John Carlyle (merchant)

John Carlyle (6 February 1720–October 1780) was a Scottish merchant who immigrated to British Colony of Virginia and became a leading landowner and social and political figure in Northern Virginia. He was a founding trustee and the first overseer of Alexandria, Virginia.

Born in Carlisle, Cumbria, England, Carlyle was the second surviving son of William Carlyle, an apothecary-surgeon, of a landed Scottish family from Dumfrieshire descended from the Lords Carlyle of Torthorwald and Rachel Murray of Murraythwaite, Dumfriesshire. He immigrated to Virginia in 1741 as a factor (agent) of English merchant William Hicks. He established himself as a merchant at Belhaven, a settlement that had grown up around a tobacco warehouse on the bluff overlooking the Potomac River that would become Alexandria, Virginia, in 1749.

Carlyle quickly met with financial success and, in 1747, married Sarah Fairfax, cousin of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, from one of the most influential families in Virginia. From 1751–53, he built his house, now Carlyle House, in Alexandria and he also owned thousands of acres of land throughout Virginia, including three plantations. His business ventures included trading with England and the West Indies, retail operations in Alexandria, a foundry in the Shenandoah Valley, milling, and operation of a forge. He also undertook a number of civic and religious positions typical of a man of his status.

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