John Carter

Who is John Carter?

Sir John Carter, a Unitarian merchant, was on nine occasions Mayor of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, the chief maritime port for the Royal Navy. He played a key role in defusing the crisis caused by the 1797 naval mutiny at Spithead. Members of his family were long influential in Portsmouth politics.

The eldest son of Susanna Pyke and John Carter, a successful and respected merchant, John was baptised in the High Street Presbyterian Chapel in Portsmouth. His parents, rational dissenters, refused to belong to the Church of England and, like both his grandfathers, were members of this chapel. In 1763, at 22, John was elected an alderman of the borough of Portsmouth and, at the same time, started to act as a magistrate. He was mayor for a few months in 1769, but, as he was a Whig, the Tories soon turned him out of office.

His son John, a barrister and Member of Parliament for Portsmouth, changed his name to John Bonham-Carter to inherit from a cousin.