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 Thomas Evans, July 4, 1723

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant Thomas Evans, July 4, 1723, an old acquaintance, to acknowledge receipt of goods and to complain strongly that Evans has not sent him accounts of the sales of his tobacco in three years. He sends an invoice for goods, and chides Evans for becoming too involved with merchant William Dawkins who has been feuding with another merchant. He adds in a post script his further complaint about Evans' treatment of him.



Letter from Robert Carter to Thomas Evans, July 4, 1723


-1 -

[Rappahannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]
July the 4th: 1723
Mr Tho Evans -- --

     Your goods this year per the Carter and Richardson
I reced and herein send you a bill of Lading for 4 hhds
per Graves I have some more that I intend to put into
Richardson that I purpose to Consign to you also altho
your Treatment of me is very surprizing, You have
100 hhds. of Tobbo. to Accot. to me for, for the Tobbo. --
I have sent you these three Years Successively, you have
afforded me never an Accot. of Sales, yo and for what Tobbo
you have sold you have not given me the Satisfaction
to say what you sold it at, This is a treatment beyond
all compare you give me hopes indeed that you doubt
not to do as well for me as any body Else and I will
hope so to till I find the Contrary, but I desire you
in your thoughts to put yourself in my place, and if
you were whether such usage would not very much
Lower your temper,

      Herein I send a Invoice for some goods, It is
a very bulky one but as I cast it up about a hundred
pound wll pay for it, about the sending of it in the
Invoice itself gives you Directions, You and I
have known one another a long time, and our Correspond
ents hitherto hath been smooth friendly and Accept
able it will be none of my fault if it does not continue so only give me leave
to tell you that I am Suspicious from a hint of yours
that Mr. Dawkins hath been too much in your Consul
tations by his Acquainting you how much of my old
Tobbo. he had to sell when the Carter arrived that
Gentm. and Another great man in the Trade [he]
h[ad] Severe Quarrells with about [the ] fr [eight of ?]
goods outward and the half [for] C [...]


-2 -


which fueds are yet hardly quite dispers'd but why
you should concern your self in them or make their
Rule the measure of your proceedings I dont know,
indeed Mr. Perry hath sold of all my old Stock of Tobbo
long since and a great part of my new I hope all of
it before this day I shall not give you further trouble
at present but remain Sr.


Your very humble Servt. --

I have not had an Accot. Current
from you these Sevll. Years I never
met with such delays from any man
Else that ever I dealt with in my life.

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Robert Carter Letter Book, 1723 July 4-1724 June 11, Carter Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. This draft is the first one in the letter book, and the paper has darkened from exposure to light and from wear; there are some small holes at the foot of the page that obscure some words. The editor thanks E. Lee Shepard of the Society for his assistance in attempting to establish the text at the foot of this page.

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. His usual return address, the county, and state have been added for clarity to this unheaded draft.

[1] Captain [James?] Richardson commanded the Sarah and was based in Weymouth.

[2] Benjamin Graves was the son of Captain Thomas Graves [d. ante 1720], long a captain of vessels trading to Virginia, and a special friend of Carter. Benjamin Graves also commanded vessels in the trade, especially the Carter . ( Adm. 68/194-196, ff. 33r, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. )



This text revised August 21, 2009.