[1] Carrington was born on March 16, 1733, at "Boston Hill" in what was then vast Goochland County in the Colony of Virginia.

His parents were Col. George Carrington (1711–1785), who was trained as a surveyor and became a major planter in southside Virginia, as well as held local offices and became one of the burgesses representing Goochland County for many years.

His paternal grandparents, Dr. Paul Carrington and Henningham Codrington, had migrated from England to the Island of Barbados, then to Virginia in 1723 on the same ship as their kinsmen William Mayo (a surveyor, and father of this man's grandmother) and Joseph Mayo (a merchant for whom the elder George Carrington initially worked).

A family tradition claims that the father accompanied William Mayo on the 1728 expedition to survey the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina.

[2] The family also included a much-younger brother, Edward Carrington, who distinguished himself as a Continental Army officer and served in the Confederation Congress.

He was chairman of the Charlotte County Committee from 1774 to 1776, which endorsed the resolutions of the Continental Congress,[4] and in 1775 became a member of the first board of trustees in the founding of Hampden-Sydney College.

[7] After the conflict, voters from Charlotte and neighboring Halifax and Prince Edward counties elected Carrington to represent him in the Virginia Senate.

When his father died in 1785 (and his mother eight days later) without completing a last will and testament, Carrington as the firstborn son was entitled to the entire estate, which included about 32,000 acres of land and 18 slaves, but chose to divide the estate equitably according to his father's stated intention.

[2] His wife died May 1, 1766; Carrington referred to her as "the best of wives and a woman of innumerable virtues" and did not remarry for decades.

His home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and in 1999 became part of Staunton River Battlefield State Park.