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 William Camp, June 14, 1729
Robert Carter writes to William Camp, one of his managers, June 14, 1729, to give instructions for the loading on a number of ships tobacco from his own farms and from the Nathaniel Burwell estate.
Letter from Robert Carter to William Camp,
June 14, 1729
-1
-
[Corotoman, Lancaster County, Virginia]
June the 14th: 1729
Wm. Camp --
Herein I send you directions how you are to take the bills of
Lading
both for my own and the Estates Tobacco
-- Vizt.
The 11 hogsheads from Rippon
[tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Falconar
on board
the Spotswood
Captain James Bradby --
The 18 hogsheads on board Ditto ship [tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Perry
My 4 hogsheads on board the Carolina
Captain Holladay, [tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Perry
My 30 hogsheads in the Amity
Captain Wills [tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Falconar.
The 17 hogsheads of Merchant Hundreds
on board the Micajah & Phillip
[tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Falconar --
_______________________________________________________________________________
Now follows how the Estates Tobacco is to be Consigned
The 15 hogsheads on board the Carolina Captain Holloday., 10 of this mark [tobacco mark] 5
of this mark [tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Perry.
The 16 hogsheads on board the Spotswood Captain Bradby, 11 of this [tobacco mark]
2 of this mark [tobacco mark] 3 of this mark [tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Perry --
The 9 hogsheads on board the Micjaah and Phillip of this mark [tobacco mark] I consign to Mr. Perry
The 12 hogsheads on board the Amity Captain Wills.. of this mark [tobacco mark] I con
=sign to Mr. Falconar --
The 20 hogsheads in the Burwell
Captain Cant I consign to Mr. Dawkins
[tobacco mark]
In taking the bills of Lading you are to fill them up thus. My own
Tobacco shipped by me upon my proper Account and risk. The Merchant
hundreds Tobacco shipped by me upon the Accot: and risk of the Merchant
hundreds Estate.
The Estates Tobacco the bills of Lading to be filled up shipped by Mann Page
Esquire and my Self Executors of Mr. Burwell
Deceased upon the Proper Account and
risk of Major Nathaniel Burwells Estate --
These directions are so Plain that I think you can't go wrong
I expect you will have time after you have taken these bills of Lading to
send them to me that I may send them in Letters by the respective ships but
if it happens Otherways, you may either deliver the bills of Lading to Colonel
Page requesting him in my name to send one of them to the Merchants
they are Consigned to in the Ship the Tobacco is in rather than fail you must
send a bill of Lading to each Merchant by the proper ship, Acquainting the
Merchants that you do this by my Order. but I had much rather that
-2
-
either Colonel Page or my Self have the bills of Lading --
The Impost and Cocquet
for these Tobaccos is due to the Masters
upon their Signing the bills of Lading but I beleive they will be well enoug [h]
satisfied that it be mentioned in the bills of Lading the Impost and Cocquet [not]
being paid
Captain Wills I am indebted to for a knot of Hamburg li [ne]
and he sent me a barrel of strong Beer what he will charge for it I don't
know he owes me by promise 30/ sterling for 10 hogsheads of Tobacco I delive [red ]
his sloop at my own house which I had been at Considerable Charge in
bringing home. You are to get this money of him after his Account -- [is ]
paid or to discount it in my Impost either way as he pleases --
Mr. Nelmes Account I think is right I did not know from
whom I had the Molasses I would have you pay him his ballance
I have already told you I am in Captain Bradbys Debt and
directed you to get his Account and Send it me that I may order you to
him or if you pay him within orders it will be as well for I am not
in the least Suspicious that he will be ingenerous in overcharging
me for any thing more than he would do if he and I were together
in Settling in the Account --
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.
Carter sent this letter open to his son-in-law, Mann Page, June 20, 1729
, so that Page might review the instructions to Camp because Carter and Page managed jointly the affairs of Nathaniel Burwell's estate.
[1] William Camp (Kemp) was described by Carter as "the General Overseer of Mr Burwell's Affairs" and he wrote that Camp earned a salary "£50 . . . for the year 1731." Carter and his son-in-law, Mann Page, were the trustees of Nathaniel Burwell's children after Burwell's death in 1721. Camp was a resident of Gloucester County where most of the Burwell estates lay, and he must also have supervised "Rippon Hall" in nearby York County. ( Carter to George Braxton, November 20, 1729
,
and Carter to William Dawkins, July 11, 1732,
and Virginia Tax Records.
[Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1983.] p. 539.
)
[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] Rippon Hall had been Edmund Jening's estate in York County which he had acquired in 1687 from John and Unity West when it was named "Poplar Neck." Jenings's bad financial circumstances forced him to mortgage the property to Carter who eventually acquired title to it..( "Notes and Queries."
William and Mary Quarterly.
2[Apr. 1894]: 270-278, now available through the Internet Archive.
)
[4] John Falconar (d. ca.
1729) was a London merchant with whom Carter dealt. In 1728, Falconar and Henry Darnell formed an association of 29 London tobacco merchants to deal with the French tobacco purchasing agent as a group in order to keep the price as high as possible. The association lasted only lasted a year or two before dissolving because some of its members were dealing directly with the French agent and selling below the agreed-upon price. (See Carter's letter to Falconar
of July 24 and August 22, 1727, for details about the payment of £200 to him. See Carter to William Dawkins,
for Falconar's death date. Arthur Pierce Middleton. Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History of the Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era.
Newport News, VA: Mariners' Museum, 1953. p. 129
)
[5] The Spotswood
was a London ship commanded by James Bradby, 1727-1732, and was owned by Micajah Perry. ( Adm 68/195, 70r ff., found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. See Carter to Micajah Perry
April 16. 1730.
)
[6] William Holladay commanded a ship named the Princess Carolina
, a ship owned by merchant John Pemberton of London. ( Survey Report 6800, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia;
and letter, Carter to Pemberton, March 25, 1724.
)
[7] Captain Peter Wills commanded the Booth
in 1723-1724, a ship belonging to merchant Thomas Colmore of London (see Carter's letter
to Colmore of January 20 and February 15, 1724), and the Amity,
a vessel of 500 tons and 21 men, in 1727-1729. He is mentioned in Carter's diary in 1723. ( Survey Report 6800 summarizing Adm. 68/194, and Survey Report 6801 summarizing Adm. 68/195, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[6] The Micajah & Philip
was a large vessel of some 400 tons carrying a crew of 27. The captain's name varies from record to record as James Bradley or James Bradby. Thomas Jones wrote to his wife, then in England, concerning this ship in 1728, "The Micajah & Philip that comes to James River is as good as the best Ships that Comes hither, but Bradby the master seems to be a little conceited and prodigal." ( Adm. 68/194-196, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia
; and Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
26[1918]: 172, abstracting the Jones Papers at the Library of Congress .
)
[7] Captain Constantine Cant commanded the Buwell
which may have been owned by William Dawkins and Micajah Perry as Carter reported her December 1723 arrival to each of them. ( Adm. 68/194-195, ff. 76v, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[8] The impost was the duty imposed by Britain on imported tobacco, and the cocket, for which a fee was charged, was the document bearing a cocket or seal issued by the "King's Customs House" that the impost had been paid. (See the definitions of each word in Oxford English Dictionary Online.
)
[9] The German city of Hamburg was noted for the production of rope, and this may be what Carter means.
This text, originally posted in 2005, was revised March12 , 2015, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.