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 Francis Chamberlayne and Francis Sitwell, July 2, 1723

     Robert Carter writes to merchants and slave traders Francis Chamberlayne and Francis Sitwell, July 2, 1723, to conclude his involvement in a sale of slaves he and Robert Tucker had made on their behalf in 1720. He sends bills of exchange for his balance due them, and asks them to send him a discharge for his debt.



Letter from Letter from Robert Carter to Francis Chamberlayne and Francis Sitwell, July 2, 1723


-1 -

Rappa [hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]

July 2d. 1723 --

Messrs. Frans. Chamberlayne
& Frans. Sitwell

Gent. -- --

      G[...] Yors. Mr Sitwells of the 20th of October is the last date I have bin
favored with from You, or at least that has reachd my hands,
Mr. [Robert] Tuckers life Ended, without a final settlement between him and &
I, A Copy of the Account Current You mention he took care to remit me
before his death which seems to be to Your Entire Sattisfaction as
I doubt not mine will be when it comes to Your hands & [ . . . ] trict & It is here=
=in sent , and [ . . . ] Making the ball [an] ce due to You on my part to be 216"18"0 1/2
for the Discharge of which whereof You have also will herewith receive my bills of exchange to wit
for £116" 18 shillings on Mr Edward Tucker of Weymoth & one hundred pound
On John Burridge Esquire of Lyme both which I doubt not the punctual
payment of --

      All that remains is to desire You to let me know under Your hands that You
have no further demand upon me. & if You please to let Mrs Tucker &
& [sic ] the rest of her husbands executors know the same, it will no doubt be as satis
=factory to them As the Accots You give me of Mr Tuckers discharging him=
=self is to me. I heartily wish You the happiness both of this world & a better
And am -- Gent. --


Your Most Obedient humbl Servant

NOTES



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


[1] Francis Chamberlayne (abt. 1667-1728) was from a Wazrwickshire family. His father was also a London merchant, and "Chamberlayne engaged in commerce himself and may have been involved in the slave trade." He was quite wealthy, and represented New Shoreham in Parliament at two different times, first as a Whig, and later as a Tory. ( David Hayton, et al., The House of Commons, 1690-1715. [Cambridege University Preess, 2002,] 507-508.. Found online on Google books,. 9/14/2009)

[2] Robert Tucker (d. 1722), a merchant and justice of Norfolk County who was Carter's partner in a slave sale in 1720. See Carter's letters to Chamberlayne and Sitwell concerning this sale dated 1720 July 26 and July 27, and September 27. ( "Charges Against Spotswood." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography . 4(April 1897): 360. )



This text revised August 18 and September 16,, 2009.