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 King, September 12, 1728
Robert Carter writes to Bristol merchant John King, September 12, 1728, to order powder, shot, and bar iron.
Letter from Robert Carter to John King,
September 12, 1728
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
Sepr. the 12th: 1728
John King Esqr.
Sir --
This is a Short line to desire you will take
the first opportunity to Send me in two hundred weight of your
Bristol Shott
and fifty weight of good Powder and if you Send me
in five hundred weight of Flatt and Square Barrs
of Iron it will not
be unwelcome I am I am
Sir --
Yor. humble Servt.
per Raymond
NOTES
Source copy consulted:
Letter book, 1728 August-1731 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] In Carter's day, the muzzle loading weapons performed best when loaded with a spherical projectile manufactured by pouring drops of molten lead into a pool of water. "Small shot had been made by the 'long drop into water'" method for around a hundred years" before the invention of the tower for that purpose by a Bristol man, William Watts, about 1780. ( Walter Mnichinton. "The Shot Tower" in The Shot Peener
. 7[#3 Fall 1993]:22-24
, reprinted from American Heritage
, 199; and "Lead Working
in Bristol'")
[2] No information about Captain Raymond has been found.
This text, originally posted in 2004, was revised January 9, 2015, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.