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 [Governor William Gooch], June 29, 1728
Robert Carter writes to [Governor William Gooch], June 29, 1728, to report that two pipes of wine belonging to the governor have been landed at Corotoman and that he can have them brought to Williamsburg landing if the governor approves.
Letter from Robert Carter to [Governor William Gooch
], June 29, 1728
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
[date from text]
May it please Your Honr:
This Morning Arrived into this River
Captain James Tarleton
of Liverpool from the Madeira he
has Landed two pipes of wine here for your Honor
by order of Mr. Rider
the Ship is gone up our river. he
says by his ] he is not obliged to carry them
any further, Your Letter I presume will inform the truth
of this which comes herewith he could not have taken
them in upon any Other Terms, I shall wait your Honor's
Direction about them. There is a Sloop of Captain Hopkins
es that must call at my house for Tobacco in her way down
I Expect her in less than a fortnight
she comes by
the Mouth of Queens Creek
and no doubt but
I can
persuade the Men to bring the wine up to Williamsburg
Landing it is so ticklish a Commodity I shall not
-2
-
Adventure to Send it by this Conveniency unless I have
your Honor's Express orders I am
Sr.
Your Honor's most Obedt.
& most
Obliged
& most humble Servt
NOTES
Source copy consulted:
Robert Carter Letter Book, 1727 April 13-1728 July 23, Carter Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.
The county and colony have been added for clarity to the heading on the draft.
See Carter's followup letter to Gooch 1728 July 8
confirming arrangements for the shipment the wine.
[1] The Rappahannock
[2] This may have been James Tarleton who in 1731 cammanded the The Loyalty
. Several vessels with this name sailed to Virginia. One commanded by Francis Wallis cleared from Poole for Virginia in 1726. Captain Loxom commanded a vessel of this name in 1729-1730.. (Survey Report 9727, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. See Carter's letters to John Pemberton April 15,1730
and 1731 August 4
.)
[3] Mr. Rider was probably a member of the firm of Hayward Miles & Rider of Madeira from whom Carter had ordered wine on June 29, 1727
. This firm had been established in Madeira by Joseph Hayward in 1715. It became Hayward & Rider (1721-1723), Hayward Miles & Rider (1725-1730), and other partnerships later. ( David Hancock, "'An Undiscovered Ocean of Commerce Laid Open': India, Wine and Emerging Atlantic Economy, 1703-1813" in H. V. Bowen, Margarette Lincoln, Nigel Rigby, eds.
The Worlds of the East India Company.
[Boydell & Brewer, 2002]. p. 156
)
[4] 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.
)
[5] Captain James Hopkins commanded the Mary
in 1727-1728. He was then working for London merchant Robert Cary. He is mentioned in Carter's diary. ( Adm. 68/194, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[6] A fortnight is two weeks.
[7] "Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County it flows northeasterly across the northern half of the Peninsula as a tributary of the York River." ( "Queen's Creek"
in Wikipedia.
)
This text, originally posted in 2004, was revised November 14, 2014, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.