Carter

Carter, ELIZABETH, an English lady remarkable for her knowledge of ancient and modern languages, was born 16th December 1717, at Deal, Kent, and was the daughter of a clergyman. In her twenty-first year she published a small volume of poems, and in the succeeding year she translated (anonymously) from the Italian of Algarotti Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy explain'd for the Use of Ladies. These publications brought her into note, and obtained for her the friendship of such men as Bishop Butler, Archbishop Secker, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Burke, Horace Walpole, and Dr Johnson, the latter of whom especially held her in great esteem, and had a high opinion of her proficiency as a Greek scholar and a good housewife. Her translation of Epictetus was most favourably received by the literary press of her time, both at home and abroad. She died in London unmarried, 19th February 1806, at the age of eighty-eight. See her Life by Pennington (2d ed. 1808).