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 [John and Landon Carter] to Foster Cunliffe, June 23, 1733

     [John and Landon Carter] write to Liverpool merchant Foster Cunliffe, June 23, 1733, to report an earlier shipment of 50 hogsheads of tobacco and a new one of 30 on the Rappahannock which will be the last they will send to Lverpool. They send their compliments to Joh Pemberton, and request Cunliffe to fill the goods order sent by their brother Charles.



Letter from [John and Landon Carter] to Foster Cunliffe, June 23, 1733


-1 -

Corotoman, [Lancaster County, Virginia]

June 23d 1733

Foster Cunliff Esqr.

Sr.

     As by the consignment of our Father
to you last year upon Mr. Pembertons retirement from trade
we are be come [sic ] engag'd with yo. We have Sent You this Year
fifty hogsheads of tobacco by the Mary & Katherine which
we hope ere this is safe with you and is now feeling the Effects
of an early and flourishing Market.

     By the Rappahannock Capt Loxum
you have 30 hhds.. more for which bills are here inclos'd this
we intend to be the last of Our consignments to your Port
And from the expe rience ctations we have of a short export ation this Year
We have All the reason in the World to Expect a good & Satis
factory return for them.

     We [illegible] apprehension of
you [illegible] cash hereafter desire You will Charge us
the other half percent Which we observe is a custom in the
trade for making to oblige Yrself to make good all debts and the we shall
be under of Valuing our Selves upon You to discharge some
Legacies incumbent on us We desire Yo. will return us an
Account Currt as soon as Yo can compleat at our sales

     We shall write to yo at large by some other opportunity when
We intend to send you an Invoice for some goods. We desire you to give
our Services to Mr. Pemberton We intend Our Compliments to him by the
next Opportunity Sent Loxum excha for 3£"9 .


-2 -


     by the Mary and Catherine our brother Charles wrote to you
for a Parcel of goods to the value of two hundred pounds which
we desire may be sent according to his directions they are
for sale and therefore they may be bought at the best hand


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. Although this draft is not signed, it mentions Charles Carter, and so has been assumed to have been written by his brothers as executors of their father.

The county and colony have been added to the heading on the letter for clarity.

There is another draft of this letter in the Carter-Plummer letter book, acquired by the Tracy W. McGregor Library of the University of Virginia Library in 1955, and now held in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. This letter book was edited by Lloyd T. Smith, Jr., as The Executors' Letters of Robert Carter of Corotoman, 1732-1738 . [Irvington, VA: Foundation for Historic Christ Church, 2010]. The second draft appears on pages 85-86.

The second draft is probably a later one for the considerable deletings and revisings of the third paragraph of this draft have been reduced to: "We desire you will Charge us the other half pr Cent to Oblige yourself to make good all Debts."

[1] Foster Cunliffe (d. 1767) was a merchant and prominent citizen of Liverpool who worked to expand manufacturing and the capacity of the harbor; he served a number of terms as mayor. He and Richard Gildart undertook "a major reorginization of business with Maryland and Virginia . . . beginning in the early 1720's [they] sent numerous factors to the region." They established stores in which retail goods were sold, purchased the produce of the region, had it ready for loading when ships arrived, and also moved into the sale of slaves. ( James A. Picton, ed. Liverpool Municipal Archives and Records. . . . [Liverpool, 1907.] pp. 27, 31, 79, 90, 96, etc. and Paul G. Clemens. "The Rise of Liverpool, 1665-1750." Economic History Review. 24[May 1976]:211-225.

[2] Robert Carter

[3] There were several vessels with the name Rappahannock . One was based in Liverpool and was commanded by a Captain Francis Etheridge in 1725; she was a 90 ton ship with 13 men. Another of which Charles Whate was captain was of 60 tons with 11 men in 1726 and 1727. 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. )


This text, originally posted in 2006, was revised June 25, 2016, to add footnotes and strengthen the modern language version text.