Robert King Carter's Correspondence and Diary

   A Collection Transcribed
        and Digitized
   by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.


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Electronic Text Center , University of Virginia Library


Summary


July 27, 1703
Letter from Robert Carter to Thomas Corbin, July 27, 1703

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant Thomas Corbin thanking him for letters concerning the sales of tobacco belonging to the estate of Ralph Wormeley and for the good news of the progress of Wormeley's sons, then in England at school. He reports that the ships that have recently arrived need to wait until next season for a good crop of tobacco to fill their holds, but will sail with the fleet as ordered. Corbin's cousin and daughter of Ralph Wormeley, Elizabeth, has married John Lomax, a recent emigrant from England. Finally, he notes that he has recently shipped a small quantity of Wormeley estate tobacco to another merchant because it could not have been sent otherwise.



Letter from Robert Carter to Thomas Corbin, July 27, 1703


-1 -

Rappa[hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]

July 27,1703

Sr.

     Some of those sevll. Letters you mention I ha [d, particu]
=larly that wherein you send an Account of the [sales]
you have had from the Estate of Esquire . Wormeley [Thanks]
to you for your News, very glad to hear of the [progress the]
Wormeleys Sons makes, Sorry to find both from [you and]
others Harry Armstead like to gain little by [going to]
England, The Fleet now come in a great m [any of]
them We all believe must lie for a New Crop, [they]
will get way with their Convoy if they keep to t [heir]
Orders. Your Cousin . Betty Wormeley is lately marr [ied to your]
Own Doctor Lomax , Came in in [John] Burford two Y [ears]
agoe, Suppose before long he will Demand his M [arriage]
portion, I have lately shipped a small matter of the [tobacco]
belonging to the Estate which Could not have Freighted unl [ess I]
had Consign'd it to Mr. Mathews I am Sir4


Your most 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, 156. Extract printed in William and Mary Quarterly , 2nd ser., 17(1909):257.

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, especially to merchants abroad. The county and colony have been added for clarity.

[1] 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 June 11, 2008.