A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
List of Letters
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, University of Virginia Library
Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to John Pemberton and Company, April 15, 1730
Robert Carter writes to John Pemberton and Company, April 15, 1730, concerning the final financial details of sales of slaves on their ship Rose.
Letter from Robert Carter to John Pemberton
and Company, April 15, 1730
-1
-
Rappa [hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]
April 15. 1730
Mr. John Pemberton & Compa}
Freightr: of the Ship Rose}
I received your favour of the 15th of December
per Captain Loxam
owning the receipt of the tobacco I had Shipped you
and the payment of the money I had ordered you in the hands
of Mr Pemberton for the three protested bills. also you acquain
t me with the receipt of the two hogsheads sent in Ireland which
were upon the Accot of your goods left with me by Captain
Christian
and made up Six hogsheads on that Accot Marked
N [umber] s per
letters
the rest of them goods I have lately sold at a lump
to Mr Thomas Edwards
they amount to between 5 & 6000 pounds of tobacco he is to pay me this
year I hope to get it of him to ship in Breakhill
for you
-2
-
In mine of the 20th of June
I acquainted Mr Pemberton
the balance of your negroe Concern was two thousand and eig
hty one pounds of tobacco herein I send you a bill of Lading
for
2 hogsheads weighing neat with the Allowance of Cask 1973. In the Loyalty
Captain Loxum which Ballances that Concern to 109
a parcel of
109 pounds Tobacco there is due to the Receivers
for a pretty deal of the
tobacco of your Concern which I shall send you in my next One
of the Receivers being dead I cannot send you The Accot at Present
1st letter
I am
Gentlemen Your most humble Servant
per Loxum
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.
Carter had acted beginning in the fall of 1727 as local agent for the sale of slaves from the ship Rose
owned by Pemberton and some of the merchant's partners. Concluding the financial details of the sale extended over serveral years. See Carter's letter
to Pemberton of September 16, 1727, which notes the beginning of the arrangement. Details are mentioned in numerous letters to Pemberton thereafter.
[1] Several vessels named The Loyalty
sailed to Virginia. One commanded by Francis Wallis cleared from Poole for Virginia in 1726. Captain Loxom commanded a vessel of this name in 1729-1730 as did James Tarleton in 1731. (Survey Report 9727, Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. See Carter's letters to John Pemberton April 15,1730
and 1731 August 4
.)
[2] James Christian was captain of the Rose.
(See Carter to Pemberton,
April 15, 1730.)
[3] "Thos. Edwards, a little petty Fogging Lawyer the Clark of our County that hath as much Mettle and more cunning for Contention then his predecessor had" Carter wrote to Landon Jones, July 22, 1723.
His opinion of Edwards later changed for there are more appreciative mentions of him in Carter's diary. Edwards was clerk of the Lancaster County court from 1720-1746. ( Within the Court House at Lancaster.
Lively, VA: Lively Printing Services, Lively, VA: Lively Printing Services, [1976]. p. 15.
; and "Thomas Edwards, Gentleman, Clerk of the Court" in Brown and Sorrells. People in Profile.
pp. 94-103.
)
[4] There were several vessels with the name Rappahannock
. Carter's letters mention a Captain Hugh Brackhill in 1728-1729, and Captain Loxum in 1732. ( Adm. 68/194, ff.30, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[5] 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.
)
[6] The recever was an officer appointed to serve under the authority of the Receiver-General of the colony to collect "the export duty of two shillings per hogshead on tobacco, the one penny per pound on tobacco exported from Virginia . . . ." (Percy Scott Flippin. The Financial Administration of the Colony of Virginia
[Johns Hopkins Press, 1915.] 41-42.
)
This text, originally posted in 2005, was revised July 21, 2015, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.