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, April 12, 1732

     Robert Carter writes to London merchant Alderman [Micajah] Perry, April 12, 1732, to alert him to a joint letter he and his son, John Carter, have written to Perry about the affairs of the estate of Mann Page, and to report a shipment of tobacco on board the Rebecca.



Letter from Robert Carter to Alderman [Micajah] Perry, April 12, 1732


-1 -

Rappahan[nock, Lancaster County, Virginia]

April 12.. 1732

Alderman Perry

Sr.

     The Secretary and I have now writ a joynt
letter to you upon Colo: Pages Affairs which we expect is couchd in
terms so much after your own dictates that will be intirely to your sa=
tisfaction

     I purposed by this Conveniency to have answered
your letters by the Burwell but am now Surpriz'd by the Ships coming
before my door much Sooner than my Expectation and have only Leizure
for this short line at Present must Reserve myself for my answers to a


-2 -


nother Opportunity

     My Sloop is this day return'd from Captn Malbon she delivered
on board the Rebeccah 46 hogsheads of my tobacco they cost me a full
month to get them managed under this new Law when otherwise
I could have very Well done it in a fortnight Malbons boatswain
tells me the Ship hath now 130 hogsheads on board I have not time to
add but to Conclude


              Sr.
                  Your most humble Servant.

Via Leverpool

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 Burwell was commanded by Captain Constantine Cant and may have been owned by William Dawkins and Micajah Perry as Carter reported her December 1723 arrival to each of them. ( Survey Report 06445 sumarizing "Adm. 68/196," "Greenwich Hospital: General Accounts. the Names of Ships and The Accounts Paid for Sixpences at the Port of London;" Survey Report 05336 summarizing "Admiralty-Miscellanea, Register of Passes, 1731-1733," etc., found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. )

[2] The Rebecca was probably a London ship; she was of 300 tons, had a crew of 11, and was commanded by Samuel Malbon in 1731-32. ( Survey Report 06445 sumarizing "Adm. 68/196," "Greenwich Hospital: General Accounts. the Names of Ships and The Accounts Paid for Sixpences at the Port of London;"Adm. 65/195, found in the microfilms of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. )

[3] The tobacco inspection act of 1730 was introduced and steered through the legislature by Lieutenant Governor Sir William Gooch. " The "bill called for the inspection and bonding at public warehouses of all tobacco shipped abroad; for the destruction of all unacceptable tobacco; for standardization of the size of hogsheads . . . ; for maintenance of detailed records to prevent smuggling; and for the circulation of warehouse receipts as legal tender in lieu of tobacco iteself. . . ." Gooch also managed to obtain approval of the act in England. It went into effect 1731 August 1.(Billings. et al. Colonial Virginia: A History. pp. 236-39.)


This text, originally posted in 2006, was revised April11 , 2016, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.