Carmichael, William, c. 1739-1795

Dates:

Birth c. 1739

Death 1795-02-09

Gender:

Male

Nationality: Americans, Britons

Language: English

Biographical notes:

William Carmichael (c. 1739–1795) was an American statesman and diplomat from Maryland during and after the Revolutionary War. He participated in Benjamin Franklin's mission to Paris from 1776 to 1778, represented Maryland in the Continental Congress in 1778 and 1779 and was the principal diplomat for the United States to Spain from 1782 to 1794.

Carmichael was born sometime around 1739 at the family home, Round Top, in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Attending the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, he studied law and was admitted to the bar, practicing in Centerville, Maryland. He was living in Chestertown in 1774, and was a member of its Committee of Correspondence during the local controversy over dutiable tea. By the time the Revolutionary War began, he had decamped to London, England, and soon after, in 1776, made his way to Paris, carrying letters to the Continental Congress sewn inside the cover of a pocket dictionary.

In 1776 the Congress named Carmichael as a Secret Agent, first as an assistant to Silas Deane. He is credited with befriending the Marquis de Lafayette and recruiting the teenage aristocrat to the American cause; when Lafayette traveled to America, he carried with him a letter of introduction from Carmichael to George Washington's aide Tench Tilghman, a fellow Marylander from the Eastern Shore. Carmichael later represented American interests at the court of Frederick II of Prussia in Berlin. He returned to America in February 1778 and the Maryland Assembly sent him as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Carmichael clashed repeatedly with many of his fellow countrymen, particularly Arthur Lee and John Jay, and his tenure in Congress was a brief and stormy one.

In 1779, then, Carmichael returned to the Old World, this time to Madrid, Spain as a diplomatic representative to Spain for the United States. At first, he was Secretary to the Legation headed by John Jay. When Jay returned in April 1782 Carmichael became Chargé d'Affaires, remaining in this post at the Spanish royal court until illness forced his replacement in 1794. Carmichael died in Madrid on February 9, 1795 and is buried in the Protestant cemetery there.