A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
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Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to James Bradley, June 2, 1727
Robert Carter writes a friendly letter to London merchant James Bradley, June 2, 1727, commenting on the business failure of Thomas Evans and his debt from him, preparations in the colony for war with Germany and Spain, the ships that will sail about the tenth in convoy and those that have already sailed, and that Bradley's ship, the Welcome,
did not arrive until late April and cannot make an early return.
Letter from Robert Carter to James Bradley,
June 2, 1727
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
June 2d: 1727
Mr. James Bradley
Sir --
You have been so kind in your frequent
Letters and public news that I cannot forbear to give
you the trouble of this Short line in answer to yours of the 16 March
Mr. Evans
Stood indebted to me upon a Just ballance
-2
-
near four hundred pounds which according to Mr. Carys
advice of his Circumstances very little of is to be gotten he has
bin my friendly Correspondent for many years and I
always took him to be an honest man his hard fate
I heartily lament as well as my own,
By all advices it appears we are near an
Open rupture with Germany and Spain God only knows
where this war may End We have done all we Could
Saving a Strict Embargo that our Ships might go away
in fleets with our Station Man of Warr to See them a
Considerable distance off the Land but it has been of no
great Effect Ships have run away daily notwithstanding
there will be a pretty good Fleet ready to Join the Man
of War about the 10th: of this month its Said most of Mr.
Perrys
Ships will get then ready so that you will be
pretty full of tobacco for your forward market and there
are a great many already gone some of which are by this
time near with you,
I admire you Should Expect Captain
Trice to
be a forward Ship when he Arrived but late in April
it will be well if he gets his Load at last, how his Cir=
cumstances are at this Time I do not know By Captain
Hopkins
Woodward
I sent you Twelve hhd [s]
of tobacco
who Sailed above a fortnight Since
and I hear run it then I w [r]
it [sic] to you at large to which
please to be referred I am
Sir,
Your very humble Servt:
per Keiling
-- --
NOTES
Source copy consulted:
Robert Carter Letter Book, 1727 April 13-1728 July 23, Carter Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.
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 to the heading on the draft.
[1] James Bradley was a London merchant with whom Carter dealt from at least 1723 until his death. As noted in his letter to Bradley of May 17, 1727,
Bradley owned the Welcome,
but little information about Bradley has been located. (There is a listing of the firm of Bradly & Griffin, Merchants, Fenchurch-street, opposite the Mitre Tavern, on page 13 of Kent's Directory
For the Year 1740 Containing An Alphabetical List of the Names and Places of Abode of the Directors of Companies, Persons in Publick Business, Merchants, and other Eminent Traders in the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark.
[London: Printed and Sold by Henry Kent in Finch-Lane, near the Royal Exchange: and by the Booksellers and Pamphlets Shops of London and Westminster, 1740]. p. 39. Online, examined 8/12/2005 and 6/14/2012.
)
[2] The 140 ton Welcome
was owned by London merchant James Bradley to whom Carter would write about her on 1727 May 17. John Trice (Frice) was her captain, 1723-1727. ( Adm 68/195, 154r, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[3] Thomas Woodward commanded the Providence,
a ship owned by Captain John Hyde & Company, during a number of voyages to the colony, 1723-1727. ( Adm. 68/194 and 195, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia,
and Carter's letter to the firm, 1723 September 17.)
[4] Captain William Keiling commanded the Betty.
( Survey Report 6800 summarizing Adm. 68/194, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
This text, originally posted in 2003, was revised August 3, 2012, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.