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 [and Mann Page] to Micajah Perry, June 29, 1723

     Robert Carter and his son-in-law, Mann Page, write to London merchant Micajah Perry, June 29, 1723, to send an invoice for goods to be purchased on the account of the estate of Nathaniel Burwell for the benefit of Burwell's children. They add some comments on laws concerning tobacco shipping and planting recently considered by the colony's assembly, and advise Perry of two bills of exchange drawn on the estate's account.



Letter from Robert Carter [and Mann Page ] to Micajah Perry, June 29, 1723


-1 -

Rappa [hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]

June the 29th. 1723

Mr. Micajh. Perry

     This serves to cover an Invoice of for Goods for
the Supply of Mr Burwells families to be sent into York
river either in the Burwell or in some other of the forward
est of your Ships bound thither, we used our Endeavors
to get a law to restrain Shipping Tobos before the 1st of February
& after the Last of July which we believed would have
been very agreeable to the merchants of London at least
but it miscarried in the lower house the Burgesses would
not hear of it

     We have a Law passed laying a Stint upon our
Planting how it will [be] relished at home is the great doubt
it is to take place the 1st of April next to give time that
the Kings pleasure may be known about it we have Strong
hopes the Merchants will join their Strength with [ours]


-2 -


[to] get it allowed for a year or two at least that our
[t] rade may be in some measure revived from the present
unhappy circumstances it is under

     We are Yet to advise You of the following bills
of exchange we have drawn on You on Accot of Mr Burwells Estate
To wit for £94"15 to Docter Archibald Blair, and for £108"6"8
to Mr Lewis Burwell, these Sums You are to make payment
of & to charge to that Estate, which Shall be all at present
from -- --


Sir Your most humble Servts.

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Robert Carter letter book, 1723 June 16-1724 April 23, Robert Carter Papers, (acc. no. 3807), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. There is a nineteenth-century transcript of this letter in the Minor-Blackford Papers, James Monroe Law Office and Museum, Fredericksburg, Virginia.


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.


While the name of Mann Page does not appear on the draft, it was written as if by two persons, and because Carter and Page looked after the affairs of Carter's widowed daughter, Elizabeth Burwell, it is likely that Page joined in this letter.


[1] This vessel was commanded by Captain Constantine Cant and may have been owned by William Dawkins and Micajah Perry as Carter reported her December 1723 arrival to each of them. ( Adm. 68/194-195, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. )


[2] For the Council's reasons for assenting to this proposed law, see McIlwaine. Executive Journals of the Council. . . . , 4[1721-1739]:45-51.


[3] Archibald Blair (c. 1665-1733), younger brother of James Blair, came to Virginia before 1700 and settled in Williamsburg where he practiced medicine and operated a retail store. (Kneebone et al. , Dictionary of Virginia Biography. 1:535-6. )


[4] Lewis Burwell (d. 1743) lived "at one of the large properties he acquired on the north bank of the James River south of Williamsburg." He became a prominent citizen of James City County, serving as justice and burgess. He built a fine mansion at his "Kingsmill" plantation near "Carter's Grove." (Kneebone et al. , Dictionary of Virginia Biography. ) 2:433-4.



This text revised August 17, 2009.