Thomas Carter, the first to live at Castlemartin which he acquired in 1729, was made Master of the Rolls in Ireland in 1731, which office he had continued to hold until 1754.

A strong, if not often violent Whig, noted for his rudeness and his loathing of English ministerial interference in Irish affairs and his satirical lampooning of political opponents earned him the nickname "Vicious Carter".

During the late 1740s, Carter became one of the leaders of the country of Ireland as a member of the Patriot party along with Henry Boyle, speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Anthony Malone, the Prime Sergeant.

He was made Master of the Rolls in 1731 but as one of the parliamentary managers employed by the Lord Lieutenant to ensure that the King's business was passed in the House of Commons, his actions were often maverick.

As a result, Primate Stone Archbishop of Armagh, tried to reduce the influence of the leading parliamentary undertakers; Speaker Boyle, Anthony Malone and Thomas Carter.

Boyle, Malone and Carter whipped up popular support, turning the issue into a trial of strength between the Lord Lieutenant and the country or "Patriot" party.

The whole episode of the Money Bill dispute, the motives, intrigues, manoeuvrings and chicanery was wittily and ironically described by Edmund Sexton Pery, an eye-witness and MP for Wicklow town.

Thomas Carter the elder was obviously a very ambitious young man, he married firstly Margaret Houghton (c. 1660-1696) on 16 December 1681 at St. Audoen's Church, Dublin.

During the revolution, he served with distinction at Derry and the Boyne where according to Burke's Irish Landed Gentry (1850 edition) he secured books and writings belonging to James II of England.