A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
List of Letters
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, University of Virginia Library
Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to the Board of Trade and Plantations, July 25, 1726
Robert Carter writes to the [Board of Trade and Plantations], July 25, 1726, to report the death of the colony's lieutenant governor, Hugh Drysdale, and that the governing of the colony has fallen to him because of the suspension of Edmund Jenings from the Council.
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Virginia
July 25th 1726
My Lords
Tis with very great concern that I here notify to Yor. Lordps
the death of Colo. Drysdale
Lieutenant Governor of this Colony, wch
happened on the 22d instant; he had so far got over an indisposition
with which he had been neer two years afflicted, as gave hope of this
Country's being much longer happy under his administration, when
a more acute distemper, put a period to his life and our expectations
a loss greatly lamented by all Ranks of persons.
By this accident, and the Suspension of Mr. Jenings
(of which
Yor Lordps have had from Colo. Drysdale a full Relation in the Council --
Journal of the 24th and 25th of last month) it falls to my Lott -- -- to
succeed
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succeed him in the administration of the Government; and I am
now preparing, as much as an ill state of health will permittme
to meet the Council, in order to take the Oaths required for that important
Trust,
I shal by another Opportunity forward toYor Lordps the Duplicates
of such publick Papers, as the late Governor has left behind him: and
having now no other business of moment to trouble Yor Lordps; I begg
Leave to offer the most sincere assurances of my constant endeavours to
promote his Majesty's Service and the publick Service, while I have the
honr. to continue in this Station, and that I am with the greatest
respect
My Lords
Yor. Lordps
Most dutiful &
Most obedient
humble Servant
ROBERT CARTER
NOTES
Source copy consulted:
CO5 1320, ff. 82, Public Record Office, London, London, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. This is the recipient's copy, signed by Carter with his usual large and prominent signature, indicated here by the use of bold italics. It is endorsed: "Recd Septem: 10: |Read Do: 14: | 1726." There is much bleed-through of the original ink, and a later British official has placed a large oval rubber stamp of ownership on the foot of the first page.
[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.
)
This text, originally posted in 2003, was revised September 23, 2011, to strengthen the modern language version text.