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



Letter from Micajah Perry to Lady Fairfax, April 11, [1710]

     Micajah Perry write to Lady Fairfax, April 11, [1710] summarising for her the division between herself and Lord Fairfax of monies received from Robert Carter as quit rents collect4ed in the Northern Neck proprietary.



Letter from Micajah Perry to Lady Fairfax, April 11, [1710]


-1 -

London

Aprill 11, [1710]

The Right Honorable Lady Dowager
Margaret Culpeper

Right Honble

     we have yors and observe the contents: [ . . . ]
yors we hope is very plaine that is due [to you from]
the mony recd from Coll Carter: 117.00 [ . . ]
and my Lord Farfaxes part is £ 146:18:2: [ . . . ]
so that 6:19:4: taken from 117:10:6: the bal[ance]
remains due to you. £110:17:02: and [ . . . ]
He now must send a receipt made in [ . . . ]
termes: [r] ecd of mesrs Perry & Compa. the [the sum of ]
of one hundred and seventeen pounds [and two]
Shillings being the proportion due to [me from the]
£266:00:00d due by bill remited to s[a] id Pery
and Compa: from Robert Carter esq of Vi [rginia]
on account of the quite rents of [the] North[ern]
Neck in Virga. Isuy Aded per m

     The forme of the above receipt: doe thinke [ . . . ]
plaine as xx to be and we hope will be [ . . . ]
to be understood by yor Lady Ship: we h[ . . . ]
all right : much doubt [ . . . ] not shall ever [ . . . ]
to set right ay mistakes [ . . . ] thr can [ . . . ]
yor Honrs
Most humble servant

Micajah Perry




Heartily wish my Lord
would spend a little time
to setle this affair for
you and his Interest
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
if you desire it we will when
issue with my Lord take noted
of the charge of £6.13.4 --
what is propst dave you hd
will doe [ . . . ] when its since sett
right: it will be all easy.


NOTES



Source copy consulted: Fairfax Proprietary papers, 1675-1843, BR 227, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. Listed: Wright. Letters of Robert Carter. . . . p. 129.


On the back of the sheet is the address: To | The Right Honor:ble Lady | Dowager Margaret Culpeper | at Leeds Castle | neer Maidstone [Kent] | Per Ashford | Bagg. It is written in a much neater hand (probably that of one of Perry's clerks) than the body of the letter.


This letter was written on paper that has allowed the ink to spread and blur a good many letters. In addition, there are holes in the sheet and considerable loss along its upper right margin causing loss of the final words of many lines. The text and signature appear to be in the same hand, that of Micajah Perry .(1641-1721).


Because this letter is addressed to "Dowager Margaret Culpeper," it cannot have been written later than May 1710 when she died. The month of the heading is all that remains of the original dating due to damage to the sheet but there is a "circular date stamp 'Ap 11,' on the verso, slightly above the address." (The editor thanks Olga Tsapina, Norris Foundation Curator of American Historical Manuscripts at the Huntington Library, for verifying in an email November 5, 2010, the stamped date information for him.) Because Louis B. Wright did not have the benefit of recent research, he dated the letter April 11, 1724.


[1] Margaret Culpeper (d. May1710) was the widow of the second Lord Culprper (d. 1689), and had inherited ownership of five sixth of the Northern Neck proprietary. She had consulted Micajah Perry about the affairs of the Proprietary, and Perry had recommended Robert Carter to be the Virginia agent in 1702. Carter held the post until 1710 when Lady Fairfax transferred the agency to Edmund Jenings with Thomas Lee as the deputy agent. (See Brown. Virginia Baron. . . . ; Warren Culpeper. "Four Lords: Not Enough Sons." http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/legends/lords.htm; and Fairfax Harrison. The Proprietors of the Northern Neck: Chapters of Culpeper Genealogy. [1926], for discussions of the Fairfax and Culpeper genealogy.)


[2] Quit rent was the term used for the payment due from the holder of land to the "lord of the manor," in this case, to the proprietors of the Northern Neck. Carter as the proprietor's agent, collected these payments. No services were required of the landholder as had been true in mediaeval times.



This text added to the website December 10, 2009, and revised November 10, 2010.