George Washington's tobacco seized by French
The French seized a ship which had George Washington's tobacco in November 1759. It was insured. But the company insuring it needs a certificate to prove the tobacco was on that ship. George Washington replies about this problem 8 Oct 1760. He has a bill of lading. He thinks that bill of lading will suffice. That bill of lading is sooner to come by and it is less expensive to produce than any other certificate certifying his tobacco was on board that ship.
What was the exact date of the French seizing that ship? No answer yet to that. But what is known is a battle at that time. It was a big naval battle 20 Nov 1759, the Battle of Quiberon Bay.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 9/25/2024, 10/01/2024
Table of Contents
Here's the letter about this story::
From George Washington to
Robert Cary & Company
Williamsburg 8th Octr 1760.
Gentn
This serves to cover a certificate of the Tobo I shipd you in the Cary, which I hope will answer the end of a Bill of Lading. [footnote 1 ] I am told it will do instead of Recording the Bill, and as it is less expensive and soonest come at, I embrace the method.
Since my last I have passd a set of Bills in favour of Mr George Brent (instead of Robt Brent) for Two hundred pounds Sterling [footnote 2 ] which please to pay and place to acct of Gentn Yr Most Obedt Hble Servt
Go: Washington
in GW’s hand, DLC:GW.
The letter is docketed as “Reced the 5 Decr ⟨illegible⟩.” There are minor differences in the letter-book copy.
1. The Cary in which GW sent Robert Cary & Co. fifty hogsheads of tobacco in November 1759 was taken by the French. Cary & Co. evidently needed the certificate in order to collect the insurance on GW’s tobacco. The payment came to £577.17.2 as recorded in February 1761 (General Ledger A, folio 67). See also GW to Robert Cary & Co., 25 Nov. 1759.
2. See GW to Robert Cary & Co., 10 Aug. 1760, n.16, but see also Cash Accounts, October 1760, n.1.
Source:
Map of that battle
in Nov 1759 where maybe a French ship interdicted the ship carrying Washington's tobacco.
Name of Ship
and when Fairfax and wife left
From George Washington to Robert Cary & Company, 28 September 1760
Mount Vernon 28th Septr 1760
Gentn
Your Letter of the 31st May Via Bristol came to hand a few days ago;1 and I take the
I now address Copies of my last by Mr Fairfax, in the Ship Wilson Captn Coolage
Founders Online footnote:
Judson Coolidge was captain of the ship Wilson. George William Fairfax and his wife went to England where they remained until 1763.
Washington's Problems sending the tobacco
The Tobacco pr the Fair American will make its appearance I fear in a very irregular manner—Captn Talman first engagd it to be sent by the Cary, then by the Randolph, and being disappointed in both I had to seek for a conveyance myself and by mere good luck got it on board Captn Thompson but not till I had first been at the trouble & expence of Carting it across from York to James River for his Craft to take it in.8
8. For his offer of tobacco to Capt. Henry Talman and his shipping it by Capt. William Thompson, see GW to Robert Cary & Co., 1 May, 2 July 1759. Cary & Co. wrote Martha Custis, 30 Nov. 1758: “As the shortness of the Crops are likely to be so bad we shall send only one ship to Accomodate our Friends with Freight & by the time this reaches you we suppose she may be there she is called the Cary Capt. Talman will have the Management” (ViHi: Custis Papers). The Randolph referred to here may have been the ship of that name, Robert Walker, master, which carried tobacco regularly in the 1760s from James River to London.
Captain Henry Talman of the ship Cary
4. Capt. Henry Talman was master of the ship Cary, a French prize owned by Wakelin Welch & Company. Welch was a partner in Robert Cary & Company. Martha Custis shipped in 1758 thirty-six hogsheads of tobacco to Robert Cary & Co., seventeen to Capel & Osgood Hanbury also in London, and twenty-one to James Gildart in Liverpool.
Lloyd's Registers - no mention of the ship Cary
Talman, Captain Henry, son of William Talman, of Felmingham Hall, Norfolk county, England (an architect and collector of prints and drawings), resided in St. Peter's Parish, New Kent county, Virginia,
but spent much of his time at sea as captain and owner of the ship Vigo.
He married Anne Elizabeth Ballard, daughter of Thomas Ballard. He died in London in 1775, leaving issue in Virginia.
Anne, likely born c. 1704. Many researchers have assumed that this Anne married Captain Henry Talman, but this is probably incorrect.
The will of Elizabeth Ballard of Charles City County (contained in the page for her likely husband, William Ballard of Charles City County) specifically names her daughter Anna Talman;
Cabell names an Anne Elizabeth Ballard, the daughter of Thomas Ballard of Charles City County as the wife of Henry Talman.
Thomas Ballard of James City County, Virginia (1630-1690).
From George Washington to Robert Cary & Co., 1 May 1759
To Robert Cary & Company
Williamsburg May 1. 1759.
Gentn
The Inclosd is the Ministers Certificate of my Marriage with Mrs Martha Custis—properly as I am told—Authenticated,1
you will therefore for the future please to address all your Letters which relate to the Affairs of the late Danl Parke Custis Esqr. to me. as by Marriage I am entitled to a third part of that Estate, and Invested likewise with the care of the other two thirds by a Decree of our Genl Court which I obtaind in order to Strengthen the Power I before had in consequence of my Wifes Administration.2
I have many Letters of yours in my possession unanswerd,3
but at present this serves only to advise you of the above Change and at the sametime to acquaint you that I shall continue to make you the same Consignments of Tobo as usual, and will endeavour to encrease it in proportion as I find myself and the Estate benefitted thereby.
The Scarcity of the last Years Crop; and the high prices of Tobo consequent thereupon woud in any other Case, have inducd me to sell the Estates Crop (which indeed is only 16 Hhds) in the Country but for a present, & I hope small advantage only I did not care to break the Chain of Corrispondance that has so long Subsisted, and therefore have, according to your desire, given Captn Talman an offer of the whole.4
On the other side is an Invoice of some Goods which I beg of you to send me by the first Ship bound either to Potomack or Rappahannock, as I am in immediate want of them, Let them be Insurd, and in case of accidents reshipd witht Delay. Direct for me at Mount Vernon Potomack River Virginia; the former is the name of my Seat the other the River on which ’tis Situated.
I am Gentn Yr Most Obedt Hble Servt
Go: Washington
LB, in GW’s hand, DLC:GW.
Robert Cary & Co., a large London firm deeply involved in the Virginia trade, had long been one of the principal agents for handling the Custis family’s business affairs in London, receiving regular consignments of tobacco from Custis plantations and shipping, most recently to Martha Custis, British goods and supplies that the family required.
As he indicates in this letter, GW intended to continue the connection with the Cary house.
In fact, he not only continued to send most of the Custis tobacco to Cary and to order the needed goods from them, he also began consigning much of his own Potomac tobacco to Cary and to order from them goods and supplies for Mount Vernon. Only very few copies of the letters that Robert Cary & Co. regularly wrote to GW in the decade and a half before the American Revolution have been found;
but GW kept in his business letter-book copies of
(1) his letters to Cary & Co.,
(2) his orders for goods that he enclosed in the letters, and
(3) the invoices for the goods shipped by Cary.
GW kept separate his orders for his wife’s children, Martha Parke Custis and John Parke Custis, and for the Custis plantations owned by the boy;
and Cary & Co. sent separate invoices for goods charged to the accounts of the two children.
Beginning in 1760 after the dower plantations were assigned to GW,
he always indicated which tobacco was to be credited to his account
and which to John Parke Custis’s.
Only those orders to Cary for goods and supplies that GW made for himself and his wife and for his Mount Vernon, not his dower, plantations, are printed in full in this volume, and similarly, only the invoices charged to his own account are printed here.
The same holds true for the orders that he placed with other British merchants, such as James Gildart and Capel & Osgood Hanbury. GW’s Guardian Accounts will be printed for each year from 1762 through 1773, and extensive use of the invoices for the purchase of goods for John Parke Custis’s plantations will be made for documenting these accounts.
1. The certificate of GW’s marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis has not been found.
2. See doc. III and related documents in Settlement of the Daniel Parke Custis Estate, 20 April 1759–5 Nov. 1761.
3. The unanswered letters from Robert Cary & Co. to Martha Custis that GW had before him probably included those dated 1 and 2 Mar., 17 July, and 30 Nov. 1758 (ViHi: Custis Papers). Mrs. Custis wrote Robert Cary & Co. on 20 Aug. 1757 of her husband’s death and wrote at least three times more before her marriage to GW in January 1759: on 20 Dec. 1757, 30 April 1758, and 1 June 1758 (ibid.). Her undated order of goods for 1758 to Cary is also in the Custis Papers. Her letter to Cary of 1 June 1758 has not been found.
4. Capt. Henry Talman was master of the ship Cary, a French prize owned by Wakelin Welch & Company. Welch was a partner in Robert Cary & Company. Martha Custis shipped in 1758 thirty-six hogsheads of tobacco to Robert Cary & Co., seventeen to Capel & Osgood Hanbury also in London, and twenty-one to James Gildart in Liverpool.
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