A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
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Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to Colonel Nicholas Smith, February 24, 1729
Robert Carter writes to Colonel Nicholas Smith of Richmond County, February 24, 1729, about militia commissions and to thank him for his sympathy on Carter's recent loss of his new house at Corotoman.
Letter from Robert Carter to Colonel Nicholas Smith,
February 24, 1729
-1
-
[Corotoman, Lancaster County, Virginia]
Febry: 24th. 1728/9
Colonel Nicholas Smith
I receiv'd yours of the Twelfth not until Saturday
last major Thornton
is Certainly mistaken to think that the
practice has been to send the Commissions Blank to the Command:
ing Officers residing in the County to be filled up by them at their
pleasure and to be distributed at a general muster at least I am
sure I never was Acquainted with such a practice the Governors I
have been Acquainted with have never entrusted me with the blank
commissions before this and
but
have Always had them filled up them
selves upon the return of my Lists however being well assured o [f]
your Sincerity I now send them to you not doubting you will pitch i [n]
the best and fittest men for Captains that your County will afford it [is]
highly necessary there be a Captain Appointed somewhere about the ma [. . .]
for the Upper Company Russel now lives in Stafford and who to
recommend as a fit person in those parts for his place I am to [o]
much a Stranger to do
offer at
Captain Strother
is as fit a person in my Opinion a [s]
any that lives near him and I should not be for leaving him
out but if he absolutely refuses to Serve I dont know how that
-2
-
is to be helped I am
Sir
Your most humble Servant
were I master of a vein to
match your wit a [s] well as your Lady is &ca: you might expect some th [i]
ng of that nature from me but you know my Talent is too flat f [or]
such Excursions I thank you kindly for the tenderness you express of
my late Suffering
& am
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] Major William Thornton (d. 1742/43) of King George County. ( King George County Virginia Will Book A-1 1721-1752 And Miscellaneous Notes.
[Fredericksburg, VA: Privately Printed, 1978], p. 277.
)
[2] Carter built a fine house in the mid 1720s, but it burned in January 1729. See the "Corotoman" page
of the web site of Historic Christ Church Foundation for more information about the house and excavation of its ruins. (See the Maryland Gazette
for February 4-11, 1728/29 for comment on Carter's loss. The Maryland Archives has placed its copies of the Maryland Gazette
online. Unfortunately, page four of the issue of February 4-11, 1728/29 is missing, and that must be where the notice of the fire at Corotoman appeared; the text is quoted in secondary sources as reading: "The fine large house of Colonel Carter on the Rappahannock was also burnt lately. The particulars of his loss we can't give you, but we are inform'd it is very great." [ Garden Club of Virginia Journal
, May-June 1983, p.8.
])
This text, originally posted in 2005, was revised February 9 , 2015, to strengthen the footnotes and the modern language version text.