Harry Carter

Born in 1749 near Breage in Cornwall, Henry "Harry" Carter was part of the Carter family of Prussia Cove, a group closely linked with coastal smuggling in the late 18th century. Sources describe him as the brother of John Carter, the so-called "King of Prussia," and note that Harry later married Elizabeth Flindell in 1786.

Harry Carter is best remembered for The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler, the memoir associated with his years in Cornwall's smuggling world. Accounts of his life say that after a period of imprisonment in France, he gave up smuggling and became a preacher, which gives his story an unusual arc from outlaw adventure to religious conversion.

Because so much of his reputation rests on this memoir and on local historical accounts, some details of his life are repeated a little differently across sources. Still, the broad picture is clear: he was a real figure from Cornwall's smuggling past whose life became one of the most memorable personal narratives from that world.