John Carlyle was born in 1720 in England, the second son of an apothecary surgeon. He emigrated to Virginia in 1741 as an agent of merchant William Hicks. He built his own career as a merchant in Belhaven, a settlement that would later become Alexandria, Virginia in 1749. Carlyle was one of the founders of the burgeoning city. That year, Carlyle purchased two, half-acre lots strategically located between the Potomac River and Market Square. He began construction of his Georgian stone mansion in 1751 and moved into the completed house…
