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Merchants logo gif - 9347 BytesMerchants and Bankers
From 1775-1800


Trade - an international perspective

This website, produced by Australian historian Dan Byrnes, is a no-frills, text-based website designed simply to list historical and genealogical information on many notable merchants and traders of what is termed, the Western World.

Please use the table on the main page of this website for navigating this Merchants and Bankers website.

It is hoped that this web page will be of assistance to family historians in the UK, the US and Australasia, by way of providing contexts for further research.

Reference item: John L. McMullan, The Canting Crew: London's Criminal Underworld, 1550-1700. New Brunswick, 1984.

1774: Whaling history: Nantucket whaler Capt. Uriah Bunker crosses the Equator to work the Brazils whaling grounds in brig Amazon.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 232.

1775: American David Bushnell works on idea of screw propeller for his hand-propelled submarine, Turtle.

1775: Robert G. Albion, William A. Baker and Benjamin W. Labaree, New England and The Sea. Middletown, 1972.*

1775: William Hutchinson Rowe, Maritime History of Maine. New York, 1948.

1775: John A. Tilley, The British Navy and the American Revolution.. University of South Carolina Press, part of a series on maritime history. nd?

1775: Samuel Eliot Morison, Maritime History of Massachusetts. Boston, 1921.*

1775: By about now, noted Rhode Island merchants Aaron Lopez and Moses Brown are getting out of slaving business, leaving leadership of slaving to the de Wolfs in Providence. Lopez and Brown move their money into distilleries and textile mills by about 1799.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 66.

1775-1783, The American War of Independence. The beginning of the end for aristocracy as the dominant model enabling government of populations. Revolutionary war concluding with Treaty of Paris in 1783.

5 March, 1774: Opening of Lloyd's of London for marine insurance over the north west corner of the Royal Exchange, with T. Taylor as master of ceremonies. Thomas Tayler, master of Lloyd's 1774-1796. 1774-1814, a suppression of the gate crashers at Lloyd's, the non-serious men. 1774, beginning of career of Thomas Tayler as Master of Lloyd's Coffee House till June 6, 1796. It was in 1791, Justice Buller said, "A policy of Assurance has at all times been considered in a court of law as an absurd and incoherent instrument", one of the more famous remarks noted by historians of Lloyd's.

In May 1774, in Annapolis, merchants met to adopt four resolutions re American affairs, one of which, was that lawyers should not prosecute debts cases for British creditors until Parlt repealed the Intolerable Acts. (T Thompson, p. 23.)

June 1774: Boston newspapers carried a story that Molleson was among London merchants who had refused to sign a petition for the redress of American grievances. Thomas Contee acted in Maryland for Molleson. (Jacob Price, 'One Family', p. 190).

1774: In August 1774, (T. Thompson, p. 25) Charles Carroll, Maryland radical and protester, felt in a letter to Europe that the Empire was on the brink of ruin, due to "mistaken policy, an ill-grounded jealousy, or rather ye insatiable avarice or worse ambition of corrupt ministers intent on spreading that corruption thro America".

In Sept 1774: A Spanish expedition leaves South America to explore Tahiti and take possession for Spain. A matter history seems to have largely forgotten?

1775: On the Estate of George Hayley (per Kellock, London debt claimants of 1790 appendix, p. 129).
George Hayley (1723-1781) and after Alexander Champion left Hayley in Great Ayliffe Street, Goodman's Fields, he tried to draw the former correspondents of Champion and Hayley and find others. At end of 1768 he got a partner, Edmund Hopkins, died 1785, but that ended in 1774. Hayley's relationship with Wilkes the alderman was helpful in finding American correspondents, but he also seems to have offered overly-extensive credit. At the end of the war with America, Mary Hayley went to New England and tried to recover debts. She was Mary Hayley, merchant, 7 Great Winchester Street. She finally claimed pre-war debts of £79,599, in Mass, Rhode Island, Penn, Conn and New Hampshire. (See Horace Bleakely, Life of John Wilkes. London, 1917. Estate of George Hayley (1723-1781), Alexander Champion and Hayley parted and Champion tried to steal clients, and Hayley from 1768 partner with Edmund Hopkins (died 1785) ending in 1774, as John Wilkes tried to help Hayley become MP, Hayley relied on offering excessive credit, and after he died Mary Hayley went unsuccessfully to US to collect debts, she was merchant of 7 Great Winchester St - Kellock's Lists; She finally claimed pre-war debts of £79,599, in Mass, Rhode Island, Penn, Conn and New Hampshire.

1775: Wilkinson bores cylinders in cannon with guide-bar.

1775: British Creditor Lists: William Jones - Little information. This Creditor of Bristol was presumably Jefferson's creditor. By the early 1770s, the Glasgow tobacco trade was dominated by three large firms, the Spiers, Glassfords and Cunninghames. The Speirs' group had variously been Spiers, Bowman and Co, Speirs, French and Co (with whom Duncan Campbell at times had dealt between 1772 and 1776); and then Patrick Colquhuon and Co, in which Alexander Speirs had a large share. Colquhuon must have brought a large capital back from America. (Speirs' first firm had begun with £16,200 in stock). It is not known where Colquhuon had lived in the colonies, but Speirs' Virginian stores were concentrated in the Upper James River area. In 1782, Colquhuon became Lord Provost of Glasgow, in 1783 he founded the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. In the 1790s he moved to London, possibly a casualty of downturn in the tobacco trade. With the influence of Henry Dundas in 1792 he moved to London where he was appointed a metropolitan police magistrate, first at Bow Street, later at Worship Street. From 1793, concerned about the institutionalisation of pilfering from ships on the Thames, he assisted the lobby of West India merchants desiring a redevelopment of the West India docks, which they achieved after 1800. Those merchants had suffered long and greatly from institutionalised thievery, and one reason for building new docks was to find security for their goods. Colquhuon suggested that an extrapolation of the Bow Street runners, a water police force, should be established to protect river commerce, and he devoted much research, a kind of sociology of its day, to the "low types" thriving on river thievery. Aspects of Colquhuon's career are treated in the Everyman No. 835 edition of John Howard's book, State of the Prisons. (Orig. 1777).

1775: British Creditor Lists: John Strettel, Kellock, London debt claimants of 1790, appendix, p. 147. John Strettel 1721-Aug 1786) father prominent merchant in Philadelphia, and John later supplying the Indian Commissioners of Pennsylvania, exchanging goods for furs. By 1763, John Strettel at Mr Cooke's, Sise Lane, later by 1769 had his own premises at 1 Riches Court, Lime Street. Claimed debts of £14,848, with interest, Pennsylvania and New York. But in January 1775, he had been appointed with Brook Watson and a Mr Hunter to represent the trading interests of Quebec.

1775 British Creditor Lists: James (Bissell) (Bussell?) Russell - listed in Kellock [if Russell] Jacob Price, 'One Family's Empire'.

1775: British Creditor Lists: John Strettel, Kellock, London debt claimants of 1790 appendix p. 147. John Strettel 1721-Aug 1786) father prominent merchant in Philadelphia, and John later supplying the Indian Commissioners of Pennsylvania, exchanging goods for furs. By 1763, John Strettel at Mr Cooke's, Sise Lane, later by 1769 had his own premises at 1 Riches Court, Lime Street. Claimed debts of £14,848, with interest, Pennsylvania and New York. But in January 1775, he had been appointed with Brook Watson and a Mr Hunter to represent the trading interests of Quebec.; An indication of American indebtedness arose when Barlow Trecothick assembled figures on the value of his own exports and on those of seven other reputable firms including David Barclay and Sons and Lane, Son and Fraser. He said they had a combined debt of £956,579. When asked by members of Parlt re testimony he made on the necessity of repealing the Stamp Act, how long these sums had been due, he said it was impossible to say due to the roundabout nature of much of the American trade. (Citing: Trecothick Testimony, Feb 11, 1766, British Museum, Newcastle Papers, 30,030 vol. 145, 88-89. Kellock's article, p. 109.) Trecothick and Co, Kellock, London debt claimants of 1790 appendix p. 148. Barlow Trecothick son of a London sea-captain, told MPs in Feb 1766 he had lived in Boston, then in Jamaica, been in American trade for 23 years. In Boston he had been apprenticed to Charles Apthorp. By 1763 he was trading to West Indies and also to New England. Trecothick in 1764 was a London alderman and in 1768 a City MP. In December 1765 he chaired a meeting for the relief of American trade. Later debts claimed of £28,000' Mass, Conn, Rhode Island and New York.- Kellock's Lists;

1775: British Creditor Lists: Thomas and Rowland Hunt @ - listed in Kellock. (These are noted elsewhere in information on the Carter family of Virginia).

1775: British Creditor Lists: John Backhouse and Co. Little information. On John Backhouse of Liverpool. (See Olson, Virginia Merchants in London, p. 383. Also, Robert Polk Thomson, 'The Tobacco Export of the Upper James River Naval District, 1773-1775', William and Mary Quarterly, Series 3, Vol. 18, July 1961., p. 405.)
This dealer received about one third the amount of tobacco imported by Dobson, Daltera and Walker also of Liverpool.
(Richard B. Sheridan, 'The British credit crisis of 1772 and the American colonies', Journal of Economic History, 20, June 1960., pp. 161-182; here, p. p. 175.)

1775 and later: [Kellock lists some of the major London houses with debts in the American Colonies, (London debt claimants of 1790) being: George (and James) Abel and George M Macaulay, underwriters and merchants of 15 then 2 Cloak Lane; George and James Abel, merchants, 2 Cloak Lane, College Hill. George Abel probably the George Abel and Macaulay insurance underwriters at Lloyd's from ?? George and James Abel, merchants, 2 Cloak Lane, College Hill. George Abel probably the George Abel and Macaulay insurance underwriters later at Lloyd's. Abel and Macaulay, (Kellock, London debt claimants of 1790, appendix, p. 116), in 1769, George Abel a merchant at 15 Cloak Lane, College Hill, in 1785 George and James Abel at 2 Cloak Lane. In 1790 Abel and Macauley (sic) claimed a debt of £5630 3/5d al;l in South Carolina. place in lists - 1791 Macaulay between 1791 and 1795 was at 6 Leadenhall Street and c/- Lloyd's Coffee House, Cornhill.

1775: In 1775, the top seven tobacco importers in London were William and Robert Molleson, C. Court and T. Eden, Lyonel Lyde and Co, Dunlop and Wilson, Gale, Fearon and Co, Wallace, Davidson and Johnson, and various other and unknown accounting for 44.3 per cent of overall trade. (Jacob Price, 'One Family', p. 180).

1775: James F. Shepherd and G. H. Walton, Shipping Trade and the Economic Development of Colonial North America. Cambridge, England, 1972.*

1775: Stanley F. Chyet, Lopez of Newport. Detroit, 1970.* (Merchant history on US eastern seaboard before and after American Revolution)

1775: W. T. Baxter, The House of Hancock. Cambridge, Mass, 1945.

1775: Russell F. Weigley, (Ed.), Philadelphia. New York, 1982.*
1775-1776, Beginning of the American War of Independence concluding with Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Emory G. Evans, 'Private Indebtedness and the Revolution in Virginia, 1776 to 1796', William and Mary Quarterly, Series 3, Vol. XXXVIII, July 1971., pp. 349ff.

Late 1775: 1776, Royal Governor of South Carolina is Lord William Campbell, Gov. of North Carolina had been Josiah Martin. (Fleming, Illusions, p. 235).

Follows material on London Lord Mayor in 1775 John Sawbridge
Descendants of George SAWBRIDGE sp: Miss NOTKNOWN-13752
2. South Seas Co. investor, MP Jacob SAWBRIDGE (d.10 Jul 1748) sp: Elizabeth FISHER
3. John SAWBRIDGE (b.1669;d.20 Apr 1762) sp: Elizabeth WANLEY wife2
4. MP Alderman, London Lord Mayor John SAWBRIDGE (b.1732;d.21 Feb 1795) sp: Mary Diane BRIDGMAN wife1 (c.1763;m.17 Nov 1763;d.28 Jan 1764) sp: Anne STEPHENSON wife2 (c.1766;m.16 Jun 1766)
5. Samuel Elias SAWBRIDGE (b.1769;d.1851) sp: Elizabeth ELLIS (m.1794)
4. Historian - radical - Catherine (Macaulay) SAWBRIDGE, Pro-Wilkite (b.1733;d.1791) sp: Dr George MACAULAY (c.1752;d.1766)
4. Rev Wanley SAWBRIDGE Unm 4. Mary SAWBRIDGE
3. Jacob SAWBRIDGE sp: Elizabeth FISHER
3. John SAWBRIDGE Of Olantigh (b.1669;d.20 Apr 1762) 3. Jacob SAWBRIDGE sp: Miss NOTKNOWN

1776: On the make-up of the British Parliament in 1776, see Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The History of Parliament. London. 1964.

1775 and before: The Estate of George Hayley Listed in Kellock's article [Otherwise in Kellock, William Dickinson and Co]. Hayley's widow Mary Wilkes died intestate in 1816. Her father was a distiller, Isaac Wilkes; her brother, John Wilkes, the notorious radical London alderman. She had first married a clothier, Samuel II Storke and secondly, George Hayley of the firm Hayley and Hopkins, investors in whaling. Later she had the assistance of Francis Rotch, whaler, and Patrick Jaffrey. John Wilkes was born in 1727, at Clerkenwell, London. A member of the Hell-fire Club, he had married Mary Aylesbury Meade.
George Hayley: Sources: An interesting view of Mary Hayley's brother, the radical alderman John Wilkes is given in Richard Ketchum, The Winter Soldiers: George Washington and The Way to Independence. London, Macdonald, 1973., pp. 68-73.
A prime anecdote about Hayley is that about the time of the Boston Tea Party, George III knew that the Boston merchant John Hancock was deeply indebted to Hayley. So the king must have been given City gossip.
The historian purveying this anecdote finds it insignificant. I find it highly significant that the king had information on which outspoken Boston merchant might have been indebted in the City! -Ed


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1775 and before: Further on George Hayley: A Portuguese-Jewish merchant from Newport, Rhode Island, Aaron Lopez, developed links with George Hayley of Hayley and Hopkins of London. Lopez had extensive whaling contacts throughout New England, especially with the Rotches of Nantucket. Rotches provided equipment and acted as purchasing agents for the United Company of Spermaceti Candlers, a consortium of three Jewish merchants including Lopez. Hayley and Hopkins were to service the London market. By 1765, Lopez owed £10,000 to the son of Henry Cruger, Henry Cruger Jnr, a merchant of Bristol. This debt took four-five years to extinguish. Lopez built an even larger debt to George Hayley and Hopkins, to whom he transferred his business via London. In 1774 Lopez owed Hayley-Hopkins some £12,000. Lopez dealt also to the West Indies and owned several ships (slaving?), one placed in trade between Jamaica to London. [See Lopez to Cruger in Bristol, November 1770. Pares finds it impossible to quantify any of merchants' dealings such as those of Lopez, regarding factors such as capital formation. In 1775, Leonard Jarvis, a boatbuilder of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was building a ship for Lopez. Capt Greenwood of King George, returning from the Falklands in 1775, spoke to Jarvis. Jarvis then wrote to Lopez on 5 April, 1775. Lopez had lost Leviathan off Brazil in 1773, on a voyage to the Falklands. A relevant title here is: B. M. Bigelow, 'Aaron Lopez: Colonial Merchant of Newport', New England Quarterly, No. 4, 1931., pp. 757-767]. Lopez' situations were part of the attempt that Enderbys in London had made from 1770 to found an English South Whale Fishery, but of course the American Revolution ruined the project.
On Abraham Lopez of Newport: Sources: Richard Pares, Yankees and Creoles: the trade between North America and the West Indies before the American Revolution. London. Longmans, Green and Co, 1956., pp. 162ff. See also Anthony Dickinson, 'Some aspects of the origin and implementation of the eighteenth century Falkland Islands sealing industry', International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1990., pp. 33-68.)

1775: British Creditor Lists: Joseph Daltera @ + The Daltera family is mentioned briefly in Samuel M. Rosenblatt, 'The Significance of Credit in the Tobacco consignment Trade: a study of John Norton and Sons., 1768-1775', William and Mary Quarterly, Series 3, 29, 1962., pp. 383-399. The Daltera family were Huguenots with a branch in Bristol, See pp. 181-183 in Kenneth Morgan, Bristol and the Atlantic Slave Trade in the eighteenth century. Cambridge University Press, 1993.) Fowlers versus Daltera remained as a debt matter still in 1798. Also, Emory G. Evans, 'Planter indebtedness and the coming of the Revolution in Virginia', William and Mary Quarterly, Series 3, Vol. 19, October 1962., pp. 511-533., here p. 524)

1775: British Creditor Lists: Samuel Martin = Samuel Martin of Whitehaven. He got his tobacco from Bollint Starke and Greenwood, Ritson and Marsh, who seemed to act as commission agents. (See Thomson, 'Upper James River', p. 398.)

1775: British Creditors; Speir(s), French and Co. (See T. M. Devine, 'A Glasgow Tobacco Merchant During the American War of Independence: Alexander Speirs of Elderslie, 1775 to 1781', William and Mary Quarterly, Series 3, Vol. 33, No. 3, July 1976., pp. 501-513.)

1775: May: (Ketchum, Winter, p. 43.) By May 1776 the French and Spanish had set up a dummy company, Hortalez and Cie, to conduct a clandestine arms and munitions business with the Americans so as not to embarrass their governments, one of the American contacts here was Silas Deane, whose life is a confusing story, the son of a Connecticut blacksmith who graduated from Yale in 1758.


Follows here a list of English ship managers operating 1717-1775, shipping convicts to America: With a list of merchants shipping convicts to Australia from 1786-1788, to 1867: The two lists will enable completion of any research on the English use of convict transportation in the period covered...
Please note: This collected list has never appeared in any printed book to date, and did not appear on the Internet before 16-6-2002 - Dan Byrnes.
1717: Francis March, London:
1718 Jonathan Forward, London;
1720 members of the Lux family, Darby, John, and Francis (probably London before becoming colonials, (later linked to Jonathan Forward's operations) and in 1750, William Lux;
1721-1722, Jonathan Forward Sydenham of London;
1722, ? Cheston;
1731, various men named Reed, to 1771;
1737, Joseph Weld in Dublin;
1739, Andrew Reid, London, with James and Andrew Armour, London, and John Stewart of London;
1740++, Moses Israel Fonseca, London;
1740, Samuel Sedgley, Bristol;
1740, James Gildart, Liverpool;
1744, John Langley, Ireland;
1745, Reid and Armour, London;
1745, Sydenham and Hodgson, London;
1747, William Cookson of Hull;
1749, Jonathan Forward Sydenham a nephew of Jonathan Forward above;
1749, Stewart and Armour, London;
1750, Andrew Reid, London;
1750, Samuel Sedgely and Co of Bristol; John Stewart and (Duncan) Campbell, London (JS&C);
1758, Sedgely and Co (Hillhouse and Randolph), Bristol;
1759, Stewart and Armour, London;
1760, Sedgely and Hillhouse of Bristol;
1763, Andrew Reid retired;
1764, John Stewart and Duncan Campbell, London;
1766, Patrick Colquhuon, Glasgow; 1766, Sedgely and Co. at Bristol replaced by William Randolph, William Stevenson and James Cheston, Bristol;
1767, Stevenson, Randolph and Cheston, Bristol? with a colonial agent Cheston;
1768, Jonathan Forward Sydenham, London or nearby counties;
1769, Dixon and Littledale, Whitehaven;
1769, Sedgely, Bristol; 1769, any ships captain providing necessary securities could transport felons;
1770, James Baird, Glasgow;
1772, John Stewart died, Duncan Campbell carried on alone in London until 1775.

At Bristol, Stevenson, Randolph and Cheston (SRC) were active till 1776; they made ill-advised and vain attempts to transport felons to North America at the end of the American Revolution. Wisely, Duncan Campbell (1726-1803) did not attempt to resume convict transportation to America.
(The above list does not include names transporting convicts from Ireland.)
See here, Abbot Emerson Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labour in America, 1607-1776. Gloucester, Massachusetts, University of Carolina Press, 1947. [Peter Smith, 1965]
As a matter of silence-in-history, US historian Bernard Bailyn once wrote - about American reception of English emigrants generally before 1775, (p. 4) there are... "extraordinary facts, key facts, somehow obscured by historians of the empire concentrating on institutions, power rivalries, mercantilism and trade"... "...
See Bernard Bailyn, 'The Peopling of the British Peripheries in the Eighteenth Century', Esso Lecture, 1988. Canberra, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Occasional Paper No. 5, 1988.
Oddly, Bailyn then wrote, (page 19), "I have never found a single reference to a convict in any genealogy or history of an American family, nor, in any other way, does a single one of the 50,000 convicts sent to America appear as such in American history."
In terms of American colonial society (Virginia and Maryland to 1775), the following list of names is interesting: The American correspondents of London-based Duncan Campbell were mostly users of slave labour.
Here is a list of them: Duncan Campbell's correspondents from the index to his business letterbook 1772-1776: including, Allison and Campbell, William Adam, Samuel Athawes, Colonel William Brockenbrough and Austin Brockenbrough, Dr John Brockenbrough, Adam Barnes and Johnson, James Bain, Rev. Mr Beauvoir, James and Robert Buchanan, George Buchanan, Robert Cockerell, Messrs Campbell and Dickson, Colin Currie, Stewart Carmichael, William Dickson, Charles Eyles, Fitzhugh, Fauntleroy, Richard Glascock/Glascook, Benj and Charles Grimes, Henderson and Glassford, Rhodam Kenner, Abraham Lopez and Son, James Millar Jamaica, Daniel Muse, Hudson Muse, Hugh McLean, Joshua Newall, George Noble, Francis Randall, Major Henry Ridgely, Adam Shipley, William Snydebottom, Richard Stringer, Alexr Spiers and Co., Spiers, Finch and Co., Dr. Sherwin, William and Edward Telfair, Tayloe and Thornton, Charles Worthington, Cooper and Telfair.
Any lists given above of convict-transporting ship managers given for North America, then Australia, are the mainstay-names for England's long-use of convict transportation from 1718 to 1867.
For more detailed information on these merchant names as chapters arise, see Dan Byrnes' website on convict transportation from England, 1718-1810: The Blackheath Connection at: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/


In 1775-1776, The Freemasons' Tavern built in Great Queen Street, London. (Wells.)

1776: James A. Field, America and the Mediterranean World, 1776-1882. Princeton, 1966. *

1776: Volta discovers methane.

1776: George Mason drafts the part of the American constitution known as the Declaration of Rights.

1776: Circa: Sir James Cockburn MP for Linlithgow, valuable contract to supply 100,000 gallons of rum to the troops in America. (Colley, Britons, p. 126.)

1776 Circa: (H. R. Fox Bourne, English Merchants: Memoirs, p. 343), David Barclay returned from America trade in 1776 or so, continued with the Lombard St bank, Dr Johnson was the executor of the brewer Thrale, and Barclay bought Thrale's brewery - David's nephew was Robert Barclay, son of Alexander Barclay who had emigrated to Philadelphia.
(See A. Wilson Fox, A History of the Barclay Family. 1933.
C. W. Barclay, A History of the Barclay Family. Two Vols. 1924. 1934. Ralph Hidy, The House of Baring in American Trade and Influence. 1949.)

1776: Adam Smith completes his book on new-industrialisation and economics, Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations. This soon influenced policy of the British Treasury.

1776: by 1776, the Virginians had almost exterminated the Creek and Cherokee Indians, so the British could not use them. (Watson. Geo III, p. 207.)

From 15 March, 1776 till 1779, the chamberlain of London was Benjamin Hopkins Esq.

1776: See C. Whitworth, State of the Trade of Great Britain in its Imports and Exports, progressively from the year 1693-1773. London, 1776. Rare, "the statistical basis of mercantilist exultation over Caribbean colonies", says historian E. Williams.

1776-1783 in North America, included John Adams, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere, Alexander Hamilton and nearly all the signatories of the Declaration of Independence (53 of the 56 is one estimate) and the American Constitution were Masons. Other Revolutionary Freemasons included Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, James Madison, Gen Nathanael Greene, Gen Charles Lee, Gen John Sullivan.

1776, London Lord Mayor is Sir William Halifax, Kt.

1776, London Lord Mayor is John Sawbridge, and town clerk of London is William Rix.

1776: A winter of unusual severity. Britain forbids all intercourse with the American colonies.

By 1776, Colden family of New York, American Loyalists, one of whom, "old Governor Colden", had been Gov of New York, family were correspondents of DC, probably settled in Canada after the American War. (See Mackaness in Fresh Light). Henry Colden Antill a cousin to Mary Bligh/Putland/O'Connel. George Mackaness, (Ed.), 'Fresh Light On Bligh - Some Unpublished Correspondence', Australian Historical Monographs, Vol. V, (New Series), Reprinted, 1976 by Review Pubs., Dubbo. NSW. Australia.)

23 May, 1776: Geo III closes Parliament with remarks re no price too high for the reasons he was prosecuting the war against American colonies, submission was what he wanted.
(Ketchum, Winter, p. 98.)

4 July, 1776: Thirteen American colonies sign Declaration of Independence.

1776: June-August: The greatest expeditionary force Britain had ever mustered arrived in America, including about 8000 Hessian and Hanoverian troops, and with them was General Knyphausen, who in a quaint revelation of the idiosyncrasies of his day, buttered his bread with his thumb.

19 December, 1776: A general assembly of state of Virginia resolved to expel and banish British merchants and factors from the state.

1776 Circa: Whaling history: US sealing takes up as a Boston ship takes 13,000 hair seal pelts from the Falkland Islands. (They sell for 50 cents each in New York).

Concerning London Lord Mayor in 1777, Sir James Esdaile.
1. ESDAILE Senior
sp: Miss NOTKNOWN 2. Banker, London Lord Mayor Sir James ESDAILE (c.1777) sp: Miss NOTKNOWN 3. Louisa ESDAILE sp: Merchant Sir Benjamin HAMMET MP (b.1736;d.1800) 4. son1 HAMMET sp: Miss NOTKNOWN

1777: First European indigo planter arrives in Bengal - John Prinsep.

1777: American David Bushnell invents the torpedo.

In 1778 the captain of Blackheath Golf Club was William Innes, son of an Edinburgh banker, a West India merchant, of Lime St., City. MP for Ilchester 1774-75.

1777: Chairman of EICo 1777-1778 is George Wombwell of Crutched Friars.

1778: London Lord Mayor of - 1778 Samuel Plumbe

1778: Sir Joseph Banks is asked to prepare a series of notes for EICo on cultivation of new crops, esp. tea in India. Many of what became the Indian tea districts were not by 1788-ish yet British possessions. One Abel was an agent for Banks 1793-1800, and he once had tea for India on a ship Alceste, but he lost his plants. Further British interest in tea in India in 1815.

1778: British explorer James Cook had visited Nootka Sound, seeking the fabled north-west passage. By 1788 the area visited by British mariner John Meares who built a fort he later took down.
Reference item: Deryck Scarr, The History of the Pacific Islands: Kingdoms of the Reefs. South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1990.
Reference item: Roel Edmond, Representing the South Pacific: Colonial Discourse from Cook to Gaugin. Cambridge University Press, 1997.

1729-1778: First founding of a bank at Bombay (by Europeans?). It ended in 1778. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 243.)

1778: Approx: James Forbes in Bombay finds opium all too commonly used amongst British/EICo army officers and soldiers alike. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 154.)

1779 - 10 July: Mr Anthony Calvert, owner of the Royal Charlotte bound to Jamaica, desiring she may be taken into a dock at Plymouth on account of a leak... no objections to it if will not retard His Majesty's service. (Navy Out-Letters to Admiralty. 10 July, 1779, PRO, Adm 106/2206). (No genealogy on Calvert here has yet been discovered. He is later of the London slaver firm, Camden, Calvert and King)

1779: Imperial Chinese authorities forbid the import of opium into China. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 154.)

1779 +: Children of Mr William Larkins Junior Merchant H.C's service and Mary his wife, baptized at St Johns Church, Calcutta, entries signed by Chaplain William Johnson.
(1) On 8 March 1779, Georgiana Grueber Larkins
( 2) On 14 April 1780, Marian Larkins
( 3) On 2 March 1782, Apollonia Charlotte Larkins. (2 and 3 are listed as being the god-daughters of Mrs Hastings). Mrs Hastings was married at St Johns Church, 8 August 1777 under her maiden name of "Anna Maria Appolonia Chapusettin".
From Bengal Past and Present - "Baptisms in Calcutta 1778-1782".
These Larkins' were of the Blackheath family of Larkins, noted in The Blackheath Connection website.

1779, Died, English navigator Capt James Cook, Hawaii.

1780: Calcutta/Bengal merchant and cotton trader William Fairlie originally of Ayrshire, Scotland, is perhaps active as early as 1780. His parents and wife remain unknown, though he is frequently alluded to in many books on early Sydney-based trade.
(Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833, p. 184.)

One trading house linked here was Fairlie, Reid and Co. of Calcutta, which grew from John Reid of Reid and Gildart by the 1780s, and later there were Andrew and David Reid, linked to John Reid, so the elder Reid, (presumably John the senior), went with Fairlies and Fergussons to produce Fairlie, Reid and Co.
(See Parker's essay, pp. 199ff in R. A. Cage, (Ed.), The Scots Abroad: Labour, Capital, Enterprise, 1750-1914. London, Croom Helm, 1985.)

This William Fairlie left home in the early 1780s to set up as a free merchant in Bengal with his fellow Ayrshireman, John Fergusson. Fairlie accepted cash from East India Company (EICo) employees, invested in inland projects, handled work for other firms on a commission basis, and later in the UK traded on his own account.

1780: Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade. Madison, 1969.

1780: George F. Dow, Slave Ships and Slavery. Salem, 1927.*

1780s: Robert and James Adam, Architects, 27 Old Bond St. Built the Adelphi, Strand.

1780: Opium trader John Reid (of Beale, Reid and Gildart, a China house) arrives in Canton as Austrian consult. (Keswick, appendices.) Parents unknown. (John Reid has a brother David who is a "Danish military officer", seen as a major opium trader in Bulley, Bombay Ships, pp. 108ff.) He is a partner with John Henry Cox, also with David and Thomas Beale, who with Alexander Shank formed the China agency of Reid and Beale, which became Beale and Magniac which became in 1832, Jardine-Matheson. There were also Andrew and David Reid, possibly sons, who went into firm Fairlie, Reid and Co. of Calcutta. Little is known of the Reid partner, Gildart.
(W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 10. Coates, Macao, p. 73. Keswick, Jardine-Matheson, pp. 50ff in an essay by Alan Reid, and appendices.) (A Reid descendant who finds links with Reid and the Gildart family of Liverpool is sceptical to date on his forebears engaging in opium trading here -Ed.)

1781: English East India Co. assumes responsibility for production of opium in India (for market in China).

1780s: Slavery on the African West Coast. SBS TV screen documentary entitled: As it Happened: Cahokia - African Trade. The upshot is that there was no African tribe on the West Coast which did not have its own form of participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. West Coast Africans admit this on guided tours through old slave trading forts. Today, Afro-Americans when they visit Mother Africa and this part of the coast, and go on such tours, are often tearfully devastated to find that it is not only Europeans who can be blamed for the horrific slave trade which took their ancestors to the Americas.
By the late eighteenth century, England-educated Africans might be writing on slaving business from the West African coast to people in Bristol or Liverpool. One-tenth of all slaves were provided by Wedah, which was managed by Africans. Goree was often managed by African women who liased with white merchants. One slave market of West Africa did not close till 1906. To the north of Africa, African boys were sold to Arabs for use as eunuchs; the death rate for eunuch candidates was 90 per cent.
(Screened 8 March 2000 in Australia)

1781: Opium and fur trader John Henry Cox (1758-1791), often noted in the context of the earliest Australian maritime history, due to his Nootka fur trading to Canton, arrives in Canton. Part of Cox and Beale. He is a younger son of London toy and automaton maker James Cox of Shoe Lane. Chinese Mandarins liked to be given mechanical toys, in pidgin called singsongs. J. H. Cox about 1781 got to Asia/Canton to sell automatons and to collect debts due to his father. In 1785 Cox and John Reid had a brig to get sea-otter skins at Nootka/Vancouver Island. By 1786 or so J. H. Cox could draw bills for £35,000 in London. In 1787 he left his affairs with Daniel Beale (consul for Prussia by 1787 and new partner for Cox who was by then selling opium to Chinese for East India Company men and putting others out of business) and became a capt in Swedish Navy to outwit East India Company. He returned to China with his own ship. He died still in his thirties. J. H. Cox in 1787 becomes a partner with John Reid; Cox and Beale is founded in Canton in 1787.
Keswick, Jardine-Matheson, pp. 50ff in an essay by Alan Reid, and appendices. In 1787, J. H. Cox offered to take a lakh of rupees in Calcutta to Bombay and save govt money eg 14 per cent. S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, pp. 12-13. On Nootka Indians, West Coast of Vancouver Island, a confederacy of 20 tribes, see Pliny Goddard, Indians of the Northwest Coast. 1934. James R. Gibson, Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1992. Paperback edition of 1999., variously.

1781: Jonathan Hornblower patents an idea envisaged by Watt, for using the expansion of steam in a pair of cylinders for an engine.

1782, England, Alleged working of chemicals by Alchemy to produce gold, by chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society, James Price, who committed suicide rather than duplicate the exercise.

Follows an impression of the family history of London Lord Mayor of 1782-1783, Nathaniel Newnham
Descendants of Nathaniel NEWNHAM of Surrey, of Streatham (c.1699) and sp: Honoria KETT
2. MP Thomas NEWNHAM (c.1754) 2. London Lord Mayor, Freemason, Nathaniel NEWNHAM (b.1699) sp: Sarah ADAMS
3. Barrister, KC George Lewis NEWNHAM (b.1733;d.1800) sp: Mary Fields ASHTON of Lincolns Inn
3. Banker, alderman, Freemason, Nathaniel NEWNHAM (b.1741;d.26 Dec 1809) sp: Anne NOTKNOWN
4. Caroline NEWNHAM sp: Rev Calverley J. BEWICKE
2. Anne NEWNHAM sp: Kings Bench, MP Sir Dudley RYDER (c.1756) 3. Nathaniel RYDER Baron1 Harrowby (b.3 Jul 1735;d.20 Jun 1803) sp: Elizabeth TERRICK (d.24 Aug 1804)
4. Paymaster Forces, Dudley RYDER Baron2 Harrowby, Earl1 Harrowby (b.22 Dec 1762;d.26 Dec 1847) sp: Susan Leveson-Gower (b.1772;m.30 Jul 1795;d.26 May 1838)
5. Dudley RYDER Earl2 Harrowby, Baron3 Harrowby, FRS (b.23 May 1798;d.18 Nov 1882) sp: Frances COUTTS (b.6 Jun 1801;m.15 Sep 1823;d.20 Mar 1859)
6. Banker Henry Dudley RYDER Earl4 Harrowby (b.3 May 1836;d.11 Dec 1900) sp: Susan Juliana Maria DENT (m.17 May 1859;d.17 Mar 1913)
7. John Herbert RYDER Earl5 Harrowby (b.7 Aug 1864;d.1956) sp: Mabel Danvers SMITH, had issue (b.26 Feb 1867;m.16 Nov 1887)
6. Dudley Francis RYDER, Baron4 Harrowby, Earl3 Harrowby (b.16 Jan 1831;d.26 Mar 1900) sp: Mary Frances CECIL (b.6 Jan 1832;m.3 Oct 1861;d.27 Jul 1917) 5. MP Hon Granville Dudley RYDER (d.24 Nov 1879) sp: Georgiana Augusta Somerset (m.1825)
6. MP Granville Richard RYDER (b.1833;d.1880) sp: Sybilla Sophia GRANT (m.19 Mar 1864;d.15 Oct 1901) 5. Georgiana Elizabeth RYDER (b.23 Apr 1804;d.22 Aug 1884) sp: John STUART-WORTLEY Brn2 Wharncliffe (b.23 Apr 1801;m.12 Dec 1825;d.22 Oct 1855) 6. Edward Montagu STUART-WORTLEY (b.15 Dec 1827;d.13 May 1899) sp: Susan Charlotte LASCELLES (m.4 Jul 1855) 6. Cicely Susan STUART-WORTLEY (b.14 Oct 1835;d.2 May 1915) sp: Mr DOUGLAS-SCOTT (d.4 Nov 1905)
7. MP John Walter Edward DOUGLAS-SCOTT (b.10 Jun 1866;d.30 Mar 1929) sp: Cecil Victoria Constance KERR wife1 (b.14 Feb 1866;m.4 Jun 1889;d.13 Sep 1919) sp: Alice Pearl CRAKE wife2 (m.9 Aug 1920)
6. Mary Caroline STUART-WORTLEY sp: Henry Francis MOORE Earl8 Drogheda, Mqs3 Drogheda (m.25 Aug 1847)
5. Susan RYDER wife1 (b.20 Jun 1796;d.30 Jul 1827) sp: Earl2 Fortescue Hugh Baron4 Fortescue FORTESCUE (b.13 Feb 1783;m.4 Jul 1817;d.14 Sep 1861) 6. Hugh Baron5 Fortescue FORTESCUE (b.4 Apr 1818;d.10 Oct 1905) sp: Georgiana Augusta Charlotte DAWSON-DAMER (b.13 Jun 1826;m.11 Mar 1847;d.8 Dec 1866) 7. Hugh FORTESCUE Visc Errington (b.16 Apr 1854) sp: Emily ORMSBY-GORE (b.1860;m.15 Jul 1886)
4. MP Richard RYDER (b.5 Jul 1766;d.1832) sp: Miss SKYNNER-53007 (m.1 Aug 1799) 4. Right Rev. Henry RYDER (b.1777;d.31 Mar 1836) sp: Miss PHILLIPS (m.15 Dec 1802)
5. Rev. Henry Dudley RYDER (b.13 Oct 1803;d.19 Jan 1877) sp: Cornelia Sarah CORNISH (m.8 May 1828;d.16 Apr 1840)
6. Louisa Cornelia RYDER sp: John George Cope NEWNHAM (m.Dec 1859)
5. Anna Sophia RYDER (d.8 Jul 1893) sp: MP Rt Hon Sir George GREY, Bart2 (b.11 May 1799;m.14 Aug 1827;d.9 Sep 1882) 6. Equerry George Henry GREY (b.21 May 1835;d.11 Dec 1874) sp: Harriet Jane PEARSON (m.20 Nov 1860;d.1 Jun 1905) 7. Sir Edward GREY, Bart3, Visc1 Grey (b.25 Apr 1862;d.7 Sep 1933) sp: Dorothy WIDDRINGTON wife1 (m.20 Oct 1885;d.4 Feb 1906) sp: Frances Lady Glenconner WYNDHAM wife2 (m.4 Jun 1922;d.18 Nov 1928) 6. Constance Mary GREY (b.31 Jan 1872) sp: Edward Beaumont Cotton CURTIS (m.18 Jan 1905)


In 1783 the French become first to use balloons as a means of aerial reconnaissance for warfare.

1783: S. E. Morison, Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860. 1921. (Useful on US' China and East India trade, and a classic) *

1783: Montgolfiers makes balloon trip.

1783: The first US ship flying American flag to reach England is Bedford, from the devastated Nantucket fleet, by 6 February. British are glad to trade but absence of a trade treaty leaves her captain at mercy of British navigation acts, customs officials and buyers. The tobacco-growing states rapidly regain their trade. Virginia reaches her pre-war levels of exports by 1786. British shippers send consumer items to American states, taking up hard money and throwing whole American economy into near panic. In London, US Minister John Adams tries to make a commercial treaty but fails as US central government cannot control behaviour in the states.
See K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 51.

1783: Daniel Beale arrives in Canton as Prussian consul-designate to China. (Keswick, appendices.)

Reference item: Donald D. Johnson, with Gary Dean Best, The United States in the Pacific: Private Interests and Public Policies, 1784-1899. Westport, Connecticut, 1995.

1784+ Charles Oscar Paullin, American Voyages to the Orient. Annapolis, 1971.*

1784: Sidney and Marjorie Greebie, Gold of Ophir. 1925. (On the US' old China trade) *

1784: Samuel Shaw, Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, with life of the author by Josiah Quincy. 1847. (Shaw was supercargo of Empress of China on her first trip New York to China and later first US consul at Canton.*

1784: Kenneth S. LaTourette, Voyages of American Ships to China, 1784-1844. New Haven, 1927.

1784: Robert Kingery Buell and Charlotte Northcote Skladal, Sea Otters and the China Trade. New York, 1968. (A popular history) *

1784: Clayton Barrow, America Spreads Her Sails. Annapolis, 1973.*

1784 and previous: "The first US ship sent into the China Trade is the Boston sloop Harriet; it trades American ginseng for Chinese tea. It didn't even get all they way to China, it traded its goods off the Cape of Good Hope. The Empress of China was especially built for the trade by Philadelphia's Robert Morris and first set sail towards China on Washington's birthday, 22 February, 1784. It took ginseng and brought back teas, spices, silks, porcelains and other general household goods. There was interest in the products, a good profit was made and the China trade was off and running. Ginseng, seal and sea otter furs, and sandalwood were used to trade with the Chinese. Soon these resources were depleted and a new barter item was needed in lieu of silver; which the fledgling US had little of. In the late 1790's Smyrna (Izmer, today), Turkey a major source for opium began to become port of call for Americans."
The Boodle Boys - by R. A. Kris Millegan 2000. his mailto:roadsend@aol.com
See website: http://www.ctrl.org/boodleboys/boddlesboys2.html

1784: Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby and George Cabot of Beverley, Massachusetts, begin to trade with Baltic ports, although a major trade never develops. Russia becomes major supplier of hemp to America.

1784: London Lord Mayor of 1784 - Richard Clark.

1784: Opium trader and agency house figure John Fergusson, active by 1784, from Ayrshire, deals in cotton and opium. Firm known successively as Fairlie, Fergusson and Co.; Fairlie, Reid and Co.; Fairlie, Gilmore and Co.; finally Fergusson, Clarke and Co. (S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, p. 9, p. 138.) 1784: Bengal government contracts with John Fergusson and Capt. Dixon for delivery of $40,000 and $10,000 to Penang in exchange for Patna opium of equal value.
(W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 10. Parker's essay on Scots in India, pp. 199ff in R. A. Cage, Scots Abroad.)

1783-1793: Daniel Beale and Co., opium traders, a China house. Or, Magniac and Co. Active by 1783. Parents notknown. (See Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 63, pp. 108ff. Coates, Macao and the British, p. 140.) Daniel Beale arrives in China as Prussian Consul. He may have a son Daniel who was taken into the family of Alexander Matheson in Glasgow. This man head of the firm and by 1815 had speculated himself into bankruptcy. (See W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 269.) This man leaves China in 1797 to join Magniacs in London. His brother Thomas in 1815 got caught in an opium scare and owed the East India Company some $800,000, and bankrupted, "most sensational bankruptcy of the period", says Coates, Macao and the British, p. 140. His firm however survived as Shank and Magniac, then Magniac and Company. (See Helen Augur, Tall Ships to Cathay. nd?). Thomas Beale lived on borrowed money till 1841 when he suicided. (Coates, Macao and the British, p. 141); in 1825 Charles and Holingworth Magniac wished to retire to England and wanted partner, there was also Daniel Magniac who remained in China. They invited in a Scot, William Jardine, an East India Company surgeon, who then worked in Canton for a Parsi firm of Bombay who dealt in Malawa opium. Jardine later joined Magniacs. When Charles Magniac departed as Prussian consul, and up went Danish colours. Daniel Magniac married his local woman and was ostracised. So, Jardine and Matheson has a sleeping partner in London, Hollingworth Magniac. In 1793, firm of Cox and Beale (founded in Canton in 1787) is renamed Beale and Reid. (Keswick, Thistle and the Jade, on Jardine, appendices.)

1784-1799: Opium trader Thomas Beale of Beale and Co., active by 1784. Parents unknown. By 1799-1803 he is with major partnerships organised by David Scott re opium to China. Beale and Co. named by 1805 as interested in ships to China, in Bulley, Bombay ships, p. 63. By 1797, Beale and Co. are the biggest of the country traders, dealing with clients in Bombay, Calcutta, London, in Indian cotton, sandalwood, tin, pepper Chinese tea and silk, plus opium. (See Coates, Macao and the British, p. 73, pp. 128ff.) By 1797 Thomas succeeds his brother Daniel Beale as Prussian consul at Macao. (Keswick, Jardine-Matheson, appendices.) Thomas Beale arrives in Canton in 1791 as secretary to Prussian Consul.
(See W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 10.) Thomas also has brother, David. who with Alexander Shanks (the nephew of David Scott Snr?) form China agency of Beale and Reid. W. E. Cheong, An Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese, p. 98, Note 5. Thomas Beale is 20 years the Prussian consul at Canton. By 1814 some of his partners are Charles Magniac and Alexander Shank(s). Magniac later started Jardine and Matheson. See also, W. E. Cheong, Opium Trade and Agencies in China, variously. S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, p. 13.)

1784++: Donald D. Johnson (with Gary Dean Best), The United States in the Pacific: Private Interests and Public Policies, 1784-1899. Westport, Connecticut, 1995.

1784: [When] James Russell's wife Anne died, aged 89. she left over £17,000, the executors were Sir Hugh Inglis, Bart and Edmund Antrobus, a partner in Coutts Bank. (Jacob Price, pp. 215-217.). Various info: the young Hugh Inglis (1744-1820) aged 18 went to India as a midshipman on an EICo ship, left his ship in India and went to Dacca where he assisted his cousin, Francis Russell, surgeon to the EICo factory there. He became private secretary to John Cartier, head of the factory, and later governor of Bengal. Cartier returned to London in 1774 with Hugh Inglis following in 1775. Inglis had enough fortune to last him the rest of his life. He retired to the country until 1784 when he was elected a director of EICo, and he served as a director until 1813, becoming deputy chairman and chairman three times.
Inglis became an MP in 1802. His only son and heir was Sir Robert Harry Inglis 2nd Bart, (1786-1855) a prominent arch-Tory MP, and active evangelist, a close friend of Henry Thornton (1760-1815), MP, governor of the Bank of England, wealthy London merchant and Clapham sect saint.. Meanwhile, another of Jacob Price's people (p. 219), Robert Clerk became a director of EICo 1812-1815 and evidently got on well with Sir David Scott, as Scott once favoured one of Clerk's sons. Sir Hugh Inglis is a director of EICo from 1784. (Price, One Family's Empire, pp. 215-217.)

1784++: Much information on American (US) whalers operating in the Pacific given in this and following files will come from: Nigel Wace and Bessie Lovett, Yankee Maritime Activities and the Early History of Australia. Research School of Pacific Studies Aids to Research Series, No. A/2. Australian National University, Canberra, 1973. (Library of Congress card number, 72.95175; hereafter cited as Wace and Lovett, 1973, page number.)

1784: Adele Ogden, The California Sea Otter Trade, 1784-1848. Berkeley, 1941.*

1785: B. B. Goode, The Fisheries and Fishing Industry of the United States. (Seven Vols) Washington, 1884-1887. *

1785+ Alexander Starbuck, A History of American Whale Fishing. (Two Vols), Waltham, Mass., 1876.*

1785+ Edouard A. Stackpole, The Sea Hunters. Philadelphia, 1953. (US whaling history) *

1785+ Frances Downes Ommanney, Lost Leviathan. New York, 1971. (US whaling history)*

1785+ Frances Diane Robotti, Whaling and Old Salem. New York, 1962.*

1785+ Elmo Paul Hohman, American Whalemen. New York, 1928.*

1785+: R. Langdon, (Ed.), American Whalers and Traders in the Pacific: A Guide to Records on Microfilm. Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1978.

1785: Marilyn E. Weigold, The American Mediterranean. Port Washington, 1974*

1785: US schooner Maria from Boston is first US ship in Mediterranean to be seized by pirates of Algiers. (Barbary pirates gave US shipping trouble till after the 1812 war with Britain.)
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988.

1785: Philadelphia in US sends its first trading ship to China.

1785: London Lord Mayor of 1785 - Thomas Wright

Reference item: David Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1995. (Re slavery)

1786: Galvani makes frogleg twitch with electricity.

Update: March 2002: For more information on Blackheath in London, visit a site managed by the noted local historian there, Neil Rhind, now preparing his third book on the history of his area: http://www.blackheath.org

1786-1788, Founding of a British convict colony at Sydney, Australia (Botany Bay, or, New South Wales, or, New Holland).

1786: Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby sends his first trading ship to China, Grand Turk. Some 15 US ships reached Canton in 1789, five of them from Salem.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 55.

1786: To 1786, (Lane senior had died in 1784) John Lane of Lane, Son and Fraser made a hasty decision to visit US, as he had a rumour that one of his creditors, Nathaniel Tracy who'd contracted an advance in 1785, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Lane stayed five years till 1790 and he dealt with legal advice of John Lowell and Boston's leading banker Thomas Russell till he acquired property which he then exchanged for silver. (Kellock's article, p. 114.)

1786: James Horsburgh arrives in Bombay a young mariner, and is on ships carrying cotton to China for Surat Muslim merchant Chelliaby. By 1791 he works for Bruce, Fawcett and Co. He becomes a noted EICo hydrographer by 1806. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 213.)

1786: The Indian Government in 1786 permitted Capt. Light to take Penang, which had produce "fit for the China market". At first Penang was used as a penal settlement for Bengal convicts, (who were/had been also sent to Bencoolen) but in 1797 the governor-general assured the superintendent of the settlement he would be regularly supplied with convicts according to necessity. Food from Bengal had to be taken to Penang, using country ships owned by such as Fairlie, Gilmore and Co. (and the government of Penang once appointed Messrs Palmer and Co. as their Calcutta agents.
(Frost, Convicts and Empire, pp. 143-148; Singh, Agency Houses, p. 133.

1786: Organisation of The First Fleet of convict ships for New South Wales by contractor, William Richards Jnr of Southwark. Some of his descendants ended up at Walcha, Northern New South Wales, near Tamworth and Armidale.

1786++: David Scott Snr. has been in Bombay, in 1786 returns to London as a free trader wanting less monopoly on shipping. At Leadenhall Street, he becomes director of EICo partly by influence of Dundas (Lord Melville) who relies heavily on Scott's knowledge of affairs in India (Scott in turn relies on the advice of his partner Adamson in Bombay). Scott a zealous follower of Dundas till ill-health in 1802 forces him into retirement. (See Parker's essay on Scots in India in R. A. Cage, Scots Abroad, pp. 200ff). Scott's firm is seen as one of three firms having a "stranglehold" on the Bombay economy.
(Christie, non-elite MPs, p. 71.)

1786: David Scott Senior (born 1746, Fife, Scotland, son of MP Robert Scott) after he returned home in 1785 from Bombay twice became a director of the EICo. He dealt in London with the wealthy and eccentric John Farquhar. As a returnee from Bombay, from 1786 he continued to act for his firm, as a free trader wanting less monopoly on shipping. He became an EICo director partly by influence of Dundas, who relied heavily on Scott's knowledge of affairs in India as new trade outlets were sought (Scott in turn relied in his partner Adamson's advice). Scott, something of a workaholic, was a zealous follower of Dundas till ill health in 1802 forced him into retirement.
(See Parker's essay, pp. 200ff, in R. A. Cage, (Ed.), The Scots Abroad: Labour, Capital, Enterprise, 1750-1914.)
Scott Senior had a son David, a wife unknown, and a trader-nephew named Shank. David Scott and Co. was one of three firms with a "stranglehold" on the Bombay economy.
S. B. Singh (index, p. 13), has it that in 1795 Scott tried to get a Genoese commission for Mr Hamilton [is this Hamilton any link to anyone interesting?] to stay in China as consul to establish a house of agency there with Mr Shank as a partner. He wrote to Wm Fairlie about it, competing with Magniac etc, presumably), Mr Shank was Mr Scott's nephew and chief mate on one of Mr Tate's ships, re links to Madras and Bengal.
(Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833, p. 180.)



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Follows here a list of English ship managers operating 1717-1775, shipping convicts to America: With a list of merchants shipping convicts to Australia from 1786-1788, to 1867: The two lists will enable completion of any research on the English use of convict transportation in the period covered...
Please note: This collected list has never appeared in any printed book to date, and did not appear on the Internet before 16-6-2002 - Dan Byrnes.
1717: Francis March, London:
1718 Jonathan Forward, London;
1720 members of the Lux family, Darby, John, and Francis (probably London before becoming colonials, (later linked to Jonathan Forward's operations) and in 1750, William Lux;
1721-1722, Jonathan Forward Sydenham of London;
1722, ? Cheston;
1731, various men named Reed, to 1771;
1737, Joseph Weld in Dublin;
1739, Andrew Reid, London, with James and Andrew Armour, London, and John Stewart of London;
1740++, Moses Israel Fonseca, London;
1740, Samuel Sedgley, Bristol;
1740, James Gildart, Liverpool;
1744, John Langley, Ireland;
1745, Reid and Armour, London;
1745, Sydenham and Hodgson, London;
1747, William Cookson of Hull;
1749, Jonathan Forward Sydenham a nephew of Jonathan Forward above;
1749, Stewart and Armour, London;
1750, Andrew Reid, London;
1750, Samuel Sedgely and Co of Bristol; John Stewart and (Duncan) Campbell, London (JS&C);
1758, Sedgely and Co (Hillhouse and Randolph), Bristol;
1759, Stewart and Armour, London;
1760, Sedgely and Hillhouse of Bristol;
1763, Andrew Reid retired;
1764, John Stewart and Duncan Campbell, London;
1766, Patrick Colquhuon, Glasgow; 1766, Sedgely and Co. at Bristol replaced by William Randolph, William Stevenson and James Cheston, Bristol;
1767, Stevenson, Randolph and Cheston, Bristol? with a colonial agent Cheston;
1768, Jonathan Forward Sydenham, London or nearby counties;
1769, Dixon and Littledale, Whitehaven;
1769, Sedgely, Bristol; 1769, any ships captain providing necessary securities could transport felons;
1770, James Baird, Glasgow;
1772, John Stewart died, Duncan Campbell carried on alone in London until 1775.

At Bristol, Stevenson, Randolph and Cheston (SRC) were active till 1776; they made ill-advised and vain attempts to transport felons to North America at the end of the American Revolution. Wisely, Duncan Campbell (1726-1803) did not attempt to resume convict transportation to America.
(The above list does not include names transporting convicts from Ireland.)
See here, Abbot Emerson Smith, Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labour in America, 1607-1776. Gloucester, Massachusetts, University of Carolina Press, 1947. [Peter Smith, 1965]
As a matter of silence-in-history, US historian Bernard Bailyn once wrote - about American reception of English emigrants generally before 1775, (p. 4) there are... "extraordinary facts, key facts, somehow obscured by historians of the empire concentrating on institutions, power rivalries, mercantilism and trade"... "...
See Bernard Bailyn, 'The Peopling of the British Peripheries in the Eighteenth Century', Esso Lecture, 1988. Canberra, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Occasional Paper No. 5, 1988.
Oddly, Bailyn then wrote, (page 19), "I have never found a single reference to a convict in any genealogy or history of an American family, nor, in any other way, does a single one of the 50,000 convicts sent to America appear as such in American history."
In terms of American colonial society (Virginia and Maryland to 1775), the following list of names is interesting: The American correspondents of London based Duncan Campbell were mostly were users of slave labour.
Here is a list of them: Duncan Campbell's correspondents from the index to his business letterbook 1772-1776: including, Allison and Campbell, William Adam, Samuel Athawes, Colonel William Brockenbrough and Austin Brockenbrough, Dr John Brockenbrough, Adam Barnes and Johnson, James Bain, Rev. Mr Beauvoir, James and Robert Buchanan, George Buchanan, Robert Cockerell, Messrs Campbell and Dickson, Colin Currie, Stewart Carmichael, William Dickson, Charles Eyles, Fitzhugh, Fauntleroy, Richard Glascock/Glascook, Benj and Charles Grimes, Henderson and Glassford, Rhodam Kenner, Abraham Lopez and Son, James Millar Jamaica, Daniel Muse, Hudson Muse, Hugh McLean, Joshua Newall, George Noble, Francis Randall, Major Henry Ridgely, Adam Shipley, William Snydebottom, Richard Stringer, Alexr Spiers and Co., Spiers, Finch and Co., Dr. Sherwin, William and Edward Telfair, Tayloe and Thornton, Charles Worthington, Cooper and Telfair.


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From 1786, Duncan Campbell, the overseer of the Thames prison hulks, never sent a convict ship to Australia, though he had every opportunity to do so if he wished.
(Below names asterisked are merchant names which are still resistant to genealogical or other forms of research.)
Merchants shipping convicts to Australia from 1786-1788 include: for the First Fleet: William Richards Junior, London alderman William (later Sir) Curtis, London alderman George Mackenzie Macaulay, Leightons, James Mather. For the Second Fleet to Sydney, London-based slavers supplying slaves to Jamaica at the time, Camden*, Calvert* and King. The Third Fleet, the Enderby whalers together with Calvert's firm. Later, a London whaling investor, John St Barbe.
By 1800 or so, John Wilsone, Gabriel Gillett with William Wilson, (who had links with the London Missionary Society, as did James Duncan*; William Hingston*, Edward Redman*, Thomas Patrickson*, John Prinsep (pioneer of the indigo industry in India); the London whaler Daniel Bennet. London dockowner names Money and Wigram, who from 1810 were also investor-names in the firm Forbes and Co. at Bombay (a firm which still survives with that name!). Alexander Towers*; Joseph Lachlan* (who as an agent took more than 84 contracts - "in bulk" - and so camouflaged the names of the shipowners actually involved); Buckle, Buckle, Bagster* and Buchanan*; J. Atty* and Co., Hovelds*, Lyalls*, Birch* and Ward*, Thomas Ward, Abel Chapman, J. Blacket*, Johnsons*, John Barry*, Robert Brooks, Joseph Somes*, Duncan Dunbar*.
The two lists above of convict-transporting ship managers given for North America, then Australia, are the mainstay-names for England's long-use of convict transportation from 1718 to 1867.
For more detailed information on these merchant names as chapters arise, see Dan Byrnes' website on convict transportation from England, 1718-1810: The Blackheath Connection at: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/


1787: The famous Newgate Prison in London shipped felons from St. Katherine's Dock, a place which regularly exported felons and slaves to the colonies. As a result, transporting convicts became a business. From 1715 to 1742 the Contractor for Transports (London, Middlesex) was Jonathan Forward, a prosperous tobacco merchant. Later, Andrew Reid succeeded him. Reid, hounded by complaints of almost every nature, was replaced by John Stewart (died 1772), who was replaced by his former junior partner, Duncan Campbell. After that, various merchants competed for contracts to transport felons at their own expense. During the American Revolutionary War convict cargo trade stopped and did not resume again until 1787.
This is from website: (now a broken link?)
http://www.genealogy-book.com/classroom/classroom.html

1787: London Lord Mayor of 1787- John Burnell.

1787: London Lord Mayor of 1787 - James Townsend.

1787: US merchants enter the sea otter trade of Pacific Northwest for the Canton market. John Ledyard, an American who had been on Cook's last voyage, had failed to interest American in the trade, but in 1787, Boston merchants fit out ship Columbia Capt. Robert Gray and sloop Lady Washington to trade for sea otter fur with Northwest Indians. Columbia returns home in 1790 after first American circumnavigation of the globe. Five more vessels left to go into the Northwest fur trade.

1787-1790: Bengal: Managing agency houses set up in Calcutta.

1787: Firm of (J. H.) Cox and Beale is founded in Canton. (Keswick, appendices.)

1788: Loss in the Pacific Ocean of the French exploration expedition led by La Perouse. Napoleon Bonaparte had attempted to join this expedition. Bonaparte remained interested in Australia, and in 1800 sent French exploration ships (corvettes), Le Naturaliste and Le Geographe, under Captain Nicholas Baudin, accompanied by scientist Francois Peron.

1788: January, Settling of Sydney, New South Wales as a British convict colony.

1788+: John Bach, A Maritime History of Australia. Melbourne, Nelson, 1976.

January 1788: French ships Astrolabe and Boussole under command of Jean Francois de La Perouse enter Botany Bay, Australia. Startling the British who had only just arrived.

1788++: Reference item: Hon Herbert F. Hardacre, The Dawn of Settlement in Australia; its conditions and general development to the end of the First Quarter of a Century: 1788-1813. Nil info on publisher, 1926.

1788: First US consul to Canton, Major Samuel Shaw, observes Bengal-based ships engaged in opium smuggling.

1788-1810: Opium trader Robert Saunders (1754-1825), of whom little is known. (Was he the Saunders later by 1800 in London the partner of John Prinsep?). Son of David Saunders. Robert married Margaret Keble. In 1788 he is involved at Boglepore in opium trade; evidence is a letter he wrote to collector at Dinajpur. He later lived at Lewisham, Kent. A website exists on the Saunders line at: http://www.mit.edu/~dfm/genealogy/saunders.html

Follows an edited impression of some Saunders family history, conjecturing that some of the Saunders listed may have been partners with John Prinsep the pioneer indigo planter of India for the East India Company:
Descendants of Apothecary, Banff David SAUNDERS David
1. Apothecary, Banff SAUNDERS David-58344 (b.1689;d.1719) sp: Anne Anna COCKBURN-123617 2. Dr James Kenneth SAUNDERS (b.1717;d.1878) sp: Bathia Bethia LESLIE;
3. Dr, FRS, William SAUNDERS (b.1743;d.1817) sp: Charity Cherry WARD wife2
(b.1787;m.1781;d.1817) 4. Major William SAUNDERS (b.1789;d.1839) sp: Eliza Louisa BOYD (m.1823)
5. Major-General William Boyd SAUNDERS (b.1827) sp: Matilda KNOX-GORE
6. John James SAUNDERS (b.1794;d.1876) sp: Isabella Susanna BOYD of Blackheath (d.1876);
5. Frances Isabella Maria SAUNDERS-32978 sp: Rev Fitzwilliam John TAYLOR; 5. Capt. George Robert SAUNDERS (b.1836;d.1868); sp: Laura Mary JOHNSTONE (m.1862);
4. Mary SAUNDERS (b.1773;d.1838) sp: George Henry WARD (b.1785;m.1817;d.1849); 4. Bengal Civil Service staffer George SAUNDERS (b.1782;d.1836) sp: Anne RUSSELL (m.1808;d.1849); 4. Bengal Civil Service staffer Robert SAUNDERS (b.1792;d.1856) sp: Eliza Wallace BARNETT widow (c.1810;m.1824)
5. Marianne Charity SAUNDERS sp: Dr George David POLLOCK (b.1818);
6. Hugh POLLOCK (b.1859;d.1945) sp: Alice WYKEHAM-MARTIN (m.1898) sp: Margaret PETRIE wife1 (m.1769;d.1777);
2. Indigo mart, Calcutta, Robert SAUNDERS (b.1754;d.1825) sp: Margaret KEBLE (m.1786;d.1828); 3. Harriet SAUNDERS Unm (b.1787;d.1829); 3. EICo Merchant George William SAUNDERS (b.1789;d.1830) sp: Angel Margaret MARSHALL (m.1817;d.1834) 3. Indigo dealer Robert John SAUNDERS (b.1792;d.1852) sp: Isabella NICHOLSON-16415 3. James Fergusson SAUNDERS (b.1790) sp: Wife2 MUSKETT Lucy Louisa.

1788: Opium trader little-known to history, Capt. Thomas Charles Pattle (1773-1815). (Pattle genealogy) A merchant resident by 1773 about Canton, also known at Beauleah, India. Died 1815 at Macao. Son of EICo director Thomas Pattle and widow Sarah Hasleby. Married to wife1 Eliza Anne Frances Middleton. He is member of Canton Civil Service in 1788 and second member of Select Committee 1805-1801. Later also 1812-1813-1814-185. He is appointed a supercargo in 1794. Provers of his will in 1815 are Sir William Fraser (hard to trace) and Charles Magniac (see below).
The residue of his estate was invested in 1865. (Data per email from descendant Mary Pattle Hover.). This Capt. Thomas Charles also in Hover data becomes a director of East India Company. He ended with an estate of not £90,000 as he thought but £163,769. He is a link in Pattle genealogy re wife1 of Edward Gibbon Wakefield? (Burke's Peerage and Baronetage for Brooke of Sarawak.)
A witness to his second marriage is Thomas Hillman. He has brothers James (Jim "Blazes") Pattle and William Pattle of Bengal Light Cavalry.
Paul Bloomfield, Edward Gibbon Wakefield: Builder of the British Commonwealth. London, Longmans Green and Co., 1961., p. 35. (With genealogical table on E. G. Wakefield.
Thomas Charles is brother of Jim "Blazes" Pattle who has seven daughters. Pattle is of Bengal Civil Service and is half-cousin of the father of (the first?) Rajah Brooke of Sarawak. Family data suggests he has brothers James and William, sisters Sara Rocke, Eliza Mitford and Sophia Lay (?) who marries James Gardiner (?).

1788: Circa: Alexander Adamson in Bombay is partner with free merchants David Scott Snr, James Tates and the Parsi, Dady Nusserwanjee. For the British, the successful 1784 outcome of wars with the Marathas meant that free merchants could shelter under the protection of the EICo. This was offset by the EICo's reliance on their funds for "official" purposes from time to time. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 178.)

1789: Whaling history: Due to the American Revolution, US whaling was slow to recover after 1783, but in 1789, Nantucket captains learned of the sperm whales of the Indian Ocean, and by 1791 were six Nantucket whalers rounding Cape Horn to try to Pacific whaling grounds which has been ascertained (after early British reports) by the Hudson, New York whaler, American Hero. One of these six was Beaver, which cost $10,212 to fit out, with a crew of 17 and three whaleboats. Later use whalers might cost $20,000 to fit for a single voyage, though profits might be 350 per cent.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 234.

1789: See John G. B. Hutchins, The American Maritime Industry and Public Policy, 1789-1939. Cambridge, Mass., 1941.*

1789: London Lord Mayor of 1789- William Gill

1789: In 1789 Alexander Adamson at Bombay tenders his first East India Company ship, is still supplying later and by 1798-1807 Adamson owns/manages eleven ships, let to government for trips to Cape of Good Hope. David Scott Snr and Adamson are partners before 1800.

14 July 1789, Paris, France, Day of the Storming of the Bastille. French Revolution.

1789: George Washington elected first president of the United States.

1789: In 1789 Adamson tendered his first EICo ship, and he continued to supply, as to the Cape of Good Hope, to 1798-1807. Adamson owned /managed eleven ships.
Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833, pp. 178ff.

1789: Origins of Bombay EICo firm Bruce Fawcett and Co., quite active by 1795. This firm operated in Bombay 1789-1816, probably with partners, Patrick Crawford Bruce and maybe Thomas Bruce (an EICo General-Accountant?) and also with Indian merchant Pestonjee Bomanee. Partners of the Fawcett firm included: William Crawford. Fawcett's firm were large Bombay traders, by 1798 sending cotton to China.
Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833, pp. 178ff.

1789-1800: Circa: Opium trader Mr Graham, of an India agency house. Parents unknown. (S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, p. 10, p. 39, notes Graham and Moubray, in 1789 like some others wanting to supply the Canton trade with funds; dealing in opium and cotton.

1789: In 1789 Alexander Adamson tendered his first EICo ship, and he continued to supply, as to the Cape of Good Hope, to 1798-1807. Adamson owned /managed eleven ships.
(Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833, pp. 178ff.)

1789: Note: In a chapter, Captains Ashore , (Joseph Cotton)..."A contemporary of his, William Money, who was a Director (EICo) from 1789 to 1797 had been captain of the "Gatton" in a voyage to Bombay and back (c.1757). (From "East Indiamen" by Sir Evan Cotton and edited by Sir Charles Fawcett.)

1789: Origins of Bombay EICo firm Bruce Fawcett and Co., quite active by 1795. This firm operated in Bombay 1789-1816, probably with partners, Patrick Crawford Bruce and maybe Thomas Bruce (an EICo General-Accountant?) and also with Indian merchant Pestonjee Bomanee. Partners of the Fawcett firm included: William Crawford. Fawcett's firm were large Bombay traders, by 1798 sending cotton to China.
(Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1833, pp. 178ff.)

The Money family history is extensive and it is often difficult to know which individual might be mentioned in a citation:
Follows an impression of some relevant genealogy here:
Descendants of Robert MONEY
1. Robert MONEY sp: Miss NOTKNOWN 2. EICo director Capt. William MONEY (b.1738;d.1796) sp: Martha TAYLOR (b.1738;m.1767;d.1796) 3. Fawcett and Co., William Taylor MONEY, MP (b.1769;d.1839) sp: Eugenia MONEY
4. William MONEY (b.1802;d.1890) 4. Robert Cotton MONEY (b.1803;d.1835) 4. Rev James Drummond MONEY (b.1805;d.1875) sp: Clara Money-Coutts BURDETT-COUTTS (m.1850)
5. Francis Burdett Money COUTTS Lord Latimer (b.1852;d.1923) sp: Edith Allen CHURCHILL (m.1900)
6. Coutts Bank staffer, Hugh Burdett MONEY-COUTTS Baron6 Latymer (b.1876;d.1914) sp: Hester Frances RUSSELL (m.1900)
7. Coutts banker Thomas MONEY-COUTTS Baron7 Latymer (d.1987) sp: Miss NOTKNOWN
8. Hugo Nevill MONEY-COUTTS Baron8 Latymer (b.1926)
7. Alexander MONEY-COUTTS sp: Miss NOTKNOWN
8. Banker, Sir David Burdett MONEY-COUTTS sp: Miss NOTKNOWN;
4. George William MONEY (b.1806;d.1830) 4. David Inglis MONEY (b.1807;d.1880) 4. Eugenius MONEY (b.1809;d.1827) 4. Mary Eugenia MONEY (b.1812;d.1893) 4. Charles Forbes Septimus MONEY (b.1817;d.1893)
3. Harriet MONEY; 3. EICo merchant James MONEY (b.1772;d.1833) sp: Elizabeth NOTKNOWN Illegit 3. Jane MONEY (d.1802) 3. EICo merchant Robert MONEY (b.1775;d.1803) 3. Martha MONEY (b.1778;d.1839) sp: Bombay, Forbes and Co merchant, David Deas INGLIS (b.1778;m.1806;d.1839) 4. Dir Elsie Maud INGLIS (Heroine of Serbia) (b.1824;d.1917) 4. Merchant, David Forbes John INGLIS (b.1821;d.1894) sp: Harriet Lowis THOMPSON (b.1827;m.1845;d.1885) 5. George INGLIS (b.1847) 5. Eva Helen INGLIS (b.1866) sp: Dr John Shaw MCLAREN (c.1904;m.1899) 6. Agnes M. S. MCLAREN Mrs (b.1904) sp: Edmund MADDOX; 5. Amy INGLIS (b.1848;d.1929) sp: Robert SIMSON (m.1870)
4. soldier Ernest INGLIS (b.1857) sp: Florence D'OYLY (m.1886) 4. George INGLIS
3. Maria MONEY sp: Vice-Admiral Roland-Rowland MONEY (m.1805;d.1860) 4. Bengal CS Rowland MONEY (b.1812;d.1869) sp: Mary Ann TOMBS (d.1865); 4. Eva Maria MONEY (b.1824;d.1877) sp: EICo College, work in Burma, Sir Ashley EDEN (b.1831;d.1887) sp: H. E. M. PALMER - sp: J. M. BELLEW; 4. Lt. David Inglis MONEY (b.1819;d.1843); 4. George James Gambier MONEY Died Young (b.1827;d.1829)
3. Wigram MONEY (b.1784;d.1836); 3. Henry William MONEY (b.1786;d.1825); 3. George MONEY Died Young (b.1787); 3. Septimus MONEY (b.1787;d.1824) 3. Emma MONEY; 3. Caroline MONEY; (d.1894) sp: William Percival BOXALL (b.1814;m.1845;d.1898); 3. Sarah MONEY.

1789: Bengal, Indigo (source of fabric dye) is planted for first time by British (see career of John Prinsep).

1789-1791: In US, Samuel Slater arrived in New York in 1789 to construct a cotton spinning mill. He contacts wealthy Providence, Rhode Island merchant/shipper, Moses Brown, who provides capital for mill at Pawtucket "from which sprang the American industrial revolution".
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 63.

Duncan Campbell (1726-1803) the subject of other files in website "The Blackheath Connection".

Camden, Calvert and King and others of Africa Company of their era, the 1780s and 1790s.

Circa 1790:

See also: Mui Hoh-cheung and Lorna M. Mui, 'William Pitt and the Enforcement of the Commutation Act, 1784-1788', English Historical Review, Vol. LXXVI, No. 300., July 1961.; Mui Hoh-cheung and Lorna M. Mui, 'The Commutation Act and the Tea Trade in Britain, 1784-1793', Economic History Review, Series 2, Vol. XVI, No. 2, December 1963. Mui Hoh-cheung and Lorna M. Rui, 'Smuggling and British Tea Trade before 1784', American Historical Review, Vol. LXXIV, No. 1, October 1968.; Mui Hoh-cheung and Lorna M. Mui, 'Trends in Eighteenth Century Smuggling Reconsidered', Economic History Review, Series 2, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, Feb 1975.

1770-90: Japan: The Tamuma Period of political corruption.

1789-1790: Ship Massachusetts is built at Quincy in 1789 for US-China trade, badly, with unseasoned white oak. By the time she got to Canton, she and her cargo of timber and barrelled beef were rotted and decayed, and she was sold.

1790+: George E. Brooks Jr., Yankee Traders, Old Coasters and African Middlemen. Boston, 1970. *

1790: Works Progress Administration (WPA), (Compilation), Boston Looks Seaward. Boston, 1941. Also producing WPA, A Maritime History of New York. New York, 1973.*

1790: USA: Two Quaker petitions arrive to the House of Representatives in February 1790, prompting a debate on slavery. The USA now has about 700,000 black slaves. Charles Pinckey of South Carolina said: "South Carolina and Georgia cannot do without slaves."
See K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 66, North Carolina alone in the 1790s took in up to 15,000 slaves per year.

1790: In 1790 as British Creditors, Champion and Dickason claim £182,385 of debts in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maryland.

1790: Item: A Loyalist in South Carolina, Alexander Inglis, is killed during a duel in 1790. He was son of Hugh Inglis and his second wife Katherine McLean. Alexander married Mary Deas, a relative of Deas noted above. This Alexander before his death had taken in some orphans; he also had three daughters and one son of his own. (Alexander's grand-daughter was the British heroine of World War One in Serbia, Dr Elsie Inglis. This Alexander was related to a later-operating Bombay merchant, David John Forbes Inglis, son of David Deas Inglis and Martha Money (of the London-based family, Money). This David John married Harriet Thompson. (Thompsons are noted in Hodson's lists.)

1790: A "cheerful ship" brought $50,000 from China to Bombay, possibly the first instance of specie being exported from China.
S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, p. 44

1790-1800: Opium trader David Reid. Active by 1800. Parents Notknown.
See Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 63, pp. 108ff re opium. (W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 10.

1790s-1800s: Then comes the official establishment of a Secret Committee of the EICo, which secret committee had existed unofficially before. The EICo had a staff of 16 at Canton. (As an example of English madness, Gardner, p. 124 writes "Although they were continually engaged in fighting, all written evidence of the time points to the fact that the East India Company was a peace-loving power in India.")
Brian Gardner, The East India Company. London, Rupert Hart Davis, 1971., p. 130, p. 161.

Follows a list of some notable slavers operating 1789-1791 from London, Bristol and Liverpool. The list is drawn from: An Account of the Number of Vessels, with the Amount of their Tonnage, their Names, the Port to which they belong, and the Names of the respective Owners of each, that have cleared out from the Ports of London, Bristol and Liverpool, to the Coast of Africa, for the Purpose of purchasing slaves, in the Three Years preceding the 5th of January 1792. House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 82, pp. 329-37.
London: William Lyttleton; John McNabb; John and Alexander Anderson; the firm Anthony Calvert & Thomas King & William Camden; James Glynn; Thomas Sharpless & Robert Heatley; George Bollond; Richard Miles & Jerome Bernard Weuves (plus Thomas Wilson); William Collow; Jessie Curling & Robert Curling & Robert Moulton & John Curling & Rose Fuller & John Dussell; George Sharpe & George Browne & William Christopher & William Welbank & Rowland Webster & John Middleton & Robert Smith plus executors of the late John Langley; Josiah Culmer & John Lishman; Henry Neale Baker and William Feilde; Samuel Farmer; John Dessell & Maxwell Nasmyth & Robert Moulton & Charles Moulton & John Roebuck & John Mangles & James Mangles & John Thompson & Edward Barrett; John Mackie & Thomas Mackie & Robert Crosbie.
Here, the names Moulton are probably connected to the name Moulton-Barrett, the name of the wife Elizabeth of poet Robert Browning. The names Mangles are probably connected to the names Mangles discussed elsewhere here, who via convict contracting became connected to "the Australian trade". Camden, Calvert and King of the Africa Co. in London organised the Second and Third Fleet shipping to Sydney.
Bristol: Thomas Jones & Charles Harford & Thomas Rigge; Thomas Jones; James Jones & Thomas Deane & Robert Stratton & Thoms Rigge & Edward Watkins; Gavin Allanson; John Anderson; John Rogers & Sir James Laroche Bart & John Godrich & Richard Fydell & Robert Blake & John Purnell the Younger (plus Thomas Walker); John Watkins; Thomas Deane; Robert Hunter & Mungo Wright & Henry Keowen Hunter; Jonathan Nash (plus Samuel Biggs), William Jenkins & Charles Sloper; Patrick Fitz Henry.
Liverpool: Robert Bostock; Thomas Tarleton & Daniel Backhouse & John Tarleton & Clayton Tarleton; Andrew Aikin & R. Kendall & Ann Gibson & George Hopkins; John Dawson; William Boats & Thomas Seaman & James Percival; John Bridge Aspinall & James Aspinall & William Moss & John Howard Junior & Thomas Hayhurst & William Kendall & Robert Richardson; William Harper & Robert Brade; John Gregson & James Gregson & James Aspinall & William Gregson Senior & William Gregson Junior & Edward Wilson & George Case & Andrew Black & William Begg (plus Edward Falkner, Peter Comberbach); Thomas Layland & Thomas Molyneux; William Harper & Robert Brade; Thomas Staniforth & John Houghton & James Carruthers & Joseph Brooks Junior & William Denison & Francis Ingram & Thomas Parke & Benj. Arthur Heywood & John Sargent & Christopher Chambers & Robert Rolleston; Thomas Parke & Bryan Smith & Thomas Hinde Junior & Thomas Parke Junior & Thomas Morland; Thomas Foxcroft & William Rice & James Welsh & Aretas Wharton & George Welch & Ralph Abram & Felix Doran (plus William Cockerell); John Dawson; John Hodgson & Thomas Hodgson Junior & Samuel Hartley & Isaac Capstick as executors of the will of Richard Capstick deceased; John Ratcliffe & Alice Howard & John Brown; Ellis Bent & Robert Bent & Thomas Hodgson & Ellis Leckonby Hodgson & Thomas Dickinson & Joseph Mathews (plus Thomas Clarke & Benjamin Hammond & John Whitfield Smith & Henry Newham & Thomas Pickop & Thomas Leigh); Joseph Greaves & William Denison Junior & Daniel Maclean & John Knox & Charles Wilson & William Mastriter; Peter Rigby & William Ruston & Thomas Dixon & John Penny & Moses Benson & John Backhouse; John Fisher; Thomas Willock & James Sawrey & William Watson & Robert Worswick; James Dover; John Webster & Thomas Clarke & James Eckley Colley; John Dawson; Robert Ward & Thomas Pickop & Plato Denny & John Smith (plus Joseph Caton); Ralph Fisher & John Kewley & Patrick Kewley (plus James Forrest, William Jackson, John Hewan); Thomas Earle & William Earle & Francis Holland & Alexander Grierson (plus Edward Atherton, Edmund Molineux, William Molineuxx); William Dickson (plus Joseph Caton & John Small & Ralph Fisher & William Molineux (sic) & Thomas Jolly); Thomas Foxcroft & William Rice & James Welsh & Aretas Wharton & Ralph Abram & George Welch & Felix Doran; John Chambres Jones & Robert Welsh & James Hird; Alexander Nicholson & David Christian; Alexander Willcock; James Penny & Peter Rigby & William Rutson & John Backhouse & Moses Benson & Thomas Dixon; Francis Ingram & Charles Butler & James Rigby; Joseph Birch & Thomas Ryan & John Heblethwaite & James Gibson & James Wedderburn; John Webster & Thomas Clarke & James Eckley Colley & John Dawson & John Houghton & Charles Wilson & John Matthews; Thomas Staniforth & Gill Slater & John Robinson & Thomas Ryan & Joseph Brooks & William Pole & Thomas Cropper & Thomas Carter & James Bolton & Roger Leathom; Thomas Hinde & Thomas Hinde Junior & William Jackson & Joseph Fayrer & John Howard & Peter Whitfield Brancker & Thomas Parke & Samuel Simpson; William Neilson & William Heathcote; James Dover & Thomas Rodie & William Kerr; Ralph Fisher & William Jackson & John Marshall.
Ends the list of slavers 1789-1791.


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1790: Whaling history: US sealers from New Haven, Connecticut, or Nantucket, send vessels to Falkland Islands for pelts for the market at Canton. (In 1797, US vessels first visit the seal rookery of Mas Afuera, exchanging them for about $260,000 in merchandise at Canton. Another US ship cleared $52,300 on a single such voyage.)
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 239.

1791: Publication by Thomas Paine of part one of his book, The Rights of Man.

1791: Bengal: First banking crisis in Calcutta.

1791: British merchant John Henry Cox dies at Canton. Thomas Beale the brother of Daniel arrives in Canton as secretary to Prussian consul. (Keswick, appendices.)

FleetBoston: Traced to slave-trading merchant
2 February 2002

What companies say today
Various documents link modern companies to antebellum slavery. Reporter James Cox takes a look at the evidence and the companies' responses. Error! Bookmark not defined.
FleetBoston Financial Group traces its beginnings to Providence Bank, chartered by a group led by Rhode Island merchant John Brown in 1791. Brown's bank is described as Fleet's "earliest predecessor" in a Fleet timeline.
Brown was a slave trader. A partial census of slave ships in the book The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade lists him as owner of several vessels that sailed to Africa and returned with human cargo. A typical entry names him as part owner of the Hope, a 208-ton ship that brought 229 slaves from Africa to Cuba in 1796. Another for the same year names him as part owner of the schooner Delight, which delivered 81 slaves to Savannah, Ga.
It is unclear whether any of Brown's slaving enterprises had a business relationship with the bank he founded.
Fleet spokesman James Mahoney says Brown's Providence Bank was "one of hundreds" that created Fleet. The link between Fleet and Brown is "extremely remote," he says.
In the pre-Civil War cotton trade, the key financiers included Britain's Barings Bros., the Anglo-French Rothschild firm and Baltimore-based Alex. Brown & Sons. They took consignments of cotton from so-called commission merchants, insured them, shipped them to Europe and sold them. They also gave credit to cotton brokers and other middlemen.
Holland's ING Group bought Barings in 1995 and renamed its investment banking arm ING Barings. It says the original Barings Bros. went bust in 1891 and that it acquired a successor firm with no liabilities from the defunct Barings.
Deutsche Banc bought Alex. Brown in 1999 and changed its name to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. It declines comment.
Rothschild archivist Victor Gray says his firm bought and sold "bills of exchange" used as payment in various industries but was not active in the cotton trade itself.
////////ends ///////

1792: Japan: Russians - Matsumae in Hokkaido.

1792: London Lord Mayor of 1792: - Sir James Sanderson.

1792: Thomas Scott is part-owner of ship Eliza he commands, with Joseph Harding owning a greater share of ship. (Is Thomas perhaps related to opium trader James Scott the friend of founder of Penang, Francis Light?) Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 200.

1792+: Capt Francis Simpson commands ship Carron for Bruce Fawcett and Co., this ship launched in 1792. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 209.)

1792: In Bombay, Alexander Adamson sickens of the operations of James Tate and breaks partnership with him.

1792: Elijah Coffin in April-May 1792 is captain on whaler and sealer Asia from Nantucket, to Shark Bay n/w of West Australia, Cocos Island; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)


1792-1793: In late 1792/1793 is trader ship Hope, from Providence, Capt. Benjamin Page for Brown and Francis, to Sydney, than Canton.
Capt. Benjamin Page (of US ship Hope) "probably" married Sally Clowe of Boston, daughter of Jacob Clowe/Clough and Hannah Gray, of Boston. They were a close-knit family living on Ship St. in North End, Boston, although after Benjamin, Sally married Asaph Blaisdell who had seven children in Boston. Benjamin Page is related by marriage to Capt Thomas Patrickson, of the US ship Philadelphia via Cape of Good Hope visiting early Sydney by 1 November 1792.
See Bartlett on US-Aust relations, pp. 23ff; Churchward, 1948.
Capt Martin Page is on the trader/sealer from Providence, Hope, for owners Brown and Francis, to Sydney thence Canton. See Churchward 1948; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)

1793: C. Northcote Parkinson, (Ed.), The Trade Winds: A Study of British Overseas Trade during the French Wars, 1793-1815. London, Allen and Unwin, 1948.

1793: China-trading firm of Cox and Beale (founded in Canton in 1787) is renamed Beale and Reid.

1793: England-India-China: Revision of charter of East India Company allows merchants to participate legally in the formerly illegal "country trade" about India, the profit from merchandise of merchants not officially connected with the East India Co.

1793: Earliest date for an entry in records of the firm which becomes Jardine-Matheson. (Keswick, appendices.)

1793: The British East India Company establishes a monopoly on the opium trade. All poppy growers in India were forbidden to sell opium to competitor trading companies.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1793: England-India-China: Revision of charter of East India Company allows merchants to participate legally in the formerly illegal "country trade" about India, the profit from merchandise of merchants not officially connected with the East India Co.

Follows an impression of the family history of London Lord Mayor of 1793, Paul Le Mesurier
Descendants of LE MESURIER Senior ...
2. Gov Alderney John LE MESURIER (c.1755) sp: Martha DOBREE of Guernsey (b.1728;d.1754) 3. MP, London Alderman, Lord Mayor, Paul LE MESURIER (b.1755;d.1805) sp: Margaret ROBERDAU (m.1776)
Note: there is some mystery here, as a website indicates that the name Dobree above could also be "Perchard", another Channel Islands name, a matter not pursued here due to the risk of making confusion worse.

1793: ? Rogers in 1793 has US snow/trader Fairy, from Boston, owner Rogers, captain not named, to Sydney then North Pacific and China, see Cumpston, 1970; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)

1793: US Capt. Jonathan Carnes discovers wild pepper grows on north coast of Sumatra and using schooner Rajab opens a regular trade that greatly benefits Salem. His first profit was 700 per cent. US pepper handling increased in 1802 but declined after the 1812 war with Britain. Sumatran pepper still remains a "backbone" of Salem's trade for about 50 years.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 57/


1794: London Lord Mayor of 1794- Thomas Skinner.

July 1794: Execution of French revolutionary Robespierre.

1794: US artist John Trumbull paints Thomas Jefferson presenting the Declaration of Independence to Congress. (On Jefferson, check Website: gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/bios/03pjeff.html)

1794+: Country Captain-owner George Harrower a free mariner of Bombay, by 1801 he is co-owner of Bombay Merchant. He works with Parsi merchant Nusserwanjee Manackjee. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 201.)

1794: Nathaniel Smith (1730-1794), MP, governor EICo, son of Nathaniel Smith and Anne Gould; he married Hester Dance. See Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1754-1790. [Two Vols.] London, Parliament Trust of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1964., Vol. 3, p. 448.
He was a posthumous son of Capt. Nathaniel Smith of St Giles, Cripplegate, and spent 12 years in East India Company naval service, rising to commander and captain. He retired in 1771 and was active as an EICo director till he died in May 1794. Namier notes him as chairman of EICo 1783-1785 and 1788-1789. He was deputy-chair of EICo and an MP in 1786.

1794: In 6-7/1794, Capt. Benjamin Page is on US trader Halcyon, from Providence, for owners B. page, W. Megee and others, to Sydney thence Canton, see Churchward 1948; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)

1795: circa: Items various: Capt Currie 1841 FP 17 HP 22; Mark John Currie, born 1785, London, son of late Mark Currie Esq, by Eliza, daughter of John Close, Easby, Co York, and first cousin of Raikes Currie MP. Capt Currie rose to rank of vice-admiral, died 1 May 1874 Collington House, Thicket Road, Anerley.
Also, Raikes Currie, born 15 April 1801, member of bankers Glyn & Co., MP for Northampton, died Minley Manor, Farnborough, Hants, 16 October 1881.
Eliza Mumford, born 1819, Sunday school teacher, died Bromley Kent, 3 February 1884. John Mumford died Hayes in 97th year on 20 Sept 1839, as a boy was attendant on Admiral Byng. A groom and coachman to Lord Chatam at Hayes Place; last 63 years lived at Hayes Common a native of that parish.
British Biographical Archives. Per Gillian Hughes in 1993.


1795: On Elder Brethren of Trinity House, London, various: In 1779 Capt. Anthony Calvert; in 1781 Sir Charles Middleton; in 1790 William Pitt Prime Minister; in 1792 Earl of Chatam; in 1793 Rt Hon Lord Grenville; in 1793 Henry Dundas; in 1795 Lord Hood; in 1799 Capt George Curtis.

1795: In 1795 Scott tried to get a Genoese commission for Mr Hamilton (probably Robert Hamilton noted elsewhere here) to stay in China as consul to establish a house of agency there with Mr Shank as a partner. He wrote to William Fairlie about it (competing with Magniac etc, presumably), Mr Shank is nephew of David Scott Senior and chief mate on one of Mr. James Tate's ships, re links to Madras and Bengal. (See letter D. Scott (snr or jnr?) to William Fairlie of London, in 1795, as cited in Nirode K. Barooah, David Scott in North-East India, 1804-1831: A Study in British Paternalism. New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1970., re Assam. (See also Price, 'One Family', p. 220.) There were later links (unspecified) with Robert Campbell merchant of Sydney and David Scott Jnr.
(S. B. Singh. Agency Houses, index. p. 13.)

In 1796, Elias Hasket Derby's US ship Astrea pioneers US trade to Manila, Philippines. One item sought is rope.

The first US ship reaches Constantinople in 1786.

1795: US Merchants and opium from Smyrna. J. and T. H. Perkins of Boston establish an office in Smyrna, for purpose of purchasing opium for the Canton market. Opium being "the leading cargo" of American vessels in the eastern Mediterranean trade. "Despite legal impediments raised by the Turks and competition from French merchants, American purchasers by 1828 were buying nearly the entire Turkish production."
From K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime HIstory of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 58.

1796: American mariner Capt. Jacob Crowninshield imports the first elephant to US from Calcutta, India. By 1796, the Derby family of Salem has developed a substantial trade from Calcutta in cottons.

1796-1798: An "unlikely" American trading depot develops at French-held Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Privateers prey on British shipping. Between 1796-1798, an average of 40 US ships call for coffee, sugar, spices, tea. This depot reaches its peak in 1806 and dies in 1815.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 54.

1796: The first vaccine becomes available in Britain for smallpox.

Family of 1790s London Lord Mayor, Brook Watson
1. John WATSON of Hull sp: Sarah SCHOFIELD 2. Alderman, Canada Merchant, Brook WATSON MP (b.1753;d.1807) sp: Helen CAMPBELL, daughter of Edinburgh goldsmith, Colin Campbell.

1796: Capt Francis Mallaby in August-Sep 1796 is on trader Grand Turk from Boston or Salem, supercargo being Meggee, to Sydney then Canton, see Churchward 1948. (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)

1796: The earliest US vessel to sail Californian coast is the Otter, see below, visiting Monterey. Seven years later the Lelia Bird, the first otter-fur sealer, put into San Diego. Such US sealers had to compete with a growing Russian presence on the coast.

K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 57.

1796: Capt Ebenezer Dorr in Jan-Feb 1796 is on sealer Otter, of Boston, owners notnamed, to Sydney, see HRA 1 (1), pp. 568ff; and in 1811, one Capt Dorr for unnamed owners has ship or brig Brutus from Boston to Launceston and Hobart; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)

1797: London Lord Mayor of 1797- John William Anderson

1797: British Admiral Nelson defeats the Spanish fleet, Cape St Vincent.

1797-1799: Opium trader Alexander Shank of Magniac and Shank(s), an agency house. Active by 1797 to 1817. Parents Notknown. He is nephew of David Scott Snr. (Keswick, Thistle and the Jade, appendices.) He arrives in Canton by 1797 or earlier, but dies at sea in 1817 with total loss of ship Anna of Bombay. Opium trade details in Bulley, Bombay Ships, pp. 108ff.) Magniac and Shanks (Charles and Hollingworth Magniac) which after 1820 was Charles Magniac and Co., grew out of the 1815 crash of Beale, see elsewhere here on Daniel Beale.
W. E. Cheong, Mandarins and Merchants: Jardine Matheson, p. 56 for Shanks' death date.

1797: US Captain W. R. Stewart takes Eliza of New York to Nagasaki, Japan, with Dutch trade goods. To 1809, Dutch traders chartered other US vessels to sails Batavia to Nagasaki due to fear the British would seize their own ships. Stewart when he returned in 1803 found the Japanese would not deal with him or Capt. John Derby of Salem, who had tried to open a new market for opium.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 57.

1797-1806: (T1/977, Treasury Board Papers, No. 4467, 25 June, 1806): Owners of East India ships unnamed, re compensation for losses on account of their ships employed on secret expedition against Manila [Manilla sic] in Philippines in 1797.

1797: Venturi's experiments with fluid dynamics.
1797, 25 July, British naval commander Horatio Nelson has his right elbow shattered by grapeshot during an assault on Tenerife. His arm has to be amputated.

1797: A theory on sea salt-circulation is posited in 1797 by the Anglo-American physicist Sir Benjamin Thompson (later known, after he moved to Bavaria, as Count Rumford of the Holy Roman Empire), who also posited that, if merely to compensate, there would have to be a warmer (Atlantic?) northbound current as well. The fact that excess salt is flushed from surface waters has global implications, some of them recognized two centuries ago. Salt circulates, because evaporation up north causes it to sink and be carried south by deep currents. (Greenhouse Timeline)
William H. Calvin, The Great Climate Flip-Flop, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1998, Volume 281, No. 1, pp. 47-64.

1798: Rise of Eli Whitney's factory for mass-producing muskets.

1798: British naval captain John Fearn discovers Pacific island of Nauru.

1798: Michael A. Palmer, Stoddert's War: Naval Operations During the Quasi-War with France, 1798-1801. University of South Carolina Press, part of a series on maritime history.

1798: See N. T. Hubbard, Autobiography... With Personal Reminiscences of New York City from 1798 to 1875. Pub. in 1875. *

1798: Ireland: Wolf Tone and his United Irishmen rise fruitlessly against British rule and are ruthlessly suppressed by Britain. Britain and Ireland are united in 1800.

1798: US: Capt Jacob Smith is for owners William Handy and Jacob Smith in October 1798 for trader Semiramis, from Newport, to China, see Churchward 1948.

1798: Benjamin Page is captain in October 1798, of trader Ann and Hope from Providence, for Brown and Ives, to Sydney, then China, noted by Dunbabin 1950 and 1955 and Churchward in 1948a. And in 12/1807 and 4/1808, Brown and Ives are owners for trader Eliza, from Providence, Capt. E. Hill Correy, to Fiji, wrecked.

1798: US Capt. Joseph Ropes of Salem in Recovery is first US merchant to visit Mocha on Arabian coast for coffee. He tries again by 1800-1801, successfully. This coffee trade rises to 1805 but then declines due to competition of Brazilian coffee handled by Philadelphia and Baltimore.

1798: Napoleon sets out to conquer Egypt.

1799 circa, India: About 1799 Palmer tangles with a firm, Palmer and Barber, by 1805, the EICo finances were in very sad state, with hardly enough for government purposes in India. Re Indo-Philippines trade, another source of specie for Canton treasury was via dealings with Spanish supercargoes. EICo supercargoes might borrow at high interest from Spanish for purchase of their investment in China. In return, Spanish wanted Bills on Bengal. and it was thought, perhaps this might be a way to dispense with the need for bullion from London? (See Singh, Agency Houses, p. 104, pp. 49-50).


1799: 21 March: London, Lord Melville Henry Dundas to Board of Control of East India Co., "the revenue arising from the sale of opium has been completely restored... the public is greatly indebted to Mr. Fleming, second member of the medical board, for his careful inspection of the opium". (Frank Welsh, History of Hong Kong).

1799: Death of leading Salem shipowner, Elias Hasket Derby. He has partly or fully owned forty ships and clears as much as $100,000 for a single voyage. HIs estate at his death is valued at more than $1 million. A second major Salem trader is William Gray, owner of 113 vessels before 1815 and said to be worth $3 million in 1809 when he leaves Salem for Boston.

1799: China's emperor, Kia King, bans opium completely, making trade and poppy cultivation illegal.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1799: Forbes and Co. of Bombay conduct deals with EICo to ship cotton to China, then tea to England, as Alexander Adamson and Bruce Fawcett and Co., had been conducting a year or two previous by way of rounding out a novel trading circuit. Between 1803-1805, Forbes and Co. (Charles Forbes) and Bruce Fawcett and Co. supply EICo's Bombay Treasury with nearly £2.5 million sterling. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, pp. 178-179.)

1799: Bankruptcy of James Tate in Bombay. Amongst other merchants Tate inconveniences are Mr. Lennox a partner of David Scott Junior and Co.
Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 183.

1799: Opium trader and East India Co. director/deputy chairman/ chairman, David Scott Senior, (1746-1805). Born Fife, Scotland. Son of MP Robert Scott and mother not known. Spouse unknown, one son, David Junior noted elsewhere here. Bulley, Bombay Ships, pp. 108ff has story on origins of Jardine Matheson as follows: first partnerships dates from 1799. An original partner with root-money declares he is Danish King's Resident at Canton, to make ruses re opium import. Two other of three major partners owe favours for recommendations from David Scott, who put in his two Shank nephews, Henry (with Beale and Reid as partner) and Alexander Shank, an East India Company servant, and secretary to Gov Jonathan Duncan, in 1803. There are connections here with a partner of David Scott Snr., Alexander Adamson and Co., as cotton-buyer. This Alexander Shank is brother-in-law of James Sibbald who has a ship named for him (Sibbald) and is an assistant to William Fairlie at Calcutta. Fairlies firm here would deal in China with Magniac and Co. Charles Magniac joins with opium partners, Thomas Beale, David Reid, Alexander Shank and Robert Hamilton by 1801. In Canton, Hamilton is appointed Genoese Consul. There is a firm, Beale and Magniac, there is a ship named "James Sibbald" also. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, p. 108.) David Scott Snr. returns to England in 1785 to become director later twice chairman of East India Company. Henry Dundas (Lord Melville) has Scott's advice and that of Adamson, both looking out for "new trade outlets". Adamson by 1801 is being charged falsely it seems as being a company servant he is dealing a sheet copper privately, an article for East India Company handling only. Adamson is exonerated. Adamson is later Marine store keeper and Bombay paymaster. Scott resigns from East India Company board in April 1802, Adamson is more or less then also forced to resign, though Adamson continues with his own private trading.


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1799-1810: Nephew of David Scott Snr, opium trader Henry Shank, of India-China, parents unknown, brother of Alexander, spouse of Miss Sibbald, whose brother James also trades opium for David Scott Senior's consortium. (Bulley, Bombay Ships, pp. 108ff.) He is part of firm Shank/Hamilton to compete with Magniacs.
See S. B. Singh, Agency Houses, index, p. 13. "A "powerful India merchant", see Parker's essay on Scots in India, p. 205, in R. A. Cage, Scots Abroad.

1799: William Fairlie of Calcutta annoys David Scott in London 1799-1800 in a money-matter connected with the failure of James Tate in Bombay.

1799: John Prinsep earlier an East India Co. indigo merchant, now in London. Prinsep also a chintz contractor by 1779. John Prinsep had an indigo plantation near Baraset in the 24 Parganas, called Neelganj. He also set up a mint at Putah and contracted with govt for copper coinage for the presidency. In 1779 EICo let a first contract for indigo for the Co. to John Prinsep who remained the sole contractor till 1784, but Co. made losses here. Other contractors were used. One Lt. Boyce had found a way to manufacture indigo, but his terms were not accepted. By 1788 the Co. had much loss re indigo. (On the later situation re indigo planters in 1795, see Singh, p. 216.) Colvin/Bazett lost on an indigo deal of 3000 maunds (Singh, Agency Houses, pp. 106ff). Prinsep and Saunders about the time they were dealing with Cockerell Trail and Co. in India, shipping rice, edible in England, at the same time as they are shipping convicts to Australia. Prinsep and Saunders in London engaged 16 ships to proceed east to bring back rice, Fairlie, Gilmore and Co. in India had the same idea. About this time, 15 ships were intended from India to send rice, and 22 ships were licenced in England to go out for rice, 37 ships in all. Henry Dundas and David Scott both wanted such uses for India ships. Similar dealings were desired re cotton for England. Prinsep and Saunders might have bought 1000 tons of rice per country ships.
Singh, Agency Houses, p. 2, p. 108ff, p. 116, p. 211, p. 216, p. 244, Note 1.)

1799: Jessop and Co. is established in Bengal. Bankruptcy of James Tate in Bombay. By 1799 Tate had stretched himself too thin. He is sometimes termed a US-India merchant. To 1827 he ended up living near Cochin, India at "Paliporee" (?) Tate had ships in the Persian Gulf trade, by 1787 he had built a ship for European re-export trade via Isle of France (Mauritius), to carry 4000 cotton bales. By 1799 he had unsuccessful saw mills redesigned by engineer Mr Maconachie. Tate seems to have mishandled trust monies, and he hurt Bombay traders Charles Forbes of Forbes and Co., Alexander Adamson (a former partner with Tate), a Parsi merchant and Joseph Harding. Tate was secretary of an insurance company when it is founded. When David Scott left Bombay, Tate, Scott's partner, moved into Scott's house, Grove House, on Malabar Point. Tate by the mid-1790s managed ten/eleven ships. He bankrupted about 1799-1800, been partner with Alexander Adamson.
(Bulley, Bombay Country Ships, pp. 177ff. See also an article Phillippe Chalmin, 'The Making of a Sugar Giant: Tate and Lyall, 1859-1989'.
(See Holden Furber, cited above, p. 247 on the first US-India trade, to about 1795, where Tate has a draft for Bombay Parsee merchant Dada Nasserwanji per Thomas Ketland in London re a US-India ship.

1799: The uncle John Forbes of the later Sir Charles Forbes, Baronet1, leaves India in 1799. This John arrived in Bombay in 1784 as a junior writer.

1799: Adamson has been a former partner with James Tate who bankrupts in 1799-1800. Before 1800 David Scott is still partner with Alexander Adamson. (The names Tate and Adamson are not found in Hodson's Lists for families in India.)

Follows an impression of the family history of London Lord Mayor 1799 Sir Harvey Christian Combe
The name Saunders here is possibly connected with the name Saunders with the London firm about 1800 of (John) Prinsep and Saunders)
Descendants of solicitor (lawyer) Harvey COMBE (b.1716;d.1787) and sp: Christian JARMAN-23346 (d.1774)
2. Lord mayor London COMBE Harvey Christian (b.1752;d.4 Jul 1818) sp: Alice Christian Tree COMBE (d.1828)
3. Boyce COMBE (b.1789;d.1864) sp: Caroline JONES cousin 4. Boyce Harvey COMBE sp: Anne Sarah SHARPE 3. Charles James Fox COMBE (b.1797) sp: Eliza ROBERTS, wife2
4. Charlotte COMBE, cousin sp: Joseph DELAFIELD sp: Henrietta CHURCH 4. Richard Henry COMBE sp: Esther Fanny HOLLOWAY 3. Emily Christian COMBE sp: MP William WARD (b.1787) 4. Writer, William George WARD (b.1812) sp: Frances NOTKNOWN 4. Lord Admiralty Robert Plumer-Ward WARD (b.1765) sp: Jane HAMILTON sp: Mary Anne ANSON sp: Catherine Julia MALING (m.1796) 4. Henry WARD (b.1788) sp: Harriet DAVIES 4. Charity Cherry WARD wife2 (b.1787;d.29 May 1817) sp: Dr. William SAUNDERS, FRS (b.9 Jul 1743;m.15 Sep 1781;d.1817)
(This Dr. Saunders may be of a family with a member Saunders part of the London firm (John) Prinsep and Saunders - details unsure)
4. James Duff WARD (b.1800;d.1831) sp: Harriet Marcia SEYMER (m.1827) 4. Harriet WARD (c.1827) sp: RN Commander John Leigh BECKFORD (m.1828) 3. Charlotte COMBE sp: Brewer Joseph DELAFIELD (b.14 Jan 1791;m.6 Jan 1819) 2. Lawyer, Capt. Boyce Tree COMBE (b.1756;d.1835) sp: Miss NOTKNOWN
3. Alice Christian Tree COMBE (d.1828) sp: Lord mayor London Harvey Christian COMBE (b.1752;d.4 Jul 1818)
4. Boyce COMBE (b.1789;d.1864) 4. Charles James Fox COMBE (b.1797) 4. Emily Christian COMBE 4. Charlotte COMBE
3. Henry COMBE Of London (c.1800) sp: Ann ST BARBE (b.1788;d.1864) sp: Miss NOTKNOWN 3. Alice Christian Tree COMBE (d.1828) 3. Henry COMBE Of London (c.1800)


From 1791, owners of American (US) ships passing near Australia or calling to Sydney included (Information per Wace and Lovett)

1792: Elijah Coffin in April-May 1792 is captain on whaler and sealer Asia (owners unknown) from Nantucket, to Shark Bay n/w of West Australia, Cocos Island; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett)
1792-1793: From Providence, Brown and Francis, in late 1792/1793 with trader ship Hope, Capt. Benjamin Page, to Sydney, than Canton. Also, Capt Martin Page is on trader/sealer from Providence, Hope, for owners Brown and Francis, to Sydney thence Canton.
1793: Boston: ? Rogers in 1793 has snow/trader Fairy, owner ? Rogers, captain not named, to Sydney then North Pacific and China.
1794: From Providence, in 6-7/1794, Capt. Benjamin Page is on trader Halcyon, for owners B. page, W. Megee and others, to Sydney thence Canton.
1796: From Boston, Capt. Ebenezer Dorr in Jan-Feb 1796 is on sealer Otter, to Sydney. (And in 1811 one Capt Dorr for unnamed owners has ship or brig Brutus from Boston to Launceston and Hobart.
1796: Boston/Salem: Capt Francis Mallaby in August-Sep 1796 is on trader Grand Turk, supercargo being Meggee, to Sydney then Canton.
1798: Providence: Benjamin Page is captain in October 1798, of trader Ann and Hope for Brown and Ives, to Sydney, then China. And in December 1807 and April 1808, Brown and Ives are owners for trader Eliza, from Providence, Capt. E. Hill Correy, to Fiji, wrecked.
1798: Newport: Capt Jacob Smith is for owners William Handy and Jacob Smith in October 1798 on trader Semiramis, to China.
1799-1800-1801: New Bedford; Capt Andrew Gardner in March 1799 is on whaler and trader Rebecca, owners notnamed, for Sydney thence China. In 1800, Jared Gardner has sealer Diana from New Bedford for Rodman and Co., to Sydney then China and in 7/1801 Diana is sealer/trader from New York Capt Jas. McCall, "passed n./w point of New Holland", to Whampoa, China.

1785-1798: US inventor John Fitch tries to perfect his design for a steamboat. Rumsey had been similarly experimenting in the Upper Potomac River, Virginia. Rumsey had the backing of such as George Washington, but failed to produce a useful result. Still, by 1790 Rumsey had two boats on regular service between Philadelphia and Trenton, which "must be considered the first commercial use of steamboats".
See K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., p. 68.

1800: New York merchant John Jacob Astor in 1800 makes profit of $55,000 on an experimental fur shipment to Canton. He soon tries a scheme to dominate the fur trade of North America and sales to Canton. He decided he could with his American Fur Co., undercut the British EICo at Canton (which buys from Hudson's Bay Co.) by keeping a shipping point on American west coast which takes furs from Rocky Mountains. So Capt. Jonathan Thorn on Tonquin went to establish a post, Astoria, at mouth of Columbia River in 1811. The 1812 US-British war collapsed the plan and Astor had to sell his operations to Northwest Fur Company of Montreal. Astor kept in the China trade dealing in "a new cargo", (sandalwood supplies from India, Java, Timor and Malabar were becoming depleted), sandalwood, as in 1791, the Bostonian Capt. John Kendrick had discovered sandalwood growing on Hawaii's island of Kauai. Other Bostonians became interested.
K. Jack Bauer, A Maritime History of the United States: The Role of America's Seas and Waterways.. University of South Carolina Press, 1988., pp. 56-57.

1800 or later: Invention of the hand-held screwdriver.

Reference items: John C. Dorraine, The United States and the Pacific Islands. Westport,. Connecticut, Praeger, 1992. (= all modern history)

1803++: Geoffrey C. Ingleton, Matthew Flinders: Navigator and Chartmaker. Genesis Pubs Ltd/Hednley Australia., 1986.

1550++: Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery. London, Allen Lane, 1976.


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Capt Micajah Gardner, in ship Hero, from Nantucket, in 1808, owners notnamed, is to Sydney then Peru and Chile, (presumably whaling), see HRA 1 (9):47 see Dunbabin, 1950; However, on 4 July 2005 arrives an email from Chris Maxworthy of Sdney who has been working on a book on US families Jacob, and Gardner: “Dear Dan, Can I offer a suggestion re some of your content On page “Merchants9a” there is a reference to Micajah Gardner being the master of the Hero of 1808. This is not correct. The Hero was commanded by Barnabas Gardner, a former Nantucket whaleman, who was employed by John and William Jacob. The ship was British-registered, and was not a whaler, but was smuggling contraband goods, mainly fabrics, into the Spanish colonies. The Thomas Dunbabin article of 1950, and restated in Cumpston's Register of Shipping Arrivals and Departures, was wrong. In fact, Tom Dunbabin corrected the item in the following issue of American Neptune. The Hero sailed from Port Jackson in September 1808 and was captured on the coast of Chile by the Spanish corsair “La Flecha” on 28 January 1809. I have acquired the above information in the process of compiling my book on Jacobs and Gardner. I will be in London next month, at which stage I hope to put some more flesh on the bones. Cheers, Chris Maxworthy.



Paul Gardner see re a P. Gardner with whaler/sealer Favorite (1835-1836) from Nantucket, Capt Jonathan Paddock, for owners P. Gardner and D. Whitney, to Sydney and then NZ and Penantipodes and Canton; P. Gardner is owner in 1804 for sealer/trader Rose, of Nantucket, Capt James Carey, to Sydney, Dampier Straits south of Tasmania, thence Canton, (note re R. Caldwell, Nantucket), see HRA 1 (5), pp. 120-122; R. F. Gardner, William B. Gardner, S. Genn, Alexander Gibbs, Alfred Gibbs, Gibbs and Jenney, R. Gibbs, Asa R. Gibson, Peleg W. Gifford, W. Gifford, B. Clover, Joseph R. Gorman, Charles Grant, G. W. Gray, W. H. Gray, Greaves, James M. Green, D. R. Greene, Samuel Greene, Grinnell and Child, Stephen Grinnell, James Gwinn (sic), in 5-6/05, 2-3/06 is captain of whaler Anne from New Bedford, for owner William Rotch, Sydney and Norfolk Island, whaling, China and England and in 9-11/1808 Gwinn on same ship whaling for B. Rotch and in 1812 also similar by New Zealand; Henry Gyzelaar (sic), John S. Hall/Hale, Palmer Hall, Worthing Hall, L. J. Hamblin, George W. Hamley, ? Hamlin, ? Hamsted, Ichabod Handy, William Handy, E. Harding, Ephriam Harding, John Harris, L. Harris, S. W. Harris, Hartwell, Fosdick Dennis Haskell, J. C. Haskell, Hathaway and Luce, G. Hathaway, Jabez S. Hathaway, J. S. Hathaway, Richard Hathaway, Stephen Hathaway, T. S. Hathaway, Havens and Smith, P. P. Hawes, S. Hawes, Shubael Hawes, Nathan B. Heath, Isaac Hedge, ? Henchman, ? Henderson, ? Hensley, G. Hillman, W. Hirst and Co., Isaac Hodge, C. Hoffman, E. B. Hooper, S. B. Horton, B. B. Howard, N. & G. Howell, A. H. Howland, Howland and Hussey;
E. T. Howland, E. W. Howland, Ezra T. Howland, G. Howland, I. Howland, J. and J. Howland, Jabez J. Howland, Jacob Howland, Thomas Howland, Tim J. Howland, William L. Hudson, Charles Huntingdon, S. & B. Huntting (sic), S. F. Hurd, Hussey and Co., Charles W. Hussey, F. Hussey, Isaac B. Hussey, T. Hussey and Co., William Hussey, Ingallis and Lucas, Benjamin Jackson, Rudolphus W. Jackson, Stephen Jarvis, Scott Jenks, Jenney and Tripp, Gilbert H. Jenney, Isaac M. Jenney, W. Jenney, Jones and Co., E. C. Jones, J. H. Jones, J. L. Joslin, Henry Kable (an Australian), Randall Kelley, ? Kempton, Randall Kelley, Kenworthy and Co., Kenworthy and Lord, Edward A. King, D. A. Kingsland, T. Knowles, S. R. Knox, Lemuel Kollock, George W. Lamson, Benjamin Lathrop, Lawrence and Co., Lawrence B., J. Lawrence, G. T. Lawton, Learned and Stoddard, Alexandre Lecorre, L. Little, A. K. Long, Simeon Lord (an Australian), ? Lovett, Thomas D. Lucas, ? Luce, Aaron Luce and Co., S. C. Luce, ? Ludlow, I. Ludlow, Lunt and Titcomb, ? Lyons, James McCall, McGaa, Allen and Co., D. McKenzie, ? McKinstry, ? McLane, ? McLeave, Robert McLeave, T. and P. Macy, ? Magee; Capt Francis Mallaby in 8-9/1796 is on trader Grand Turk from Boston or Salem, supercargo being Meggee, to Sydney then Canton, see Churchward 1948, and in June-July 1794, Capt. Benjamin Page is on trader Halcyon, from Providence, for owners B. page, W. Megee and others, to Sydney thence Canton, see Churchward 1948; C. Mallory, G. B. Manchester, Andrew Mather, Edmund Maxfield, James Mayhew, ? Meeneitzhagen, ? Megee (sic), W. Megee, William F. Megee;

Joseph Merrihew, Thomas Mickell, ? Middleton, G. Miller/Milliar, Charles Millett, J. H. Millett; Miner, Lawrence and Co.; B. Minturn in 4-7/1811 is owner for trader ship Milwood, from Philadelphia, Capt. Elihu Smith, to Sydney then to Fiji and China, see HRA 1 (7), p. 432. ;
Mitchell with initials, A., C., J., O., and in 7-11/1805