A Collection Transcribed
and Digitized
by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
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Summary
Letter from Robert Carter to Captain John Hyde and Company, July 26, 1731
Robert Carter writes to London merchants Captain John Hyde and Company, July 26, 1731, to enquire why he has not received reports of sales of tobacco sent over the past several years and of bills of exchange. He also encloses an invoice (not present) for goods for his children.
Letter from Robert Carter to Captain John Hyde
and Company, July 26, 1731
-1
-
Rappahannock, [Lancaster County, Virginia]
July 26. 1731.
Capt John Hyde & Comany
Gentlemen
All the letters I have received from you this year
are contained in three lines at the bottom of my Invoice sent in the
Rebecca
Captain Malbon.
I cannot but be a little concerned no futher intelligence
is given to me of the business I have in your hands Accots are yet to be
rendered me for the following tobaccos vizt
forty hogsheads of my own
crops in the Providence per Woodward
in 1729 ten hogsheads per [the] Bailey
-2
-
the same year belonging to Mr. Burwells Estate
twenty hogsheads
stemmed tobacco my own Crop Per the Providence in 1730. and 7 hogsheads ditto in
the Bailey stemmed also none of these tobaccos are made any mention of
although the Ships tha [t] Carried them have visited us again & Again
Last year I sent Bills of Exchange
upon Yourselves for £29.18.10 drawn
by Churchill Jones and for £10" by Dennis McCarty I presume by your
Silence these bills I am credited with perhaps your letters may have
Miscarry'd which
has occasioned this disapointment to me
Herein I send you an Invoice for some things for two of
my children desiring the directions therein may be observed I am-
Gentlemen
Your Most humble Servant.
NOTES
Source copy consulted:
Letter book, 1731 July 9-1732 July 13 , 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 Rebecca
was probably a London ship; she was of 300 tons, had a crew of 11, and was commanded by Samuel Malbon in 1731. ( Adm. 65/195, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
)
[2] Vizt. is the abbreviation for the Latin word "videlicet"; it means "that is to say; namely; to wit: used to introduce an amplification, or more precise or explicit explanation, of a previous statement or word." ( Oxford English Dictionary
online.
)
[3] Thomas Woodward commanded the Providence,
a ship owned by Captain John Hyde & Company, during a number of voyages to the colony, 1723-1729. ( 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,
and Carter's letter to the firm, September 17, 1723.
)
[4] The Bailey
was a London ship owned by William Dawkins and commanded at various times by Adam Graves (1725-1730) and by Thomas Dove 1730-1732. She was a vessel of some 250 tons and carried 15-17 crew members. ( Survey report 6801 summarizing Adm. 68/195, 156v, and other data in Adm. 68/194 and /196, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia;
A letter of Carter's to Dawkins May 12, 1732,
refers to "your ship Bailey." as does a letter of August 10, 1733, from Carter's executors to Dawkins. [ Lloyd T. Smith, Jr., ed.
The Executors' Letters of Robert Carter of Corotoman, 1732-1738.
(Irvington, VA: Foundation for Historic Christ Church, 2010) p. 76].
)
[5] 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.
)
This text, originally posted in 2006, was revised February 12, 2016, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.