A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
List of Letters
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Electronic Text Center
, University of Virginia Library
Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to John Pemberton and Company, June 1,1728
Robert Carter writes to Liverpool mechant John Pemberton and Company, June 1,1728, to cover bills of lading for tobacco, some of which Carter has received in partial payment from a Purcell for his debt to Carter.
Letter from Robert Carter to John Pemberton
and Company, June 1,1728
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
June the 1st. 1728
Mr John Pemberton & Company
Ownrs. of John & Betty
This Accompanys Captain Denton
and
brings you a bill of Lading
for 15 hogsheads of Tobacco marked PD
on board the John and Betty Also for 3 hogsheads markt J~B in Ditto
Ship and a bill of Lading for 1 hogshead more in the Rappahannock
Captain
Brackhill, You have Accots: Sent you of this Concern as far as
it is gone and is Completed to Some Small Debts Excepting [illegible]
Purcells
Debt. part of which my Agreement . was to be paid next year.
The money balance due to you I make to be £16:10:9 for Payment
-2
-
thereof I give directions to Mr. Pemberton, 2 prized hogsheads more
a further payment of Purcells debt I intend to Ship on the
Carter
for London no prospect offering to Send it
[to] Your own port I am
Gent --
Your very humble Servant
per Denton
Copy per Trice
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] The John & Betty
was a Liverpool ship owned by merchant John Pemberton; she often carried slaves into the colony. In 1726 the captain was John Gale, and in the next year, she was commanded by a Captain William Denton. The ship would be lost in 1729. (Wright. Letters of Robert Carter. . . .
p. 18, n. 23
; Carter to P3mberton
, December 18, 1727;
Carter to Pemberton,
April 15, 1730;
and Carter to William Dawkins,
June 28, July 26, and August 22, 1727, for Denton's first name.
)
[2] A bill of lading is "an official detailed receipt given by the master of a merchant vessel to the person consigning the goods, by which he makes himself responsible for their safe delivery to the consignee. This document, being the legal proof of ownership of the goods, is often deposited with a creditor as security for money advanced." ( Oxford English Dictionary Online
. Oxford University Press.
)
[3] There were several vessels with the name Rappahannock
. One was based in Liverpool and was commanded by a Captain Francis Etheridge in 1725; she was a 90 ton ship with 13 men. Another of which Charles Whate was captain was of 60 tons with 11 men in 1726 and 1727. Carter's letters mention a Captain Brackhill in 1728, and Captain Loxum in 1733. ( Adm. 68/194, ff.30, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[4] Tobias Purcell purchased 150 acres in Lancaster County on the Corotoman River from Martha Norris on February 5, 1689, and Robert Carter bought the tract from him in 1696. The land would be a portion of that guaranteed to Betty (Landon) Carter in the jointure agreement
signed before her marriage to Robert Carter in 1701 .( Gertrude Entz Gray. Virginia Northern Neck Land Grants,
Volume 1, 1694 -- 1742
. [Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987] p. 87. Google Books, 8/11/2011;
)
[5] The 140 ton Welcome
was owned by London merchant James Bradley to whom Carter would write about her on May 17, 1727
. 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.
)
This text, originally posted in 2004, was revised November 10, 2014, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.