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 [Governor Hugh Drysdale], February 19, 1724

     Robert Carter writes to the governor, Hugh Drysdale, February 19, 1724, explaining that he will be unable to attend a meeting of the Council called by the governor because his gout has been so bad all winter that he has not been on a horse, has rarely worn his shoes, and has only been able to attend church 2 or 3 times when he has gone in his coach.



Letter from Robert Carter to [Governor Hugh Drysdale ], February 19, 1724


-1 -

Corot [o] m [an, Lancaster County, Virginia]
Febr. 19th. 1723/4

May it Please Your Honor,

     Your honors ' Express for a Council this day I had not until last night
after candle light The necessity You are pleased to say You are in for a full meet=
ing would oblige me to struggle with all the difficulties in the way were my
circumstances tolerable for the journey but the Gout hath been an inseperable
companion to me all this Winter and I have never bestried a horse since
I left Williamsburg nor have I had my shoes on one whole day together
nor have I escaped without without swollen feet every night Indeed I have
been twice or thrice at our Church with the help of my Coach taking care
to wrap my feet very warm these reasons I hope will be a sufficient ex=
cuse for my absence otherwise I should gladly contribute my [illegible] assistance
in determining upon the weighty affairs now before Your honor thinking
it an incumbent duty to approve myself with my utmost capacity


Your Honrs.
                             Most Obedient
                                                            And 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.

[1] Gout is "a specific constitutional disease occurring in paroxysms, usually hereditary and in male subjects; characterized by painful inflammation of the smaller joints, esp. that of the great toe, and the deposition of sodium urate in the form of chalk-stones; it often spreads to the larger joints and the internal organs." ( Oxford English Dictionary Online )


This text, originally posted in 2002, was revised February 21, 2011, to add a footnote, and to strengthen the modern language version text.