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



Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry, June 16, 1723

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant Micajah Perry, June 16, 1723, covering a shipment of 13 hogsheads of tobacco on board Captain Bradley from lands that his son-in-law, Nathaniel Burwell, had a lifetime interest in but that belong to Carter, and which he will bequeath to one of his grandsons by his daughter, Burwell's widow. He asks Perry to send him a separate account of the sale. He also sends 10 hogsheads of his own very good tobacco. He concludes that he will list some drafts that he and Mann Page have made on Perry.


Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry, June 16, 1723

-1 -

Wmsburgh. [James City County, Virginia]

June. 16th. 1723

Mr. Micajh. Perry

     This Serves only to accompany a bill of lading
for 13 hogsheads of sweet fine stemmed Tobo on board Captain Bradley mark
AB made at a plantation of which Mr Burwell had the Profit
dureing his Life & was as reputable a crop as any he shipped to
You and sold as well & I doubt not will appear to be as good now
I have seen some of it myself & deserves as good a Character as
any I have seen among his plan [tations] s this crop does not belong to the
Estate of Major Burwell the lands are mine & so are the Slav es
& every thing Else I purchased it to give my Daughter Burwell
the profits of it during her life & afterwards to settle the
Inheritance upon one of Mr Burwells sons by her by her
she consents that this crop now going home The Produce of it should
go into the bulk of the Crops and I consign it to you as her father
& her Childrens Guardian I tell you this story that you s [end]
me a distinct account of this crop it is under the Mark it always
has been & the C in the Middle of it put in for the Sake of my name

     I also here in send you 10 hogsheads of my own Tobo 6
of them are a particular crop which I overhauled myself & pleased
me as well as any I have seen this year the other 4 are under diff
erent Marks but by by [sic ] mistake are stemmed Strait laid Tobacco
likewise these 10 hogsheads I let Capt Bradley have when he was
under doubts of not getting Near his load in Service to his -- Concern

     Some drafts upon you by Colonel Page & myself more
than what you are yet advised of I shall mention to you here

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Robert Carter letter book, 1723 June 16-1724 April 23, Carter Papers (acc. no. 3807), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.


Robert Carter writes from the colonial capitol, Williamsburg. The county and colony have been added for clarity.

[1] The Micajah & Philip was a large vessel of some 400 tons carrying a crew of 27. The captain's name varies from record to record as James Bradley or James Bradby. Thomas Jones wrote to his wife, then in England, concerning this ship in 1728, "The Micajah & Philip that comes to James River is as good as the best Ships that Comes hither, but Bradby the master seems to be a little conceited and prodigal." ( Adm. 68/194-196, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia ; and Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 26[1918]: 172, abstracting the Jones Papers at the Library of Congress.)



This text revised August 6, 2009.