarding school in Albemarle County in 1790 to perfect his knowledge of Greek and French. When he began his legal training in 1793, TJ gave Carr free access to his library and suggestions on what to read. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1796 and served as commonwealth’s attorney of Albemarle County, 1801–11. Carr served briefly on the General Court of Virginia and in 1812 became chancellor of the new Superior Court of Chancery for the Winchester District. He was elevated in 1824 to the Court of Appeals, Virginia’s highest court, and served on it until his death. In 1825 Carr declined the law professorship at the University of Virginia (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; DVB description begins John T. Kneebone and others, eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography, 1998– , 3 vols. description ends ; WMQ description begins William and Mary Quarterly, 1892– description ends , 1st ser., 15 [1906]: 119; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 31 vols. description ends , 9:519–20, 16:88–9, 24:578, 25:544; TJ to Carr, 3, 16 Apr. 1825; Carr to TJ, 30 Apr. 1825; Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser, 10 Jan. 1837).