John Ridgeley Carter (November 28, 1864 – June 4, 1944) was an American attorney, diplomat, and banker.

[1] It was estimated that Charles H. Sherrill, the minister he was intended to replace (and under whom Robert Woods Bliss served as secretary of the legation in Buenos Aires), spent $100,000 yearly to maintain his position.

[1] After Carter left the diplomatic service, he joined Morgan, Harjes & Co. in Paris in 1912, where he lived for twenty-five years, becoming a partner in 1914.

With the firm, he traveled to Santiago, Chile to represent American stockholders of the Chilean-Argentine railway.4 Following the death of Henry Herman Harjes in 1926, he was the senior partner of the firm, which was renamed Morgan & Cie.[4] Due to his efforts during World War I, France made him a Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur.

[1] In May 1908, Sargent also painted a portrait of his daughter Mildred in London that was described at the time by The New York Times as "in the painter's best manner and brings out all of the innate sweetness of nature which has endeared Miss Carter to her English as much as to her American friends, all of whom agree that she has the wonderful tact and urbanity of her father.