Robert H. McCarter

Who was Robert H. McCarter?

Robert Harris McCarter was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of New Jersey from 1903 until 1908, succeeding his brother Thomas N. McCarter.

McCarter was born in Newton, New Jersey in 1859 to Thomas Nesbitt and Mary Louisa McCarter. He attended the Pingry School and Newark Academy before entering Princeton University, where he graduated in 1879. He studied at Columbia Law School, receiving his diploma in 1882, and was admitted to the New Jersey bar that same year.

McCarter and his brother joined the law firm of their father, which had been established in Newton in 1845 and moved to Newark twenty years later. The firm was known as McCarter & Keen until the two younger McCarters, along with their brother-in-law Edwin B. Williamson, became partners, after which time it was known as McCarter, Williamson & McCarter.

McCarter's brother Thomas served Attorney General of New Jersey from 1902 to 1903, resigining to become president of the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey. Governor Franklin Murphy nominated McCarter to take his brother's spot, and he was confirmed as Attorney General on May 5, 1903. He served for a term of five years.