HC5 North America
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THE BARING ARCHIVE SERIES HC5 NORTH AMERICA House Correspondence - North America - Boston HC5 5.1.1. 1824 Jun-Nov, Boston: Letters from John Richards 1. 1824 14 Jun: Explaining his mercantile losses which have resulted in his becoming heavily indebted to Barings; expressing confidence for the future 2. 1824 29 Oct: Suspicious circumstances of the loss of the brig Pacific on a voyage from Boston to Amsterdam: the insurance taken out at Boston was for a greater cargo that the ship carried and the underwriters had refused to pay 3. 1824 22 Nov: Insurance of cargo, brig Pacific: the real value was US$40,000; sworn on ship’s manifest US$19,000; Froding, of Gottenburg, the criminal; Barings stood to lose on money advanced to him; with details of another ship, Tordenskield, lost like the Pacific and overinsured 4. 1825 28 Feb, Rio de Janeiro: Reports on business houses; Naylor Brothers & Co (HC4.2.5), Birckhead & Co (HC4.2.1), Maxwell Wright & Co (HC2.158) 5.1.2. 1828-1832: Letters (500) from Thomas W Ward, of Boston, to Joshua Bates and to Barings Part I: 1828 Nov - 1830 Jun Part II: 1830 Jul - 1831 Jun Part III: 1831 Jul - 1832 Mar Part IV: 1832 Apr - 1832 Nov Part V: 1832 Nov - 1833 Dec Part VI: 1834 Aug - 1850 Nov Part VII: 1834 Jan - 1834 Jul Ward was appointed agent, with power of attorney to act for Barings in the United States on 29 Oct 1829. His correspondence during these years of rapidly expanding business in the United States includes the following main subjects: The status and prospects of the house of Baring; trade with Britain, Russia, India, the East Indies and China; reports on business houses in the United States (mainly New York); the Bank of United States; the Louisiana State Loan, 1832; and politics Specific letters relating to some of these subjects will be found in letters dated as follows:- Status and Prospects of Baring Brothers In 1829 many of Ward’s letters are addressed to Joshua Bates. Thereafter, as Bates became increasingly occupied with the whole business of the house, Ward’s letters are generally addressed to Barings. The partner who mostly corresponded with Ward from 1830-32 was Humphrey St John Mildmay. ©The Baring Archive Limited 2 House Correspondence - North America - Boston HC5 5.1.2 cont Ward occasionally complained of his neglect by Joshua Bates, who, like Ward, was a Boston man. Ward’s history is largely given in the following letters. 1828 c30 Nov: Ward returns to Boston from England 1829 28 Apr: Ward’s appreciation of the qualifications required of an agent in the United States, and his offer to undertake the post for Barings 29 Sep: Ward becomes Barings’ agent at a salary of £1000 a year, after discussion with Thomas Baring, who had gone out to the United States in Nov 1828 (See HC1.20.4) 3 Oct: Ward’s instructions for his new post 1830 10 Oct: Ward’s appreciation of his agency 1831 13-26 Feb: Impending retirement from Barings of Alexander Baring; Ward’s view of this, and the possibility of Alexander Baring, later 1st Lord Ashburton, being created a peer 27 May: About “young Mr Magoun’s” visit to England; Ward’s high opinion of Barings, and his method of dealing with rumours in the United States concerning Barings’ activities 12 Sep: Ward’s appreciation of his agency, after two years in the post 14 Oct: Ward’s suggestion that John or Thomas Baring should visit Boston, New York, and Philadelphia 29 Dec: Ward’s appreciation of his agency, and of what his salary should be 1832 4 Feb: Ward’s account 11 Feb: His request for a portrait of Joshua Bates “by one of your first masters” 15 Aug: Ward’s appreciation of his agency 18 Aug: His complaint that Barings should think him extravagant 3-21 Nov: About the proposed establishment of Barings, Liverpool Reports on Business Houses in the United States Business houses are referred to by a code of numbers. The whole key to this code does not exist in the correspondence, but a partial key is given on some of the letters, where name and number are linked. See particularly: 1830: 16 & 21 Feb; 13 Mar; 19 Apr; 4 Aug 1831: 13 Feb; 12 Apr; 12 Nov 1832: 9 Jul; 20 Aug; 4 Oct; 21 Nov 1833: See also HC16 The Bank of The United States For copies of Ward’s correspondence with Nicholas Biddle, see 1831: 12 & 13 Oct 1832: 13, 23 & 26 Jan; 24 & 29 Mar; 26 Apr; 29 Oct (also about General Jackson); 12 Nov The Louisiana State Loan 1832: Jul-Nov ©The Baring Archive Limited 3 House Correspondence - North America - Boston HC5 5.1.2 cont Politics Political news occurs generally in the letters See particularly for the Presidential Election of 1832, and the influence of The Nullifiers in the South Miscellaneous 1829 31 Dec: Proforma of a letter of credit, and reference to bill of lading, as issued by Ward on behalf of Barings 1832 9 Jul: List of American vessels trading to India and the East Indies, a large number of which were financed by Barings 23 Nov: Death of Sr Spurzheim in Boston 1835 Feb-Jun: The death of Joshua Bates’ son William 17 Feb-13 Mar: Politics - Franco-American relations 13 Mar: Goodhue & Co, and the sale of brandy on behalf of Barings 21 Mar: Politics - President Jackson, and the Indemnity Bill 14 Jul: The Lowell railroad; the Boston-Canton railroad: their performance and finance; their prospects for the future 31 Jul: About Samuel Jaurdon, Cashier of the Bank of the United States 31 Jul: Presentation of books by Joshua Bates to the ‘College Library’ [Boston?] 7 Oct: Report on Goodhue & Co [No 174 in Ward’s code], and on other business houses 3 Nov: Bank of the United States 8-9 Dec: Answering a letter of 9 Oct 1835, in which Joshua Bates expressed alarm at Ward’s ideas of American prosperity: Ward defends the American way of life and business; gives a review of American trade and finance. Indigo; cotton; the United States Bank and the winding up its affairs; Nicholas Biddle; Samuel Jaurdon. President Jackson’s message to Congress on the State of the Union 1836: To Joshua Bates 23 Mar: Introducing Samuel Jaurdon, Cashier of the Bank of the United States 27 Apr: Acknowledging receipt of a memoir and a sermon [perhaps concerning Joshua Bates’ son, William, who died 1835]; French affairs 24 Jul: Family matters; Bank of the United States 22 Oct: Reports on merchants; condition of American trade and finance 1850: Ward’s failing health, and desire to give up the agency. See HC1.20.8.18M HC5.1.2 (a) 1835 Dec-1836 Nov: Ward’s letters to Barings Filed in one volume (Formerly HC5.1.2/6) ©The Baring Archive Limited 4 House Correspondence - North America - Boston HC5 5.1.3 1828-59, Boston: Charles Thorndike, merchant, and others of his family, to Barings 1828: About insurance on the cargo of sugar, Wanderer from Havana; Mrs Joshua Bates buys and sends to Mrs Thorndike a machine for crimping frills, ruffles, etc 1832: From Andrew Thorndike [in Paris], on the death of his father, Charles Thorndike 1859: From Henrietta Thorndike. Settlement of her late husband’s estate. [He was perhaps Andrew Thorndike] 5.1.4-8 1827-32: Letters from members of the Sturgis family of Boston. A few of these letters are addressed to Barings, but most are to Joshua Bates Joshua Bates married Lucretia Sturgis. She was the daughter of Samuel Sturgis who worked with his elder brother Russell Sturgis Senior (1750-1826) in the fur trade. She was one of 13 children and had two brothers, John, a ship’s captain, and Josiah. John was a merchant and partner with Colonel Perkins in the firm of Sturgis & Perkins, New York. John Sturgis was not considered a competent man of business. In 1829 Sturgis & Perkins failed, and John Sturgis was in a lunatic asylum for a time in 1831. William Sturgis, the elder seems to have been a partner in the firm of Bryant & Sturgis, merchant of Boston and wrote letters to Joshua Bates containing a good deal of family news. The relationship between this William Sturgis and Lucretia Bates is not known as although there was a William Sturgis Senior he had died in 1797 and his descendant William died aged 16 in 1826. Russell Sturgis (1805-1887) was son of Lucretia’s cousin Nathaniel, son of Russell Sturgis senior. In the 1820s he started a commission business in Boston with Jonathan Amory, which, after the latter’s retirement in 1831, he carried on alone under the name of Russell Sturgis & Co. He became a partner of Barings in 1851. See also HC5.2.8-9 5.1.4 1827-35, Boston: Letters from Bryant & Sturgis to Joshua Bates and John Baring 1827: Capt Coffin of the ship Sachem, trading from Boston to Siam; thence to England; sale of cargo by Barings 1831: Orders for sale of tea in Amsterdam; opium purchase; purchase of quicksilver in Austria 5.1.5 1828-34, Boston: Letters from William Sturgis, the elder, to Joshua Bates 1828: Appointment of an agent for Barings in the United States (Thomas Ward. See HC5.1.2); return of Cushing to Boston 1829: Failure of Sturgis & Perkins, New York; carrying on their China trade ©The Baring Archive Limited 5 House Correspondence - North America - Boston HC5 5.1.5 cont 1831: China trade; Austrian quicksilver; sale of ship formerly belonging to Sturgis & Perkins 1828-34: Family news “Boston, 11 Jun 1832: ..