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 William Cage to Micajah Perry, September 23, 1723

     William Cage, the trustee of Lady Fairfax's estate, writes to London merchant, Micajah Perry, September 23, 1723, concerning the affairs of the proprietary estate in Virginia, commenting specifically on a "packet" he has received from the estate's agent, Robert Carter. He informs Perry that Lord Fairfax will be willing to press the proprietor's interest before the Board of Trade as Carter wishes, and that he assumes that the opinions of the Attorney and Solicitor General must be obtained again, as Carter already has. He sends all the papers relative to the case that he has received from Carter, and asks Perry to let him or Lord Fairfax know when Fairfax should appear before the Board. In March, he will be in London, and will then need the rent money as Lord Fairfax's 3rd sister will come of age and he must pay what is due to her from the estate. In a post script, he states that he cannot comment on Carter's statement about Edmund Jenings's accounts for rent for the proprietary until he has seen Mr. Adamson, but the Jenings account is new and strange to him.



Letter from William Cage to Micajah Perry, September 23, 1723


-1 -

[Milgate, County Kent, England]

9br. the 23d 1723

[Micajah] Perry

Sr

     Ld Fairfax by reason of his post in the Army is seldom at home & I had not the
Opportunity of Communicating the Contents of Colonel Carters packet to me till the other day
he leaves it too much to me who really am Ignorant of Merchants Affairs but
if I understand Colonel Carter right the business he depends on my LdFairfax for is
to soliciit the Board of Trade (where he has an Interest) to forward their report to the
Governor of Virginia wch Colonel Carter hopes will be according to the Opinion of the Atorney
& Soliciator general who have (as he says) given it in his Favour & I hope will
Do so again.We both beg of you that you'l do what is desir'd by Colonel Carter in
this affair of wch we are both Ignorant all but of soliciting parts to the Board wch Ld
Fairfax is willing to undertake as soon as it comes before them & desires likewise
you'l give him or me Notice when It's fitt for him to Apply to them for I suppose
you must again have the Opinion of the Atorney & Solicitor Genll. to be laid before the
Board. I here send you all the papers &[c per] the Case as I recd from the Colonel that yu may
make a Judgment of them and tht you'l give us your thoughts & directions what
is more to be don by us and the time you think it proper for Ld Fairfax to
be in Town to Solicit the Business wth the Board for I believe that's all he can do
I shall be in Town the beginning of March to wait on you as I proposed and do
not expect the years Rent due at Mic: last like March the 5 but shall then have occasion
for it My Lds third Sister being at Age on the 5th of that month & I have not money enough
(due to the Estate) yet to pay her but hope that sum may be sufficient & enable me
to discharge my Trust I am your most humble Sert &C



What Coll Carter says about Colonel Jennings's Act: I cant answer till I see Mr.
Adamson who he says is now in London. for the sur-charge of 169£ is altogether new
to me & Contradctory to their first Act: wch did allow there was two years Rent
due cleere [?] & pin'd me down to that sum because I said in a Letter to young Jennings
that there was at least two years Rent due wch his father knew therefore they said
they would pay but 2 years at & now they have made an Act that is less than
2 years Rent.

Copy of a Letter to Mr Perry

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Fairfax Papers, BR 227, Box 1, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California.

[1] By "town," Cage means London.

[2] Michaelmas is a Christian church holiday (feast of St. Michael) celebrated on September 29th.



This text revised April 1, 2010.