Robert King Carter's Correspondence and Diary

   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 Colonel [Thomas] Lee, November 20, 1728

     Robert Carter as commander of the militia in the Northern Neck writes to Colonel [Thomas] Lee of Westmoreland County, November 20, 1728, concerning militia commissions for that county.



Letter from Robert Carter to Colonel [Thomas] Lee, November 20, 1728


-1 -

Corotoman, [Lancaster County, Virginia]     
Novr. the 20th: 1728

Colonel Lee

Sir --

     herein I Send you your own Commission Colonel
Ashtons
and Major Berrymans. Major Eskridge has it his I have blank
Commissions for all the rest of the Officers of your County I am not will
ing to fill them up until I have had your Opinion about them, I be
lieve the list you gave me will hardly do now I cannot but think
there are Some Gentlemen for the two Companys that want Captains, that
will better Supply their places than the Lieutenants I Send you a Copy of the list
I had from you that you may Consider of it and let me have your
Second thoughts, As for the under Officers I think it best to let the
[r] espective Captains please themselves,

     You know that upon these Occasions the Governor's Clerk
who writes these Commissions Expects to be remembered I promised
[h] im all the Service I could do and to be answerable to him for what
Gentlemen would be pleased to deposit in my hands for him I doubt not
[you] r readiness to forward this matter as far as it lies within your
province I am


              Sir
                  Your 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 addressee can be identified as Thomas Lee of Westmoreland County because George Eskridge and others mentioned in the letter as recipients of militia commissions were also residents of that county.

The county and colony have been added for clarity to the heading on the draft.

[1] Thomas Lee (1690-1750) of Westmoreland County was the son of Richard Lee II, and nephew of Edmund Jenings; he would build "Stratford," and succeed Carter on the Council. For a good article on Thomas Lee, see "Thomas Lee of Stratford 1690-1750" by Jeanne A. Calhoun on Stratford plantation's website. ( Burton J. Hendrick. The Lees of Virginia: Biography of a Family. [Boston: Little Brown, 1935]. pp. 48, 51, etc. )

[2] Henry Ashton (1670-1731) was a prominent citizen of Westmoreland County where he was burgess, justice, and sheriff. (Norris. Westmoreland County, Virginia. p. 107; and David W. Eaton. Historical Atlas of Westmoreland County Virginia. Richmond: Dietz Press, 1942, in an undated reprint. p. 43.

[3] Benjamin Berryman (ca. 1680-1729) was the son of John and Jane Berryman and lived in Westmoreland County where he was justice and sheriff. (McIlwaine. Executive Journals of the Council. . . . , 3[1705-1721]:398, 425; and "Capt. Benjamin Berryman. . . . http://www.sharpwriters.com/genealogy/berryman.html, 30 Nov. 2004)

[4] The clerk probably meant to write "deposit."


This text, originally posted in 2004, was revised January 19, 2015, to strengthen the footnotes and modern language version text.