John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library© 2002 By the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. All rights reserved.
Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Processed by: Special Collections staff
There are no restrictions.
Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Librarian/ Associate Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the holder of the copyright, if not the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg.
Charles Steuart Papers, Manuscript DMS 55.4, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Gift, 1955.
Also available on microfilm M-1130.
Born in Scotland, Steuart was sent to Virginia in 1742 as an apprentice to a Scottish tobacco factor. He was a merchant in Norfolk and Portsmouth. His diplomatic handling of a Norfolk riot led to his appointment as Receiver-General of Customs for the eastern central district and Receiver and Paymaster General of the American Board of Customs. Steuart retired to Edinburgh in 1788 and died there in 1797.
Letters, 1762-1763, between Charles Steuart (1725-1797), merchant in Norfolk, Va., and later receiver general of customs for the Eastern-Middle District of North America, and lieutenant governor Francis Fauquier (1703-1768) concerning the conditions of Don Pedro Bermudez and his party, who were attacked by English seamen while in Portsmouth, Va. Because of Don Pedro's importance as second in command of the Spanish Navy at Havana, and the diplomatic negotiations proceeding between England and Spain, this situation was a sensitive one, and Steuart's diplomatic handling of it is credited with gaining him the position of receiver general of the customs. There is also a letter, February 21, 1763, from Don Pedro's son to Steuart, and a narrative of the so-called "Spanish Affair," signed by Steuart and dated August 16, 1789.
Chronologically arranged.