CARTER, SAMSON

County surveyor for Co. Kilkenny, 1834-1860. Samson Carter, who was born circa 1804, was a son of Major Samson Carter, RM (1777-1854).(1) From 1828 to 1834 he worked as a surveyor, first for ALEXANDER NIMMO  ALEXANDER NIMMO and later for the Board of Works. In 1834 he collaborated with NOBLETT ROGERS ST LEGER  NOBLETT ROGERS ST LEGER on surveys of roads in Co. Monaghan and on a survey of Waterford Harbour. He was appointed county surveyor for Co. Kilkenny on 17 May 1834(2) and was also surveyor for the city of Kilkenny from at least 1847. He was also surveyor to the Waterford and Shankill Turnpike Trust from August 1837 until February 1852, at a salary of £40 per annum,(3) and for the turnpike which ran from Carlow via Kilkenny to the Tipperary border.

Towards the end of his life Carter fell into 'pecuniary difficulties…owing to the default of parties for whom he had become security'.(4) He also succumbed to alcoholism. According to the Kilkenny Journal, 'intemperance seems to have completely prostrated his intellect, and instigated him to the horrible crime with which he closed his unfortunate career'.(5) On 1 December 1860, when he was fifty-six years old,(6) he shot himself at in a 'house of ill fame' at 68 Montgomery Street, Dublin, . He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin. He had married Mary (d.1850), daughter of the Rev. Henry Pasley, rector of Ballyhane, Co. Mayo, and had at least four sons, two of whom worked on the Indian railways, and a daughter.(7) PETER BURTCHAELL  PETER BURTCHAELL succeeded him as county surveyor.(8)

ICEI: founder member, 1835;(9) council member, 1845, 1855-6; auditor, 1846.
RIA: member, 1837-1852.

Address: Castleview, Kilkenny 1842-8; St John's Quay, Kilkenny, 1858.

See WORKS.

References

All information in this entry unless otherwise accounted for is from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 125-7, which gives the fullest account of Carter's career, and from Thom's and Pettigrew & Oulton's directories.

(1) He is buried in the same plot at Mount Jerome Cemetery as Major Samson Carter, and in the directories for 1846-8 and the list of ICEI members for 1849 in TICEI 3 (1847-9), he is referred to as 'Samson Carter junior'. For the award of the freedom of the City of Dublin to Major Sampson Carter in 1828 for the 'effective and gentlemanlike manner' in which he had preserved the public peace while he was police magistrate for Co. Waterford, see CARD XVIII, 251-2.
(2) Dublin Evening Post, 20 May 1834.
(3) House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online, Turnpike Inquiry, Ireland, 88 (B.O'D.).
(4) Kilkenny Journal, 5 Dec 1860, quoting Freeman's Journal, 3 Dec 1860, which gives a long and detailed account of Carter's death and the ensuing inquest; another report is in the Irish Times, 4 Dec 1860.(B.O'D.).
(5) Inscription on headstone in Mount Jerome Cemetery (B.O'D).
(6) Kilkenny Journal, loc. cit.
(7) Kilkenny Journal, loc. cit.
(8) DB 3, 15 Jan 1861, 400.
(9) Photocopy of transcript of minutes of first meeting of Engineers' Society of Ireland, 6 Aug 1835, in IAA, Jones File F73.

3 work entries listed in chronological order for CARTER, SAMSON

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Building:	CO. KILKENNY, CALLAN, GREEN STREET, COURT HOUSE
Date:	1836
Nature:	Plans for same by SC rejected by Board of Works.
Refs:	Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 126

Building:	CO. KILKENNY, URLINGFORD, COURT HOUSE
Date:	1836
Nature:	SC's plans for new court house rejected by Board of Works.
Refs:	Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 126

Building:	CO. KILKENNY, BRIDGE OVER RIVER DINAN
Date:	1840
Nature:	New 2-arch ridge across River Dinan on Freshford to Castlecomer road.  Contractors: Joseph Wright, and Thomas Meehan.
Refs:	www.buildingsofireland.ie (last visited, Aug 2015);  County of Kilkenny... Presentments made by the Grand Jury...at Spring Assizes 1838 (Kilkenny 1838),108.