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 Peter How & Captain Richard Kelsick, July 7, 1731
Robert Carter writes to Whitehaven merchants Peter How & Captain Richard Kelsick, July 7, 1731, concerning sales of tobacco he shipped on the Mazareen.
Letter from Robert Carter to Peter How
& Captain Richard Kelsick,
July 7, 1731
-1
-
Rappa[hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia]
July 7. 1731
Mr Peter How &Capt}
Richard Kelsick
Gentlemen
I having the Opportunity of discoursing
Capt Kelsick and understanding from him that you had sold
some of my 30 hogsheads of tobo sent yo in the Mazareen last year
when he came away I have nothing to add to that matter in that matter only to
wish you may meet with a good Market for them
Herein you have a bill of Loading
for 20:
hogsheads of tobo more in the same Ship consign'd to yo for sale
Resting in hopes that both this and the last Parcel may return a
living price I am,
Gentlemen,
Your very humble servant,
NOTES
Source copy consulted:
Letter book, 1728 Aug.-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] Peter How was a merchant of Whitehaven (on the Irish sea in northwest England), who, with Richard Kelsick, traded with the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area from the early 18th century. "In 1745, Peter How and Richard Kelsick built a store on the corner of Caroline and Hanover streets (Lot 16). While Kelsick continued to be based on the Northern Neck, How ran the Fredericksburg store, returning to Whitehaven sometime before 1756. The store operation evidently continued, for his ships made the annual voyage into the 1760s. The property was acquired in 1767 by James Ritchie & Co. of Glasgow; but How was back in Spotsylvania in the 1770s pursuing debtors." "He had interests in coal and iron-ore mines and set up an iron-working forge at Low Mill in 1750. Debts incurred by the forge and the decline in the tobacco trade may have contributed to his bankruptcy in 1763." ( Paula S. Felder. "Fredericksburg and Whitehaven Connection to English Port a Forgotten Chapter in Area's Colonial History Living-history Program," Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star
, 7/2/2005,
and Notes on a portrait of "Mrs Peter How
and her Two Children, Peter and Christian," 10/16/2015 )
[2] Carter noted in his diary January 19, 1727, the arrival of the Mazareen
at his house and a visit from her captain, Richard Kelsick, four days earlier. Kelsick, with Peter How, a merchant of Whitehaven (on the Irish sea in northwest England), traded with the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area from the early 18th century. See footnote 1. ( Paula S. Felder. "Fredericksburg and Whitehaven Connection to English Port a Forgotten Chapter in Area's Colonial History Living-history Program," Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star,
7/2/2005.
)
[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.
)
This text, originally posted in 2006, was revised October 16, 2015, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.