Overview
This collection contains the papers of William Tudor (1779-1830; Harvard AB 1796), a Boston author, merchant, legislator, and diplomat, dating from approximately 1792 to 1914. It includes his correspondence with family, friends, politicians, and merchants, many of whom were Harvard graduates. These letters document Tudor’s travels to Europe, his efforts to succeed in trade and manufacturing, and his literary endeavors and intellectual pursuits. Later correspondence while Tudor was a diplomat in South America (1824-1830) relays information regarding the turbulent and rapidly changing political conditions in various provinces following the wars for independence from Spain. The collection further includes research materials collected by Tudor for his work on James Otis, and essays and addresses he composed on literature and politics.
Dates
- Creation: approximately 1792-1914, and undated
- Creation: Majority of material found within ( approximately 1792-1830)
Researcher Access
Open for research.
Copyright
Copying of fragile materials may be limited.
Extent
2.73 cubic feet (5 document boxes, 2 flat boxes)This collection contains the papers of William Tudor (1779-1830; Harvard AB 1796), a Boston author, merchant, legislator, and diplomat, dating from circa 1792 to 1914. It includes his correspondence with family, friends, politicians, and merchants, many of whom were Harvard graduates. These letters document Tudor’s travels to Europe, his efforts to succeed in trade and manufacturing, and his literary endeavors and intellectual pursuits. Later correspondence while Tudor was a diplomat in South America (1824-1830) relays information regarding the turbulent and rapidly changing political conditions in various provinces following the wars for independence from Spain. The collection further includes research materials collected by Tudor for his work on James Otis, and essays and addresses he composed on literature and politics.
Correspondence with his family documents Tudor’s plans after finishing Harvard and his domestic travels, as well as trips to Europe and the West Indies on business. Tudor traveled to Europe frequently from 1800 to 1815, and his letters contain observations on the rise of Napoleon and worsening relations between the United States and England leading up to the War of 1812. He also comments on the cultural and societal differences between the United States, England, and France, and notable people he encountered, including the Marquis de Lafayette.
There are additionally letters from Harvard classmates, documenting Tudor’s education and social life during school, including a six-month suspension he received after breaking into a Harvard building and stealing College property. Tudor’s connection to Harvard endured well after he graduated in 1796: the collection contains correspondence with Harvard President John Thornton Kirkland, professors George Ticknor, Henry Ware, and John White Webster, and John Pickering, who served as a Harvard overseer. Tudor’s correspondence with Kirkland documents his efforts to launch and promote the North American Review and plan lectures at the Boston Athenaeum.
Other noteworthy correspondents include the Boston merchant, legislator, and philanthropist Thomas Handasyd Perkins. Throughout the collection, letters reference news and activities of American dignitaries including Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and Andrew Jackson. There is also correspondence documenting the activities of the Anthology Club, of which Tudor was a charter member, and correspondence regarding James Otis; as part of his biographical research, Tudor sought to locate original letters written by Otis, who had destroyed his personal papers.
The collection contains a large amount of correspondence written to Tudor during his service as United States consul at Lima, and as chargé d’affairs in Rio de Janeiro. Letters from fellow American diplomats, including John Murray Forbes, chargé d’affairs in Buenos Aires, and Condy Raguet, the consul in Rio de Janeiro, provide extensive details about military conflicts amongst the South American provinces, and civil wars that ignited following independence from Spain, as well as peace negotiations and the actions of leading political figures including Simón Bolívar, Antonio José de Sucre, and José de San Martin. There are additionally letters to Tudor in Spanish from politicians such as Peruvian President José de la Mar and Peruvian minister José Maria de Pando.
Most of the collection is comprised of correspondence to William Tudor from his family, friends, and professional associates. Letters are largely written in English, but also French and Spanish; in the series containing his diplomatic correspondence, there are multiple letters from Tudor’s South American contacts in Spanish. The materials are of varying legibility, and content in many items is obscured by loss from environmental conditions or pest damage. There is some overlap between series; for example, Tudor’s correspondence with Thomas Handasyd Perkins while he was serving in South America is included in personal correspondence.
Biographical Note
William Tudor (1779-1830; Harvard AB 1796) was a Boston author, merchant, legislator, and diplomat.
Tudor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1779, the eldest son of Delia Jarvis and William Tudor (1750-1819; Harvard AB 1769). He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and received an AB from Harvard in 1796. Tudor had three brothers and two sisters: Frederic (1783-1864), Emma Jane (1785-1865), Delia (1787-1861), John Henry (1782-1802), and Henry James (1791-1864).
Following his graduation from Harvard in 1796, Tudor entered the counting room of Boston merchant John Codman, who subsequently sent Tudor as an agent to England, France, and Italy. His younger brother Frederic had developed an idea to transport ice from New England to warmer climates, and on his behalf, Tudor traveled to the West Indies from 1805 to 1806, seeking exclusive licenses from the English and French governments to import ice to their colonies. Tudor traveled again to England in 1807, during which time he made further efforts to obtain licenses to export ice to Jamaica and Barbados from the British Board of Trade. Tudor served in the Massachusetts state legislature, and in 1809 gave the annual Fourth of July oration in Boston. He then entered the employ of Boston merchant Stephen Higginson, who developed an unsuccessful scheme to circumvent Napoleon’s trade decrees against England. Tudor was involved in one more unsuccessful enterprise in England when he partnered with Williams, Jones, & Co. to establish a cut nail factory in Birmingham from 1812 to 1814. After that business failed, he turned his focus to literary endeavors.
Tudor was an original member of the Anthology Society (1804-1811) in Boston, and was a co-founder, editor, and contributor to the club’s Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. He also helped establish, with other club members, the Boston Athenaeum in 1807. After the Anthology Society ceased publication in 1811, Tudor co-founded the North American Review and was its first editor from 1815 to 1817.
He also published a number of works, notably Letters on the Eastern States (1820), Miscellanies (1821), The Life of James Otis (1823), and Gebel Teir (1829).
Tudor was appointed by President John Quincy Adams to serve as United States consul in Lima, Peru (1823-1827), and he later became chargé d’affaires in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1827-1830). Tudor died from a fever on March 9, 1830, in Brazil.
Biographical Notes: Tudor family
William Tudor (1750-1819; Harvard AB 1769) was a Boston lawyer and politician. He clerked in John Adams’ law office before the onset of the American Revolution, after which time he joined George Washington’s staff as a legal adviser. He was appointed Judge Advocate General of the Continental Army in 1776. He resigned his commission in 1778 and married Delia Jarvis. Tudor served on the Massachusetts General Court from 1781 to 1794, and was also a state senator (1801-1802) and secretary of the Commonwealth (1808-1809).
Delia Jarvis (1753-1843) married William Tudor in 1778. Six of their children survived infancy. The Tudors maintained a home in Boston, as well as a summer estate in Lynn, Massachusetts, called Rockwood. She traveled and socialized extensively, and after the death of her husband in 1819, she lived for a time with her daughter, Emma, and son-in-law, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, at their Maine estate. She later lived with daughter Delia in Washington, DC, after her divorce from Charles Stewart.
John Henry Tudor (1782-1802; Harvard AB 1800) died only two years after graduating from Harvard College. At Harvard, he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and the Porcellian Club. Tudor enjoyed travel and outdoor recreation with his family and spent much time in their company at Rockwood, the family estate. Following a long illness, and travels to Cuba, South Carolina, and Virginia in attempts to recover his health, Tudor died in 1802.
Frederic Tudor (1783-1864) was the founder of the Tudor Ice Company in Boston. Despite encouragement by his eldest brother, Frederic did not enter college but instead went into business. Aided by William and their cousin James Savage, who both had traveled in 1805 to the West Indies to pursue import licenses from the local authorities, Frederic began transports of ice from New England to the islands in 1806. The Tudor Ice Company, later known as the Tudor Company, exported ice and other merchandise, and imported various sundry items and foodstuffs. The company owned ice houses in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Galle, Singapore, Jamaica, Havana, New Orleans, and Charleston.
Emma Jane Tudor (1785-1865), the eldest sister of William Tudor, married Robert Hallowell Gardiner in 1805 and moved with him to Gardiner, Maine, where they constructed an estate, Oaklands, completed in 1810. Her early schooling in art and languages led to an interest in painting and drawing. She had nine children.
Delia Tudor (1787-1861) was William Tudor’s youngest sister. She was schooled in music and languages, and traveled with her parents to Europe circa 1809. Delia married Commodore Charles Stewart in 1813, and they had two children. The Stewarts moved to Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1815, but as Stewart was often at sea, Delia frequently visited her sister in Gardiner, Maine. Correspondence between Delia and her mother alludes to the unhappy state of the marriage to Stewart, which ended in divorce.
Henry James Tudor (1791-1864; Harvard AB 1810), known as Harry, was the youngest Tudor sibling. He served as a secretary to his brother-in-law, Commodore Charles Stewart, on board the U.S.S. Franklin, and later assisted brother Frederic with his ice business in New Orleans.
Charles Stewart (1778-1869) was a Philadelphia-born naval officer who married William Tudor’s sister, Delia, in 1813. Stewart commanded two ships during the War of 1812, the U.S.S. Constellation and U.S.S. Constitution, and his actions during the conflict, including the capture of several British ships, earned him the nickname “Old Ironsides.” The Stewarts moved to an estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1815. He commanded the United States naval squadrons in Europe (1816-1820) and the Pacific (1820-1824). He was court-martialed in 1824 for multiple alleged offenses, including harboring a Royalist Army spy aboard the U.S.S. Franklin. According to records of the proceedings, Stewart's attorneys claimed Delia Stewart gave passage to the accused spy without her husband's knowledge. Stewart was acquitted of the charges.
Robert Hallowell Gardiner (1782-1864; Harvard AB 1801) was the grandson of Sylvester Gardiner, the founder of Gardiner, Maine. After marrying Emma Jane Tudor in 1805, he focused his attentions on agriculture and building the family estate, Oaklands. He helped found the Gardiner Lyceum in 1821 and built a church on the estate. Gardiner, like William Tudor, was a founding member of the Anthology Society, and he served in the Maine House of Representatives in 1822. He was also an overseer of Bowdoin College (1811-1841).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in seven series:
- Family correspondence, approximately 1792-1833, and undated
- Personal correspondence, 1793-1830, and undated
- Correspondence with bankers, merchants, and commission agents, 1801-1828, and undated
- Business and legal documents, 1799-1820
- Correspondence and papers related to Tudor’s service as a South American diplomat, 1824-1830, and undated
- Research and writings, approximately 1811-1822, and undated
- Correspondence of the extended Tudor family and its associates, and miscellaneous letters, 1803-1914
Acquisition information
The William Tudor personal archive was purchased by the Harvard University Archives in 2013:
- Accession number 19662: November 14, 2013
Online access
All of the papers have been digitized. Links accompany detailed descriptions.
References:
William Tudor.
Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936. Biography in Context. Web. 31 July 2015.- Gardiner, R., & Gardiner, William Tudor. Early recollections of Robert Hallowell Gardiner, 1782-1864. Hallowell, Me, Printed for R.H. Gardiner and W.T. Gardiner by White & Horne Company, 1936. http://books.google.com/books?id=SRwhAQAAMAAJ.
- Morison, S. E. The life and letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765-1848. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015027041022.
- Little, G. T., Burrage, H. S., & Stubbs, A. R. Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1909. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/3431423.html.
- Valentino, C. D. [catalog]. The largest extant manuscript archive of William Tudor Jr. 1779-1830Philadelphia, C.D. Valentino.
Inventory update
This document last updated 2021 July 30.
General note
- ___People
- ___Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848.
- ___Barlow, Joel, 1754-1812.
- ___Bolívar, Simón, 1783-1830.
- ___Bradford, Alden, 1765-1843.
- ___Burton, Alexander, 1780-
- ___Coale, Edward Johnson, 1776-1832.
- ___Coit, Daniel Wadsworth, 1787-1876.
- ___Cleaveland, Parker, 1780-1858.
- ___Dorrego, Manuel, 1787-1828.
- ___Forbes, John Murray, 1771-1831.
- ___Gardiner, Robert Hallowell, 1782-1864.
- ___Higginson, Stephen, 1743-1828.
- ___Hogan, Michael, 1766-1833.
- ___Hull, Isaac, 1773-1843.
- ___Jarvis, Samuel F. (Samuel Farmar), 1786-1851.
- ___Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826.
- ___Jones, Thomas Ap Catesby, 1790-1858.
- ___Kirkland, John Thornton, 1770-1840.
- ___La Mar, José de, 1778-1830.
- ___Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 1757-1834.
- ___Lavalle, Juan, 1797-1841.
- ___Lee, William, 1772-1840.
- ___Luna Pizarro, Francisco Javier de, 1780-1855.
- ___Marryat, Joseph, 1757-1824.
- ___Melvill, Thomas, 1776-1845.
- ___McKean, Joseph, 1776-1818.
- ___Monroe, James, 1758-1831.
- ___Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821.
- ___Newton, Gilbert Stuart, 1794-1835.
- ___Otis, James, 1725-1783.
- ___Otway, Robert Waller, Sir, 1770-1846.
- ___Pando, José María de, 1787-1840.
- ___Perkins, Thomas Handasyd, 1764-1854.
- ___Pickering, John, 1777-1846.
- ___Ponsonby, John Ponsonby, Viscount, 1770?-1855.
- ___Raguet, Condy, 1784-1842.
- ___Rosas, Juan Manuel de, 1793-1877.
- ___Sales, F. (Francis), 1771-1854.
- ___San Martín, José de, 1778-1850.
- ___Savage, James, 1784-1873.
- ___Southard, Samuel L. (Samuel Lewis), 1787-1842.
- ___Stewart, C. S. (Charles Samuel), 1795-1870.
- ___Stewart, Charles, 1778-1869.
- ___Sucre, Antonio José de, 1795-1830.
- ___Thacher, Peter Oxenbridge, 1776-1843.
- ___Ticknor, George, 1791-1871.
- ___Tudor family.
- ___Tudor, Delia Jarvis, 1753-1843.
- ___Tudor, Frederic, 1783-1864.
- ___Tudor, John Henry, 1782-1802.
- ___Tudor, William, 1750-1819.
- ___Vaughan, Benjamin, 1751-1835.
- ___Ware, Henry, 1764-1845.
- ___Webster, John White, 1793-1850.
- ___Wright, Luther, 1770-1858.
- ___Groups
- ___Anthology Society (Boston, Mass.)
- ___Boston Athenaeum -- History.
- ___Degen, Purviance, & Company.
- ___Harvard College (1780- ) -- Class of 1796.
- ___Monthly anthology, and Boston review.
- ___North American review.
- ___Thomas Dickason & Co.
- ___Tudor Company.
- ___Tudor Ice Company.
- ___United States. Navy. Pacific Squadron.
- ___Topics
- ___American literature -- Massachusetts.
- ___Diplomatic and consular service, American.
- ___Diplomats –- 19th century.
- ___Ice industry.
- ___Literature -- Societies, etc.
- ___Merchants -- 19th century -- England.
- ___Merchants -- 19th century -- United States.
- ___Monroe doctrine.
- ___Monroe–Pinkney Treaty.
- ___Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815.
- ___Orders in council.
- ___Periodicals.
- ___Piracy -- South America -- History -- 19th century.
- ___Privateering –- France.
- ___Privateering -- South America -- History -- 19th century.
- ___Publishers and publishing.
- ___Silver mines and mining.
- ___Slavery -- West Indies.
- ___Trade agreements –- History.
- ___Places
- ___Argentina -- History -- 1817-1860.
- ___Boston (Mass.) -- Commerce.
- ___Bunker Hill Monument (Boston, Mass.)
- ___France -- Social life and Customs.
- ___France -- History -- 1789-1815.
- ___France -- History -- Directory, 1795-1799.
- ___Leeward Islands (Federation)
- ___Lynn (Mass.)
- ___Nahant (Mass.)
- ___New England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century.
- ___New England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
- ___Peru -- History -- War of Independence, 1820-1829.
- ___South America -- History -- Wars of Independence, 1806-1830.
- ___United States -- Foreign relations -- 1797-1801.
- ___United States -- Foreign relations -- 1801-1815.
- ___United States -- Foreign relations -- 19th century.
- ___United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783.
- ___United States -- History -- War of 1812.
- ___West Indies -- Commerce.
- ___Formats and genres
- ___Biographies.
- ___Essays.
- ___Indentures.
- ___Legal documents.
- ___Letters.
- ___Proclamations.
Processing Information
The collection was processed in 2015. Processing steps included a collection survey, rehousing materials into archival folders and boxes, and the creation of this finding aid.
This finding aid was created by Brooke McManus in August 2015.
Preservation and description of the William Tudor personal archive was supported by the Arcadia-funded Colonial North American Project at Harvard University.
All titles were supplied by the cataloger. This finding aid contains harmful language that is now considered racist and derogatory in the form of terms used at the time to describe slavery practices and states allowing slavery to be admitted to the United States. Contextual notes where this langauge appears are located at the series, subseries, and folder levels.
- Title
- Tudor, William, 1779-1830. William Tudor personal archive, approximately 1792-1914, and undated (bulk approximately 1792-1830): an inventory
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua08015
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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