He was one of the foremost merchants upon the Tyne; founder of a famous bank in Newcastle; a considerable landowner in Northumberland and Durham; and an earnest and liberal supporter of numerous schemes of progress and philanthropy.
In due time he was admitted to his freedom, and, having made a tour through Holland and Germany to the Baltic, as far as the newly founded city of St. Petersburg, he commenced life on his own account in Newcastle in the year 1737.
His financial position was such that when, in September, 1745, Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie - landing at Lochaber, raised the standard of rebellion, and troops came marching through the North of England to prevent the revolt from spreading, he was able to render profitable service to the British government.
The Newcastle Courant of 23 August 1755 announced that "Yesterday, Notes were issued from the Bank established in this Town by a Company of Gentlemen of Character and Fortune, which will be of infinite Advantage to this place.
His place of business as a merchant was in Hanover Square, Newcastle, where his nephew, and sometime partner, John Widdrington, the younger, resided, and from where he dispatched the greater part of that voluminous correspondence with Northern Europe and the American colonies which has been preserved by his descendants.
Besides enlarging the mansion - Hedgeley Hall - at High Hedgely, he extended the gardens, laid out extensive woods and plantations, and diverted the course of the river Breamish through the estate from a dangerous into a manageable channel.
Towards the close of his life he purchased from his friend Sir John Dick, who had acquired it during a long residence as British Consul at Leghorn, a fine collection of oil paintings and statuary, and added to his library valuable works on maritime jurisprudence and international law.
Local considerations so completely influenced these elections that votes afford no clue to views on Imperial questions, but it is known from his letters and papers that he was opposed to the Americans in their struggle for independence, and that in other matters he sympathised with the policy of the elder Pitt.
This is ruin to the lower class, and calls for redress, for upon a fair calculation there is more paid at this day for drink alone than was expended fifty years ago for house-rent, clothing, provisions, and every other support of families.
[11] Although he had arrived at a somewhat mature age when he married, he had the satisfaction of seeing his eldest son, John Carr, united to a daughter of the house of Ellison, of Hebburn; his second son, Ralph, holding a distinguished position at the bar; and his second daughter, Harriet, occupying a high position in the social and artistic world as the wife of Colonel Cheney, of the Grenadier Guards, afterwards General Cheney, who was made aide-de-camp to the king for his services in the Peninsula under Sir John Moore.