A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
List of Letters
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About This Collection
Electronic Text Center
, University of Virginia Library
Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to John Zuil, July 22, 1729
Robert Carter writes to Liverpool merchant John Zuil, July 22, 1729, to complain that he has yet to receive an account of the sales of his last shipment of tobacco, and to enclose a bill of lading (not present) for more. He also orders clothes.
Letter from Robert Carter to John Zuil,
July 22, 1729
-1
-
Rappa[hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]
July 22d. 1729
Mr John Zuil
Sir
The Tobo I sent you by Capt Stevenson
when he was here before hath met with a very tedious dispose
I have yr letter Acquainting me how you had dispersed it but
what it will yeild me I am yet a Stranger to yr being an owner
in the Caledon hath prevailed with me to make a further small
Tryal of yr management herein is a bill of Lading
for 6 hogsheads
Consign'd [to] you upon my Accot & risque I wish they may answer so
well to Encourage a further correspondence with you I am
Sir
your very Humble Servt.
I desire you to send
me in a Handsome Morning
Gown & a pr of Leg boots or spatterd asshes
with Large broad
buckles and handsome Spurs and leathers to them
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] John Zuil was a merchant and was probably the ship's captain that Carter mentioned in his diary August 1, 1722, "Zuil Saild Gave me a Bottle Snuff." Carter recorded a diary note about him the following year as well: December 30, 1723, "mr Zuil & man came back" [from church]. In what British city Zuil lived is not clear, but it may have been Liverpool because city directories of 1767-1773 list a John Zuil as a merchant, first in Cable Street, and later, in King Street. This probably would have been a son of the man Carter knew, given the shorter lives at this period. ( "Yuil Family Website," and Yule Family Newsletter
, #24 (Fall 1998).
)
[2] The Caledon,
commanded by John Stevenson in 1729, was owned in part by merchant John Zuil. In what British city Zuil lived is not clear, but it may have been Liverpool because city directories of 1767-1773 list a John Zuil as a merchant, first in Cable Street, and later, in King Street. This probably would have been a son of the man Carter knew, given the shorter lives at this period. (See Carter to Zuil,
July 22, 1729; "Yuil Family Website," and Yule Family Newsletter
, #24 (Fall 1998).
)
[3] 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] The clerk should have written "spatterdashes," "a kind of long gaiter or legging of leather, cloth, etc., to keep the trousers or stockings from being spattered, esp. in riding." ( Oxford English Dictionary Online
. Oxford University Press.
)
This text, originally posted in 2005, was revised April 28, 2015, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.