A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
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Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to William Dawkins, August 8 and 19, 1723
Robert Carter writes to London merchant William Dawkins, August 8, 1723, to report a bill of exchange he has drawn on the merchant against the account of the estate of his son-in-law, Nathaniel Burwell, to John Bagge. He mentions that among accounts sent by Dawkins he did not find one for the sales of the 20 Burwell hogsheads sent last year. In a post script dated August 19th, he refers to some second bills of exchange, and reports that rains have badly damaged crops.
Letter from Robert Carter to William Dawkins,
August 8 and 19, 1723
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
Augt. 8th. 1723 --
Mr. Wm Dawkins
I write to You this Letter Via Glasgow to Advise
You that Yesterday, as I am the Guardian to Mr Burwell's
Children I drew a bill of exchange
upon You for £50, payable to
Mr John Bagge
directing You to Charge it to that Estate
I conclude the Bills In the plural Number Mr. Bagge is to carry them
to Colonel Page
for his Signing also.
Amongst all the Accounts of Sales You sent per Hopkins
I
See none Yet for the 20 hhds. of Mr. Burwells Tobo that we sent You
the last Year, if you have sent It to Colonel Page, he has forgotten
to Mention It to me I am -- --
Your humble Servant
August 19th.. 1723
Per the Mazereen Herein are Some second bills of exchange the firsts
went by Richardson, Our Crops are miserably damaged by the Rains
We have had, & the Same Weather Still continues I think It may be safely
reckoned there will be a Short Crop, and that not Very good,
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.
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 bill of exchange is a kind of check or promissory note without interest. It is used primarily in international trade, and is a written order by one person to pay another a specific sum on a specific date sometime in the future. If the bill of exchange is drawn on a bank, it is called a bank draft. If it is drawn on another party, it is called a trade draft. Sometimes a bill of exchange will simply be called a draft, but whereas a draft is always negotiable (transferable by endorsement), this is not necessarily true of a bill of exchange. ( "Dictionary of Financial Scam Terms" at
http://www.fraudaid.com/Dictionary-of-Financial-Scam-Terms/bill_of_exchange.htm. 8/22/2005
)
[2] This probably was John Bagge (1682?-1726), rector of St. Anne's Parish, Essex County, 1709-1711 and 1718-1726. He had served Sittenburne Parish in Richmond County, 1711-1716. ( John K. Nelson. A Blessed Company: Parishes, Parsons, and Parishoners in Anglican Virginia, 1690-1776.
[Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001]. p. 304.
)
[3] The last sentence of this paragraph was a footnote.
[4] Captain James Hopkins would be in command of the Mary
in 1727-1728. He was then working for London merchant Robert Cary. He is mentioned in Carter's diary. ( Adm. 68/194, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
This text revised November 12, 2009.