Robert King Carter's Correspondence and Diary

   A Collection Transcribed
        and Digitized
   by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.

List of Letters | About This Collection

Electronic Text Center , University of Virginia Library

Summary


May 28, 1701
Letter from Robert Carter to Francis Lee, May 28, 1701

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant Francis Lee concerning the death of Secretary of State Ralph Wormeley, Wormeley's unhappiness with Lee's handling of his affairs and Lee's need to do better on behalf of his estate, a consignment of 16 hogsheads of tobacco, and that Lee's supervision of Wormeley's sons, then in England for their education, should be stringent.


Letter from Robert Carter to Francis Lee, May 28, 1701

-1 -


May the 28th. 1701. Per Graves.
[Rappahannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]
Mr. Francis Lee

     Take it to be no News to tell you Mr. Secretary Wormeley
made me, one of the Executors of his Will during the Min [ority]
` It was his Death Bed Orders that you should have no more of his [until]
you had given Satisfaction as to Fryers Account he thought him [self great]
-ly Abus'd in it, and Indeed it is very hard the whole Loss should [be on]
him, when you allow him not the Advantages the Readies
had at the Custom-house, besides so long after you had gi [ven]
Credit for that Tobacco, , to bring him in for his snacks, is som [ething]
Strange, I have heard him further Say for many Yeares t [hat]
it has been his positive Orders to you, not to Sell but to Men of
Abilities without Substantiall Security for that he had Rat [her be]
Short in Price, then Run any hazard, You will do well [on?]
that Account in Our Testators. Favour what you Can, that W [e are]
Justified in Continuing a part of his Consignments to you [. In]
his own Orders he has left no Directions about the Rema [ining]
Children, some desire they may be with Mrs. Corbin one of his [executors]
which We have not yet Yeilded to, waiting till we know the [...]
you Intend to Abide by, herein is a Bill of Lading for Sixteen [hogsheads]
Loaded on the America & sent to you they are the Crop Tobacco w [ch. they]
say is very Good & Weighty. I have Drawn on you for [...]
no Doubt Long before now you are in possession of the Money Du [e]
from Mr. Mathews

-2 -

      [Give my] kind Respects to my Cozens Ralph & John Wormeley whom
if you keep Short in point of pocket Money, & not Extraordnary in fineness
neither, i'tis my Opinion it will be no Diservice to them, I hope if the times
hold as they have been for some yeares past, We may be Able to lay up
a Little Money for them, before they Come to manage. for your fuller
Satisfaction, I have herein sent a Copy of Mr. Secretarys Will I am Sir


Your humble Servant.

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Christ Church Parish, Lancaster County, Processioners' Returns, 1711-1783,and Wormeley Estate Papers, 1701-1710, 1716, Acc. 30126, Archives Research Services, Library of Virginia, Richmond, 141-142.

Robert Carter generally used a return address of "Rappahannock" for the river on which he lived rather than "Corotoman," the name of his home, on his correspondence. The county and colony have been added for clarity.

[1] The America , according to the "1700 Convoy List," was a London vessel of eighteen men and eighteen guns, commanded by Thomas Graves. A naval officer's return, 1700 February 19-June 24, shows that she had been built at Ipswich in 1691, was 250 tons in size, and was owned by Sir Richard Levett, Robert Bristow, Esq., Arthur Bailey, John Cary, Micajah Perry, Thomas Lane, Anthony [. . .] Hope for Bendall and Mary Johnson. (Middleton, "The Chesapeake Convoy System, 1662-1763." and Naval Officer's Return, 1700 February 19-June 24. )

[2] Carter often referred to in their youth as his "Cozns." Ralph Wormeley (ca. 1681-1714), Ralph Wormeley's (d.1701) oldest son; and John Wormeley (1689-1727) because their parents were his brother-and sister-in-law. He was one of the boys' trustees under their father's will.


This text revised July 1, 2008.