FOUNDER
Mrs Raquel M. Carter is an author, illustrator, and cultural preservationist devoted to the restoration of imagination, beauty, and meaning through old-world living.
From earliest childhood, she lived within a rich interior landscape shaped by storybooks, hand-crafted objects, and the steady rhythms of rural life. Stone cottages, thatched roofs, tea rooms warmed by conversation, chickens in the yard, flopsy-eared rabbits, and sheep upon open land were not fantasies to her, but a remembered way of being—one she instinctively recognised as true. Of all historical periods, the nineteenth century resonated most deeply: an era that honoured craftsmanship, patience, and the shaping of a life by hand.
Through decades of writing, painting, and imaginative study, Mrs Carter has cultivated a body of work that invites others to step momentarily outside the modern rush and into a slower, more deliberate rhythm. Her vision has long included small, thoughtful gatherings—intimate assemblies where like-minded souls might come together to learn, reflect, and remember what it means to live with purpose, dignity, and joy.
In 2019, Mrs Carter’s life was irrevocably altered by the violent loss of her middle son, Sawyer, at the age of twenty-four. In the earliest days of grief, she knew instinctively that her survival—and eventual healing—would come through creation rather than collapse. In the quiet mornings following his passing, she wrote and illustrated a dedicatory storybook, The Tale of Sawyer Lamb, as an act of remembrance, endurance, and love.
That same year, she founded The Carter Settlement, a charitable bequest established to safeguard her life’s work while honouring her son’s legacy through beauty, education, and meaningful experience.
The Carter Settlement is envisioned as a living village—a place for women, children, and families who value imagination, inward knowing, and the restorative power of a life shaped with intention.
THE CARTER SETTLEMENT
The mission of The Carter Settlement is to educate through demonstration, transformation, and lived example.
Rooted in quiet optimism and steady hope, the Settlement offers workshops, gatherings, and immersive experiences designed to reconnect individuals with themselves, with one another, and with the natural world. Through the literary, artistic, and cultural landscape created by Mrs Carter, visitors are invited to rediscover emotional well-being, creative confidence, and what she calls the gentle practise of Taking Joy.
The work of The Carter Settlement unfolds across four enduring pillars:
- Mental
- Physical
- Social & Emotional
- Spiritual
Through education, celebration, and small-scale community gatherings, the Settlement seeks to extend these principles from its rural roots in Brooksville, Florida, outward into the wider world.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Carter Settlement was founded in 2019 and granted federal tax-exempt status as a registered charitable organisation in the United States. Established during Mrs Carter’s lifetime, the Settlement serves as a living legacy—preserving her creative body of work while fostering beauty, imagination, and remembrance in the present moment.
“Rabbits and gardens go together like springtime and rain showers—like seasides and merrymaids.”
— Lady Raquel M. Carter
Those wishing to further the mission of The Carter Settlement through philanthropic support, endowments, or gifts of land may inquire by email
( Raquel@RaquelCarter.com).
STEWARDSHIP & PLACE
The Carter Settlement was conceived as a living body of work rather than a fixed address. Its foundation rests on the belief that meaningful preservation arises not solely from buildings, but from the careful tending of stories, land, and lived tradition.
Mrs Carter’s vision has always aligned with historic environments that honour continuity, women’s literary heritage, and the quiet transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The Settlement is therefore designed to be adaptable—capable of dwelling, when the time is right, within a site whose history, landscape, and cultural memory are in harmony with its mission.
Whether expressed through cottages, gardens, gathering rooms, or preserved grounds, The Carter Settlement seeks a home that allows history to breathe rather than be performed, and where stewardship is exercised with reverence, patience, and care. Place, in this understanding, is not claimed—it is entrusted.
ASPIRATIONS FOR THE CARTER SETTLEMENT
When fully realised, The Carter Settlement will take the form of an English Victorian countryside village, thoughtfully recreated with themed cottages and gathering spaces drawn from Mrs Carter’s literary world.
Planned features include, but are not limited to:
- Scarlette Rose Cottage
- Mrs Threadgoode’s English Tea Room
- Molly Kitten’s Cottage
- Sir Oliver Twisty Topsy’s Cottage
- Elizabeth Robins’ Writing Cottage
- The Victorian Mer~Cantile
- Henny Penny’s Henhouse
- The Victorian Mermaid Apothecary
- Sawyer Lamb’s Cracker Cottage
- Mr Sir Barbaric’s Water Garden
- Scarlette Rose Pond — The Academy of Swimming for Women and Children
The Settlement also seeks to conserve heritage agriculture by caring for and protecting Florida Cracker sheep, alongside gardens, orchard plantings, rabbits, poultry, and flowering landscapes.
Seasonal gatherings and special celebrations will mark the year, with select offerings for women eighteen years and older.
Visitors may wander through The Victorian Mer~Cantile to collect Mrs Carter’s published works and curated goods, pause for tea and simple fare at Mrs Threadgoode’s Tearoom, or stroll past gardens and waters where children and women learn, create, and gather in safety and delight.
LEAVING A BEQUEST
Upon her passing, Mrs Carter has arranged for The Carter Settlement to be entrusted to the appropriate preservation conservancy within the State of Florida, ensuring the continuation of its mission and the careful stewardship of its lands, stories, and traditions.
“I dwell in optimism.”
— Lady Raquel M. Carter
All concepts, writings, artwork, and intellectual property associated with The Carter Settlement are protected under registered copyright and trademark.
