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 Alderman [Micajah] Perry, June 25, 1729

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant Alderman [Micajah] Perry, June 25, 1729, to send some bills of lading and of exchange (not present).



Letter from Robert Carter to Alderman [Micajah] Perry , June 25, 1729


-1 -

Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]     
June the 25th.1729

Alderman Perry --

     This is a line by the Spotswood Captain Bradby who is now at
my house and Encloses 2 bills of Lading one for 18 hogsheads of my own Crop
Tobacco the other for 16 hogsheads belonging to Mr. Burwells Estate. I have alre
ady sent away an Invoice for the Supply of those familys and have
already advised you of the bills of Exchange drawn by Colonel Page and my Self upon
the Account of the Childrens Estates. and upon Elizabeth Burwells Account This day
I have drawn upon [you] for £11"14"-to Captain Bradby on my own Account
and for £1"13"-to him on Account of the Estate.

     herein are Some Small bills of Exchange to wit. Captain
Keeling
on yourself for £2"10"- Charles Grymes on Ditto for £8"11"-
I have 2 upon yourself Emanuel Jones on Mr. James Yeats for
£6"12"- William Galis on Joshua Gee for £10"-"- Captain Smith on Berry
& Company for £19"4"- Thomas Dyer on G. Randal of Carrie for £3"15"-
John Fitzhugh on Lyonel Lyde Bristol for £11"1"8 Thomas Barber on
Lyonel Lyde for £5"2"-Peter Tourin on Edward Greenings Bidde
ford for £13"5"-Amounting to £80"00"8 which desire your managemt.
of. Shall Conclude here


               Your most humble Servant

Also a Small bill of Richard Chichesters
on your self for £2"06"7

per Captain Bradby


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] 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. )

[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] A bill of exchange is a kind of check or promissory note without interest. It is used primarily in international trade, and is a written order by one person to pay another a specific sum on a specific date sometime in the future. If the bill of exchange is drawn on a bank, it is called a bank draft. If it is drawn on another party, it is called a trade draft. Sometimes a bill of exchange will simply be called a draft, but whereas a draft is always negotiable (transferable by endorsement), this is not necessarily true of a bill of exchange. (See "Bill of Exchange" in the online Dictionary of Financial Scam Terms: the Truth vs. the Scam. )

[4] Captain William Keiling commanded the Betty. ( Survey Report 6800 summarizing Adm. 68/194, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. )

[5] Emanual Jones lived in Gloucester County. ( Beverley Fleet. Virginia Colonial Abstracts . [Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., reprint, 2000, 2006. online at Google Books,] p. 14 abstracting Essex County Wills and Deeds, 1711-1714, includes "Emanuel Jones of the Parish of Petsworth in the County of Gloucester Colony of Virginia Clerk. . . . " as a party to a deed of patition in December 1712 ; and Polly Cary Mason. Records of Colonial Gloucester County Virginia: A Collection of Abstracts. . . . [Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., reprint, 2009, online at Google Books] p. 105 includes similar records for Jones.)

[6] John Fitzhugh (d. 1733) of Stafford County, a younger son of William Fitzhugh of "Bedford." He was a burgess from Stafford in 1727. ( "The Fitzhugh Family." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 7[1899-1900]: 317-19. )

[7] "Lionel Lyde . . . was from Bristol and traded with Virginia in both slaves and tobacco. He was also involved in the transport of felons to Maryland and Virginia. Some of the time he was a partner with Isaac Hobhouse in ship voyages. He had an interest in a glasshouse. He served as Sheriff, Mayor, and Alderman of the City of Bristol." ( John Blankenbaker. "Germanna Colonies L Archives." Online at rootsweb. See also: Marie B. Rowlands. Masters and Men: In the West Midland Metalware Trades Before the Industrial Revolution. [Manchester University Press, 1975 ], p.76; Walter E. Minchinton, ed. The Trade of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century, [Bristol Record Society, 1957.] 20:101; and John Latimer The Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century. [the author, 1893. Transcript online .)

[8] Richard Chichester (1657-1734) came to Virginia in 1702. He married Anne Fox Chinn, and settled in Lancaster County. "Virginia Gleanings in England," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , 21 (1913):249-253.


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