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COLLECTION Identifier: Mss:766 1782-1805 D264

Thomas & William Davis records

Overview

Thomas & William Davis was a father-and-son mercantile firm and import/export business in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which traded goods including fish, salt, sugar, and iron, in the West Indies and Europe from approximately 1782 to 1825. The Thomas & William Davis records consist of letters from merchants, agents, and ship captains related to the operation of a general store in Plymouth, and the import and export of commodities in the West Indies and Europe; bills, invoices, and accounts current; and a small amount of outgoing correspondence of Thomas & William Davis related to business and legal matters. There is also a copy of the will of LeBaron Bradford, Thomas Davis's son-in-law, dated in 1846.

Dates

  • Creation: 1782-1846
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1782-1805

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

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

Extent

1.26 linear feet (3 boxes)

The Thomas & William Davis records consist of letters from merchants, agents, and ship captains related to the operation of a general store in Plymouth, and the import and export of commodities in the West Indies and Europe; bills, invoices, and accounts current; and a small amount of outgoing correspondence of Thomas & William Davis related to business and legal matters. There is also a copy of the will of LeBaron Bradford, Thomas Davis's son-in-law, dated in 1846.

The correspondence from merchants and agents, including Daniel Sargent (1764-1842), Andrew Leach (1753-1820), and Nathaniel Russell, relate to buying and selling goods out of the general store operated by Thomas & William Davis, in addition to their import/export business. Correspondence from merchants and agents in foreign ports like Lisbon, Portugal, and Bilbao, Spain, concern the market for American goods, and prices they were able to negotiate for commodities sold by Thomas & William Davis. These letters often include discussion of the impact on French Revolutionary Wars on trade and prices. Correspondence from ship captains including Nathaniel Carver (1740-1815) and Eliphalet Holbrook, concern progress of voyages carrying the cargo of Thomas & William Davis to the West Indies and Europe, disposal of the freight upon arrival, and the confiscation or detention of their ships.

Biographical Note:

Thomas & William Davis was a father-and-son mercantile firm and import/export business in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which traded goods including fish, salt, sugar, and iron, in the West Indies and Europe from approximately 1782 to 1825.

Thomas Davis (1722-1785) and his son, William Davis (1758-1826), operated a general store in Plymouth, and owned ships including the Harmony, the Hope, and the Miles Standish, which exported commodities, primarily fish, in addition to salt, rum, nails, iron, sugar, cloth, anchor palms, tea, and coffee, to the West Indies, Portugal, Spain, and France. Their ships, which sailed from Davis Wharf, imported goods such as molasses and hemp. The Harmony, a schooner captained by Nathaniel Carver (1740-1815), was captured, and later released, by British commander Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) in Massachusetts Bay, in 1782, and after the American Revolutionary War ended, she was again detained by the British in Nova Scotia for improper registration. After Thomas Davis died in 1785, his son continued to operate the business under the same name until his death in 1826.

Series Outline

The collection is arranged in the following series:

  1. Series I. Financial and legal papers, 1783-1846
  2. Series II. Correspondence, 1782-1805
  3. ___Subseries A. Outgoing correspondence, 1782-1805
  4. ___Subseries B. "Store letters," 1782-1804
  5. ___Subseries C. "Shipping letters," 1783-1804
  6. ___Subseries D. "Foreign letters," 1784-1805

Physical Location

MANU

Provenance:

Gift of William Davis, 1932, 1934.

Digitization Funding

Collections and items have been digitized with the generous support of The Polonsky Foundation.

Processing Information

Processed: May 2016

By: Brooke McManus

Preservation and description were supported in part by the Arcadia-funded Colonial North American Project at Harvard University.

Processing Information

The Thomas & William Davis records were previously arranged in seven "volumes," and subdivided by document type, such as "store letters," "shipping letters," and "foreign letters." While most of the collection was rehoused, the order of the records and original folder titles were retained.

Creator

Author
Baker Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
bak00289

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:
Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
Soldiers Field Road
Boston MA 01263 USA
(617) 495-6411