A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
List of Letters
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, University of Virginia Library
Letter from Robert Carter to RobertBurridge
, June 27, 1718
-1
-
[Corotoman, Lancaster County,Virginia]
June 27, 1718
Sir,
My last advised you of a draft
I had made on you to John Parker for
£50. In one of your's this year you
advise me topurchase you some Tobo
upon bills. In another you control
yourself upon the news you hadof the
high prices given here. Indeed there
has been no such timeproduced
the likewithin my memory. 21,
22, 23, 24 & 25 p Ct
has been
given thisyear for Tobacco The most
ordinary, meanest stuff in the country
has sold at theseprices and the
Scotch are still laying up all the refuse
and trash they can meet with. what the
mystery of their trade is I don't
know; but sure I am were we to give
these prices for suchgoods we should
never see our principal by a great deal.
No freight this year within my
-2
-
reach has offered to your Port
.
Youmust not thence conclude
I have done with sending Tobacco
thither. Next year, God willing,
I intend to be at it again upon
the first freight I meet with.
Your brother John
, the Paria=
ment [sic] man, stands in my debt for
nine Hhds of Tobo I sent him two
years ago -- would never yet let me
know what he sold it for. I am
very sorry there issuch a flaw in
the reputation of one of your family.
I think you shouldbe so much
concernedat it as to attempt everything
in your power to bring him into the
humour of doing me justice:and
pray interest yourself so much at
least in my behalf to get an accot
what is become of mygoods. I
find it is in vain for me to write
to him. You'll do your family but
a [omission in text]
credit to bestir yourself so
effectually that I may have my money.
I find Capt. [Daniel]
McCarty
and you
-3
-
can by no means set your horses
together. You complainmightily
against him and he is as big with
complaints of you. Who is in the
wrong I can't tell.One story is
always good "until ">till another is heard.
I wish you may be so much
friends toyour own peace to
compromise your differences among
yourselves. Few get so much in the
end in going into contentions of
Law, set aside the Lawyers and Officers. But this is none of my
business.
I remain, Sir
Notes
[1] Per 100 pounds
[2] Burridge was located in Lyme Regis, Dorset.
[3] John Burridge (1681?-1753), brother of Robert, wasa merchant in London trading primarily "to Guinea and the West Indies." It is not surprising thatRC could not obtain the sales report and money he mentions in this letter; in 1717, John Burridge'sestate had been seized by the Crown for non-payment of duties on wine. John Burridge represented Lyme inParliament from 1710-1728. [Sedgwick, Parliament, I, 509].
This text revised November 17,2008.