Letter from Robert Carter to Colonel Peter Beverley, December 14, 1727

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        and Digitized
   by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.

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Summary

Letter from Robert Carter to Colonel Peter Beverley, December 14, 1727

Robert Carter writes December 14, 1727, to Colonel Peter Beverley, a member of the Council and surveyor general of the colony, to ask him to appoint James Thomas, surveyor of Lancaster County, to that position in Westmoreland County which is closer to his home, but adds that the two jobs might be combined. He also writes that he will ask Thomas to look for a thousand acres of good land for Beverley.

Letter from Robert Carter to Colonel Peter Beverley, December 14, 1727

-1 -
Collo Peter Beverley Cortom [a] n. [Lancaster County, Virginia]
Decembr 14th. 1727

Honble. Sir

Captain Thomas Newton Surveyor of Westmorelan [d]
County is lately Dead & Mr James Thomas a liver in the said County but
at present Surveyor of Lancaster is very desirous to have the place for
that County rather than this as much more Convenient for him &
in order to Solicit for it is come down as far as my house but the wea-
ther being bad & the Difficulties in his way to you who now it is to be pre-
sumed may be at Williamsburg scares him from proceeding It will
be agreeable to my desire if you think it proper to send a commission
to Mr. Thomas to succeed Newton & if you will trust me with this aff
air ~~upon the~~ I will take care that upon the delivery of yo [ur] com-
mission he shall sign the bond you require of him he has left with
me a guinea for your fee which I shall Answer to you at our first me=
eting

Colonel Ball I believe would be glad to have Lancas=
ter joined to his commission and I almost think it hardly worth any body's Else seeking for it Sometime Since I sent a Warrant in your
name to Mr Warner To survey a thousand acres of Land for you that
I had information of was both good & not very inconvenient and if you
desire it I shall speak to Mr Thomas to take up another piece of land in
Your name if he comes Across any that may be worth meddling with
wch: does not lie too far from a landing I am

Sir -- --
Your most humble servant

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.

The county and colony have been added for clarity to this unheaded draft.

"The Virginia Company of London appointed a surveyor general for Virginia in 1621, and the crown continued to appoint surveyors general after Virginia became a royal colony in 1624. From 1693 until the Revolutionary War, the College of William and Mary was responsible for the Office of the Surveyor General, which appointed official surveyors and received one-sixth of the fees that they collected." ("Surveors and Mapmakers" in "Mapping Virginia" on the website of the Library of Virginia.)

[1] John Warner was the surveyor of King George County in 1727; helaid off the town of Falmouth in 1728. Later he worked for Lord Fairfax, and prepared an important map of his holdings. (Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William , 626-628. )

This text, originally posted in 2004, was revised July 24, 2014, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.