CARTER, ELIZABETH (1717-1806), English poet and translator, daughter of the Rev. Nicholas Carter, was born at Deal, Kent, on Dec. 16, 1717. Dr. Carter educated his children, boys and girls, alike ; but Elizabeth's slowness tired his patience, and it was only by great perseverance and hard work that she acquired her learning. She learned Greek and Latin, and Dr. John son said concerning a celebrated scholar that he "understood Greek better than any one whom he had ever known except Eliza beth Carter." She learned also Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, besides studying astronomy, ancient geography, and ancient and modern history; and yet John son commended her housewifery no less than her learning. In some of her verses, signed "Eliza," appeared in the Gentle man's Magazine, to which she contributed for many years. In 1738 Cave published her Poems upon Particular Occasions; in 1739 she translated Algarotti's Newtonianismo per le Dame, as Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy explained for the use of the Ladies, in six Dialogues on Light and Colour. Her translation of Epictetus (1 758) was undertaken in 1749 to please her friends, Thomas Secker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) and his niece, Catherine Talbot, to whom the translation was sent, sheet by sheet, as it was done. In 1762 Miss Carter printed a second collection of Poems on Several Occasions. She died in Clarges street, Piccadilly, on Feb. 19, 1806.
Her Memoirs were published in 1807 ; her correspondence with Miss Talbot and Mrs. Vesey in 1809; and her letters to Mrs. Montagu in 1817. See also A Woman of Wit and Wisdom (1906), a biography by Alice C. C. Gaussen.