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     Henry Clay Carter, a leading attorney of Washington, Beaufort County, was born in Fairfield, Hyde County, North Carolina, October 8, 1883, a son of Henry Clay and Robena (Spencer) Carter, and is of English lineage.  His great-great-grandfather, Peter Carter, born November 1, 1744, was the first of the family to settle in North Carolina, coming to this state from Maryland and taking up his abode in Hyde County.  The ancestral line is traced down through his son, David Carter, father of David Carter II, who married Sally Spencer.  Their son, Henry Clay Carter, Sr., born in 1843, served in the Confederate Army as a lieutenant in the Fourth North Carolina regiment and was seriously wounded at Seven Pines.  In days of peace he became a successful farmer.  He served as a commissioner of the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, and he passed away in 1920 at the age of seventy-six years.  His wife, Robena (Spencer) Carter, born in 1848, was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Spencer, who were farming people of this state.
     Henry C. Carter of this review attended the grammar school of Fairfield and the Bingham school at Asheville, also spent a year in Trinity Park High School at Durham and later took up the study of law in the University of North Carolina, being licensed to practice on the 6^th of February 1906.  He then came to Washington to open an office and for five years was associated with E.A. Daniel.  He afterward practiced independently for many years but in 1937 was joined by his son, William Baker Carter, who for five years attended the University of North Carolina, devoting two years to his law course there.
     On November 4, 1908, Henry C. Carter was married to Lucile Thorne Nicholson, a member of the prominent Nicholson family of Washington, North Carolina, her parents being Dr. Samuel Timothy and Annie Elizabeth (Lucas) Nicholson.  Mr. and Mrs. Carter have become parents of five children: David Nicholson; Carolyn Thorne, who attended Peace Institute of Raleigh and was married April 6, 1940 to Andrew J. Taylor of Columbia, North Carolina; William Baker, who as above stated, is associated with his father in law practice, was on September 7, 1938 married to Janie D. MacLean and they have one son, William Baker Jr., born December 27, 1939; Samuel Timothy Nicholson, a student at the University of North Carolina; and Carlotta Nicholson, a student at Salem College.  Mrs. Carter is very active in the work of the Methodist church in which she holds membership and she is president of the Addisco Book Club.  Mr. Carter also belongs to the Methodist church.  He never sought or desired public office, preferring to concentrate his attention upon his professional interest.  He has membership in both the Beaufort County and North Carolina Bar associations.

[NOTE: an article on Henry Clay Carter appeared in the May 9, 1952 issue of The Coastland Times:

PORTRAIT OF HYDE NATIVE GIVEN TO BEAUFORT COUNTY - The late Clay Carter was for 45 years a distinguished member of the Beaufort County Bar. He was born at Fairfield and died October 6, 1950. Monday of this week, a painting of Mr. Carter was unveiled in the Beaufort County courthouse, presented in a short ceremony by W.B. Rodman and accepted by Junius D. Grimes, president of the Beaufort County Bar Association. Judge Chester Morris presided. Mildred McMullan Rumley, the artist of Washington Park, has been highly praised for the likeness of Mr. Carter she created on the three-quarter size portrait which is now hung on the courtroom wall. This gifted local artist has studied under notable art teachers and is famed for her work. Mr. Carter was married to the former Lucille Nicholson of Washington. He was the father of Washington attorney William B. Carter, Sam Tim Carter, Mrs. Andrew Taylor of Washington, Mrs. Sam Mordecai of Raleigh and Mrs. Robert Currie, formerly of Greensboro.

(Source: North Carolina, The Old North State and the New by Archibald Henderson; Lewis Pub. Co., Chicago, Illinois.; © 1941; Vol. 4; pgs. 165-166