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 [James] Bradley, July 9, 1728
Robert Carter writes to London merchant [James] Bradley, July 9, 1728, to acknowledge a letter of March 9, to cover a bill of lading for tobacco he is shipping on the Welcome,
and to note his intention to ship more on the Carter.
Letter from Robert Carter to James Bradley,
July 9, 1728
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
July the 9th: 1728
To Mr. Bradley
Sir --
The above is a Copy. Yours of the 9th of March is
now come to hand am Sorry to find you Speak so indifferently of
the Market and yet say there was little Tobbo: on hand, I think I may
Adventure to Say you could not have much Supply till the latter end
of last month so that if we might dare hope for any thing you had
time Enough before you to bring the buyers to a better temper,
Herein is a bill of Lading
for 15 hogsheads on board
the Welcom
Capt: Trice one of my Entire Crops if he had bin in a
Strait
for more, I Should have made them up as I Ship in the Carter
for you 20 hogsheads more which Y
will go near to
be my Quota this year, I am
not well pleased with these lagg Sales, Shall be glad to find they
turn to my Advantage Shall give you no further trouble at present
remain
Sir
Yor. most humble Servt: --
Trice
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] 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] 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] 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, 1723-1728. ( Adm 68/195, 154r, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[4] Carter uses the word "strait" in the sense of "A narrow or tight place, a time of sore need or of awkward or straitened circumstances, a difficulty or fix." ( Oxford English Dictionary Online
. Oxford University Press.
)
This text, originally posted in 2004, was revised November 20, 2014, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.