A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
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Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry, October 17, 1723
Robert Carter writes to London merchant Micajah Perry, October 17, 1723, requesting his assistance in obtaining a post on the Council of Virginia for his son John in the place of William Bassett who has just died. He has just returned from a trip up the Rappahannock to the falls on which he found only poor crops. The Harrison
has arrived, and he has heard guns and assumes others have as well. If all the ships that are expected arrive, freight rates will be lower than what he understands Perry has chartered for.
Letter from Robert Carter to Micajah Perry,
October 17, 1723
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
October 17th. 1723 --
Mr. Micajh Perry
Sir --
This is occasioned by the News came to me two days ago
of the death of Colonel Bassett
which makes a Vacancy in the Council
My Son
has told me the governor
hath promised him to reccommend him
In the first place and indeed as he is Secretary there seems to be
a Sort of Justice due to him to have it, I cannot doubt but upon the
earliest Intelligence You will Exert Your utmost Strength in
his favour, he was Married
the third of this Month & has Years
Enough over his head, as also an Education equal to any post
In the Country, there is another person whom You will guess
without my naming that has Ambition Enough I'm sure &
perhaps will push for the precedency his dependance I know will
be upon the favour of Mr. Horace Walpole,
I Shall think it an
Injustice to my Son in many respects, If he Should be rankd
before him,
The Harrison has been in these ten days & a Ship
from Brooks, I have heard Guns these two or three days past
believe there are more of them in,
I am Just come home from the falls of our River
-2
-
[ . . . ]
Seen Abundance of Crops, You may depend upon it Crops
[are?]
generally mean both in quantity & Quality, Colone l Page
has
Sent me Your Lettrs., and Your packets of News, It Seems You
have chartered at £8/10 per ton If all the Ships come that
Are talked of, I can hardly think the freight will run so high
I Shall give no particular Answer to Your Lettrs., at present
but remain
Sir Your most humble Servant
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. There is a nineteenth-century transcript of this 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.
[1] William Bassett (1670-1723) of "Eltham," New Kent County. (Kneebone et al.
, Dictionary of Virginia Biography.
1:387-88.
)
[2] John Carter (1689/90-1742) married October 3, 1723, Elizabeth Hill(?-1771) of "Shirley," by whom he would have four children. (Carleton. A Genealogy. . . of Robert Carter. . . .
pp. 3-4.
)
[3] Horace Walpole was the brother of Robert Walpole, the chief minister of England. He held the posts of "auditor general and surveyor general of the royal revenue in the colonies." (Billings. et al.
Colonial Virginia: A History.
p. 197.)
[4] The Rappahannock.
This text revised November 19, 2010.