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Guide to the records of the merchants and shipowners of New England
Table of contents
Introduction
Joseph Buckley, Ship Ledger, 1693-1701
Joshua Burnham Papers, 1758-1817
George Curwen, Fishing Account Books, 1658-1672
Capt. Thomas Davis Account Book, 1771-1778
Richard Derby Ledger, 1757-1776, 1786-1790
Philip English Account Books, 1664-1718
George W. Hunter Papers, 1870-1875
Knight Account Books, 1767-1781, 1788-1833
Joseph Orne Account Book, 1719-1743
Timothy Orne Ships' Ledgers and Account Books, 1738-1767
William Pickering Account Books, 1695-1718
Ezekiel Price Papers, 1754-1785
Daniel Rogers Account Book, 1770-1790
Thomas Ruck fonds, 1713-1722
Mary Coffin Starbuck Account Book with the Indians, 1662-1732
John Stevens Account Book, 1769-1775
Joseph Swett Jr. and Robert Hooper, Jr. Letterbook, 1740-1747
Miles Ward, Account Books, 1745-1772
Introduction
Dried codfish was the first of North America's great export staples
and no colony prospered as impressively from codfish as did Massachusetts.
Although fishermen themselves rarely grew wealthy from their work at sea,
there was a great deal of business in servicing the industry, and from
a very early date most of this was captured within the Bay Colony itself.
The merchants who provisioned the fishery made their homes chiefly in Boston
and Salem; the shipwrights who constructed fishing vessels dwelt along
the coast north of Boston wherever good standing timber was within effective
reach; and the farmers who carted flour, salt beef and pork, firewood,
and cider to market lived in the hinterland behind. Unlike the British
and French fisheries at Newfoundland and the Jersey-based fishery in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence - all of which recruited capital and labor in the
old country and fostered development there, too - the Massachusetts fishery
enriched the colony itself. Most importantly, it offered new England's
first shipowners a valuable commodity to carry abroad. The profits that
seventeenth-century merchants earned transporting a number of products,
but especially fish, to Spain and the West Indies underlay the rapid growth
and subsequent prosperity of the carrying trade that earned most of Massachusetts'
overseas credits down to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.
Most of colonial Massachusetts' fishing fleet was based in Essex County, at Salem, Marblehead, Beverly, and Gloucester. In its earliest decades, it consisted mostly of single-masted vessels, operated by semi-independent partnerships of fishermen who obtained their outfits on credit and their earnings in truck from local merchants in return for the promised delivery of their entire catch. Through most of the year, these mariners made their living on the shoals and ledges of the Gulf of Maine, while coasters ferried their fish home. By 1700, however, the industry had gone over to larger vessels - two masted ketches and schooners - and was beginning to work the offshore banks of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Increasingly, outfitters recruited their men from the growing pool of propertyless seaport-dwellers, who now signed on as individuals and took their wages in a mixture of goods, notes, and cash. Marblehead and Gloucester in particular became urban centers of some importance, where hundreds of professional fishermen followed the sea and trained their sons to follow them.
Most of the business manuscripts relating to this fishery belong to the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts. Used in different ways, they enable the historian to understand the organization of the industry from a variety of angles. Most of them tell us about the origins of the fishermen, the money they earned, their habits of consumption, and the terms on which they dealt with their employers. Some also contain information on the size of fishing vessels, the cost of building, outfitting, and maintaining them, and the profits that their voyages earned. Still others describe how merchants assembled the supplies on which the industry relied and later disposed of its product abroad. The account books listed in this finding aid have been filmed in their entirety, but they do not represent the whole of the papers from each merchant. In many cases the repository holding the original papers holds a wide collection of other papers from the same outfitting merchants.
Note: Introduction prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Department of History, Memorial University.
Joseph Buckley ship ledger , 1693-1701
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Joseph Buckley was a merchant of Boston and married Joanna, daughter
of Richard Shute, and widow of Nathaniel Nichols, in 1688.
Source: Information provided by the Essex Institute.
Scope and content
This is a copy of an account book, vellum, 109 pages, marked, 'Leager,
1693', Boston, Nova Anglia, June, 1693-August, 1698. It contains entries
for people involved in the Newfoundland trade as well as accounts against
Sir Edmund Andros, Captain Cyprian Southack, Major John Walley and others.
Notes
— Original entitled 'Leager: 1693'.
— Purchased from the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, 1989.
— Filmed in 1989 from the original held by the Peabody Museum.
— Copyright is held by the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
— Location: Mic.1-3-2-13, Maritime History Archive
Joshua Burnham papers, 1758-1817
2 reels of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Joshua Burnham (1736-1791) was a ship master of Ipswich, Massachusetts,
who specialized in trade with Virginia and the West Indies. From 1761 to
1790, he mastered at least twelve vessels for prominent Massachusetts merchants.
He also served as a trade agent, bartering for goods with small local merchants
in Virginia and Maryland.
Source: Information provided by the Essex Institute.
Scope and content
These papers include fishing and shipping papers, 1761-1790. They record
trading activities with local merchants in Virginia and Maryland, and include
unofficial cargo manifests, journal of a voyage on the sloop Phoenix
and a journal of work performed aboard the sloop Robinwood. The
business and family papers contain correspondence, legal and financial
papers relating to shipping and business affairs and merchant correspondence,
bonds and deeds, shipping accounts as well as correspondence with family
members.
The Joshua Burnham Papers are a reorganization and reintegration of one and a half boxes of manuscripts, seven account books and other miscellaneous papers. The collection was purchased by the Essex Institute in 1925. Three incomplete logbooks were removed from the papers.
The papers are arranged in three series: Ships' papers, 1761-1790; Shipping account books, 1763-1788; Business and family papers, 1758-1817.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1991.
— Filmed from the original documents held at the Essex Institute. MSS #172.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— Permission to publish material from the collection should be obtained from the Director of the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-3-4-15/16, Maritime History Archive
— Maritime History Archive finding aid 85
— Description of this collection taken from the finding aid provided by the Essex Institute.
Associated material
Joshua Burnham, Bill for taxes, Logbooks, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts
Samuel Burnham Family papers, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts
George Curwen Fishing account books, 1658-1672
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
George Curwen was born in 1610 in Sibbertoft, England and emigrated
to Massachusetts in 1638. Settling down at Salem in Essex County, he quickly
established himself as a prominent local merchant, provisioning farmers,
townsmen, and fishermen alike. By the time of his death in 1685, he had
accumulated one of the largest fortunes in New England. His business involved
the fitting out of fishing companies: partnerships of independent fishermen
who took their supplies from Curwen and paid him back in what they caught.
He also dealt with smaller outfitters, providing them with wholesale goods
that they would retail in turn to their fishermen; he was a pioneer in
the offshore fishery; and finally, he played an important role in the fish
export trade to Spain and the West Indies.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
There are three volumes of account books, 1658-1672, describing Curwen's
relations with the several hundred fishermen who worked out of Salem and
Marblehead in the mid-seventeenth century. These account books form part
of the Curwen papers held at the Essex Institute.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1989.
— Copied from the original account books held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-4, Maritime History Archive
Associated material
Curwen Family papers, 1641-1902, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts
Inventory of George Curwin Estate, in George F. Dow and Mary G. Thresher, eds., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1636-1686, 9 volumes (Salem, Mass., 1911-1975), IX, 492-503
Related secondary sources
Christine Heyrman, Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690-1750, New York, 1984, pp. 209-230
Daniel Vickers, "Work and Life on the Fishing Periphery of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1675", in David D. Hall and David Grayson Allen eds., Seventeenth-Century New England, Charlottesville, Va., 1984, pp. 83-117.
Capt. Thomas Davis account book, 1771-1778
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Born at Salem, Captain Thomas Davis (1716-1801), was a fisherman's son, who owned a small business across the North River in Beverly in the decades before the outbreak of the American Revolution. During the period covered by this account book, he owned three schooners that he employed in the offshore fisheries and the coastal trade to Virginia. On shore, he owned a flakeyard where hired men dried the fish that his vessels brought in.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
An account book, 1771-1778, for Thomas Davis' three offshore schooners and the flakeyard where he dried his catch of fish. The book also records the towns where all of his customers and workers lived, and includes notations for every voyage and the quantity of cod caught by each of his fishermen.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1989.
— Copied from the original ledger held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-8, Maritime History Archive
Related secondary material
Douglas Lamar Jones, Village and Seaport: Migration and Society in Eighteenth Century Massachusetts, Hanover, NH, 1981
Daniel Vickers, "Maritime Labor in Colonial Massachusetts: A Case Study of the Essex County Cod Fishery and the Whaling Industry of Nantucket, 1630-1775", Ph. D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1981
Richard Derby ledger, 1757-1776, 1786-1790: volume one of the Derby Papers
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Richard Derby (1712-1783) was the wealthiest merchant in Salem, Massachusetts
during the middle decades of the eighteenth century. He owned numerous
sloops, schooners, and brigantines, which he employed in the cod fisheries
and in overseas trading voyages to Southern Europe and the West Indies.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
These ledgers, 1757-1776 and 1786-1790, are part of the Derby Family
papers, a huge collection of business records and family materials belonging
to the James Duncan Phillips Library of the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem,
Massachusetts. It records Richard Derby's debits and credits with other
merchants, as well as with mariners, fishermen, shoremen, artisans, farmers,
and widows from Salem and surrounding towns. Additionally, there is a copy
of Richard Derby's will dated 1783.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-14, Maritime History Archive
Philip English account books, 1664-1718
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Philip English (1651-1736) was one of the foremost fishing and shipping
merchants of seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts. He was born on the
Isle of Jersey, and immigrated to Salem sometime before 1670 and set himself
up as a general merchant, outfitter of fishing voyages and exporter of
local produce to Spain, France, Ireland, Maryland, Virginia, Jersey and
the West Indies. As early as 1680, he was already one of the wealthier
merchants in town, and, by 1692, he was said to own a wharf and warehouse,
fourteen buildings in Salem, and twenty-one sea-going vessels. English
was one of the first merchants in Massachusetts to specialize in outfitting
voyages to the offshore banks, and most of his vessels, chiefly two-masted
ketches, divided their year between this branch of the fishery and the
export trade to Europe and the West Indies. Although originally a mariner
himself and one of the very few local merchants who actually dwelt on the
waterfront amongst the seamen he employed, English maintained a relationship
with the maritime community that was stormy at best. He was a frequent
litigant before the courts, mostly suing his customers for debt; and when
the witchcraft hysteria erupted in 1692, he had to flee the colony for
a year to escape prosecution himself.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
These three account books, 1664-1708, 1678-1690, 1699-1718, describe
mainly Philip English's dealings with fishermen and maritime artisans,
the financial arrangements of fishing voyages and the expenses of keeping
his vessels afloat.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-9, Maritime History Archive
Associated material
English Family Papers, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts
Related secondary sources
George Cheever, "Sketch of Philip English", Essex Institute, Historical
Collections, I, 1859, pp. 157-181.
David T. Konig, "A New Look at the Essex 'French': Ethnic Frictions and Community Tensions in seventeenth-Century Essex County, Massachusetts," Essex Institute, Historical Collections, CX, 1974, pp. 167-180.
Richard P. Gildrie, Salem, Massachusetts, 1626-1683: A Covenant Community, Charlottesville, Va., 1975, pp. 155-169.
George W. Hunter papers, 1870-1875
1.5 meters of textual records
Biographical sketch
George W. Hunter was a shipping agent and commission merchant of Boston,
Massachusetts. Born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Hunter had moved to Boston
by 1855. The Directory for that year shows that Hunter and Thomas
W. Johnson were doing business at 6 Commercial Wharf as commission merchants
under the name of Thomas L. DeWolf and Co. By 1860, the DeWolf name had
been dropped, with their interests handled by the firm of Johnson, Hunter
and Company at 5 Commercial Wharf. Five years later, the office was moved
to 1 Commercial Wharf, where the successor firms of Hunter Ryder and Crawley
(1869) and George W. Hunter & Co. (1870-1875?) carried on business.
When the 1869 partnership broke up, Benjamin Crawley, possibly from Nova
Scotia, opened his own office in Philadelphia. Hunter's last partner was
George Lovitt who may have been connected with the Lovitts of Yarmouth.
Source: Information extracted from a letter from Captain Lew Parker to Dr. Keith Matthews, May 24, 1977. (A detailed administrative history is included in the finding aid for the collection.)
Scope and content
These papers include photocopies of the incoming correspondence of the
firm of George W. Hunter, from 1870 to 1875, from many shipowners for whom
Hunter acted as agent, and from whom he chartered vessels. Much of his
business was done with shipowners from Atlantic Canada. The letters include
almost weekly reports of freight markets from the Thomsons in Saint John,
New Brunswick and from other Saint John and Yarmouth shipowners, as well
as from brokers in New York and Philadelphia who were concerned with the
chartering of Canadian vessels.
The correspondence has been arranged geographically and listed by individual correspondent.
Notes
— Supplied title based on description.
— The original papers were loaned to the Maritime History Archive for
copying by Capt. Lew Parker, in 1977.
— The original letters, which were in the possession of Capt. Lew Parker,
were to be donated to Dalhousie University Archives on his death.
— Copyright is held by the creator or his/her heirs.
— Maritime History Archive finding aid 13
— Location: Bank 36, shelf 1 and 2
William and Benjamin Knight account books, 1767-1781, 1788-1833
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
William Knight (1722-1799) and his son Benjamin Knight (1767-1843) were
shoremen from Marblehead, Massachusetts, who were involved in the deep
sea cod fishery. The family owned several schooners, outfitted voyages
from their waterfront chandlery, retailed provisions and dry goods to fishing
families, and kept a flakeyard in Marblehead, where they employed retired
mariners to dry the cod that their vessels brought in. William conducted
the business until his death in 1799, when it passed to his son Benjamin
who operated it through to 1833.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
These three volumes of account books, covering the periods 1767-1781
and 1788-1833, contain the Knight dealings with the hundreds of fishermen
whom they hired, the export merchants to whom they sold their cod once
cured, and the dozens of maritime artisans and labourers who maintained
the Knight fleet of schooners.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-9, Maritime History Archive
Related secondary sources
Samuel Roads, Jr., The History and Traditions of Marblehead, Marblehead, Mass., 1897, pp 349-356, 365-377.
Raymond McFarland, A History of the New England Fishery with Maps, New York, 1911, pp. 102-175.
Daniel Vickers, "Maritime Labor in Colonial Massachusetts: A Case Study of the Essex County Cod Fishery and the Whaling Industry of Nantucket", Pd.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1981, 193-250.
Joseph Orne account book , 1719-1743
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Joseph Orne (1683-1748) of Salem, was a shoemaker's son who rose to become an important fish and export merchant in the period after Queen Anne's War.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
This is a copy of an account book , 1719-1743. It covers the period
in the 1720s when the Massachusetts fishery was rapidly expanding after
nearly a quarter of a century of continual interruption. It describes Orne's
dealings with the fishermen who crewed his schooners to the offshore banks.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-6, Maritime History Archive
Related secondary sources
Daniel Vickers, "Maritime Labor in Colonial Massachusetts: A Case Study of the Essex County Cod Fishery and the Whaling Industry of Nantucket", Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1981, pp. 193-250.
Timothy Orne ships' ledgers and account books, 1738-1767
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Timothy Orne (1717-1767) was one colonial Salem's wealthiest merchants,
and the range of his business interests was very wide. Throughout a career
spanning the middle decades of the eighteenth century he traded in fish,
cloth, wine, rum, slaves, grain, and molasses to a wide variety of European
and West Indian ports. He probably owned over fifty vessels throughout
his career, many of which were schooners that he owned in partnership with
local shoremen and master mariners who were also involved in the fishery.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
These ledgers and account books, describe fishermen who crewed Orne's
vessels, local artisans who furnished provisions for the voyages and maintained
the vessels, and his merchant acquaintances from whom he bought and sold
fish and supplies. The accounts list occupation of individuals.
The records are arranged in three series: Ledgers, 1738-1767; Ship's journal, 1748-1751; Ship's ledger, 1758-1767.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-6, Maritime History Archive
Associated material
Orne Family Papers, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts
Related secondary material
Daniel Vickers, "Maritime labor in Colonial Massachusetts: A Case Study of the Cod Fishery of Essex County and the Whaling Industry of Nantucket, 1630-1775", Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1981, pp. 193-250.
William Pickering account books, 1695-1718
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
William Pickering (1671-1720) was a Salem shipmaster and merchant in
the fishery and coasting trades of New England in the first quarter of
the eighteenth century. He owned several vessels and employed them hawking
merchandise in the Chesapeake colonies and Newfoundland and fishing on
the offshore banks of Nova Scotia.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
These account books, 1695-1718, cover the voyages of his two fishing
sloops, Speedwell and Content, as well as his dealings with
mariners, fishermen and the tradesmen of Salem's waterfront. It also includes
a description of the peddling activities of the brigantine Hope
in fishing settlements from Ferryland to Bonavista, Newfoundland.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-5, Maritime History Archive
Associated material
There are a variety of miscellaneous papers relating to William Pickering
in the Rare Book Room of the Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts,
and in the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.
Related secondary sources
C. Grant Head, Eighteenth Century Newfoundland, Toronto, 1976, pp. 100-137.
Harrison, Ellery and Charles Pickering Bowditch, The Pickering Genealogy, 3 volumes, Cambridge, Mass., 1897, pp. 54-62.
Ezekiel Price papers, 1754-1785
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Ezekiel Price was a great-grandson of Ezekiel Cheever, who was a noted
Boston school teacher. He was born in Boston c. 1728. Early in his career
Price was secretary to three of the Colonial Governors successively, William
Shirley, Thomas Pownell and Sir Francis Bernard. He was clerk of the Courts
of Common Pleas and Sessions for several years before the revolution and
later from 1776-1800. He was described as one of the most respectable inhabitants
of Boston, holding offices as the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, and
the Registrar of Deeds. He was a Notary Public and an insurance broker.
On April 18, 1765 he married Ruth Avery and they had six children. Ezekiel
Price died in Boston on July 5, 1802 at the age of 74.
Scope and content
The Ezekiel Price Papers, 1754-1785, were one of the Massachusetts Historical
Society's earliest manuscript acquisitions. Included are manuscript letters,
petitions, statistics, lists and observations concerning the American Revolution,
Maine lands and cod fisheries, Boston merchants, Boston town meetings,
East India trade and materials relating to William Bollan, John Hancock,
Sylvester Gardiner, the Marquis de Vaudrieul, Edward Payne and other Massachusetts
founders.
The original papers were donated to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Ezekiel Price in 1792.
Notes
— Purchased from University Microfilms International, 1991.
— Copied from the original papers held at by Massachusetts Historical
Society.
— Copyright is held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-12, Maritime History Archive
Daniel Rogers account book, 1770-1790
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Daniel Rogers (1736-1800) was a successful merchant and shipowner of
Cape Ann, Massachusetts. In 1774, Rogers was owner or part-owner of ten
vessels, mainly fishing schooners which were employed on the banks. Although
many of these vessels were lost to the British Navy during the War for
Independence or to natural decay, Rogers regained his fortune in the 1780s
and 1790s.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
This account book, 1770-1790, shows detailed credits of the customers
of Daniel Rogers, from the fishing voyages of mariners to the butter delivered
by local farm wives to his store. The entries for the 1780s describe the
early development of the Cape Ann chebacco boat fishery.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-8, Maritime History Archive
Associated material
Joshua Burnham papers, 1758-1817, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. These papers include Burnham's accounts and his logbooks while a master in Roger's employ.
Daniel Rogers, Account Book, 1790-1800, Cape Ann Historical Society, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Daniel Rogers, Jr., Account Book, 1790-1808, Cape Ann Historical Society, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Related secondary sources
John J. Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport, Gloucester, Mass., 1860, pp. 382-387, 448-466, 477-478, 565-577.
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Thomas Ruck Jr. (1659- ?) was a New England merchant, mariner and shipowner
who became involved in the Newfoundland trade during the period 1713-1722.
He dealt with many Newfoundland fishermen and planters, with a range of
operation extending from Ferryland to Bonavista. Most of his trade, however,
was concentrated at the ports between Torbay and Bay Bulls.
Source: Thomas Ruck Fonds, Maritime History Archive.
Scope and content
This fonds includes journals, 1715-1722, and ledgers, 1714-1722, of
this New England merchant showing accounts of fish procured from Newfoundland
fishermen in exchange for molasses, rum, foodstuffs and hardware. The ledgers
contain numerous references to persons residing in St. John's, Quidi Vidi,
Bay Bulls and Petty Harbour. It also includes a separate volume entitled
"Accounts of ventures and business undertaking," 1713-1722, which records
trade with Newfoundland.
Notes
— Original material purchased from Newbury Port Rare Books Ltd., Boston, 1988.
— Filmed from the original material which is jointly owned by the Maritime History Archive and the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL).
— Original material is held at the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador.
No restrictions on access to the microfilm. Access to the original material is restricted.
— Copyright on the microfilm is held jointly by the Maritime History Archive and PANL.
— Location: Mic.1-1-4-15, Maritime History Archive.
— Maritime History Archive finding aid 11.
Mary Coffin Starbuck account book with the Indians, 1662-1732
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Mary Starbuck and her descendants constituted one of the more important merchant families on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The bulk of their business was in the whaling industry although the Starbucks were also farmers and general traders.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
The Mary Starbuck account book with the Indians, 1662-1732, contains
all of the family's dealings, not only hers but also subsequent generations,
with Indian customers, labourers, and whalemen between 1680s and the 1730s.
It documents in remarkable detail the evolution of the economic relationships
between the Indians and the colonists from a period not long after settlement
almost to the time when the local tribe was destroyed by disease.
Notes
— Purchased from the Nantucket Historical Association, 1994.
— Filmed from the original account book by the Nantucket Historical Association.
— Nantucket Historical Association holds the original material, Coll 10 AB475.
— Copying must not exceed fair use.
— Permission to quote must be obtained from the Nantucket Historical Association.
— Location: Mic.7-9-5-8, Maritime History Archive.
John Stevens account book, 1769-1775
(Account Book also includes accounts for Samuel Whittemore, 1786-1807)
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
John Stevens (1702-1779) was a merchant and landowner in Gloucester,
Massachusetts in the late colonial period. He kept a number of schooners
in the bank fishery and manned them with local men who provisioned themselves
and their families at his store. Stevens also owned a number of houses
in Gloucester which he rented to fishermen and other customers.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
This is the oldest known surviving account book from Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
As a general provisioning merchant, Stevens carried a wide variety of wares.
The account book is valuable for its portrait of fishermen as consumers.
It also contains accounts under the name of Samuel Whittemore, 1786-1807.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-8, Maritime History Archive
Related secondary sources
Christine Leigh Heyrman, Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690-1750,New York, 1984, pp. 143-181.
Joseph Swett Jr. and Robert Hooper, Jr. letterbook, 1740-1747
1 part reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Joseph Swett Jr. (1689?-1745) and Robert Hooper Jr., 1709-1790 were
merchants in the fish export trade at Marblehead, Massachusetts during
the 1740s. Swett was one of the first in that town to engage directly in
export, and Hooper, his son-in-law, eventually gained such dominance in
the fishery that he became popularly known as "King" Hooper. Their firm
was almost certainly the largest trading concern in town and had dealings
in many major centres around the North Atlantic.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
This letterbook, 1740-1747, consists mainly of instructions to their
business agents; Samuel Storke in London, Steers and Barrons in Lisbon,
Joseph Gardoque y Mueta in Bilboa and Gedney Clarke in Barbados. The conditions
in foreign fish markets and the state of the fishery in New England are
the chief topics.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-5, Maritime History Archive
Related secondary sources
William H. Bowden, "The Commerce of Marblehead", Essex Institute, Historical Collections, LXVIII , (1932), pp. 117-145.
Christine Heyrman, Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Massachusetts, 1690-1750, New York, 1984, pp. 231-2272, 230-365.
James G. Lydon, " Fish for Gold: The Massachusetts Fish Trade with Iberia, 1700-1773", New England Quarterly, LIV (1981), pp. 539-582.
Miles Ward account books, 1745-1772
1 reel of microfilm
Biographical sketch
Miles Ward (1702-1792) was a prosperous fish dealer and general merchant
from Salem, Massachusetts. He began his working career in the 1720s as
a joiner and in the 1730s he expanded his activities to trading and by
1740 he was involved in the shipping business. All of his vessels combined
fishing with the coasting trade to Maryland and Virginia, and overseas
voyages to Europe and the West Indies.
Source: Biographical sketch prepared by Dr. Danny Vickers, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Scope and content
These copies of three account books, 1745-1754, 1753-1764, and 1765-1777,
show the history of fishing vessels and the relationships between merchant
and individual fishermen over an extended period.
Notes
— Purchased from the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1992
— Copied from the original ledgers held at the Essex Institute.
— Copyright is held by the Essex Institute.
— The ledger may not be duplicated or quoted without written permission from the Essex Institute.
— Location: Mic.1-5-1-7, Maritime History Archive
Related secondary sources
Daniel Vickers, "Maritime labor in Colonial Massachusetts: a Case of the Essex County Cod Fishery and the Whaling Industry of Nantucket, 1630-1775", Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1981, pp. 193-250.
James G. Lydon, "Fish for Gold: The Massachusetts Fish Trade with Iberia, 1700-1773", New England Quarterly, CIV, 1981, pp. 539-582.
James G. Lydon, "North Shore Trade in the Early Eighteenth Century", American Neptune, XXVIII, 1968, pp. 261-274.
