Now under renovation - The
Cozens/Byrnes Merchants Networks Project
- Updated 19 May 2012Now under renovation - The
Cozens/Byrnes Merchants Networks Project
- Updated 19 May 2012By Dan Byrnes
(work-in-progress and not here properly footnoted)
Lane, Son and Fraser had once been influential, so it is said, in pre-Revolutionary Anglo-American trade. They failed in London in 1793 for about one million pounds, taking a variety of other firms with them, but historians have been curiously uncurious about their departure from London´s (and/or, American) financial scenarios.
By 1793, the principals of the firm were Thomas Fraser and John Lane (died 1784) son of John (died 1784), meaning something is probably wrong with the Lane genealogy, or with death dates, perhaps, since American evidence is that a John Lane of the firm was still active by 1805 or later in tidying up the affairs of Lane Son and Fraser (bankrupting in 1793). In all, it can only be said that what information can be gathered on Lane, Son and Fraser is scrappy, unsatisfying and frustratingly uninspiring.
The wife of Thomas Fraser was apparently Susannah, who had a daughter Susannah who married London merchant John Anderson (born 1747 at Wick, Scotland). This John Anderson was son of Wick merchant William Anderson and Elizabeth Oswald, who was daughter of Rev George Oswald (c.1664-1725) of Dunnet and Margaret Murray (d.1747) of Pennyland, and a sister of the noted merchant and slaver, Richard Oswald (1705-1784). Richard Oswald (d.1784) had married Mary Ramsay (1719-1788) but had no children, so he left his fortune to his Anderson nephews, John (who married Susannah Fraser) and Alexander (b.1756 at Wick) who married Christian Oswald, daughter of Glasgow merchant George Oswald (1735-1819) and Margaret Smith/Smythe. The Anderson nephews from their uncle inherited Bunce (Bance) Island on the West African coast, which produced cotton, coffee and sugar cane. They had an address in Philpot Lane London and lasted in business till 1837, much engaged in importing cotton from West Africa, managing a cotton plantation on the River Sierra Leone. They had much dealing with Sammo, King of the Bulloms of West Africa. Bunce Island was taken over in 1817 by Henry Williams who went into timber. (For some of the background on Bunce Island as a depot for slavers see Emma Christopher, A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa and How it Led to the Settlement of Australia. Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 2010. Richard Oswald was the king-pin of an amazingly successful merchant network well-outlined in David Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1995. Oswald, who was amazingly well-connected, assisted the British diplomatically, probably with advice on trade, in the earlier rounds of negotiations with the new American government at the end of the American War of Independence.
In recent years, this Merchant Networks Project website has received a variety of inquiries from netsurfers in the USA about not so much Lane, Son and Fraser (LSF), as their former clients in America and whatever happened to various parcels of land.
Such an e-mail arrived on 5 January 2012 as follows:
 PayPal - safe and secure |
|
If you value the information
posted here, |
Follows email of 5-1-2012 from Thomas Kehr ...
Sir:
I am a New Hampshire (USA) attorney/researcher focusing (deeply) on this colony during the early Revolutionary period, particularly in regard to the activities of John Langdon, a signer of the US Constitution, merchant from Portsmouth NH, Continental Congressman, Governor and Senator. I was interested to come across the following page on your website:
http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/book/problems.htm
The firm of Lane, Son and Fraser served as London agents for John Langdon (1741-1819 of Portsmouth New Hampshire) and his more (but not entirely) loyalist brother, Woodbury Langdon (1738-1804), prior to the Revolution [Woodbury removed to England in 1775 and returned to America in the midst of the war, in 1777; John was consistently and deeply involved in the Revolutionary movement in New Hampshire]. Both John and Woodbury were men of wealth (by little NH standards). I have come across materials in the Langdon papers indicating that the firm of LSF held certain of John's property during and through the Revolution and that after the war LSF became embroiled in a significant financial dispute with Woodbury.
I am currently involved in an intriguing assessment of these materials for a project on which I am working. I find various Lane, Son and Fraser letters in the woefully scattered (unpublished) Langdon papers, including a reference to the son of one of the principals visiting New England after the war.
The Langdon connection dies at about the time you note the firm fails [1793], and was interrupted by the war, but was quite close prior to the war. I have also found a reference in the papers of Royal Governor John Wentworth (who left NH in 1775) indicating that in 1774 "Mr. Lane" (who was evidently a cohort of Peter Livius, a future Chief Justice of Quebec and one of the Governor's detractors) had recommended Woodbury Langdon to serve on the NH Governor's Council (a royal appointment). I am assuming that this would be John Lane of Lane, Son and Fraser but have very little information about him.
To find your way to more files on Merchant Networks topics related either chronologically, or alphabetically by merchant surname, go to the main file of Sitemap. |
Mr Kehr´s second e-mail was: Dan -
Thanks so much for the very, very swift response. I will take some time to reread and digest as I am headed of to bed here ... As you surmised, my interest in LSF is entirely historical, not legal). Fascinating reply.
There is considerable (and from my more local research perspective, somewhat remarkable) material in the Langdon papers regarding the LSF connection, but it may take me some time to dig into the files and summarize for you what exists in those papers (they are divided between three or four . . . or more ... archives in various towns/states and are in part un-indexed) . The Langdon connection is quite strong and if I recall correctly was renewed within almost weeks after the war's end. I believe one letter from Fraser may actually talk about getting back into business just after the war. John Langdon (a sort of money-man for the revolution in the far northernmost colony) and the firm certainly returned to pick up where they left off in 1783 ... but did not get very far. By that time John had developed other connections and his brother was . . . how shall we summarize fairly? . . said to be pretty close to denying his virtually undeniable mid-war debts to LSF, much to LSF's chagrin ... something they said they would take up with him. Can't speak to their dealings with other merchants in New England. Over here, I find mostly LSF letters to John Langdon, not copies of Langdon's letters to them ... which letters would be quite telling, from my more limited perspective. Would be quite intrigued to know whether you have located any Langdon letters, particularly circa early 1775. Perhaps we can compare what we can each access? I know that at least one letter here shows Thomas Fraser in Boston, heading back to London, in September of 1795.
If I recall correctly, John Langdon was more closely connected with Fraser than Lane. My guess is that Woodbury (more of a loyalist) was more closely connected to Lane. I believe Fraser met John while he was a young sea captain sailing for his older, more conservative brother Woodbury. I am not sure the Langdons, who grew to be some of the wealthiest merchants by (limited) local standards, dealt with too many other European agents before the war.
I have the distinct impression from the considerably convoluted material that I am researching that LSF was quite discreet when dealing with its prewar/wartime American clients. LSF will definitely figure in some untapped material I will be delving into. Would be most interested in specific documentary materials you have found from/to/about the Langdons and will, if you wish, return what I have found over here.
With apologies in advance for a likely significant delay in follow-up response ... until I can put the day job aside and digest the fact that someone else in the world actually knows of the merchants about whom I am speaking ...
Many thanks and regards, Tom Kehr
Mr. Kehr´s e-mails were preceded by a similar inquiry in 2011 from a netsurfer near Maine. Curiosity about Lane, Son and Fraser seems to be growing. We proceed here from 1793, backwards in time, to the firm´s origins, since the firm´s several incarnations are difficult to explain, especially between 1720-1750. The emphasis here is on merely listing LSF´s clients in America for the benefit of any US researchers interested.
John Lane died 1829 - He was of Peckham Surrey (is that Camberwell?). Does he or his father have a daughter Harriet Eleanor Lane had inherited 2000 pounds from the estate of NSW Governor Arthur Phillip? The banker firm was At 11 Nicholas Lane, parish St Nicholas Acorns, London. Update of 8-8-2010 from Prof Harry Duckworth: In 1794 was a John Everett (sic) a merchant at 11 Basinghall Street. (Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 24, item re 1754, marriage of John Lane Esq to Miss Jones daughter of the accountant-general of the Bank (bank not named but probably Bank of England). Or, perhaps, The Accountant-General in Chancery, who kept track of matters such as accounts with the Bank of England and the names of suitors at the Court of Chancery (?).
Follows an impression of the Lane genealogy (with no guarantee as to its final accuracy or usefulness, it is simply the only information so far to hand).
One William Lane (wife unknown) had a son John (c.1707-1784) who died 25 May 1784 at Clapham, London. This John had a wife unknown. This John had children, John Jnr. (1743-1784) of Lane, Son and Fraser, who married Eleanor Everitt (still alive in 1814). John Jnr. possibly had three sisters, Sarah, Ann and Susanna, who so far have no spouse names attached. John Jnr. and Eleanor Everitt probably had children Eleanor (born 1776), John (died 1829 and possibly of Peckham Surrey) a merchant of Nicholas Lane, Thomas (1768-1834), said to be a deputy-assistant commissary general, and Elizabeth Dunbar Lane (born 1782 and otherwise unidentifiable). It has been suggested that Eleanor (born 1776) once inherited 2000 pounds from the Will of Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales, Australia, after Phillip had died at Bath in 1819, but it is not yet suggested that Eleanor married.
Eleanor Everitt married to John Lane Jnr. was daughter of Captain RN Michael Everitt (1716-1776) and Elizabeth Gayton/Gaiton. (Some but not all of the Everitt family data is available on the Internet.) Captain Everitt was son of Michael Everitt (died 1725 in London) and Mary Smith, who seems to have once been Widow Breach, since she seems to have once been married to one Benjamin Breach. This Benjamin Breach and Mary possibly had four children, of whom William, a poulterer, and perhaps of Westminster, married Elizabeth Horne, born 1708 around St Catherine´s by Tower, London. William and Elizabeth Horne possibly had three daughters, Susannah, Elizabeth and Mary. Susannah (born 1716) possibly married a shipwright at Greenland Dock, Charles Pagester, and had a daughter Mary who married William Fletcher and had a daughter Susannah who married an East India Company ships captain, George Richardson (active 1807 but otherwise untraceable so far). It is suspected that Captain George Richardson and his wife (no children reported) were personal friends of Arthur Phillip.
It is possible that this John Lane and his wife Eleanor Everitt were personal friends of the first governor of NSW, Arthur Phillip, which, however, is probably not significant to notice, except in passing.
Elizabeth the daughter of poulterer William and Elizabeth Horne may have married a seaman, John Herbert, (c.1705-1731 died at Port Royal Jamaica), and then Jacob Phillip, so becoming the mother in 1738 of the later NSW governor Arthur Phillip (who possibly had a sister Eliza Maria married to one William Hughes, according to Michael Flynn, fix citation.) This genealogy of course would give Arthur Phillip such a humble background to strive to rise above, it has been a curse ever since for historians.
This genealogical information can so far be regarded as inadequate. So far, these Lane, Everitt and Phillip families between them have much too many unmarried daughters for them to seem realistic; the sons seem to have produced surprisingly few children. Governor Phillip himself had no children. The apparent extinction of the Lane family due to two affluent sons not producing children seems not quite plausible. Nor has the apparently complete loss of all the paperwork of Lane, Son and Fraser, an allegedly powerful Anglo-American merchant bank, ever been explained by anybody, American, British or Australian. It also seems distinctly odd that in London itself, when Lane, Son and Fraser failed, so few remarks were made about their demise, except that they had inconvenienced several other firms on their way out of affairs. On the face of things, Lane Son and Fraser had few friends. The most reliable remark made about them so far seems to be, that they never managed to recover from shocks they suffered due to the American Revolution. So far, almost no information has arisen on any individual staff employed in London by Lane, Son and Fraser, or whom their most useful commercial friends were or might have been. (See the section below on earlier incarnations of the firm.)
1834: In 1834 (Gentleman's Magazine item), died 9 February 1843 aged 54, Thomas Lane, Dep-Asst Commissary-General, son of the late John Lane of Nicholas Lane Lombard St who maybe still active there 1808/1809, which had been Lane Son and Fraser's old address of 1794 in Kent's Directory.
1828: Ward Nicholas Hallowell-Boylston died 1828 in England. He was from Roxbury and Princeton in America. e travelled when young to the Middle East (Syria), then settled for 25 years in trade in London. He changed his name to Ward Nicholas Boylston. Merchant, and philanthropist. He was born Ward Hallowell. He it seems was a beneficiary of the Will of Thomas Boylston the 1793 American associate of Lane Son and Fraser in London.
1803: In America, John L. Sullivan was collecting some debts for Lane Son and Fraser by 1803.
1795: As Thomas Kehr finds, Thomas Fraser of Lane, Son and Fraser was in Boston during 1795, probably debt collecting, due to return home to London by or from September 1795.
On John Lane Jnr. In an update of 8-8-2010 from Prof Harry Duckworth (Canada), John Lane Jnr. disappears from view after his father's 1793 bankruptcy. There is an item, Memoranda relating to the Lane, Reyner and Whipple families of Yorkshire. Maybe one relevant name is Simon Fraser of Virginia or London? Firm is of 10 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street in Kent's Directory 1794.
There is mentioned in a book by Australian historian George Mackaness book on Gov. Phillip, a John Lane of Nicholas Lane, City of London, a John Lane is later one of Gov. Phillip's executors so we might assume he is brother of Harriet. (See Kellock's article, p. 114, 132.) He was of Fareham Lane, of the firm Lane, Son and Fraser. (See Scorgie/Hudgson on Miller where it appears this man is an executor of Miller.) This is probably the John Lane with whom Arthur Phillip left charts, (see Scorgie/Hudgson, p. 32), and if so, he is a son-in-law of one Capt RN Michael Everitt who is married to Elizabeth Gaiton (sic) see Gayton. This is the Lane of Lane, Son and Fraser the noted firm. (Scorgie/Hudgson, pp. 30ff.) If he is the right man, he is of Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street in the City, Merchant. See Tipping on Phillip's will, p. 131 re a money draft Phillip drew on him dated 2 November, 1784, from Col Sec secret service ledger, from original documents in William L. Clements Library at University of Michigan; pp. 133ff. See notes for his father and for Nathaniel Tracy. See Pares, West India Fortune, pp. 175, 357, Pinneys qv dealt with LSF which went bust in 1793, and most of the West India houses also linked to it faltered. See Frost on Phillip, p. 5. See Scorgie/Hudgson, pp. 30ff. See Pares, West India Fortune, p. 175, p. 357. Is this the John Lane friend of Gov Phillip, see Tipping, p. 133 re Phillip's will of 1814. See Kellock p. 114 and note for Nathaniel Tracy possible owner of ship Ceres Capt St Barbe which took Jefferson to England in 1785. Query per Ken Cozens of 21-7-2009 from Miriam McDonald at: mimsy13@go.com - Item re History of Lorraine, New York, in Jefferson Co. was on land of the Boylston tract, ie Thomas Boylston of Boston,by purchase from Samuel Ward, the grantee of William Constable, the grantee of Macomb (who lost on deals). Boylston gave a deed of trust re his land to Lee, Irving and Latham as assignees of Lane, Son and Fraser of London, and they conveyed the land to John Johnson Phyn. Cf, The Universal Magazine, p.318, 1793, 23 April, John Lane, Thomas Fraser and Thomas Boylston of Nicholas Lane, merchants, Thomas Boylston, London merchant of and there is also one Benjamin Lane an insurer of Freeman's Court, Cornhill. Cf., jstor article by William Bentinck-Smith, Nicholas Boylston [1716-1771] and his Harvard Chair. There was a Thomas Fraser who [here see Adams Papers] wrote to John Adams, 4 October 1785 from Nicholas Lane re Thomas Boylston seeing Adams. Seems by 1794 in London to work with such as John Coore, Zachary Hubbersty. American Memory re keywords Lane Son and Fraser has untitled document from Massachusetts Historical Society re one Bourne and a shipment of goods worth two thousand pounds with extra mention of one Elsiha Doane (details which checks out ok).
Follows notes from Update of 10-7-2010 per Peter Dickson, Will of John Lane, Public Record Office (UK), The National Archives, Catalogue Reference: PROB 11/1118, Image No. 227. Of South (?) Mordaunt (?), name Dorothy ???, vault of Parish Church of Saint E??, son Thomas Lane (when he is 20), my partner Thomas Fraser, my Godson Thomas Fraser the Younger (when he is 20), item to Mrs Allison of Southampton, item to Mrs Susannah Fraser (wife of partner Thomas?), my God-daughter Elizabeth Fraser (when she is 18), name of Alexander Barlow, executors are ??? and Thomas Fraser, my son John Lane, Witnesses Benjamin Hammett/Hammatt (? NB: the London banker of the time was spelled Benj Hammet), ??/ and James Gale. Will proved ?? Lane may have had a groundsman named Marriot, it is hard to say. Possibly a personal friend of Gov Phillip. Prof Harry Duckworth on 12-8-2010 cites for this man after 1793, a case brought by the Atty-General against the heirs of Governor Phillip, to claim legacy dues from his estate, see Reports of Cases in Law of Real Property and Conveyancing, Vol. 1, 1843, to 1845, London, J. Crockford, 1846. on google e-books. Item arises, re by 1794, LSF see re Thomas Boylston of Boston re giving a deed of trust to [George] Lee, [George] Irving and [Thomas] Latham, re land earlier in hands of William Constable, and similar re John Johnson Phyn of Phyn and Ellice.
fix edit back
1794++: More on Thomas Boylston and his nephew. One website details how on 21 May 1794, Thomas Boylston (1721-1798, a bachelor) of Boston gave a deed of trust of eleven townships (surveyed by Benjamin Wright) to George Lee, George Irving and Thomas Latham, assignees of Lane Son and Fraser of London, and conveyed them to John Johnson Phyn, (of London?), of the Canadian fur-trading firm, Phyn Ellice. The title was vested by 10 April 1795 and Phyn appointed William Constable his attorney (William died 1803 had a brother James) to sell parts of the Boylston tract, etc. Thomas Boylston's nephew Ward Nicholas Boylston, who was son of Thomas's sister Mary, wife of a one-time Boston Customs Commissioner and Loyalist, Benjamin Hallowell (1724 died 1799 in Upper Canada). Ward Nicholas Boylston (1747/1749-1828) started life as Ward Hallowell and he inherited his uncle's estate. Ward Hallowell traded (probably staying in England), it is not known in what exactly, and he may have merely spent a monied life tying up the loose ends of his uncle's business affairs. He married a first wife, Ann Molineaux, daughter of a Boston hardware merchant William Molineaux (died 1774), and his second wife was Alice Darrow of Yarmouth England.
Note from an online history on English banking at www.archive.org/stream, A history of banks, bankers & banking in Northumberland, Durham, and North Yorkshire, illustrating the commercial development of the north of England from 1755 to 1894, with numerous portraits, facsimiles of notes, signatures, documents, &c.¨, ¨In the early part of 1793 great uneasiness prevailed in London. On February 19th the Bank of England refused the paper of Lane, Son and Fraser, who the next day failed for a million. This event, with other causes, led to a panic in the City, which in time spread to the provinces,¨ They had been deep in corn speculations. Had failed by the 15th. Banks in Newcastle were affected. It was thought that LSF had not recovered from the shocks of the American War. The house of Burton Forbes and Gregory also stopt payments, and when they fell, their Liverpool correspondents Caldwell and Co. failed.
1793: Another report is ... London firm Lane, Son and Fraser (LSF): the firm's affairs seemed to be clearing up by 1793, when the Bank of England worried about rumours of war with France and so threw out Lane's paper, so LSF failed for up to one million pounds, which began a chain of bankruptcies, yet they were not overdrawn more than 50 pounds. LSF had dealt earlier with eg., John Rowe in Boston. (Kellock´s lists.) By 1793 or so there have been suggestions (from Australian historian Marjorie Tipping, now deceased) that some names in England, associated with the firm, or their associates, were personal friends of the first governor of NSW, Arthur Phillip, but it has proved impossible to re-verify any of this. Names in that context include Susannah Fletcher (no dates) married to EICo Captain George Richardson (nil parents). (Tipping wrote an article on Phillip´s Will, cited at the end of this set of notes.)
nd: Merchant John Caswall/Caswell II, hard to trace, died by accident, nd. He may have been related to Nathaniel Brassey. See Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution, p. 12. He dealt with Lane Son and Fraser. (See Kellock article, p. 132.)
1787: Somewhat earlier, for say 1787, it seems from work by Australian historian Marjorie Tipping (died 2009), on the Will of the first governor of NSW, Arthur Phillip, died 1814, that Phillip was personally acquainted with some of the descendants/acquaintances of Thomas Lane or LSF. (1) Eleanor Everitt, (2) said to be a friend of Gov. Phillip, had married John Lane Jnr. of LSF (1743-1784). (3) This John Lane died 1784 was son of Thomas Lane who confusingly also died in 1784, of Clapham but Thomas' wife's name remains unknown. This Thomas was son of William Lane and an unnamed mother. Eleanor Everitt had children being Harriet (said to have been a friend of Gov. Phillip), (4) John a merchant of Nicholas Lane, London, and Thomas a Dept-Assistant Commissary-General (it is not said just where) who is so far still mysteriously untraceable as any kind of British official.
It is not clear that John Lane died 1784 or his father Thomas died 1784 were any relations of Thomas Lane died 1710 the partner of Micajah and Richard Perry and who had a brother Jonathan who had a son Thomas, says Duckworth. (5) But either man dying in 1784 may have had a grandmother Susanna who apprenticed him to John Caswall a London merchant? Thomas Lane died 1784 is possibly the founder of the later and final form of LSF. We find that LSF wrote 18 February 1784 to American merchant Elias Haskett Derby, maybe about shipbuilding at Boston? This seems consistent with a note from Holden Furber on US trade to India, to effect that LSF by the later 1780s were trying to creep back into trade to the US. According to Labaree, LSF had sent tea into the Boston Tea Party. Hints move in the direction of LSF after the Revolution being resisted due to American fears of a resurrection of the power of British capital in American states.
On Eleanor Everitt - Seemingly married at Fareham Hants on 30 June 1767 says Prof. Duckworth. Named Eleanor in an update of 8-8-2010 from Prof Harry Duckworth,See Scorgie/Hudgson on Miller. See Kellock, article, p. 132, Kellock says ship Eleanor of Boston Tea Party named for this woman. But is it her? Unsure after a merge. Scorgie/Hudgson, pp. 30ff.
1786: On Lane, Son and Fraser, new information has been presented in Michael Scorgie and Peter Hudgson, 'Arthur Phillip's Familial and Political Networks', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 82, Part 1, June, 1996., pp. 23-39. As referred to in Michael Flynn, ´Appointed on Merit, Inside History, May-June 2011, pp. 48ff, an update article on Gov. Arthur Phillip. See http://www.insidehistory.com.au
1785: Re Lane Son and Fraser, there is a case re matters of ships cargoes 1785-1786 (rice?) between Winthrop Todd and Winthrop merchants of Charleston South Carolina, and John Lane survivor of Lane Son and Fraser, with Nathaniel Tracy in the middle, in Court of Chancery, 1811.
c.1785: re anything re land fix in Maine linked to both William Bingham and LSF?
1786: By 4 April, 1786, the American Commissioners [Jefferson and John Adams] had written to Carmarthen, having spoken to a Mr Fraser, regarding an enclosed project of “A Treaty of Commerce... for the consideration of HM Ministers, regarding matters commercial and otherwise”. Boyd, Jefferson papers, Vol. 9, p. 375. It is not clear if this Fraser was Thomas Fraser the senior partner of Lane, Son and Fraser.
Circa 1785: Re the difficult matter of the relationship between LSF and the noted American merchant, Honble. Nathaniel Tracy (1751-1796). Nathaniel was son of merchant ships captain Patrick Tracy (born Ireland 1711-1789) and his second wife Hannah Gookin (died 1756) - and Nathaniel married Nary Lee (d.1819), daughter of Patriot Colonel of Marblehead, Jeremiah Lee (1721-1775) and Martha Swett (b.1726). Tracy can also with Robert Morris be seen as a "financier of the American Revolution". He is viewed by some as one of the the greatest merchants of the Revolutionary period, second only to Robert Morris. (Website on Sewell/Sewall genealogy.) Tracy was firstly a graduate of Harvard. By 1780 he was said to be worth about 6,500,000 dollars (which doubtless needs modern re-verification). Tracy had one partnership with Jonathan Jackson (1743-1810), his brother-in-law (his sister Hannah Tracy married Jackson). Nathaniel owned and outfitted the first-ever operating American privateer (Hero Captain James Tracy, owned by James Tracy, Nathaniel Tracy, Jono Jackson, John Tracy and Joseph Lee son of patriot Jeremiah), with a Letter of Marque from the Continental Congress. Washington wrote to Tracy re use of ships on 2 Sept 1775 re a secret expedition. Tracy later sent out 24 cruisers and captured 120 vessels (worth 3,950,000 dollars when sold), and at one time ran 110 merchant ships worth 2,733,300 dollars. Two of his privateers had been Game Cock, another was Success. He made good money till 1777 when he lost all but one privateer and 97 merchant ships. He had once loaned the American government 167,000 dollars which was never repaid. He ended ruined by the war and lived in genteel poverty for his past ten years in Newburyport. Re Lane, Son and Fraser, there is a case re matters of ships cargoes 1785-1786 (rice?) between Winthrop Todd and Winthrop merchants of Charleston South Carolina, and John Lane a survivor of Lane Son and Fraser, with Nathaniel Tracy in the middle, in [British] Court of Chancery, 1811. Nathaniel is probably the Mr Tracy owning the ship Ceres Captain Wyatt St Barbe taking Thomas Jefferson (as Plenipotentiary Minister for the US) from Boston to Portsmouth on his way to Europe! Tracy once spent time in Portugal seeing to some affairs but ended disappointed. (See Kellock's article, p. 114, where it is indicated, Note 13, that Nathaniel Tracy had been linked to Lane, Son and Fraser of London. John Lane had gone to Boston from London in 1784 as in 1783 his father of LSF, London, has unwisely loaned money to Tracy, who was verging on bankruptcy. Lane stayed five years in US with the assistance of lawyer John Lowell and help from Boston's leading banker, Thomas Russell. There is a net article available re one Nathaniel Tracy of Newburyport, privateer owner and merchant who bought a mansion in Cambridge, confiscated from Loyalist John Vassall, today known as Longfellow House. Nathaniel and brother John in 1774 became partners with Jonathan Jackson as Jackson, Tracy and Tracy, and were successful till hostilities broke out. Newburyport and Salem were the most active privateering ports, and they had initial success as privateers. (See http://www.tracydann.com/files) Nathaniel Tracy by 1783 was linked to Lane, Son and Fraser - and as other reports have it, in 1784 Tracy went to Europe on Ceres Capt St Barbe with Jefferson, but in 1786, Tracy was in financial trouble, despite a 1788 contract with France for masts, he died aged only 45. He dealt in land with Tristram Dalton. Nathaniel had one daughter hannah and two sons, Jeremiah Lee and a Boston broker, Nathaniel Jnr. He is noted online as of "Traceys of Enniscorthy and Newburyport", and noted as a "chief financier of the American Revolution", and a son of Captain Patrick Tracey born 1711 in Enniscorthy Ireland, died 1789 Newburyport. Captain Patrick had a nephew Captain Patrick Tracy who followed him to America. See Thomas Amory Lee, The Tracy Family of Newburyport. Essex Institute Historical Collections, 1921. (One does wonder how much Thomas Jefferson ever found out about Tracy´s career and any of his early or later links with the likes of LSF in London, and possibly felt given to distrust? - Ed.)
Lane and Fraser (LSF) on 18 February, 1784 wrote to Elias Hasket Derby, maybe about shipbuilding at Boston? By the later 1780s it appeared Lane and Fraser were trying to creep back into trade to the US. Lane, Son and Fraser had earlier sent tea into the Boston Tea Party situation. (Lost citation)
The still rather mysterious Maine land deal that Lane Son and Fraser handled after the American Revolution helps us point to the situations of other Britishers involved in land deals in America (not in what became Canada) after the American Revolution – before we consider land deals before the Revolution. (On Maine, per e-mail in 2011 from David Spille, of Maine.) (1)
On Michael Everitt - RN Everitt Michael-1642 was born on 6 Oct 1717 in London. He died in 1789 in Circa. He married Gayton Elizabeth-47739 on 30 Oct 1744 in London. [Parents] Does Gov Phillip serve under him in Antigua in 1760? Seemingly married on 30 Oct 1744 at Portsmouth in update of 8-8-2010 from Prof Harry Duckworth,. Loose http indicates an Everitt family of West Ham Essex. (See Frost on Phillip, p. 5. Scorgie/Hudgson, pp. 32ff.) Item on www.archive.org/stream, as Hampshire Parish Registers for Marriages. Loose genforum item posted by Janice Bell in 2008.
Kellock informs that one Nathaniel Tracy by 1783 had become linked to Lane, Son and Fraser of London. John Lane (whose father John had recently died) in 1784 went to Boston from London, as in 1783 his father has unwisely loaned money to Tracy, who was verging on bankruptcy. Lane stayed five years in US, using the assistance of lawyer John Lowell and of Boston's leading banker, Thomas Russell. Lane's presence in Boston is consistent with information presented by Bhagat about Lane and Fraser's activities. (G. Bhagat, p. 9, Note 40.)
G. Bhagat, ´Americans and American Trade in India, 1784-1814´, American
Neptune,
1986, 46, 1, pp. 6-15. mentions Lane and Fraser dealing with Elias Hasket
Derby
of Salem in February 1784.
1783 - LSF and the end of the American Revolution
Richard Lechmere of Boston writes to Lane, Son and Fraser (LSF), London on 30 May 1774.1778: Query per Ken Cozens of 21-7-2009 from Miriam McDonald at: mimsy13@go.com - LSF firm is mentioned, letters, 1778-1789/1778-1785 in Harvard University Library, re Wendell Family Papers.
1775++: Loyalist merchant of Boston David Greene (1745-1812) He inherited Greene's Wharf, Boston. He married Rebecca Rose a daughter of his later London partner John Rose and they had numerous children. Greene was proscribed and banished from America in 1778. He had a friend Thomas Fraser (perhaps Thomas of LSF) and was partner with American Loyalist, William Hubbard. When Greene and Rose became partners, they had a credit line from Lane, Son and Fraser and as a Loyalist worked for them from 1775 as he suffered exile. David Greene had half-brothers Daniel and William Hubbard as partners in his merchant business. (See US website on the Nevins family of Kingston Massachusetts and Canterbury Connecticut. Forced out of business, Greene went to London and apparently lived at the home of Thomas Lane, partner in Lane, Son and Fraser, who were known as friends of Loyalists. David Green then had a partnership with John Rose of London, then went to the West Indies to work the Antigua market. Green returned to Boston in 1784. He once had a store at New London with half-brother William Hubbard. David Greene and John Rose dealt to America and the West Indies in rum, sugar, tobacco, rice, molasses, oak staves and lumber from East Florida, including marketing to England. In his second period he was a director of Union Bank and president of Union Insurance Co. He had much correspondence with Lane, Son and Fraser - especially Thomas Fraser, although we still need to establish when this correspondence ended. David Greene´s Letterbook is online at: www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/G. Greene_d.html See George Atkinson Ward, The Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen an American in England, from 1775, as a Google Books Result. In general, the genealogical surround of David Greene´s situation in Boston is littered with the names of Loyalists or semi-Loyalists.
1776: See James Bowdoin and the Patriot Philosophers by Frank Edward Manuel. James Bowdoin of America wrote to his London agents Lane Son and Fraser re tobacco eg, in 1776 and 1781.
1775 - LSF and the outbreak of the American War of Independence
1775-1776: Per online material from http://www.masshist.org/ The Massachusetts Historical Society, article headed merely, Editorial Note. Matter of a wealthy New England man, Colonel Elisha Doane (1725-1783) (who had a son, Isaiah (-)), per Continental Congress' Court of Appeals. In the summer of 1775, as the Cape Cod whaling fleet returned home, Doane, of Chatham, found he had much whale oil on hand. He had a good balance with Lane Son and Fraser, and had whalebone still in their (London) warehouse and wanted to circumvent a coming ban on exports to Britain. He loaded his brigantine Lusanna Captain Joseph Doane with oil, and would send his son-in-law to London, Shearjashub Bourne (1744-1806), a lawyer, with the cargo. The ship sailed by 4 September 1775, with 101 casks of whale oil, 82 casks of head matterm, to Lane, Son and Fraser. Bourne was to bring sale proceeds back to Massachuetts, plus a shipload of goods from England - unless he went to the West Indies to get goods which would not be banned by Americans from being imported. But she met a storm, was damaged, had to put into an American port, finally got to London by March 1776. There was a claim that British interests had wanted to charter the Lusanna for anti-American activity (military transport), Bourne evaded this and Lane Son and Fraser found him a cargo at Gibraltar. Meantime, Doane had had another ship, Industry, bound for London to deal with Lane Son and Fraser. Industry had sailed 12 September 1775, but was seized off Plymouth (America) by a British naval vessel. Doane now appeared to be a Loyalist, and had asked Thomas Hutchinson in London to help his cause. On her return via the West Indies, Lusanna had aboard about 2000 pounds worth of goods owned by Lane Son and Fraser. But Lusanna, having been parted from her convoy, was caught by an American privateer, McLary, which was owned by a consortium of 15 American merchants at Portsmouth (America). Legal action ensued. Bourne and Deane employed the services of lawyer John Lowell (), who was a legal assistant to John Adams (1735-1826) later second US President. Legal proceedings were complicated and dragged on for 18 years. John Lane ex-Lane Son and Fraser in 1804 reported on the views of insurance underwriters who had remained involved but further information is not forthcoming and the final legal resolution of the case is unknown. (Elisha Doane died 1783, his widow remarried David S. Greenough.) A footnote to this article indicates that by April 1779, Lane Son and Fraser found they had almost 3691 pounds in Doane´s account, as found by Katherine A. Kellock of Washington DC. In all these proceedings, the ¨Son¨ of Lane Son and Fraser was John.
1774 - Re premables to the Boston Tea Party, among the London tea dealers were Walter Mansell and Co, Arthur Lee, Thomas Walpole, the later alderman Brook Watson and his partner Rashleigh; Champion and Dickinson, Hayley and Hopkins, Lane Son and Fraser, Davidson and Newman, Abraham Dupois, Pigou and Booth; and John Fothergill. Merchants who may have been Londoners, or Americans, it is difficult to say, included James Hall, Hugh Williamson and John D. Whitworth, who with William Rotch later contacted the Privy Council on 19 February, 1774. (Labaree, p. 295, Note 36; pp. 89-95.)
1771: In Briggs' Cabot Genealogy, p. 141, Joseph Cabot had an account with Lane, Son and Fraser in 1771, eg tea, cod lines. In 1766 the firm became Lane, Son and Fraser. These Lanes are said to have had the ship Eleanor Capt James Bruce of the Boston Tea Party. But it is not clear if Lanes had entire or part ship ownership, had chartered cargo space, or merely had some part of the tea cargo handling?
1769: An earlier client of Lane Son and Fraser was William Blair Townsend (1732-1778), a little-known merchant of Boston, who started as a merchant there in 1743. He was a client of Lane Son and Fraser by 1769 at the time of Townshend Act problems, and had a son, Thomas Hubbard Townsend, a Boston merchant from 1743. (See http://historical.ha.com/) He has a cousin William Blair son of John Blair of Londonderry New England, son of David Blair in Ireland. Townsend married Hubbard, daughter of a treasurer of Harvard College, Honble Thomas Hubbard.
Circa 1765: An update per Prof. Harry Duckworth of 8-8-2010 says LSF were large in trade to Boston and Massachusetts in the 1760s and early 1770s. LSF had interests in Virginia, North Carolina, New York and West Indies. Thomas Lane possibly had a partner Benjamin Booth from about 1758, and they were dealing with Timothy Orne a merchant of Salem Massachusetts. The LSF firm of this vintage was formed by Thomas Lane by 1765-1766, who later had a little-known partner Thomas Fraser, and lasted to 1793. They traded to the American colonies, and after 1783 underwrote ship insurance.
c1758: Benjamin Booth (1732-1807). He is sometimes given with an address at the Adelphi, London, which is near The Strand, and is noted in the local history of Gilderstone/Gildersome, England (spellings differ). Re his wife Jane Salwey, he is once given as being at Nicholas Lane St Nicholas Acorns. (There was a Benjamin Booth at Lincolns Inn Fields Midx.) Booth was noted as an art collector and had 67 paintings by Richard Wilson (1714-1782). Once a partner of Lane Son Fraser. (Booth is noted in Namier.Brooke, Vol. 2, p. 449.) Booth was a Director of East India Co. in 1782. (On which, see Royal Calendar. See Kellock's article, p. 132.) Below is e-mail from one Pauline Currien. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pauline McGregor Currien" On Thomas Lane - Is he any direct relation of Thomas Lane died 1710 the partner of Micajah and Richard Perry and who had brother Jonathan who had a son Thomas, says Duckworth? Does he have a grandmother Susanna who apprentices him to John Caswell a London merchant? He is founder of the later form of the firm. (See Walter Scott Dunn, Opening New Markets: The British Army and the Old Northwest as a Google Books Result, and Walter Scott Dunn, People of the American Frontier: the coming of the American Revolution.) Re Fraser of Lane, Son and Fraser. His name or that of his son may be Thomas. See G. Bhagat, p. 9, Note 40, these men Lane and Fraser wrote 18 Feb 1784 to Elias Hasket Derby, maybe about shipbuilding at Boston? (See Holden Furber on US trade to India.) They by later 1780s were trying to creep back into trade to the US. (See Labaree, Boston Tea Party, p 295, this firm had sent tea into the Boston Tea Party.) This firm acted as Bankers to the Everitts known to Arthur Phillip, see Frost on Phillip, pp. 4-5. Of Lane, Son and Fraser, see Kellock's article, p. 114 and elsewhere. Cf., http from William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, David Greene Letterbook 1777-1785. David E. Mass, Divided Hearts: Massachusetts Loyalists (1765-1790): A Biographical Dictionary. Boston, 1980. See re William and Mary Quarterly, ´Government Interception of Letters from America and the Quest for Colonial Opinion in 1775´, article by Julie M. Flavell on the Net. LSF had contacts Irving and Latham at Lorraine, New York (nd?). One address in London from Google seems to be 10 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, In Briggs' Cabot Genealogy, p. 141, Joseph Cabot had an account with Lane, Son and Fraser in 1771, eg tea, cod lines. See Holden Furber on first US trade with India re this firm trying to creep back into post-Revolutionary American trade. See Kellock's article p. 114. Kellock says, from about the 1750s, this firm dealt with Belchers and Faneuils of Boston, John Lloyd of London was linked. Behind scenes is Thomas Godfrey, also Joseph Smethurst. Also the Caswalls with Boston links. Dealt also with John Rowe of Boston. See Frost on Phillip, p. 5. See Scorgie/Hudgson, pp. 30ff. See Pares, West India Fortune, p. 175, p. 357. Is this the John Lane friend of Gov Phillip, see Tipping, p. 133 re Phillip's will of 1814. See Kellock p. 114 and note for Nathaniel Tracy the owner of ship Ceres Capt St Barbe which took Jefferson to England in 1780s. John Lloyd (1656-1730) possibly founder of Lane, Son and Fraser. He was friends with Peter Godfrey. Thomas Lane came into the firm in 1735. See Davis, Rise English Shipping Industry, p. 259. K. G. Davies, RAC, p. 32. See Kellock, article, pp. 131-132, Portugal merchant, then in the New EICo, then trading with New England. His firm became Lane, Son and Fraser. In New England he dealt with the Belchers and the Faneuils. Lane later had partners Joseph Smethurst (maybe of Marblehead?), then Bostonian John Caswall II. Both these men died in accidents. From 1750 the firm then became Thomas Lane and Co, then another Lloyd cousin, Benjamin Booth, came in. Later Booth left and became a director of the EICo. In 1766 the firm became Lane, Son and Fraser. These Lanes had the ship Eleanor Capt James Bruce of the Boston Tea Party. Is this ownership or merely cargo handling? End of notes on John Lloyd. Query per Ken Cozens of 21-7-2009 from Miriam McDonald at: mimsy13@go.com - LSF firm is mentioned, letters, 1778-1789/1778-1785 in Harvard University Library Wendell Family Papers. One http details how on 21 May 1794, Thomas Boylston of Boston gave a deed of trust of eleven townships (surveyed by Benj Wright) to George Lee, George Irving and Thomas Latham, assignees of Lane Son and Fraser of London, and conveyed them to John Johnson Phyn, (of London?), the title was vested by 10 April 1795 and Phyn apptd William Constable his attorney (Wm died 1803 has a brother James) to sell parts of the Boylston tract, etc. Update per Prof Harry Duckworth of 8-8-2010 says LSF were large to Boston and Mass in 1760s and early 1770, had interests in Virginia, North Carolina, New York and West Indies. This man had partner Benjamin Booth from about 1758, and dealing with Timothy Orne merchant of Salem Mass. LSF was a new firm this Thomas Lane formed by 1765-1766, lasted to 1793, traded to Am colonies, underwrote ship insurance after 1783. His obit noted from London Morning Chronicle, Wed 26 May 1784. His Will made 17 Feb 1781 and proved PCC 9 June 1784 PROB.11/1118. This man is named circa 1763-174 re giving assistance to a ward Samuel Wentworth Jn (son of Samuel Wentworth of Boston died 1768, Samuel Jnr a nephew Gov Benning Wentworth) of Rev Henry Caner, 1728-1778. See online, A Brief Introduction to The Letterbook of The Rev. Henry Caner, 1728-1778, Special Collections Dept, Bristol University Library, by Prof Richard C. Simmons, School of History, University of Birmingham, re Rev Henry Caner c.1700-1792 an Anglican. In late 2011 it cannot be verified online that Lane died in Clapham. The 1730s: It seems that probably in the 1730s, the old Perry-Lane firm was refounded (?) by John Lloyd (c.1656-1730 died at St Nicholas Acton London, probably in Fulham, London). This is according to Kellock´s article.) This John Lloyd was friends with one Peter Godfrey. A different Thomas Lane (?) came into the firm in 1735. (See Davis, Rise of the English Shipping Industry, p. 259. K. G. Davies, Royal Africa Co., p. 32. See Kellock, article, pp. 131-132) John Lloyd was a Portugal merchant, then became part of the New East India Company, then began trading with New England. His firm became Lane, Son and Fraser. The Thomas Lane involved later had partners Joseph Smethurst (a cousin of Lloyd), then Bostonian John Caswall II. Both these men died in accidents. From 1750 the firm then became Thomas Lane and Co, then later, another Lloyd cousin, Benjamin Booth came in. Later Booth left and became a director of the EICo. In 1766 the firm became Lane, Son and Fraser, so presumably was then joined by Thomas Fraser (or the father of Thomas?). These Lanes are said to have had some connection with the ship Eleanor of the Boston Tea Party. There were Lloyds married to Bennets in early Virginia, but it is not yet known if they were connected. (Update per Prof. Harry Duckworth on 12-8-2010.) John Lloyd´s Will is about 17 pages, and has little on business but much on family. He had a cousin Gamaliel Lloyd of Manchester, who was one of his executors. This John Lloyd had lands in North Collingham, Nottinghamshire. Captain Joseph Smethurst (who became resident in America?) was a Lloyd cousin on the female side. See Kellock's article, p. 114. Kellock says, from about the 1750s, this firm dealt with the Belchers and Faneuils of Boston, and a John Lloyd of London was linked. The Lloyd genealogy here can be seen as extensive, is based around Leeds/Manchester, and includes some baronets and lesser British aristocracy, and even perhaps one or two descendants in NSW Australia, but is so confusing, and distant from LSF and their commercial operations, that no attempt is made here to indicate it. Also to be noted here is a client of LSF, John Rowe of Boston. Boston merchant John Rowe (1715-1787) married Hannah Speakman of Boston, no children. Rowe was a migrant from England and became a a lukewarm whig or Patriot. He had been a purveyor for the British fleet till the outbreak of war, and then dealt with Robert Morris re the privateer Phoenix. His actions as a patriot were economic, not ideological, and he merely desired a freed-up flow of goods; he kept apart from actual Revolutionary activity to pursue business, was an active smuggler and mostly imported goods various. (See his own wikipedia page.) His diary 1764-1779, is on the net at www.archive.org/stream/ Rowe had arrived in Boston by 1736 when aged about 21. (See items on his letters and diary (1764-1779) at www.archive.org/stream/. Rowe was a Boston Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for many years and there was a Rowe Wharf in Boston. Rowe owned part of Point Shirley. (See a note in p. 620 for the bibliography of A. M. Schlesinger on Colonial Merchants, Letters and Diary of John Rowe, Boston Merchant, 1759-1762, 1764-1779. Edited by A. E. Cunningham. Boston. 1903. Rowe dealt with Lane, Son and Fraser. Roew according to some was owner of the ship Eleanor Capt Bruce of the Boston Tea Party, according to H. Allan on John Hancock, and unknowingly according to Rowe's own diary. But another view - Kellock? - is that this ship was owned by John Lane and Lane, Son and Fraser in London. Rowe´s diary notes that the Boston Tea Party was "a disastrous affair" according to a website on Freemasonry, Rowe having been being a Grand Master. Rowe was friends with Rev. Samuel Parker and his son John Rowe Parker. Rowe´s Will indicates that his estate details were with Lane Son and Fraser. See especially on the Linzee family, http://www.archive.org/stream/linzeefamilyofgr02linz/linzlinzeefamilyofgr02linz_djvu.txt - Also, www.archive-org/stream/ Letters and diary of John Rowe Boston merchant, 1759-1762 and 1764-1770, as edited by Edward Lillie Pierce, Boston, W. B. Clark and Co., 1903, which mentions his account with Lane, Son and Fraser, on which one Captain Linzee could draw for 20 pounds sterling each New Year's Day on an account maintained by Rowe. 1710: On Lane, Son and Fraser. Two of the principals were Thomas Lane and his son John Lane, and Thomas (possibly) Fraser. Benjamin Booth (1732-1807) had also been part of the firm. A possible founder or co-founder of the firm had been John Lloyd (1656-1730) and before 1730, the family of Micajah Perry apparently had connections to the firm.
1710++: What happened with the Perry-Lane firm after 1710 is not clear. Presumably Perrys continued with tobacco trading after Thomas Lane died. Genealogically the name Lloyd intervenes, greatly convoluted. What follows is merely an approximation. 1710: In 1710 died a tobacco merchant named Thomas Lane (born Northamptonshire 1639-1710), married to Mary Puckle (c.1659 St Dunstans Stepney-1727). Mary probably had no children. This Thomas Lane (of S Butt Bishopsgate or of Bethnall Green, Stepney, Midx) was part of the firm Perry and Lane, and his Will was dated 17 July 1710 and proved 10 November 1710. The Perrys of the firm were Michajah Perry and Richard Perry. Apparently in 1697, This Thomas Lane took some capital from the firm and bought an estate in the parish Charwelton in his native Northamptonshire for 6500 pounds. He had a brother Valentine who had a son Valentine to whom Thomas left this estate, which later passed from the junior Valentine to a cousin named Knightly (who remains rather untraceable).
1710: The Perrys: One of the partners of Thomas Lane (died 1710) was Michajah Perry (1641-1721), son of a Richard (1615-1666) and Mary Malbon. (His birth year is taken from a website on a lineage, Heysham.) Micajah (died 1721) married Anne Owen/Owens (1639-1689), who had two sons, tobacco merchant Richard (1664/1668-1720) who married Sarah Richards (c.1673-1756) and London Lord Mayor in 1728, Micajah II (1694-1753) who married Elizabeth Cocke. Is it possible that Sarah Richards had descendants who lived in Charles City, Virginia. But on the Internet even this Perry genealogy is not entirely reliable.
From: "Andrew - Agile Minds" :::::::::::::: Finis
:::::::::::::::: There are some Lane Papers, Bedford Historical Society, County York, England. G. Bhagat, ´Americans and American Trade in India, 1784-1814´, American
Neptune,
1986, 46, 1, pp. 6-15. mentions Lane and Fraser dealing with Elias Hasket
Derby
of Salem in February 1784. Walter Scott Dunn, Opening New Markets: The British Army and the Old Northwest as a Google Books Result, and also Walter Scott Dunn, People of the American Frontier: the coming of the American Revolution. LSF - Origins of the firm
The 1730s
The year 1710 ...
Update of May 2012
Hi Dan, Re your remark, "The wife of Thomas Fraser was apparently Susannah, who had a daughter Susannah who married London merchant John Anderson (born 1747 at Wick, Scotland). This John Anderson was son of Wick merchant William Anderson and Elizabeth Oswald, who was daughter of Rev George Oswald (c.1664-1725) of Dunnet and Margaret Murray (d.1747) of Pennyland ..." I can now add that Thomas Fraser was most likely born 1736 baptized at St. Nicholas Acons, London and that he married Susannah Culpepper (born 1738) in May 6 1761 in Clapham, London. The Anderson brothers (John and Alexander) had at least 3 slave ships - Duke of Buccleuch, Alert, and Elizabeth Anderson each capable of carrying over 300 slaves. Hope things are well with you. Kind regards, Andrew. Online at www.archi.org/stream is text of The Register Book of the parish of St Nicholas Acons London 1539-1812 re Mary dr of Francis and Elizabeth Fraser, the only name Fraser listed. There is little on the Net for any family Culpepper of the Clapham area except for an 1840s Will of a Spinster named Culpepper. Nicholas Lane is supposedly named circa 1571 for banker Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, said to have been poisoned by Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester in 1571. From about 1762, Nicholas Lane became the home of ¨scientific life assurance¨ in England and is still today a precinct for bankers. 
References
various:
Emma Christopher, A Merciless Place: The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa and How it Led to the Settlement of Australia. Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 2010.
See Tea Leaves, a book on the Boston Tea Party, edited by A. O. Crane.
David Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
E-mail from researchers and netsurfers, various, including Andrew Montgomerie in New Zealand of October 2011. Remarks 2010 from Prof. Harry Duckworth (Canada). Remarks on Perrys in 2006 from e-mailer Tracy Hancock.
This free script provided by
JavaScript Kit
View web stats from www.statcounter.com/ for this website begun 4 July 2006
