Found 5 collections related to Great Britain -- Commerce -- United States

The Burgess family papers document three generations of an English family involved in overseas commerce. Charles Henry Burgess (1806-1854) was the first British subject to export good directly from England to Persia. The papers contain correspondence, diaries, financial records, art work and other materials documenting the personal life and commercial activities of the family members. The papers provide abundant information on a rich variety of British, Anglo-Persian and Anglo-American topics. less

William Wilson (1739-1816) was a Philadelphia Quaker merchant. He was the son of George and Mary Wilson and the stepson of merchant Solomon Fussell (1704-1762), formerly a chairmaker. William Wilson's letter book at Philadelphia, 1757 June 23-1760 October 5 (1 volume in 1 folder), contains copied letters sent to merchants and ship captains trading chiefly in the West Indies and Great Britain, and along the eastern North American coast. Letters typically give instructions followed by lists of goods ordered or bills for goods shipped. Most letters are from Wilson, but a few are from merchants Solomon Fussell and Robert Parrish, or from Wilson on their behalf. Letter recipients include James Verree of South Carolina, John and Samuel Gould of Rhode Island, Tristram Coffin and Christopher Starbuck of Nantucket, ship captain Nathaniel Donnell, and British merchants William Neate and the firm of Devonshire, Reeve, & Lloyd. Commodities include flour, sugar, molasses, coffee, cotton, whale oil and bone, mackerel, indigo, rice, and iron bar, as well as clothing, hardware, and household goods. less

John Ripley (1738-1823), of Hartford, Connecticut, was a merchant, shipowner and military officer. He was the son of Joshua Ripley and Mary Backus of Windham, Connecticut and the uncle of Dwight Ripley (1764-1835) of Norwich. Ripley was major of a Connecticut state regiment during the Revolution, and major of the 13th U.S. Infantry from 1799-1800. The John Ripley letters, 1795-1798, chiefly consist of letters addressed to him at Coventry and Hartford, Connecticut; Bath, Maine; and New York City. These are written by American merchants; his Liverpool agents Anderson, Child & Child; and Captain David Jewett, master of the ship Alliance. A letter from Ripley at Boston to merchant Henry Huntington at New York, and a letter from Cordis & Langdon to David Trufant, 1795, both referring to the construction and fitting of a new ship in which Huntington and Ripley were invested, are included. Jewett's letter of 1798 September 13 at Liverpool concerns business related to the capture of the Alliance by a French privateer and its recapture by British ships, with comment on the French invasion of Ireland, the imprisonment of Americans in France, and piracy on the seas. A letter from Roylance Child at Boston, 1796 October 13, is written on the back of a bill of prices current from his partners in Liverpool. An additional undated bill from the same firm is possibly the enclosure to Jewett's letter. less

The mercantile firm of Morris & Ludlum (active 1790s) operated a hardware store on Water Street in New York City, and also engaged in potash production in Sussex County, New Jersey. The Morris & Ludlum letter and order book, 1797-1825, contains copied letters and orders written by the hardware business at New York, 1797-1799, to merchants in Great Britain and the southern United States. These include Perry & Hayes, suppliers of a large variety of hardware, and the pewterware firm of Robert Bush & Co., both located in Bristol, England. Other commodities mentioned include iron bars, potash, flaxseed, cotton, and otter skins. The volume was later used as a ledger by James Ludlum for his farming and milling activities at Sparta, New Jersey, including transactions in his role as an administrator of his brother Gabriel Ludlum's estate. less