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 Robert Carter to William Cage, July 21, 1726

     Robert Carter writes to William Cage, trustee of the Fairfax estate, July 21, 1726, to chide him for not writing at least annually which Carter hopes he willl do in the future. He believes that the Northern Neck case has been carried to England by the colony's attorney general. He notes that his receipts of quit rents from the Northern Neck propietary come in very slowly, and he hopes that Cage will not press for the lease rent each year. And he hopes that Cage will allow him credit for money that Edmund Jenings overpaid to the proprietors, and which Jenings has withheld from payments due Carter.



Letter from Robert Carter to William Cage, July 21, 1726


-1 -

Rappa[hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]   
July the 21st: 1726

William Cage Esqr:

Sr --

     I am sorry I have not bin so much in yor:
favr: to receive one Line from you this year, Mr. Perry
indeed tells me he had promisd you to Solicite the Stated case
of the Northern Neck at the board of trade, but that it was
not sent thither by our Govr: who hath bin in a very ill
State of health for a great while, which probably may
have bin the Occasion of this Omission Mr. Clayton the
Atturney General went for England in one of our forward
Ships I suppose he may have Carried it with him, Mr. Perry
hath Sent me your receipt for £420"-"-pd: you in March
last, my rent for the year, 1725 Altho this money hath bin
so long paid from me, I have not yet rec'd the Sixth part of it
which I hope will be a moving Argument to you, to be as
patient as possible in Allowing me all the time you can
for the paying my rents in, The Merchants by keeping my
Tobbo. year after year unsold have laid me under difficu=
-lties I have not bin used to before, --

     In my Letter dated July the 19th: 1725 I sent
you a Clear Acct: of your Case with Coll Jennings, in
which it appears plainly he overpaid you by my hands
Thirty nine pounds fourteen Shill, this money he Stop[s]
from me as a paymt: from him being Considerably in
my debt, and I had hopes to receive orders from you about
it, that I might be allowd to pay you so much Short of
my rent, which I think is but a reasonable proposal
I make my request to you now to have recourse to my
Letter and Acct: I sent you and that you will allow this
money to be discounted out of my next years rent


-2 -


     I have been informd your Affairs Cheifly lye in
the Country, that you are not fond of the fateigues of the Town
however I cannot refrain desireing you will please to
allow me the favour to have a Letter from you once a year
at least, My humblist Service I desire may be presented
to his Lordship I am


Sr
Yor: most Faithfull Obedt:
humble Servant --

ROBERT CARTER

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Fairfax Papers, BR 227, folder 34, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. This is the recipient's copy signed by Carter and sealed with a wafer. The conjoined address leaf reads: To | William Cag Esqr: of Milgate | In the Parish of bearshead & County | of Kent, | near Maidstone. Cage has endorsed it, interestingly, "Coll Lee's Letters of Virginia."Printed: Wright. Letters of Robert Carter. . . . pp. 122-23.

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 correspondents abroad. The county and colony have been added for clarity.

[1] Established in 1696 as successor to a similar body, the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations was "an advisory group, subordinate to king and Privy Council, and with no executive, financial, or penalizing powers, the Board of Trade was nevertheless able . . . to exert a far reaching and often determining influence in colonial matters. . . . It prepared the royal instructions for the governors overseas. . . ." ( Henry Hartwell, James Blair, and Edward Chilton. Hunter Dickinson Farish, ed. The Present State of Virginia, and the College. [First published, 1940, by Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., and reprinted Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1964.] pp. xvi-xvii. )

[2] London



This text, originally posted in 2003, was revised September 22, 2011, to add footnotes, and to strengthen the modern language version text.