Robert Carter writes to London merchant Francis Lee that he has sent 20 hogsheads of tobacco and that some of the other trustees of the Ralph Wormeley estate are pushing other merchants for the estate business, but as he has control of the estate's business on the Rappahannock (while Edmund Jenings supervises that on the York), he will continue to send crops to Lee. Carter states that it is strange that Wormeley, who had inherited large estates, should regularly have been in financial trouble. He notes that some of the trustees had previously wanted to bring Wormeley's sons home from England, but they are now content; their mother had asked that their expenses be kept at a moderate level, and this is important if Ralph and John are to inherit good estates. And he adds that he has observed that those boys educated in England who had the most pocket money and finest clothes did not obtain the best education. He closes by noting that his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Wormeley, has a right to one-fifth of the proceeds of the previous year's crop, and will market her share herself in the future.
My Last [illegible]
went by the Lawrell of
Bound for London Containing a Bill of Lading for
Twenty hogsheads of Tobacco, all Consisting of the home
Cropps being well near the Moyety
of the Quantity made
there. Some of the Trustees, you mayGuess them
wth.out Naming have Endeavoured Strongly to Turn
most of the ConsignmentsAnother way, but I have hither=
to had the Ordering of the Concerns in this River, the
-ment;I promist a More Particular Regard to your Lettrs.
which take in these Words.
You very much
Resent Mr. Secretarys Discourses before his Death
Do Assure you I AddedNothing but Rather Diminisht
in the Relation. I know yor. Acquaintance was of a Long
Standing, As for the Obligations on yor. Side, they were
secretts to the World; tis Strange to hear A Gentleman
A Stirr was made att the Beginning to have the Children
Remov'd, One of the TrusteesAffirming, the Fathers Ord [ers]
was soe , but that hott humor is now Off, andno
Noise is made about them Nor I Believe will, unl [ess]
the occasionRises on yor. part. Tis an Old Rule in
the mean vertue Consists, If I forgett not twas the [wish]
of the Mother that the Childrens Expences should [Not]
be too Excessive, nor too Scanty, If I may be Allow'd [tojud]
-ge theirs hitherto have too great a Taste of the former, and[ . . . ]
to me, to be above a proportion to the Comin [gin]
If they be soe Already, what will they be, a Y [ear]
hence,they themselves, when th [ey become]
Men, will be the first that will Censure [the Trustees]
if they Meet wth. Empty purses.
Their Father bore a very great Post in [Virginia and]
Liv'd as great,perhapps more Expensive than a [ny]
Gentleman in't, but Every Year to ClearScore [ . . . ]
behind the lighter as you Say, was a Temper [I can't?]
tell how to Comend. If his Place and Cropps w [ere]
Littleenough to Support his Grandure, pray whe [re would]
he bin, If the formerhad fail'd him, he must [then]
have Lower'd his Topsailes or gone off like aMus [ket]
as some of his Neighbours did before him.
Ralphy
In Prospect will have a fine Estate, Joh [n]
a Tolerable good One; yett itt will hardly be Come [nda]
-ble in either of them, to follow their Fathers Stepp [s in]
all things, I will not Undertake to prophecy,tha [t]
they will be Secretarys or Navall Officers.
Uppon the whole 'tis my Opinion if you Retr [ench]
their Expences whatReasonably you Can, `twill be [a]
kindness to the Boyes, too much finery, andtoo [much]
pockett Money most an End Raises inyoun [g]
Tobacco hath held up its head for sevll.
years together, but he that Measures his Expences
by his seven Last Years gettings in Virginia,
may Seven years hence probably have Little to
Spend, but perhapps I have harp'd too much already
upon this String, att least I know twill notbe
very pleasing to the Boys. I have only One
Word more, from my Own Observations when I
was in England, Those boyes that Wore the finest
Close and had the most Money in their pocketts still
went away, wth. the least Learning in their heads
yett am I not for too Narrow a keeping neither.
I must not forgett to tell you that my sister Worme=
-ley
hath a5th. part Due to her of the Produce of the last
years Cropp, She hath now her Tobo. to her self
Iam Sr.
[Presen]
t my kind Respects
to [theboys. I]
intend them all the Good
[Let]
them think, what theywill.