Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry, August 26, 1723

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   by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.

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Summary

Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry, August 26, 1723

Robert Carter writes to London merchant Micajah Perry, August 26, 1723, directing him to purchase bank stock with Carter's annuity if he will not take the money himself at the interest Carter had proposed. Carter wants to move ahead on this because he plans to give the sum to his younger children. Carter mentions the sum due him in the arbitration settlement with Wise's executors, and that he has written Perry about the extremely poor crop. He also notes that he hopes his tobacco will bring better prices because the crop will be smaller and much had to be thrown away because of the new Act of Parliament banning the importation of stemmed tobacco into England. Finally, he reports a bill of exhchange (not present) that he sends, and that he also sends his account for the administration of John Lloyd's estate for 1722.

Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry, August 26, 1723

-1 -
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]

Augst. 26. 1723

Mr. Micaj:h Perry

I give You a great deal of troublesome entertainment
My last Via ~~[illegible]~~ Weymoth is not above a week old, This brings you my final
resolutions relateing to my Bank Annuity, If it must be returned
to You & You wll not take it into Your own hands upon my proposal,
then my Desire is that You make it [ . . . ] teen hundred pound [ . . . ]
Bank stock, the reason I am so Earnest my design being to give it to
my Younger children,

I have already hinted to You the Account my Son gives
me of one hundred & Eighty pound ordered into Your hands by the arbitra=
=tors between me and Wise's executors

I have also acquainted You with the great destruction
there is among Our Tobacco in all parts of the Country that I hear from
I cannot think there will be much above half Crops & that to be
sure will be mean and Spotted, & yet I dare not give any directions
about keeping my Tobacco having Smarted so severely upon that Account
of late Years, I believe the News both from Virginia & Maryland is generally
of this strain & our Naval Officers tell us, there was not near
so much Tobacco went out this Fleet as the last, add to this the Time
is Expireing for stemming Tobacco Surely all these things put to=
gether will make me some amends for the poor prices I met
with last Year, Your reasons to the Parliament are now to a
Demonstration upon us, a great deal of good lug Tobacco must
be hove away which we cannot tie in= =to Bundles.

Herein is a Bill of Exchange for £16"6"10 drawn by Mrs.
Colston upon Yourself which shall be all at present from

Sir Your most humble Servant

Herein is also my Account against Loyds
Estate for the Year 1722. The ballance due to me is £43"8"9 I have not
[b] in able to make one pound of Tobacco out of the stocks Hogs flesh & Beef were so
[ex] tremely plenty, I have charged the Levys for King & Queen

-2 -

County at the price I paid last Year having not Yet settled with
that sheriff If it be more or less You shall have Justice here-
=after.

NOTES

Source copy consulted: Robert Carter Letter Book, 1723 July 4-1724 June 11, Carter Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. There is a 19th-century copy of the 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 to the heading on the draft.

[1] Carter and Thomas Wise had "traded with each other in tobacco and bills of exchange between 1707 and 1717," but Wise "neglected his duty in returning those bills that were protested." Carter sued Wise in England to recover his money, and he won £180. (Survey Report 10147 describing C24/1398 part 1, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia)

[2] "The lowest grade [of tobacco] was known as lugs as early as 1686. . . ." ( Philip A. Bruce. Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records. [New York: MacMillan and Co., 1896], I:442 online at "Classics of American Colonial History." http://www.dinsdoc.com/bruce-1-7.htm )

[3] Mary Colston, daughter of Francis and Mary [Bathhurst] Meriwether, was the widow of William Colston [d. 1701], the first clerk of Richmond County. (Ryland. Richmond County Virginia. . . . pp. 25-26. )

This text revised January 14, 2010.