J. & J. Amory records

The J. & J. Amory records consist of ledgers, journals, accounts, and correspondence relating to the import of British and European goods, and deeds and legal records, dated 1716-1797. The collection also includes invoice books and other records of merchants John & Thomas Amory.

Bound ledgers contain a mixture of accounts of J. & J. Amory, Amory's & Taylor, and Amory, Taylor & Rogers, and it is sometimes unclear with which firm the accounts are associated. There are business accounts with European and British merchants including Harrison, Ansley & Co., Watson & Cassoul, Robert & Thomas Wilson, and Edward Dowling & Sons, and local retail sales to John Adams (1735-1824), Reverend Samuel Dana (1739-1798; Harvard AB 1755), legislator and watchmaker Richard Cranch (1726–1811), and Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Thomas Cushing (1725-1788; Harvard AB 1744), among others. There are additionally payments associated with the Amorys' rental properties in Boston; tenants included women, and during the Revolutionary War, Continental Army officers rented several houses. Also included are records of notes endorsed to J. & J. Amory.

J. & J. Amory records further include receipts for shares they owned in a Boston glass manufactory; papers, correspondence, and legal documents related to trading partnerships with New England and Philadelphia merchants, including William Barrell, Joseph Marquand, and Samuel Flagg; and property and estate records, some of which were related to legal disputes over debts owed to J. & J. Amory. Correspondence with merchants and associates including Watson & Cassoul, Edward Dowling & Sons, and Stephen Collins, relate to trade and legal matters, and sometimes reference the Revolutionary War.

The collection also contains paid bills and receipts for John Amory Sr.'s and Jonathan Amory's family, household, and farm expenses, which show costs of repairs and upkeep of buildings they owned, wages to skilled and unskilled laborers, and payment for clothing, medical care, and education for their children.

John & Thomas Amory records contain invoice books, lists of notes they endorsed, and bills of exchange, dated 1782-1797. The firm imported Bibles, salt, textiles, mirrors, hardware, kitchenware, tableware, carpets, and personal items for family members. They traded with British and European merchants including John Hodson & Son, Niviere, Rousseau & Co., and Harrison, Ansley & Co. The invoices are numbered in chronological order, although the arrangement is unclear. There are also drafts issued by the governments of the United States and France from 1781 to 1783 to purchase munitions and supplies for the French naval fleet commanded by Admiral François-Joseph Paul de Grasse (1723-1788), which engaged the British Navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake and later the Battle of the Saintes.