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 John Gale, June 27, 1727

     Robert Carter writes a friendly letter to Glasgow merchant John Gale, June 27, 1727, because he has the opportunity by a Glasgow ship, wishing Gale well, and asking his help in obtaining a gardener.



Letter from Robert Carter to John Gale, June 27, 1727


-1 -

Mr. John Gale     [Rappahannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]     
June the 27th. 1727


Sir --

     I do not find I have answered your favour of the
10th of November by Captain Kelsick I am in no doubt of your doing yor:
best Endeavour in the Dispose of my 12 hhds: by the Crown The goodness
of the tobacco I am in hopes hath Carried it of at the Top of your market
Yor: Countryman Bowman taking his leave of me this day I thought
it proper to give you the trouble of this Line wishing you all Imagin
able prosperity I am


Sir, Yor: most humble Servt:

I am yet in want of a gardener &
Should be obliged to you if you can
procure one for me
per Captain Bowman

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.

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] John Gale (c. 1760s-1729) was a Whithaven merchant whom Carter would write a number of times times between1720 and 1729. "Like his brothers John was engaged in maritime trade. Operating as John Gale and Company, he was named as the owner of the vessel Clotilda, built in England in 1726 and registered in Whitehaven in 1727 at 25 tons." The Gale family had many connections with the colonies, especially in Virginia and Maryland. (Gayle N.Mandell, "The Gale/Gayle Families," extensive genealogical and historical notes available online. )

[2] Carter noted in his diary January 19, 1727, the arrival of the Mazareen at his house and a visit from her captain, Richard Kelsick, four days earlier. Kelsick, with Peter How, a merchant of Whitehaven (on the Irish sea in northwest England), traded with the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area from the early 18th century. ( Paula S. Felder. "Fredericksburg and Whitehaven Connection to English Port a Forgotten Chapter in Area's Colonial History Living-history Program," Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star, 7/2/2005. )

[3] Captain Samuel Bowman commanded the Lucia. Carter mentioned this vessel in his diary in June 1724, and again on 1726 March 4 when he wrote that she "came in had 20 Weeks Passage."


This text, originally posted in 2003, was revised November 20, 2012, and again on June 11, 2013, to strengthen the footnotes and modern language version text.