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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from William Blount and Benjamin Hawkins to Arthur Lee, Walter Livingston, and Samuel Osgood
Blount, William, 1749-1800; Hawkins, Benjamin, 1754-1816
March 01, 1787
Volume 20, Pages 626-627

GOV. CASWELL TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE BOARD OF TREASURY.
(From Executive Letter Book.)

18, Princess Street, 1st March, 1787.

Gentlemen:

We have no regular information respecting the State of Tobacco; and it is probable our want of it is owing to the returns having been made to the Delegates of the State who were in Congress last year, and which has been carried to North Carolina among their papers.

The enclosed from Mr. Dowse we give credit to ourselves, subjoining the following remarks. The Quantity at Wilmington must have been inspected at Fayetteville or as he names it Campbellstown. That at Roanoke is in the warehouses from whence the Shipments are made at the port of Edenton, & it is of the Halifax inspection rarely inferior to the Petersburg. That at John Gray Blount’s as at Washington, and of the Tarborough Inspection latterly equal to the Halifax Inspection.

Mr. Hawkins was at Fayetteville in Dec. and at Halifax in Jan’y. And made some enquiry as to the quality of the Inspectors, they told him it was superior to any made the Crop of 1786, and the most of it if not damaged, of the Petersburg Quality; but as he did suppose the proper information was lodged with the Delegates he did not

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apply further. The Quality reported by a Committee brought in the Bill for the Sale, &c., of it, was 1360,000℔ nett; the report of the Committee is just and founded on the number of the Hogsheads reported by Mr. Dowse; the average weight of the Tobacco is a certain Evidence of the goodness of it.

We are with sincere Esteem,
Yr. Most Obedt. Servts.,
WM. BLOUNT,
BENJAMIN HAWKINS.