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 Robert Carter to Micajah Perry Senior and Junior, March 3, 1721

     Robert Carter writes to London merchants, Micajah Perry, Senior, and his grandson of the same name, March 3, 1721, reporting the extensive deaths in his parish, and that he has lost many "fine Slaves" himself, and that he is suffering from the gout. He encloses a letter to his son John which, should John not be in England, they are to open and act upon its instructions.



Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry Senior and Junior, March 3, 1721


-1 -

Rappa [hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]

Mar. 3d. 1720/21

To
Messrs. Micajh. Perrys
Senr. & Junr.

Gent.

     I have little Material since my last The
Parish I live in these two last months has been visited with abundance of mortalities
I have lost a great many fine Slaves and have not been Exempted
from the Distemper my self, and am now under a fit of the Gout
that has confined me to my Chair & bed these ten days, the chief [sic ]
occasion of this is to cover the Enclosed to my Son for Its better
Security. I am in no Expectation of having his company this
Year nor before the next Shipping. but if any fortuitous accid
ent Should happen to him or any Chymera come into his


-2 -


head that Shall bring him away in the Ships that are now come
& he be out of England at the receipt hereof then I desire You to
open the Letter & to pursue the orders therein given which shall
be all at present from


Gent.
Your most humble Servant

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Robert Carter Letter Book, 1720 July-1721 July, BR 227, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. Printed: Wright. Letters of Robert Carter. . . . p. 85.

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] A chimera is an illusion.



This text revised March 27, 2009.