The Cozens/Byrnes Merchants Networks Project - Updated 6 August 2008

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From a Sydney emailer, June 2008, oulining some principles this website will try to abide by.

Dear Merchant Networks Team,
I found on the Net the following criteria for authors and editors, especially those with academic qualifications ...
* freedom, independence, and neutrality
* the love of knowledge, critical thinking, and respect for both expertise and for the value and ability of uncredentialled people
* maturity, personal responsibility, common sense
* compromise, consensus, and collegiality
* openness, rejection of insularity, and respect for the rule of law
* a love of simplicity, a robust dislike for bureaucracy, and not using computer algorithms (or aggregation) where individual judgment is required.
Neat, eh?
Brian

By 15 June 2008, Paul Burns in Armidale (Australia) reports that some of Dan Byrnes' writing (on convict transportation, presumably, has been cited in chapter nineteen of: Don Jordan and Michael Walsh, White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America. Edinburgh, Mainstream Publishing Co., 2008. Which is the first Mr. Byrnes in distant Australia has heard of this, but the news is encouraging!

Dear Dan,
Many thanks for your reply. Yes, I have that information from Thelma Birrell's self-published book ... and also, recently, have come across the information that in 1804, Rhodes was charged *by his crew* for offences including firing at Maoris, and also flogging them on board the Alexander.
That information came initially from By-ways of History & Medicine (David Gordon Macmillan, 1946). Interesting because Governor King used it as a test case, to see whether his jurisdiction extended as far as New Zealand. (It seems that it didn't).
Original source  is proving elusive - Macmillan used  a book by J. I. Hetherington, New Zealand: Its Political Connections with Great Britain. Dunedin, 1925-26, Vol 1, which gives details about who was on the tribunal set up by King, but has its citations in an un-numbered block covering three chapters. King's papers are not cited - and Historical Records of New Zealand; does not appear to have it.
(But, I will persist - it would *seem* to be an important legal issue, apart from shedding some light on Rhodes's character).

That said - I wonder, could you help me at all with getting a copy of A.G.E. Jones's article about Bennett and Co? - An especially helpful article, although unpublished, is A. G. E. Jones, 1968, 'Daniel Bennett and Co'. Copy, courtesy Ann Shirley, Assistant Keeper, Dept. of Navigation and Astronomy, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Jones in this paper presents appendices on Bennett and catalogues references to whaling logs held by the National Maritime Museum.
Happy to do a swap with Governor King's Tribunal into Rhodes when I find it ... most of the information it in Hetherington's book, and I have a scan of the relevant page. (Just the source which is still missing - but a Librarian at the Alexander Turnbull is helping me track it down).
Kind Regards, Lesley Albertson
(In grey, chilly Melbourne)
Ms L. Albertson
3/14 Arnold Street
South Yarra 3141
Victoria

An answer given earlier - > I've never made extra progress re Robert Rhodes, so can tell you > nothing extra apart from what I might have on a webpage, Except, he > perhaps married Elizabeth Rafferty, and had a daughter Rachael Rhodes > who married Robert Bostock (1784-1847)  who had a son a mariner at > Port Fairy George Bostock  active by 1826 in Tasmania, who married > Tasmanian girl Ann Cox (1826-1865 died South Yarra Melbourne) daughter > of  Tasmanian pionoer at Clarendon, James Cox (1790-1866), by Mary Connell. This James Cox also married Eliza Eddington Collins > (1810-1869) daughter of Gov Tasmania Dr David Collins and Margaret > Eddington. All of which I hope is correct information. I've also not gotten much > further re Daniel Bennett's whaling firm.
Kind regards, Dan Byrnes

On 17 March 2008 from Rod Dickson

Dear Sir,
I have just been introduced to your website and I congratulate you on its content.
I thought I would let you know of my own research. I have recently had two books on early whaling published, the first being "to King George the Third Sound for whales" being taken from the log book of the London whaler KINGSTON, 1800 - 1802 and her consort the ELLIGOOD.
Then came the "History of Whaling on the South Coast of New Holland from 1800 - 1888." 640 A4 pages detailing more than 720 voyages by American, French, British and Colonial whalers, log book enties, crew lists and etc.
I have just finished the next book, "the Voyage of the ASIA and ALLIANCE from Nantucket on their voyage, 1791 - 1794."
I have just retired from the sea after 48 years in the Merchant and Royal Navies.
These books and others are published by Hesperian Press, here in Perth, Western Australia.
Cheers for now,
Rod Dickson, 239 Manning Road, Waterford, 6152, Perth WA

On 16 March 2008 From: Maxwell Tucker <deecpfl@yahoo.com>

Hello Mr. Dan Byrnes. Do you have any information on John Tucker the slave trader who arrived in Sierra Leone in 1665 in the service of the Gambia Adventurers? I believe this Tucker was a contemporary of Zachary Rogers who also arrived in the service of the Gambia Adventurers in 1665. Both men later on switched to the newly-emerging Royal African family. This man is my direct ancestor. I am not sure if you are aware but his descendants are a well known clan in  Sierra Leone. Tucker married an African princess and his descendants prospered from the slave trade (unfortunately). Any information you have on him please contact me.

The item below on the possible family of Bombay merchant James Tate (died 1827, wife unknown, had a son Paul) is one of the most interesting emails this website has received on a question of merchant networks.  The situation outlined below literally reeks of questions which have remained unasked in the past, and is a perfect example of the kind of problems-in-history that this website is designed to advertise, and to see rectified. - Ed

The strange case of James Tate, Bombay merchant

17 January 2008 From: Richard MacDonald, Liverpool UK <richardmacdonald@hotmail.com>

Dear Mr Byrnes, First of all I would like to thank you for your Merchant Networks website, it truly is a facinating project and the work you have put in is truly admirable. I was wondering if you may be able to help clear up a problem that I have regarding James Tate of Bombay, who bankrupted in 1799 causing considerable furore amongst the merchants there. I am currently researching a 'Tate' merchant family from Liverpool of the same era and was wondering if there was any genealogical information about James Tates origins? From the Wills of my 'Liverpool Tates' we have mentioned a cousin, Mr William Ashmead Tate, born in Bombay in 1795, who then went on to be a cartographer and military drawer for the East India Co. Is this James Tate's son? If this is so then James Tate had an older brother in Liverpool called Richard who was a Virginia Tobacco Merchant, and a father called Paul Tate. If this is also true, then he had a famous brother called William Tate - a nationally recognised painter who was a close pupil of Jospeh Wright of Derby, not to mention a niece who became the wife of a great philanthropist merchant (and tunneller of Liverpool) Joseph Williamson (1769-1840, parents unknown, married to Elizabeth Tate), the "King of Edge Hill" [Liverpool]. I can understand if you are too busy to check this for me but I eagerly await your reply.

Yours Sincerely

Richard MacDonald

Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:04:07 +1100

From: Dan Byrnes <danbyrnes@merchantnetworks.com.au>

To: Richard Macdonald <richardmacdonald@hotmail.com>

Subject: On James Tate

Dear Richard, Tks for emailing and my associate in London Ken Cozens is also interested, we want to bear down on Tate for our project, a project which stands beside the website we have, The Merchant Networks Project at http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/ Your information as below on James Tate is entirely new to me, and even newer is information re Williamson's tunnels in Liverpool. All I have (genealogically) on James Tate, Bombay merchant, is that he probably had a son named Paul; plausible if James' own father was named Paul. But I can't verify any of what you mention on Tates of Liverpool from netsurfing or any other source, except re the wife of Williamson the tunneller. I'd like to have much more info on James Tates, as his firm's failure did annoy a lot of merchants of India. Before he failed, Tate was a partner of David Scott Senior (1746-1805, father of David Jnr, husband of Louisa Delgard and son of MP Robert Scott and Anne Middleton), and I have a new theory on Scott (which might go onto the Net soon on Merchant Networks.) Otherwise, before he failed, Tate was also dealing with a lot of American-India merchants, and little is known about this. Here I'd like to know more on both Tate and the American merchants in question. It looks as though if we put our heads together, we could enlarge information considerably on James Tate. What do you think? Best regards, Dan Byrnes, Australia

Liverpool, England. http://www.williamsontunnels.co.uk). (Please note this is different from the Friends of Williamson Tunnels, of Liverpool, who are a public-membership interest group.) As you may have gathered from your netsurfing very little is known about Joseph Williamson, over the past year a small team of dedicated volunteers have been conducting in depth research into Joseph Williamson for the first time in 200 years. There is a distinct lack of information about Joseph Williamson himself so we have been building up a picture of him through his associations, this has led us into great depth with the Tate family with which he is intimately connected. I can well understand why you have found very little information on the Internet, most of our research into the Tate family is original and as such is yet unpublished. James Tate and his son Paul have proved elusive due to their common names. We can verify that a James Tate was the son of Paul Tate of Yorkshire and is related to the Liverpool Tate Family. We know that our James Tate married one Sarah (maiden name unknown) and they had a son born in Bombay called William Ashmead Tate (some give a DOB of 1795 but the IGI says 1798). William Ashmead Tate is later mentioned in a number of Liverpool Tate Wills listed as Cousin, Nephew etc ... We have also come accross the death of one Paul Tate of Liverpool who also worked for the East India Co, he died in Nice. We think that this may be Paul Tate the son of Richard Tate - James' brother. Also of note is that Richard Tate had another brother called John Tate who was trading from London and is mentioned in correspondence between Henry Laurens (1724-1792) merchant and revolutionary American) and Richard Tate. As you can see we have a lot of loose ends to tie up but a picture is emerging of a very successful and far-reaching family who seem to have been largely forgotten about and whose fortunes seem to have disappeared by the mid 1800's. As this is my personal e-mail address I would appreciate it if you used jwresearch@hotmail.co.uk with any further correspondence, from there our senior researcher (Sian Roberts) can also contact you. Many Thanks, Richard MacDonald, Liverpool, England

(*Please note this is different from the Friends of Williamson Tunnels who are a public-membership interest group.)

Phillis Wheatley, a slave in Boston

Findings on a researcher's disaster zone

From Dan Byrnes, the editor of this website .... During January-February 2008

Dear Readers, It's unusual for a website editor to post an e-mail on his own website, but I've done it below as the material - the issues - are suitable for e-mailing to a wide range of contacts. So why not do it?

One of the issues is a symptom I find with some historical research - and it's a lose-lose, no-win symptom. The situation where an allegedly famous person exists, for which there is evidence for certain kinds of discussions. But where this famous person is allegedly and regularly associated with other people, who are less easy to identify and discuss. What is not clear, what is obscured, is - what would happen to our views on the famous person, if more information could be discovered about the other persons said to be in association?

In this case, it is the story of a female slave, and her owner(s). The slave (and later, a former slave) became famous, but no extra information arises on her  owner(s). Yet much of the "evidence" about the earlier life experience of the slave is quite dependent on the life of the owner(s), on whom we continue to know little. A peculiar kind of negative feedback loop is at work here. Circa 1775, this is a rare case in American colonies of an educated slave, yet it remains impossible to discover - who educated the slave, how and why. 

And it is quite easy to use fiction to generate a similar, exemplary case of the problem. Say, the case of a famous non-officer soldier in World War One, distinquished for his bravery. He later marries, say, and lives a mostly normal life. His wartime bravery continues to be discussed. But if no one asks about his wife, we will never know if he was a good or bad husband, or father, if he was a father. Say he has a son, who also distinguishes himself in battle in World War Two. Might we then wonder about the son's mother? What sort of family did the son grow up in? Was it an over-militarized family? Was the father relaxed about his short military career? Did he over-stress it? Or did he suffer post traumatic stress disorder, disrupting an otherwise normal life? Did the son consciously or unconsciously over-compete with his father in some way? Or was the son's battle courage partly an outcome of a set of coincidences during a fog of war. Courage in battle is not hereditary, but a son can be educated/trained in such matters. It might be that courage in battle is a response-to-challenge that rises up in some soldiers more than others. Say that this case of father-son bravery continues being discussed, but that other such aspects of life are not discussed. One would predict that discussions of the military aspects of the case will become lopsided, overweighted, if other details on the family remain absent from the discussion.  

I stayed up very late one night trying to sort out the amazingly mangled merchant story associated with Boston slave blut bold Phillis Wheatley. Spent hours on the Net to scratch only a few extra details. Results were mostly zilch. Very unrewarding.

In this case, we have the negative symptom noted above, illustrated by repeated reference to a Boston merchant, John Wheatley, who cannot be suitably researched as a Boston merchant, and certainly, he cannot be seen as part of a merchant network, as his associates cannot be identified. Yet he apparently did exist!    

On the Net we can easily find the quite famous story (in America) of slave Phillis Wheatley, (1753-1784), a poet. She was America's first female Afro-American poet and a tragic case. She is subject of much hero worship in USA (heroine worship?) but her life story is oddly mixed with much-mangled information. I also have to confess that personally, I don't find the reports on Phillis to be about an amazing and unexpectedly good-quality poet to be convincing. Rather, I find her an almost bizarre case of an intelligent (and probably very likable) person in a sad condition of mishandled cultural transplantation, a case not especially well-handled in her own lifetime, and badly-handled since.

Phillis was a girl of 6-7 from Senegal or Gambia. (It remains uncertain, there seem to be no linguistic clues to her region of origin, therefore, no clue as to her original tribe.) She found herself on a slave ship named Phillis, and landed in Boston. At the time, Mrs Susannah Wheatley (died 1774) of Boston wanted a slave/companion, and at the slave market one day she decided on a rather plaintive little girl (slim, inadequately dressed for the season, somewhat ill, front teeth missing, but with sweepingly intriguing eyes) whom she named Phillis after the ship. (See a Google Books Result, Carol Chandler Waldrup, More Coloniel Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America, no other details yet, mentioning that Nathaniel married Mary Enderby.

The family was of New South Congregational Church, Boston, and Susanna was so enthusiastic about religion, she corresponded with Selina Hastings, Countess Huntingdon, well-known in England as "the aristocratic apostle of Methodism". The Countess was quite happy to reply to Susannah's letters, it seems. Susannah (her maiden name, her parents in colonial America, seem to remain unknown and quite unasked about) was wife to Boston merchant John Wheatley (died 1778). Reports differ on John W., who remained a Loyalist, of King Street Boston, (later a Boston city street for banks). He is variously seen as a merchant tailor, a wholesaler, a wharfinger, a man in real estate, and manager of a regular London-Boston ship, London Packet, Capt. Robert Calef. Yet with such a range of activities, he apparently had no ascertainable associates or partners! None that we can find!

The Wheatleys had not anyway intended Phillis to ever be worked hard, she was to be a domestic, and they found her highly intelligent. So Mary educated her. But on the Net, none of the voluminous heroine-worship of poet Phillis Wheatley asks a single question about how Mary was so well educated herself, and such a good teacher, that Phillis's talents could be nurtured and allowed to grow so relatively quickly! It does seem however, that Phillis grew warmly enough in the bosom of the Wheatley family.

Phillis learned English quite rapidly, and shortly she could understand difficult passages in the Bible, and she liked Alexander Pope's lofty-toned poetry enough to try to begin to write in that style. Phillis also, hardly surprising given the enthusiasms of her religiose owner, Susannah, became rather a Christian. Temperamentally, personality-wise, poets when they are young do tend to be sponges who enthusiastically - and insightfully - soak up influences around them. Phillis Wheatly as poet was no surprise at all in this respect, she was typical.

We get nowhere asking more about the Wheatleys, yet, one of Phillis' early poems was about a family story (apparently) of the Wheatleys; how two mariner relatives named Coffin and Hussey almost shipwrecked during a storm off Cape Cod (date not given). But from websites at least we hear absolutely nothing more about either Coffin or Hussey that could contribute further to sorting out the Wheatley family history, except in the name of the poem. Given the state today of American genealogy websites for surnames such as Coffin and Hussey, this situation (a fairly ordinary research situation) is plainly absurd in an "only in America" way. One might easily presume Coffin and Hussey were from Nantucket Island, but with family history, nothing should ever be taken for granted, particularly not regarding John Wheatley.

Phillis' poetry impressed Boston and caused comment. Susannah W. wrote to Countess Huntingdon, and ideas arose of getting Phillis published in London, as Boston printers couldn't handle any such idea. In 1773, young Nathaniel W. took Phillis to London on London Packet Capt Calef. And no one in America today seems to ask how it was that young Nathaniel W. was so well connected that he could introduce Phillis to important people. Socially, Countess Huntingdon took a hand here. of course. Phillis for example met Brook Watson, later a Lord Mayor of London in the 1790s; and a few noted British politicians of the day. 

Her first book was a success. She was advertised in the literary press as a slave of John W. of Boston, etc. Happily, John W. manumitted Phillis in 1774 (some say, December 1773), though no one seems to note that 1774 was the year that his wife Susannah died (after a 14-weeks or more illness, so Phillis reported in one of her letters to her black friends). The American War of Independence intervened. John W. was a Loyalist, probably the reason he repaired from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island (or to Chelsea of London, England, no one seems sure). Phillis at least from Providence RI where she lived with Mary Wheatley and her husband. once wrote to George Washington; it not being explained how a Boston lass, merely a recently manumitted slave, was now on Rhode Island, and how a mere ex-slave of precocious literary talent was writing to America's newly-famous Revolutionary General-to-be. However, Phillis in general is taken to have continued to live with Mary Wheatley, which to this point in her life chronology, is the point.

From here the lines of research tend to go pear-shaped. Mary W. of Boston married a Rev. John Lathrop (nothing useful arises from American websites on his lineage). They were also at Rhode Island. Whether Mary's father (a Loyalist departing Boston), and Phillis, had actually moved in with Mary and Rev. Lathrop remains unclear from US websites; but it is a fairly ordinary domestic detail to want to know about! Mary died in 1778, the same year as her father (no one asks if they died of the same ailment, one suspects a fever (?)). Otherwise, her brother Nathaniel W. apparently married; but none of the American commentators suggest whom he married.

Well, there is nothing on the Net re genealogy of the Wheatleys (or is that, Whatley?) of Boston. There are a group of Wheatleys on the Net who married to the name Bliss, Names here begin to duplicate weirdly. We can find a Bliss genealogy website which mentions a Capt. John Wheatley (husband of Submitt Peck [sic]), who in the 1760s led an expedition to Cuba, for reasons unclear. Wheatley/Peck here had a daughter Mary who married a Rev. John Lathrop, but she does not exactly seem to have a twin brother, Nathaniel. Whatever, the writer of the Bliss website thinks that this Capt. John W. was of the family that bought Phillis the slave girl/poet. Not much else ties up. The name Rev. John Lathrop here on the Bliss website is about the only common fact that might link these two different Wheatley stories. But this Rev. John Lathrop died, and his widow (who does not die in 1778) re-married to the name W. Bliss, which fails to tie anything up usefully. It seems a fact, however, that the "real" Rev. John Lathrop after Mary Wheatley died married as second wife, Mary Checkeley. (From US genealogy websites on Lathrop).

Meantime, in distant Australia, an amateur historian (or family historian) in Toowoomba, Keith R. Dawson, who says he is a descendant of the Enderby whalers of London, and has e-mailed the present writer, has the view that Nathaniel the son of Susannah of Boston, and twin brother of Mary, married Mary Enderby, daughter of Samuel Enderby Jnr and Ms Goodwin. Citing dates and suitable evidence. This Nathaniel who was the brother of the teacher of Phillis evidently stayed in London and died in 1783. None of the Americans wonder what happened to him. If Dawson is correct, the American writer of the Bliss website noting the Wheatleys is mistaken.

Dawson has suggested that American readers do notknow of the link between Nathaniel Wheatley and Mary Enderby. But this is not so. See a chapter on Phillis Wheatley in Carol Chandler Waldrup, More Coloniel Women: 25 Pioneers of Early America. McFarland and Co., 1999. (?) Mentioning that Nathaniel married Mary Enderby in November 1773, when Nathaniel's mother was ill, so that Mary visited Boston in early 1774 after Sussannah had died. (Prior to her death, Susannah Wheatley had been ill for 14 weeks or more, according to a letter by Phillis to one of her friends as given in Waldrup's book.) 

Also if Dawson is correct, one rather wonders if Nathaniel didn't go to London on business, or to accompany Phillis on a literary promotional tour, as much as he went to London to marry? If he indeed married eg., Mary Enderby, on which the Enderby genealogy itself is not so reliable. In Dawson's view, the name Enderby here (London-based whalers) had connections with the tea ships of the Boston Tea Party (on which topics, Dawson and the present writer disagree considerably, but that is maritime, not literary history).

One wonders why and how two family historians, one in Australia (Dawson-Enderby), one in the USA (re Bliss-Wheatley), can be so at odds with reference to just one name - John Wheatley. Yet both wish to use the Phillis Wheatley slave-poet story to buttress their own remarks about John Wheatley. This is, quite simply, a case of fame being mis-used.

So basically, if we go not by the Bliss genealogy website story, but by the the main Wheatley story, the one mostly accepted by the "literati" in the USA, Phillis unfortunately found that all her Wheatley friends died around her, one by one, so that her literary situation distintegrated; and her proposed second collection of poems disappeared till about 1863. She married a failed grocer, and an odd fellow, a freed black named John Peters. It rather seems, there were relatively few freed male blacks in Boston that she could have chosen from for a marriage partner, and that she chose unhappily. She had three children and died in 1784 having just given birth to her third child; mother and babe died together, it seems.

The life of poet Phillis Wheatley becomes a very sad story, but it is even more notable because it is still so very badly put together. 

There is by the way a legend retailed by one emailer to the editor of this website, that the Enderbys, John St Barbe, and James Mather, all noted whaling investors in London of the 1780s, were all originally from Boston and that they had kept in touch a lot when in London - which this editor does not believe at all (however, the three certainly had kept in touch in London for many years, where-ever they were from originally). As to a wide variety of facts, if Enderby, St Barbe and Mather were indeed from Boston, the Nathaniel Wheatley story re Mary Enderby hangs together a lot better; so does John W's. decision to remain Loyalist - but this legend seems not to be true - and only better-quality family history can put it finally to rest. (There is a Prof. Rod Mather on Rhode Island today, I'm told he is a descendant of this same James Mather.) 

To add research spice to this section of the tale, the remains of the famed ship of explorer Captain Cook, Endeavour, have been found to lie on harbour bottom at Newport, Rhode Island. When Cook and the British navy had finished using Endeavour, one story arises that she was bought by James Mather, a London-based whaling investor, associate of the Enderbys, who re-chartered her to the navy. She was captured by Americans and ended being sunk as part of an American blockade to annoy British shipping (information also available on websites.)

Here, better information on the story of the Enderbys could perhaps easily be used to solidify information on James Mather, Nathaniel Wheatley, Enderbys in London, and so, Phillis the poet. But this is not the way discussions on a poet will run, it seems.

All this hangs together so very badly, one wonders gravely about the literary-heroine yarns regarding Phillis Wheatley as a poet worth encouraging; a precocious literary talent, in her times a rare case of a female black slave, manumitted. A young black from Africa, a poet writing in English during the time of the American Revolution; a Christian, a writer against slavery, the very first female Afro-American writer, etc etc. Who was taught by people who are only discussed, today, because she became famous, and who otherwise had largely unverifiable existences?

Phillis seems to have been an unfortunate-but-talented African person taken from her country at a tragically early age, who was literally ripped apart by cultural incompatibilites while an amazing political and military revolution proceeded around her on grounds that she couldn't well understand, or particularly identify with. She died in what might be called, "the despair of dying in childbed". 

We find in the literary treatments, nothing on Wheatley, John, of Boston, merchant, owner of a mere one ship, wharfinger; he apparently has no ancestors, or surviving progeny. We know nothing of his family that is useful. This John Wheatley is constantly mentioned on the Net, but only in connection with Phillis; but as far as website information goes, he had no real life of his own in Boston as a merchant or anything or anyone else, except for his association with Phillis. The marriage of his son Nathaniel to Mary Enderby of London is entirely overlooked, even as footnote territory.

It's all quite a Net-delivered farrago of modernistic literary-pseudo-history nonsense and mostly a literary beat-up for today's US college and university literature students intellectually besotted by the tropes of Feminism and/or Black Studies. None of which has anything to do with the actual quality of her poetry. (There is a recent book on Phillis by one Eliot.)

For history proper, history of all kinds, it may be far less important that Phillis once wrote to George Washington (and that he replied) than that slave-owner John Wheatley and his people remain quite unresearchable, except, probably, for any researcher who is on the ground and delving sceptically into the church and economic history records of Boston, Massachusetts. Can anyone can discover, for example, if Phillis ever in London or Boston met Nathaniel's fiancee, Mary Enderby? It would appear that Phillis would have met Nathaniel's wife in Boston in early 1774.

One of the problems for Americans with the Phillis Wheatley story seems to be that she lived mostly in Boston, and her owners (at least John, the senior of the family) were Loyalists. How Phillis herself (as a freed female slave) might have viewed the justifications for the American Revolution may well have been somewhat tortured - in ways that Americans today do not wish to think about?  

And so, American Net discussion of Phillis Wheatley, poet, remains tragically lopsided. All the indications from university and college Americana are that this will remain the case, even at the professorial level. But today, the internationalism of Net-delivered information makes it easier to identify and comment on stories which are so badly-constructed, still, as the story of Phillis Wheatley remains. (-Dan Byrnes Feb 2008, and, it seems likely by Feb. 2008 that more information will arise on these topics, so the interested netsurfer should remain prepared to return here - bookmark now.)

Merchants Le Marchant of Guernsey

Dear Mr Cozens, (e-mail of 11 January 2008 from  Dr  Gregory Cox UK... ) 

I was much interested to come across your website. I am just in the process of sending to press a book entitled The Guernsey merchants and their world. It is a study of the Guernsey networks of the long   eighteenth century. I shall be happy to send you a complimentary copy when it is published.

Do you run a 'queries' section? I would like to find out more about some Quebec merchants [LeMarchant & Gill, Gregory & Wolsey]. If I can be of help re Guernsey merchants please do let me know and I'll do my best.  Many felicitations on your project, may it prosper. Dr Gregory Stevens Cox [gregory.cox@blanchelande.sch.gg] 

[My book St Peter Port 1680-1830, the history of an international entrepot was published by Boydell & Brewer in 1999. That was an urban study; this volume looks outwards].

PS: The LeMarchant family of Guernsey supplied the navy in the mid 18th century. The Guernsey merchants supplied a lot of alcohol to the navy. I'll dig out references and send to you [but, doubtless, you'll have the references already!] 

On Dunbar connections

Dear Merchant Networks, (e-mail of 2 August 2007)
I am fascinated to read up all the Dunbar information you have put together.
I have often wondered about a Dunbar connection and discovered the latter on the 1851 census at Limehouse just yesterday!!! I found your site when I Googled Duncan Dunbar!
I am not a Dunbar descendant but am wondering as you have so much information on them & their associates, you may have some information on my family?
I am a MESSER descendant. I found the baptism of Henry MESSER (my gggrf) at St Nicholas', Deptford on 9 March 1806 (listed as MASSER). The entry above was Margaret DUNBAR, daughter of Phebe and Darkin MASSER.
Henry's sister, Pheobe Ann MESSER married Charles SUTHERLAND (Colonial Broker from Mincing Lane, London) in 1834. The witnesses at their marriage were John MASSON, Charles FERRIER, D. DUNBAR, M. A. WEST and M. MASSON. Charles & Phoebe MESSER called their daughter, Margaret MASSON Sutherland. Her brother was Robert Sutherland, who worked with his father. (A Robert Sutherland was named as a Godson of Duncan Dunbar's in his Will???) A sister was Phoebe Ann  SUTHERLAND  - the one Duncan Dunbar names as his cousin in his Will?????? Margaret married John KETTLEWELL, a Shipbroker. They lived at Blackheath and Kidbrooke. There are connections to the KYNASTON and de FONBLANQUE familes too. Have you heard of the MESSERs, SUTHERLANDs and other related families in connection with the Dunbars? de FONBLANQUE? I would be fascinated to know?
Many thanks
Barbara Wimble in Sydney, Australia.

Masters' estate, Jamaica

Follows e-mail from Jeff Daniels of 10 October 2006 - <jdaniels@blueyonder.co.uk>

Dear Merchant Networks, Sirs, I think this site is excellent. I am researching the Masters plantation in Jamaica and I have found it was owned by William Jackson and Elizabeth Bogle French. Can you point me in the direction where I may be able to get more information about these individuals and the Masters Plantation. Thank you
Best Regards, Jeff Daniels per http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/jamaica.htm

Jewish merchants, Sydney Australia

Follows e-mail from Gary Luke (Sydney, Australia 9 October 2006) - <gary@feraltek.com.au>

Dear Merchant Networks, I just tripped over your Merchant Networks site while searching for something unrelated. I'm near the end of the first year of a three year part-time research MA at UTS. The topic is the communal networks among the Jewish convicts before the first Synagogues in the 1830s. Naturally it includes trade relationships among other types of personal associations.

One Second Fleet convict was James Larra, born in France, supposedly of a well established trading family. At his trial at the Old Bailey it was stated he was a shipping agent. About ten years after arrival he entertained officers of Baudin's expedition in an upper-class French manner. He was included among the dinner guests at the welcoming of Governor Macquarie to NSW.

Other early convict Jews who became large scale traders for Australia were probably small fish in world trade. Jewish free settlers who arrived in the late 1820s included Walter Jacob Levi, plantation owner and trader from Jamaica with his wife, the daughter of Lemon Hart, supplier of rum to the British navy. Other free settlers included members of the Montefiore and Moccata families.

Just thought it could be of mutual benefit to say hello, Gary Luke

Re James Scott, Malaya

Follows e-mail from Jan Herivel of 5 October 2006 - <Herivels@ozemail.com.au>

Dear Merchant Networks, I have been researching James Scott who was a country trader in the Malay archipelago region and business partner to the Superintendent of Penang, Francis Light. Scott was the first cousin once removed of Sir Walter Scott. One of James Scott's sons, Robert, was a trader with Deans and Co in Java, while another, William, was the harbour master attendant in Singapore and Malacca.

Best wishes, Jan Herivel

Re: A. B. Sparke (more on Sydney merchants)

Follows e-mail from Marilyn Mason, Sydney, Australia (5 October 2006)- <mjmason@bigpond.com>

Dear Merchant Networks,

Now, re Robert Coveny - see ADB Online at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030441b.htm
one of my interests - according to Arthur Harris who is a family history researcher of the family, has changed (for the better) since its first posting. He says it was originally inaccurate but has altered recently. I'm not sure if Arthur contacted ANU but it is possible. The accreditation for the article has not changed. I'm not too sure if Arthur gives it 10/10 as yet. My major interest was Robert's Coveny's brother, Thomas Bossuet Coveny who is a direct ancestor of my late husband John.

I have been doing some shipping transcriptions for Peter Larson - his website Convictions (used to be called Blaxland shipping) and CD - see http://www.blaxland.com/ozships/page.htm
I've done the Commercial Journal and Advertiser from about April 1838 to February 1839 and what has really struck me is how many ships that A. B. Spark is agent for or owner of. I had read the published diary and had some view of Spark in his land auction duels with John Terry Hughes, and his part in over-lending to Hughes in the operation of the Bank of Australasia, but had no concept of how large his operations must have been.

Cheers, Marilyn

---- Dan Byrnes <danbyrnes@merchantnetworks.com.au> wrote:

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020156b.htm

More on Roxburgh -

Follows e-mail from Anon of 5 October 2006 -

Dear Merchant Networks,
Thank you for that - a very helpful reference.
Sorry for the extended silence - we were hit by the windstorm a couple of weeks ago so no power to home or business (we are in the Hawkesbury) and it took forever to get everything sorted out - we have spent the last week on the chainsaw and mulcher and fixing fences and gardens - hence no time for anything else. Still no joy here with William Roxburgh's parents, however you will find this -
William Roxburgh's first wife was Marie Bonte. Her sister Amelia married firstly Philip Jacob D'Ormieux, and secondly Capt. Gustavus Adolphus von Streng. Her eldest sister Cornelia Francina married James Amos - according to the British Library Asia Pacific Collections there was a John Forbes & James Amos & Co. pp. 313-315. Copy from A2A below. The sisters father was supposedly a Swiss general officer in the employ of the Dutch, and a governor of something or other (family legend says the Andamans, but I can't find a reference to him) - I am having no joy whatever in finding him, let alone who their mother was.

Home Miscellaneous
[Access Conditions] /Unrestricted/

Correspondence and papers concerning private trade with India* - ref. *IOR/H/402-407

*FILE - *Private trade with India.* - ref. IOR/H/406 - date: *1800-1809
hit[from /Scope and Content/] (1) pp. 1-126, Memorandum by John Cochrane on India Trade and Shipping. (2) pp. 129-30, 377, J. Meheux to -- 5th Sept. 1800 and 9th April 1802 (Originals). (3) pp. 133-5, 139-40, John Tayler to Dundas 16th and 28th Oct. 1800 (Originals), relative to Memorial from East India Merchants; p. 137, Dundas to Tayler 18th Oct. 1800. (4) pp. 143-227, Memorandum by David Scott 10th Sept. 1800 on Dundas' letter of 2nd April relative to Private Trade. (5) pp. 231-49, Resolutions of Special Committee of Court of Directors upon Dundas' letters of 2nd April and 28th June 1800 relative to Private Trade; pp. 251-73, Proceedings of Court of Directors 4th Feb. 1801 on Report (January 1801) of above Committee; pp. 289-307, Dundas to Chairman 21st March 1801 on Court's Resolutions of 4th Feb. (6) pp. 275-88, Charles Grant to Dundas 17th March 1801 (Original), George Udny's letter of 15th Sept. 1800 to Lord Wellesley on Private Trade. (7) pp. 309-12, Memorial of Merchants and Agents for persons residing in the East Indies to the Board of Control 23rd July 1801, signed by Edmund Boehm & Co., Law, Bruce & Co., William & Horsley Palmer, Paxton Cockerell & Co., Prinsep & Saunders, R., W. & E. Lee, David Scott Junior & Co., Anderson & Stewart, Gillett & Edwards, Lubbock Colt & Co., *John Forbes & **James Amos** & Co.; pp. 313-5*, Covering letter by same to Lord Lewisham 23rd July 1801; p. 317, W. Lennox to Dundas 30th July 1801 (Original), enclosing the above. (8) pp. 321-5, 353-75, Lord Dartmouth to David Scott (Chairman) 14th Aug. 1801 and 28th Jan. 1802, Differences between the Court of Directors and the Board of Control. (9) pp. 329-44, Thomas Henchman to Dundas 10th Sept. 1801 (Original), with Memorandum on Board of Control's powers over the Company in respect to the hiring of Ships. (10) pp. 345-51, Memorandum (not signed) on the Importance of the India Trade to Great Britain and the necessity of immediate measures to prevent its passing to the Continent. (11) pp. 381-485, Memoir on the India Trade, showing the prejudicial effects of interference with Private Traders. (12) pp. 487-662, Copy of Mr. Gurney's shorthand notes of the examinations of John Innes, Richard Campbell Bazett, Henry Trail, Henry Fawcett, John Bebb, John Woolmore and Grant Allen before a Committee of the House of Commons on East India Affairs presided over by Sir John Anstruther 6th May to 10th June 1809. (13) pp. 665-83, Memorandum of Reasons for opening the Trade of India with the ports of Great Britian and Ireland.

Haven't sorted out too much of the Amos' yet, but James and Cornelia's youngest son was Andrew Amos, although I doubt this has any relevance :-

Andrew Amos, lawyer and professor of law, was born in India in 1791. He attended Eton and Trinity College Cambridge. He was called to the bar by the Middle Temple and joined the Midland circuit, where he soon acquired a reputation for legal expertise, and his personal character secured him a large arbitration practice. When University College London was founded, Amos became the first Professor of English Law. Between 1829 and 1837 his lectures were very popular and well attended. He was appointed a member of the Criminal Law Commission in 1834. In 1837 he went to India as 'fourth member' of the governor-general's council, in succession to Lord Macaulay. Returning to England in 1843, he became one of the newly established county-court judges. In 1849 he was elected Downing Professor of Laws at Cambridge. He died in 1860. Many of the lectures Amos gave at University College London were published in the /Legal Examiner and Law Chronicle/.

Andrew married Margaret Lax, daughter of Rev. William Lax. Four sons, James (m. Sophia Hawkins), Gilbert, William and Sheldon (m. Sarah Maclardie Bunting ) one daughter, Margaret Isabella (m. Rev. Lewis Hensley). Andrew had two older brothers, James b. Fort St. George chr. 24/5/1789 and Gilbert b. Fort St George chr. 19/8/1790.
Sheldon and Sarah nee Bunting had a son Sir Maurice, (m. Lucy Scott Moncrieff) and a daughter Bonte (m. Lieut. Col. Percival George Elgood).

Regards, Anon.

Later career of Saltspring estate on Jamaica

Follows e-mail from Brett Ashmeade-Hawkins on 1 October 2006

Dear Merchant Networks,
I recently came across your Merchants Networks site on the Internet and found it to be most interesting. For some years I have also been following the evolution of Dan Byrnes' website, the Blackheath Connection. I see that you are by now in contact with Pieter Dickson, whose family once owned plantations in Jamaica, and that he is currently providing you with some recent photographs of historic sites in the Island.

I was just wondering if any of you have ever visited the old Saltspring Great House, near Green Island in Hanover, Jamaica, which once belonged to the Campbell family. It was rebuilt in 1781 by the Hon. John Campbell (who died 1782 in New London), Custos of Hanover, on the ruins of the previous fine 18th Century mansion which was destroyed by the great hurricane of 1780.

I knew the house as it had rebuilt in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when I was a child living in Montego Bay, Jamaica. My father was the Agent for Lloyds of London in Jamaica and insured many of the old plantations on the Island, including Saltspring Estate, which had by then been renamed Winchester Estate. It was still a sugar plantation and was over 1,000 acres in size. It was then owned by a black Jamaican named Harry Dennis, which was unusual in the 1960s when most plantation owners in Jamaica were still white.

Harry Dennis and his family lived in the old 18th Century Winchester (Saltspring) Great House, which was a large three-storey Georgian house, built of stone and brick, complete with arched sash-windows and Adam-style mahogany panelling. The first floor of the house was a raised stone basement and a typical Jamaican-style double-staircase of stone led from the driveway up to a long, wrought-iron railed verandah on the second floor, where the Drawing Room and the Dining-Room and other principal rooms were situated. In the hallway inside the house, a lovely old mahogany staircase led up to several bedrooms on the third floor. There was also an iron staircase which led from the second-floor verandah up to the third-floor verandah. This had a wooden trap-door and at night it would be shut and locked and the watchman, an old black man whom I believe was named Ezra, would spend the night sleeping in a rocking chair with a shotgun across his knees, just in case any intruder was foolhardy enough to try and break through the trap door.

My father was often invited to have lunch at Winchester Great House and like most old-time Jamaica planters, Harry Dennis was very lavish with his hospitality. My father has many fond memories of him. Harry Dennis died in the late 1980s and his son now owns Winchester Estate. I don't know if the old Great House is still there. I still visit Jamaica once a year, but I haven't stopped in at Winchester Estate since 1987. In 2003 the Friends of the Georgian Society of Jamaica, an historic preservation group based in England, went on their third Georgian Tour of Jamaica and I told them about Winchester Great House and its connections with Capt. William Bligh. Douglas Blain went looking for the house, but got lost and couldn't find it. Perhaps it was destroyed by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988?

Please pass this e-mail on to Pieter Dickson for me. Perhaps he may know if anyone might know if Winchester (Saltspring) Great House is still standing or might even have a photograph of it. If not, I am going down to Jamaica again in January, and I shall try and swing by Winchester Estate and see if the old Great House is still there. If it is, then I'll try and photograph it for you.

Yours sincerely,
Brett Ashmeade-Hawkins via hotmail.com

Portuguese on Australian coasts?

E-mail from Pat Connelly (Australia): On Subject:
"Dictionary Puzzle": From:<patconn@austarnet.com.au> On Wed, 27 Sep 2006

Dear Merchant Networks, I have come across some information which is fascinating but I have doubts about the validity of the source. I don't have a clue where to check so I'm asking your help. A Mahogany Ship researcher in Melbourne recently sent this to me at Warrnambolol -- "The following is a snippet from Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1852 edition. Re: 1525 New Holland, discovered by the Portuguese about this time: this immense tract was for some time neglected by Europeans, but was visited by the Dutch at various periods, from 1619 to 1644."

What interests me (Pat Connelly, not the researcher in Melbourne) about this is that it shows the British were recognising the Portuguese in the mid-1900s, but half a century later, George Collingridge was scorned by Australian historians for declaring the same in his landmark book The Discovery of Australia.

Encyclopedia Brittanica says Johnson's first dictionary, published in 1755, "was fastidious in discerning different senses for words" and illustrations show word definitions. But there is no mention of how dates were dates handled by Johnson.

There were later editions, three more in Johnson's lifetime (he died in 1784) and the last one appeared in 1773. The enclopedia adds that the 1756 edition was the standard English dictionary until Noah Webster's in 1828, but Johnson's was "widely used far into the 20th century."

My questions are (1) did Johnson's work ever discuss dates as well as words? and; (2) was there an 1852 edition? If you can't enlighten me perhaps one of your WWW contacts can.

Hope all goes well with the website, Regards, Pat Connelly

(Pat Connelly is associated, as sometime chairman, with the committee in Warnambool, Victoria, which examines on matters connected with the so-called Mahogany Ship said to have been wrecked there. Mr. Connelly has had a long interest in McIntyre's book, Secret Discovery of Australia, and has been quoted in media as widely as in China on views circulated world-wide that the Mahogany Ship at Warrnambool, Victoria, may or may not have been Chinese, from Gavin Menzies, author of 1421: The Year China Discovered The World. McIntyre's theory was that she was Portuguese. -Ed.)

Chapman ship, Katherine Stewart Forbes?

E-mail from Patricia Iseke (NZ) of 27 September 2006-
Dear Merchant Networks, thanks for your reply and also I have lately been again to the website. Thanks for giving my name under credits, it's an honour.!
Lately I have closed more gaps in my family tree.Unfortunately, no passenger lists ... yet! Why I am sending it to you today, is that some time ago we became aware of Agnus Stannus Willis( eldest dau of my gr.gr.g'parents) and Agnes' marriage to Ingram Chapman (of the family in Burke's Landed Gentry, Chapman formerly of Whitby). Lately I find that Ingram Chapman was commander of ship Katherine Stewart Forbes. I have always been intrigued as to why there was only much later (in 1831) one child of that marriage ... and then she died soon after. Did Captain Ingram Chapman TAKE THE SHIP ON TO AUSTRALIA WITH CONVICTS ... and did he therefore not stay long in Bombay? Intriguing, no? I would like to know more about that ship and its commanders around =
1827-30... Can anyone comment usefully? Some details follows: In the website on Bonds, Mrs Agnes Willis and all daughters (they are listed), travelled to India in the same year. I think they would have returned from taking the boy (my gr G'father) Richard Willis (then aged 13) to school in UK. I will check with the Harrow archivist again soon as to whether he attended.Of course the big question we will never know, is whether they (Mamma and daughters) travelled back to Bombay on Katherine Stewart Forbes. Don't you think it strange that he (Ingram Chapman, the groom) was listed as Commander of that ship, on the marriage certificate (big news, socially?). Agnes Stannus Willis would have been 17 years old at her wedding. Best regards, Patricia .

Descendants of Agnes Stannus Willis

Generation No. 11. AGNES STANNUS6 WILLIS (RICHARD AUGUSTUS5 WILLIS(2), RICHARD4 =
WILLIS(1), RICHARD WILLIS(3 REV), RICHARD2 WILLIS, RICHARD WILLIS OF =
NEWBY1 STONES) was born 22 January 1810 in Bombay India, and died 3 =
February 1832. She married INGRAM CHAPMAN 20 October 1827 in Bombay, =
India.. He was born 28 March 1798, and died 1 July 1874.
Notes for AGNES STANNUS WILLIS:
Details of 3 daughters LDS. Film no.0498557 Baptisms Bombay Presidency. 1707-1850. All three were baptised together on 12 october, 1813, in Bombay. Information of Agnes Stannus Willis marriage and death obtained from The Landed Gentry, Issue 1952 A-L. LDS Film 0523835. Marriages: Ingram Chapman Esq., of Bombay, bachelor and wife Agnes Stannus Willis, of the same place, spinster, were married in this Church by Licence from the Supreme Court of Indicacture, this 20th day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven. By me: Edw. Mainwaring, Office ( Minister)..This marriage was solemnized between us signed: Ingram Chapman...Agnes Stannus Willis. In the presence of: Agnes Willis, R. A.Willis, R. H.Hough, R. E. Burrowes, James Forbes, Geo. Adam, J. S. Willis. Notes for INGRAM CHAPMAN: HEICS, Younger Brother of Trinity House (London): Child of AGNES WILLIS and INGRAM CHAPMAN is: INGRAM FRANCIS7 CHAPMAN, b. 1 March 1831, Major -Gen Ingram Francis Chapman , late Bombay S.C ... he married numerous times, and had numerous issue, some of whom survived. See Landed Gentry, 1952.

Answer from Dan Byrnes: Dear Patricia, Have consulted my shipping database, which as far as convict ships go has entries drawn from Bateson's book, The Convict Ships. We find Katherine Stewart Forbes was a convict transport in 1830-1831 with Captain Thomas Cannery owner unknown and 1831-832 Captain John Anderson, owner unknown. So it looks like the ship as a convict transport is out of the orbit of any of your family history, as when Capt Chapman is on her. Things get worse here due to problems of handling original documents and making citations. There is only one source I'm aware of, as any original documents, which inform on who were the owners of the convict transports, and these are the actual contracts made out for each individual voyage. These contracts (if they all still exist, no one knows for sure), are in three sets, dated 1786-1829, from 1829 to an unknown date, and a third set even more uncertain. (I have no idea, by the way, where the contracts might have been filed for the two voyages to NZ with the Parkhurst boys from Isle of Wight, that you otherwise have mentioned.) The first set of such contracts, 1786-1829, I have called in my work, Shelton's Contracts, since they were made out by an official at The Old Bailey/Home Office, Thomas Shelton. They are also an oddd case in some ways, all as explained in my Blackheath Connection website. Shelton's Contracts as a set of papers stop at 1829 when he died, and then the official making out such contracts (and rather oddly), became one John Clark (or Clarke, from memory), who was nephew of Shelton. I have not seen any of the contracts made out by Clark, and I hope they are still in London, we simply don't know where they are, for a fact. So, I can't tell you who owned Katherine Stewart Forbes. Unless you can find out who owned her when Capt Chapman was on her, her owners are going to remain unknowns. If that happens, there is not much point in getting excited in any family history sort of way about the ship, when Capt Chapman is on her. On the other hand, if you do find out who owned her when Chapman was on her, and I'd like to know if you did, there is still no cross-reference we can use to ensure those same owners were her owners when she was twice-contracted to carry convicts. Suppose, the only way out is to do detailed research on the two actual captains named above, which would be a horrendous research job in its own right. Such are the levels of detail which bedevil research on the ownership of the convict ships. And from my genealogy database, I find I don't have any listing of any woman actually named Katherine Stewart Forbes, so we can't use any such angle to find eg., a shipowning family there. Is this any use? Apart from telling us more about needle-in-a-haystack problems than we'd like to know? - Ed.

=========================================================

Book forthcoming on Enderby whalers

From Keith Dawson, Toowoomba, Australia, a descendant of the Enderby whalers (20-7-2006)...
Dear Merchant Networks, It has been a while since we last communicated. Have just been looking at one of Dan Byrnes' websites. I notice a mention of John William Buckle of Hither Green near Blackheath. Baleny islands, south of New Zealand, were discovered by the Enderby captain, Baleny, who named them Sturge, Buckle and Young Islands for the Enderby partners. Interesting? The carpenter waded ashore to plant a flag. My book is now with a publisher, that is, forthcoming.
Cheers, Keith Dawson

On researching C18th Jamaica

Dear Merchant Networks, (From Pieter Dickson, 19-7-2006), I am delighted with the page (on Jamaica), not at all a question of not minding it! I can't think of a better and more interesting starting point for alternative views of goings on in Jamaica, particularly Hanover, and elsewhere at the time, than with dwelling on Duncan Campbell (1726-1803). The more details I unearth about his relatives there, my own relatives once on Jamaica, and other resident planters and merchants (and I've really only just begun) the more I travel towards the conclusion that too much has been ignored in the creation of a neat, acceptable, potted view of West Indian history and the issues within and around it.

As with the Bligh-Bounty legend much detail is ignored and, sadly, people generally don't like to have their comfort zone disturbed by the complication of thinking through contrary detail and other ideas (I was delighted to see the Jamaica picture of Bligh first up on the page).

Discussion of the island's history is dominated by the ups and downs of sugar, but ignores detail about other plantation activities of resident owners who, in Hanover at least, left a rather more lasting legacy: William Brown bought Kew in 1786, with just one third of some 490 acres put to cane the rest to pasture; William Brown the younger later had pimento and cattle at Aurora estate in the hills; Peter Campbell sold 390 acres to the west of Fish River as a coffee and woodland concern and cattle in 1793; in the following year, Robert Campbell, intent on quitting Jamaica for health reasons and leasing his Greenwich estate for twelve years, had coffee and cattle. Ginger was also grown in the hills (I am told that my uncle William Dickson was still buying up and exporting ginger and pimento to London in the 1950s).

By 1810, these men's heirs were already seriously engaged in cattle and in other crops - diversity as a hedge against problems with sugar growing? Neill Malcolm was so 'egregiously disappointed' (1801) by sugar returns at Retrieve and Blenheim that brother George oversaw the change to cattle pens, like Argyll (George's own); 100 years on - by 1910 - it cannot be accidental that of the 78 large estates left in the parish (more than twice the number in neighbouring St. James) 44 reared cattle with only seven were growing cane.

There were no Campbells left by then, but the names Malcolm and Watson-Taylor dominated. The early planters may have been seduced by speculation on sugar but having lived there for a generation, had realised its pitfalls. The lives of resident families, and their relatives abroad, were parallel to the activities of absentees and different.

I am sure that wealthier local merchants, as sources of finance, also ran parallel [with activities] to British merchants and bankers. There is a reference in one Neil Malcolm letter to a debt to Montego Bay merchant Alexander Longlands, and Edmund Parkinson at Montego Bay also ran his own Guinea ship(s) until the American war; I need to find out more and there are endless questions. A more intangible and less quantifiable legacy is a sense of identity and independence. As far as I know, Hanover, still very rural, is the only parish in which people (certainly of the post WW2 generation) refer to themselves, with pride, by the name of the parish as 'Hanoverian' before Jamaican, no matter how poor many may be, and they are scornful of the tourist fleshpots of neighbouring Negril and Montego Bay.

I am convinced that this sense of identity has its roots well back into the past and may explain the curiosity there about the old planters and the care still given to graves tucked away in the bush. It is probably impossible to pin down; enough to say that a cursory search through the lists of runaway slaves in workhouses shows only one Campbell runaway, from Orange Bay in 1781. John Campbell of Salt Spring, as Custos, would certainly have been influential in more ways than one. He was certainly well respected at the time Speaking of whom, any idea who might have been 'Miss _________Campbell, niece to John Campbell of Salt Spring' who died in Hanover on 22 September 1781?

All the best, Pieter- Referer: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/

On names Shand, Robertson, Reid

Dear Merchant Networks, (from Mandy Francis, UK, 19-7-2006)
I am particularly excited by the information in your website. My passion began when I researched various branches of my mother's family tree - particularly the Shand, Robertson and Reid lineages, and I discovered their links to the West and East Indies, merchant dealing, slaves and plantations, etc.

This has led me to explore various other links such as the Byam, Warner and Ottley families. I also have information on the Latour, Luatour, Delautour family and have done some research into the Farquhar; and the Larkins family of Blackheath, (although the latter is a bit more confused as there are many John Pascal Larkins).

Firstly, if you would like any more information on these people, I would be happy to share it. My family, for example, were merchants operating out of Liverpool. Tha plantations in the West Indies lingered on past varying late 19th bankruptcies and the author, Phyllis Shand Allfrey, was a distant cousin. It would seem that the Warner-Shand line in Australia is also connected too. I wonder if you know any more about my East Indies link - this was the Reid and Shand connection - this is what I have:
Bankruptcy of 1878 - Charles Shand of Putney Hill, Alexander Shand of Allerton and Liverpool are named. I assume his sons, Charles and Alexander were also part of the business.
P#89--91 SHAND, C. & CO. The initials on these tokens were identified by Lowsley (No. 31). Charles Shand, a nephew of Sir William Reid who was the proprietor of Spring Valley, Badulla, came to Ceylon on the advice of his uncle and he, along with a J. L. R. Shand, took up coffee planting at Spring Valley. From 1845 to 1849 their names appear as planters. After this date, Charles appears to have commenced business as a merchant in Colombo with the name C. Shand & Co.; 'The other partner being J. L. R. Shand'. In 1853 his name appears as the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. Lowsley relates that they became bankrupt in 1875 after the failure of Alexander Collie & Co. of Manchester. It has not been possible to establish if the firm had an office in Galle, nor has it been possible to identify the meaning of the initials P. S. and S. S. which occur on two other tokens issued by them.
From: http://lakdiva.org/coins/coffee/pridmore_token_notes.html
William Reid was a baronet of Barra and this is more information:
died at sea off the coast of Ceylon. Succeeded to the title by his brother Gained the title on 27/4/1844. Seemed to have owned Spring Valley, Badulla [Sig.: "Guiliemus Arundo" (the Latin equivalent for "William Reed" [sic])]
It would seem that his brother Sir Alexander Reid also may have dabbled in these affairs. Other brothers - Charles, James, David and Lt. Thomas Livingston Reid may also have been involved. The Shands were also Shand and Co. of Liverpool and another Shand - Charles Francis Shand - formed Rodies and Shand of Liverpool. Do you have any further information on these individuals and would you like some/any of my information?
Best wishes, Mandy Francis - Referer: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/

Booker literary prize (UK) had roots in the business of slavery

According to the following email of 19-6-2006 to Dan Byrnes, from Pam - I have recently discovered your web book on slavery. I am wondering if you have come across the Booker brothers from Lancashire in the course of your research. They rose from yeoman farmers just north of Lancaster to become Liverpool Merchants with extensive interests in British Guiana. The brothers involved in Booker Brothers (later Booker McConnel) were Thomas, Josias, Septimus, George. Would be very interested if you know anything of their involvement in slavery. (IP Addr: 144.137.174.32)
Referer: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/business/
Thanks for responding, Dan. Time frame would have been, starting around 1830 and through to whatever time slavery was abolished. The Booker Brothers retained their interests in British Guiana right through the 1900s - the last reference I have is for around 1980, though the firm left the family's hands long before that. Josias Booker (1793-1865) was awarded a medal for the humane treatment of his slaves at one point - and I know you will ask for a reference, but I can't locate one right at this moment.
Here are some general reference if you should be interested:
http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanastory/chapter112.html
http://www.internationalspecialreports.com/theamericas/00/guyana/22.html
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb~hfbo.html#booker
The Booker Prize takes its name from this family. My great-great Grandmother was a Booker - it is said that her husband took her to Australia to get her away from the Bookers - he didn't get on with them and they didn't think he was good enough for her. Pam

And on 14 December 2006 arrived the following riposte to the e-mail above on Bookers - from John Platt (UK), as follows:

Subject:
BOOKERS [merchantnetworks]
From:
JOHN PLATT via @btinternet.com>
Date:
Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:17:07 +0000 (GMT)
To:
danbyrnes@merchantnetworks.com.au

Dear Merchant Networks, Corrections here to your item about the Booker brothers.

"The brothers involved in Booker Brothers (later Booker McConnel) were Thomas, Josias, Septimus, George. Would be very interested if you know anything of their involvement in slavery."
Josias was the first brother to go to Demerara [1815]; he was a planter there.
George and Richard, who arrived later, were the founding partners of Booker Bros & Co., Demerara in 1834. No other brothers were involved as partners. Septimus was involved later in England as a legal adviser. Thomas was not involved in the merchant or planting businesses. The brothers were only involved in slavery as plantation management or as merchants - their ownership of slaves was modest and Josias helped the evangelical missionaries. They did not bring slaves into BG [the trade stopped in 1807 before they arrived]. George did not acquire a ship until the late 1830s.

"The Booker Brothers retained their interests in British Guiana right through the 1900s - the last reference I have is for around 1980, though the firm left the family's hands long before that." The Booker family lost any management involvement in the Booker companies in 1886 and any residual financial interest probably ceased in the 1900s. Bookers in Guyana was nationalized in 1976.
Question: Who is Pam descended from?

"Josias Booker (1793-1865) was awarded a medal for the humane treatment of his slaves at one point." - from the Royal Society of Arts in 1827 [probably a political manoeuvre by the Colonial Office to set an example to other planters or to indicate the drift of CO policy]. I began looking into the history of the Demerara firm [pre-1900] in 1964, so if you need to know anything, I might be able to help - but slavery is not a part of the story.

Regards, John Platt

On Plummer, Barham and Co., c. 1804

Dear Mr Byrnes, I was very interested to read the material in your web book about London shipowners and financiers involved in the 18th and early 19th century trade to Australasia. I am particularly interested in the firm Plummer, Barham & Co. which owned the ship Unity which made a voyage to New Zealand under Daniel Cooper leaving England in 1808 and arriving at Sydney in 1809. Some of your information about Thomas William Plummer and J. F. Barham I had never seen before. I wonder:
1. Do you have any more information about Thomas William Plummer died 20/11/1817?
2. Do you know of any surviving papers of Plummer, Barham & Co? (I know some of Barham's papers are in the Bodleian.)
3. Is John Turnbull the partner of George Macaulay related to Robert Turnbull commander of the Britannia transport, owned by Enderbys, and which arrived at Sydney 18/7/1798?

Is John Turnbull the partner of Macaulay related to John Turnbull supercargo of the Margaret which arrived at Sydney 7/2/1801 who was also author of A Voyage Round the World...?
I'm sorry to bombard you with questions which may well be difficult to answer but you are a rich source on this arcane subject.

I am trying to prove what has long been suspected that on that voyage of the 'Unity's' Cooper cruised the east Otago coast of New Zealand's South Island and probably entered Otago Harbour. He had previously taken over the command of the Sydney Cove on her return from Australia to England, a ship in which Simeon Lord had a financial interest. Lord later complained that when Plummers financed Cooper in his voyage in the Unity they were taking advantage of knowledge of sealing grounds discovered by men in his employment. As West India merchants and with the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 I have supposed Plummer, Barham & Co were trying to find a new trade, Australasian sealing, to replace the West India one. As you have observed they had formerly been Lord and his partners' London agents. I'd appreciate any further information you can give me about these matters.
Tks, Peter Entwisle (New Zealand)

One connection for Plummers in Sydney is Frederick Garling former judge-advocate with John Oxley. Later Lord has a London agent Francis Williams. See Parkinson on Underwoods, p. 36 the firm is Plummers and Barham, English agent for Lord, Kable and Underwood, firm of Thomas Plummer, John Foster Barham, Thomas William Plummer, John Plumber and Mathew Combe. Plummers sold colonial seal products, sandalwood, chinese teas, any speculative cargo. He becomes agent for John Macarthur in 1804, replacing his fr-in-law Thompson in that role. He is a City merchant and politician. He is known as "Little Bacchus". Atkinson, Euros in Aust, p. 219. ADB entry for Simeon Lord suggests by 1805, this man is linked to London firm trading with Simeon Lord, Plummer, Barham and Co. [Which is this Barham?) See also Maxine Young, Admin, p. 249 re T. W. Plummer to Col. Macquarie, No. 1 Park Street, Westminster, 4 May, 1809, HRNSW, Vol. 7, p. 113, Plummer then being solicitor-general. Hainsworth, Traders, pp. 154ff, p. 230. See re sum of £60,000 in Hainsworth, Traders, p. 85 with S. Lord. See Hainsworth, Builders, pp. 44ff, p. 69, p. 82, pp. 91ff-98. Partner in the West India house of Plummer, Barham and Co, the London agents for merchant Simeon Lord of Sydney and correspondents of John Macarthur, Sydney. See Pemberton, London Connection, p. 126.

Dear Dan,
Came across this while seeking out American Revolution primary sources etc., Thought you might find it useful, though it might be a bit too general. All the best,
PB.

A Timeline of Maritime New York
1524 -- 1860

1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano and his crew on La Dauphine come upon New York harbor in their coasting of Atlantic seaboard. First European reports of the area.
1525 Esteban Gomez, a Portuguese sailing for Spain, enters New York harbor and charts the lower Hudson River area.
1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch enters New York Harbor on the Halve Moon; explored the Hudson River up to what later becomes Albany
1613 Dutch seafarer Adriaen Block sailed into New York Harbour on Tiger; builds Onrush on Manhattan Island and uses it to transit East River into Long Island Sound.
1624 Dutch colonists arrive in New York Harbor aboard New Netherland captained by Cornelius May.
1616 Peter Minuit is assigned to New Amsterdam as Dutch governor; secures deed to Manhattan from resident Indians.
1626 First shipments of furs from New Amsterdam to Holland.
1627 Dutch in New Amsterdam open trade with Plymouth colony.
1630s Smuggling becomes commonplace among New Amsterdam mariners.
1634 Settlement begins on east side of East River, New York, in Brooklyn.
1636 First Africans are dispatched to New Amsterdam; brought as "perpetual servants".
1638 English-born Isaac Allerton moved from Plymouth to New Amsterdam; became leading maritime merchant.
1640 First ferry between Manhattan and Brooklyn in operation.
1647 Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam as governor and Director-General of Dutch West Indies Company.
1647 First pier on East River constructed at Schreyer's Hook.
1647 Allerton constructs warehouse near site of South Street, Seaport.
1653 New Amsterdam receives city charter establishing municipal government.
1654 A weighhouse built on pier and "master" appointed.
1664 New Amsterdam is ceded to English after show of maritime force; town name changed to Fort James and then New York.
1673 Dutch regain temporary control of New York; give it back in 1674.
1675 English Governor Edmund Andros assumes political leadership of New York; active promoter of maritime commerce.
1676 "Great Dock" established at Schreyer's Dock at base of Whitehall Street; City's main dock until 1750
1680s New York a favored port for privateering ventures; some New Yorkers engage in open piracy is conducted.
1686 NYC government initiates landfills along Manhattan shorelines.
1692 Governor Benjamin Fletcher accommodates pirates in New York.
1695 William Kidd, a pirate, hired by Governor Bellomont to snuff out piracy in region
1699 Kidd apprehended in Boston and sent to England for trial; executed in 1701
1700s Active trading between New York and the West Indies; not limited to English Jamaica and Barbados
1747 New Yorkers owned 99 vessels by now.
1754 King's College founded; many of the governors and benefactors derived their wealth from maritime trade.
1756-63 French and Indian War brings boom times to New York; base of British military operations in North America.
1762 New Yorkers own 447 vessels.
1764 British Navy establishes a presence in New York to enforce customs collections and maritime rules of trade.
1765 New Yorkers protest imposition of Stamp Act; Sons of Liberty play a prominent role in agitation.
1768-69 New York trade with Great Britain drops sharply as result of non-importation accords among NY merchants.
1771 City builds first dock on Hudson River side of Manhattan.
1774 April New Yorkers stage their own tea party on British ship London, carrying taxed tea into Harbor.
1775 April: New York moves into open rebellion against Great Britain; leading New York merchants reluctant to break links with England; many remain loyal to crown.
1776 May-September: British navy and army seize control of New York City; Washington leaves the City in September after Battle of Harlem Heights.
1776-1783 New York City under British military command; virtually all maritime commerce ceases.
1783 November 25: Washington and Governor George Clinton reclaim City from the just evacuated British following the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
1784 February -- New York vessel Empress of China sails from NYC to China; marks the opening of America's China trade.
1787 Trade between Boston and New York with Pacific Northwest commences.
1796 Jay Treaty opens British ports to American trade; and vice versa.
1798-1801 United States in an undeclared naval war with France.
1801 Brooklyn Naval Yard opens.
1803 President Jefferson executes the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the national domain.
1807 August -- Robert Fulton launches his steam-driven Clermont between NYC and Albany; inaugurates steamboat navigation on a commercial basis.
1807 December -- President Jefferson declared embargo against Great Britain, effectively shutting down New York's maritime trade with Europe.
1809 March -- Embargo repealed by Congress and incoming president Madison.
1810 Discussion begin in earnest about building a canal linking Hudson River and Lake Erie by NYC Mayor De Witt Clinton (CC 1786); fears of traffic being deflected to Montreal

1811 NYC street-grid plan adopted; solidified municipal control of waterfront
1812 June -- United States declared war on Great Britain; many of the issues relate to maritime matters
1813 July -- British blockade of New York Port becomes effective; by then, dozens of New York privateers at sea
1815 End of War of 1812 inaugurates era of shipbuilding and maritime commerce; dawn of the era of steam.
1817 Governor DeWitt Clinton and New York legislature authorize the digging of the Erie Canal; digging commenced July 4th
1817 Scheduled sailings from New York to Liverpool inaugurated by the Black Ball Line and its packet ship James Monroe.
1817-1824 2000 laborers dig canal across 362 miles of rough country; 82 locks overcome 571 feet elevation difference
1824 First dry dock in US built in NYC.
1825 October 26 -- Erie Canal opened for traffic; freight rates from Buffalo to New York fell from $100 to $6 a ton; secures competitive advantage over Montreal and Mississippi River ports; leads to growth of Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago

1840 New York ships represented 1/5th of all US tonnage registered: Manhattan had 63 wharves on East River and 50 on Hudson.
1846 New York shipbuilders develop clipper ship onfiguration; design sacrifices volume for speed; Sea Witch an early model; excellent for carrying expensive, small volume cargo (opium, gold, silver).
1846 Hudson River Railroad established.
1848 Beginning of the California Gold Rush; California becomes important maritime trading point for New York.
1850 New York-built steamers of the Collins Line ; capture US postal trade with Europe; compete with Cunard Line for trans-atlantic passenger traffic; loses subsidy and goes bankrupt in 1857
1850 NYC shipyard of William H. Webb takes lead in building extreme clippers; Flying Cloud launched in 1851.
1851 City blasting of subsurface rocks around Hell Gate to improve navigation in the area
1853 Boston-based Donald McKay becomes America's leading clipper-ship designer; Young America launched in 1853
1856 Diamond Reef, off Governor's Island, removed by blasting.
1857 Financial Panic takes capital out of NYC sailing ships businesses; marking the ascendance of steam-powered vessels

Bibliographical Sources for the above:

Work Projects Administration, A Maritime History of New York. 1941

Robert G. Albion, The Rise of New York Port, 1800-1840. 1938.

Kevin Bone, (Ed.), The New York Waterfront. Monacelli Press, 1997

Below is draft material for a new item

headline More sought on noted British slavers

William Collow and his associates to the 1790s became the second largest British slaving firm shifting slaves out of Africa. Research on them has always been rather difficult, and the Cozens/Byrnes team beind this website would like to know more of them. Can anyone help with extra information? A new citation has lately been found: Stephen D. Behrendt, ' "The Journal of an African Slave Trader", 1789-1792, and the Gold Coast Slave Trade of William Collow', History in Africa, Vol. 22, 1995., pp. 61-71. 

Collow and associates, slavers, seem to have no connection genealogical or otherwise with the firm Ferguson and Collow of Queen Street, Morrison Island, Cork, Ireland, ships chandlers, as listed from Richard Lucas' Director of Cork, 1787, found on a Cork local history website. That Collow remains obscure, but he worked with Robert Ferguson, whose first wife died 16 October 1777, who as his second wife married Mary Cutherbert. His children are listed on a website.

Duncan Campbell the London-based overseer of prison hulks on the Thames, and Jamaica merchant, used to deal with Ferguson and Collow of Cork. (There was also a Dr Robert Ferguson of Georges Street, Cork.) William Collow meanwhile is noted in Britain's House of Commons Sessional Papers, Vol, 82, pp. 329 (edited by Lambert), as a London slaver of 1789, and the same Duncan Campbell had written to Collow before 1789.

In 1789, Collow associated with James Morrison, John McKenzie and Robert Forbes. In 1795 with Daniel Bernard, Charles John Wheeler and Edward Higgins. 

This William Collow began from London about 1768, and later operated from London and Havre, France, in the 1790s shifting many slaves to Jamaica. His address 1768-1783 was Mitre Court, Milk Street, London, and then he was at No. 12 Broad Street Buildings to 1819. By 1787-1795, Collow after Camden, Calvert and King was the second largest British slaving firm, shifting approx. 7600 slaves to the French West Indies. One of Collow's rivals was Messrs Sargent, Chambers and Co. of London, who dealt in textiles. Collow also dealt with James Jones (died 1795) of Bristol. A side fact in the time frame is that the London slaving firm of [Thomas] Miles and Weuves (who are somewhat known) used the services of one Adam Bannerman, who is obscure.

About 1790-1792 Collow used the services of Captain Thomas Eagles, his main agent on the West African coast.  He also used the services of Capt Patrick Ryan, Capt Peacock and Capt David McElheran. One firm active was Collow Bros, Carmichael and Co, apparently involving William and John Collow. - Dan Byrnes

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