Letter from Robert Carter to Unidentified Correspondent, January 21, 1729

   A Collection Transcribed
        and Digitized
   by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.

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Summary

Letter from Robert Carter to Unidentified Correspondent, January 21, 1729

Robert Carter writes a concilatory letter to an unidentified correspondent, January 21, 1729, who apparently has complained about abuses by Carter's employees on lands owned by him.

Letter from Robert Carter to an Unidentified Correspondent, January 21, 1729

-1 -
[Corotoman, Lancaster County, Virginia]
Janry. the 21st. 1728/9

Sir --

Your Letter by my Son Robert I designed an anwer
to tomorrow when he designs his Journy to Nomini I Sent you word
by Major Eskridge if you have Seen him that I had Sent repeated orders
both to Ines and Mr. Burwells Overseer that ]they] Should not meddle with
any thing on the other Side of the line that was run by Warner for you
neither Timber nor any thing Else and I must believe that you have
bin under a misinformation My Son Charles tells me he was by when
I gave my verbal orders to the Overseer and he told you as much when
you know me better you will not think I give promises with design to
deceive any Person and if that piece of Land be fairly yours I have no
design to Contest it nor on the other hand I am to give up the right of Mr.
Burwells heir to what properly belongs to him it is very apparent the
Patent you claim under is the Eldest and will be first Served in its lands
but whether you have run the right line according to your Patent I am
an Absolute Stranger to however if you are not disturbed within
the line you have made I See no reason you have to be uneasy nor to
be so forward to take up designs of Law which when you have lived
as long as I have you'll love as little as I do If you had given me the
favour of your Company I Should have found you a passage over the
river for your horses I am

Sir
Your most humble Servt:

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.

The name of Carter's home, "Corotoman," the county, and colony have been added for clarity to this unheaded draft.

[1] William Camp (Kemp) was described by Carter as "the General Overseer of Mr Burwell's Affairs" but as Camp was a resident of Gloucester County where most of the Burwell estates lay, the overseer Carter refers to here must have been the local one for the specific Burwell property. ( Carter to George Braxton, November 20, 1729 , and Carter to William Dawkins, July 11, 1732. ( Virginia Tax Records. [Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1983.] p. 539. )

[2] John Warner was the surveyor of King George County in 1727; he laid off the town of Falmouth in 1728. Later he worked for Lord Fairfax, and prepared an important map of his holdings. (Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William , 626-628. )

This text, originally posted in 2005, was revised January 27, 2015, to strengthen the footnotes and the modern language version text.