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COLLECTION Identifier: Mss:766 1814-1821 C116

Samuel and Joseph Cabot ledger

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of one ledger containing two hundred sixty pages of accounts from 1814 to 1824. At a later date, the first forty pages were used as a scrapbook with 1860s newspaper clippings pertaining to the Civil War pasted over the accounts. Beginning on page 41, the accounts remain as originally written and include both debits and credits. Representative names for the accounts include: Sales; Our One Quarter Sch. Happy Couple; George G. Lee; Joseph Cabot's Expense Account; Third Voyage Bark Pedler; Samuel Cabot; Commissions; James and Thomas H. Perkins; Shipment of Pacific to St. Domingo; Shipment of Schooner Juno; John W. Perit; Perit and Cabot; Oliver, Borland & Abbott; Ebenezer Stocker; William Stephens; Coffee Purchase; Francis Oliver; Sales of Sugar; Thomas Lee; Frederick Cabot; Ship Amistad; Shipment to Alexandria; Shipment of Schooner Sukey; James Perkins, Jr.; Merchandize; Notes Payable; Thomas Hollingsworth; Hall & Russell; Shipment for schooner Victory; Plimpton & Marett; William Dodd; Cash; Farm at Temple; William Appleton; Andrew Cunningham; schooner William; Thomas Thaxter; Lemons for schooner Miller; George Pearle; John Hancock; Bridge & Beale; William Tuck; Peter Windsor; Leon Blain; John Bromfield, John Anderson and others.

Dates

  • Creation: 1814-1821

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Materials stored onsite. Please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information regarding access procedures.

Extent

.25 linear feet (1 volume)

Biographical / Historical

Samuel Cabot, Jr., born in Boston on December 21, 1784, trained for the family ancestral career of foreign commerce. At age nineteen he went to sea and settled at Isle of France to learn the East India trade. In 1806, Samuel Cabot, Jr. returned to the United States and formed a partnership with Samuel Hazard of Philadelphia. Moving to Philadelphia, Cabot and Hazard worked as wholesale commission agents. Leaving Hazard in Philadelphia, Cabot returned to Boston in 1808 and serviced the Boston market for the partnership. After his marriage in 1812, Samuel Cabot formed a partnership with his brother, Joseph, and John W. Perit of Philadelphia. Based in Philadelphia, Perit and Cabot maintained a Boston office with Samuel Cabot as their representative. In 1817, Samuel Cabot formed another partnership with his brother-in-law, Thomas H. Perkins, and the latter's cousin, James Perkins. This additional family partnership, Samuel Cabot and James & T. H. Perkins' Sons & Company, brought substantial income to all concerned through the China trade. By the mid-1820s, Samuel Cabot removed himself from Perit and Cabot. He retired from active business in 1838 and spent the rest of his life investing the abundant proceeds from his merchant days. Samuel Cabot, Jr. died in 1863.

Physical Location

MANU

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Philip Cabot, 1937

Processing Information

To enhance discoverability, this collection was removed from an artificial collection of records of Boston merchants engaged in foreign trade in December 2020.

Creator

Author
Baker Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
bak01296

Repository Details

Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository

Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.

Contact:
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Boston MA 01263 USA
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