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 Dawkins, May 16, 1727

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant William Dawkins, May 16, 1727, to complain of expenses for the ship Carter that have appeared in Dawkins' latest account, and to demand explicit accounts of his son Landon's expenses while at school in London because he finds them "beyond all Comparison."



Letter from Robert Carter to William Dawkins, May 16, 1727


-1 -

Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]   
May 16th: 1727

Mr. Wm. Dawkins

Sir --

     In looking over your Accot: Currt: I cannot forbear
making my Observations upon some Articles I find I am never
to have an Acct: Currt: but with a heavy article of some cost up=
on the Accot: of the Ship Carter, In this Accot: I am a d [eb] ited £ Thirty
nine pounds eighteen shillings and Ten pence, Y [ou a] lways used
to send me an Accot: of the Ships Voyages which h [as] been Some
Satisfaction to me to be thus constantly upon the Losing Side is
most intolerable Pray let me have the Satisfaction of his Accots:
every year The two last Voyages she was a full ship Surely I may
promised my Self some Credit from them,

     The Expences of my son Landon are most
Surprizing for a Boy of Sixteen years of age to run out in 15
Months Time Three hundred Twenty three pounds two and
Eleven pence, is beyond all Comparison he can give me [no]
manner of light into the Particulars he says the bills were all
Sent into you, you only Send me the list of the Gross sums paid
I must desire you Earnestly to give me the Satisfaction of
letting me have a veiw of the Particular Accots: what all this
money is gone for, Mr: Low I observe from October 1725 to July 1726
is paid Sixty pounds fifteen and nine pence Certainly this must
be a mistake I shall mix no other business in this letter but Con
clude at present


Sir --
Yor: very humble Servt:

per Hopkins

NOTES



Source copy consulted: Robert Carter letter book, 1727 May-1728 July, Robert Carter Papers (acc. no. 3807), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. There is a 19th-century transcript of the second paragraph 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] Landon Carter (1710-1778) was Carter's seventh child by his second wife, Elizabeth (Landon) Willis. Landon would live at "Sabine Hall," Richmond County, and marry three times, leaving many descendants, some of whom own "Sabine Hall" today. As an adult, he would keep a very interesting and usefuldiary. A reproduction of a portrait of him may be found on the website of the Foundation of Historic Christ Church. ( Jack P. Greene. "Landon Carter" in Sara B. Bearss, John G. Deal, et al., eds. Dictionary of Virginia Biography. [Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006], 3:76-78; and Greene. The Diary of Colonel Landon Carter. . . . )



This text, originally posted in 2003, was revised June 12, 2012, to strengthen the footnote and modern language version text.