George B. Cary

George Booth Cary (ca. 1802 – February 26, 1850) was an American politician, horse breeder, and planter. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Virginia. He was also a planter known for breeding thoroughbred horses,

Early life Cary was born c. 1802 at his family estate, Bonny Doon, near Courtland, Virginia. His mother was the formerly widowed Elizabeth Booth Yates, the third wife of Southampton County planter Miles Cary. Cary had a slightly younger full sister, as well as half-sisters from his father's previous marriages. His father died in the summer of 1806, followed by his mother in 1815. He owned about 4,350 acres in Southampton County, much uncultivatable swamp or pine barrens, and about 120 enslaved people on his death. In 1836, he served on Southampton's corresponding committee for the Martin Van Buren ticket.

In 1840, Cary was elected as a candidate for the Virginia's 2nd Congressional district (at the time including Petersburg as well as Greensville, Prince George, Southampton, Surry and Sussex counties) at the Democratic Republican Convention. He served in the Twenty-seventh Congress from March 4, 1841 to March 3, 1843. Cary also unsuccessfully tried to read into the Congressional Record resolutions adopted at a public meeting in Petersburg which denounced protective tariffs.

Personal life On March 1, 1825, having reached legal age, Cary signed a marriage bond in Southampton County to marry the young widow Martha P. Blunt Urquhart, who died about a decade later having given birth to a daughter, who died young. He was buried in the family cemetery on Bonny Doon.