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


July 13, 1720
Letter from Robert Carter to William Dawkins, 1720 July13

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant William Dawkins, July 13,1720, to chide him "That those Gentleman who do my business in Englandmust Expect to undergo the Trouble of my extra Services," and that Carter's business aloneis payment for those services, which in this instance involvedbusiness with "Bassnett & Millcraven from Jamaica" which Carter expects Dawkins to straighten out forhim.


Letter from Robert Carter to WilliamDawkins, July 13, 1720

-1 -


Rappahannock, [LancasterCounty, Virginia]

July 13th. 1720.

Mr William Dawkins
Sir --

     I am now upon Your Letter relating to the Jama
=ica Affair& give You my Thanks for the Trouble You have been
at, butYou must give me leave to observeto You, That those
Gentlemen whodo my business in England mustExpect to undergo
the Trouble of my extra Services, and thatwith out the opinion of
Abundance of merit, any farther thanthe value of my
business, and You are mightily in the w rong to believe any
person makes anyprofitt from me upon such Accounts

     I find You have paid them the ball [an] ce& the produce
of the last Tobacco , So that I have done with that Account in Every
respect,Mitchell has had the Account of Sales &Account
Current Through Your hands and Yet Bassnett &Millcraven
from Jamaica write to me for the Accounts ofthat
Vessels Cargo a Copy of The Letter I herewith Send You
As also a Copy ofBassnetts Letter from London the
30thof November last requestingYou will press Mitchell

-2 -


to give those Gentlemen Sattisfaction, [sic] for I take myself to
be no further Concern'd about It &besides It is very rare that
any opportunity happens from henceDirectly to Jamaica
Especially from the parts where Ilive --

     You mention the Sending me a Copy of theAccount
of Sales oftheir last four hogsheads but I have It not pray
remember tolett It be sent to me I am


Your very humble Servant

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Robert CarterLetter Book, 1720 July-1721 July, BR 227, Huntington Library, ArtCollections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. Printed:Wright. Letters of Robert Carter. . .. pp. 13-14.

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, especiallyto merchants abroad. The county and colony have been added forclarity.



This text revised November 21,2008.