Research Catalog

Title

Oliver Wolcott letterbook, 1803-1808.

Author

Wolcott, Oliver, 1760-1833.

Supplementary Content

Collection guide and digital images

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Oliver Wolcott & Co.

Description

1 v.

Summary

The letterbook of Oliver Wolcott & Co., 1803-1805, and of Oliver Wolcott, 1805-1808, contains copies of outgoing letters, some in the hand of Oliver Wolcott, documenting mercantile, real property, and other domestic and foreign commercial transactions. Letters concern the trade in fur and tea with Canton, China; importation of coffee and sugar from Batavia, Java; importation of pepper, salt petre and other commodities from Calcutta, India; exportation of tobacco to Holland and France; trade with Portugal and Barbados; prices and methods of doing business; voyages of the ships Triton and Trident; and the impact of the Napoleonic wars and the Embargo Act on American shipping and commerce. Recipients include, among others, Theodore Dwight, William P. Cleveland, Asa and Daniel Hopkins, David Humphreys, Baring Brothers & Co., and Canton hong merchants Cheonqua and Houqua.

Subjects

• Fur trade
• New York (N.Y.) > Commerce
• Wolcott, Oliver, 1760-1833
• United States > Commerce > China
• Letterbooks
• Shipping > United States
• Merchants
• Commission merchants > New York (State) > New York
• Embargo, 1807-1809
• Dry-goods
• China > Commerce > United States
• Tea trade

Genre/Form

Letterbooks.

Access (note)

• Apply to Manuscripts and Archives Division for access at http://www.nypl.org/mssref.
• Surrogates must be used in lieu of original volume.

Additional Formats (note)

• Available on microfilm;
• Available as digital images.

Funding (note)

• Digitization was made possible by a lead gift from The Polonsky Foundation.

Source (note)

• Purchased from Healy

Biography (note)

• Oliver Wolcott (1760-1833), was United States Secretary of the Treasury, 1795-1800; United States Circuit Court judge for the Second Circuit, 1801-1802; and governor of Connecticut, 1817-1827. Wolcott also served as the state comptroller of Connecticut before joining the United States Treasury Department in 1789, and presided over the Connecticut constitutional convention in 1818. He was deeply involved in mercantile and banking affairs in New York City during his hiatus from public service. In 1803 Wolcott established the firm of Oliver Wolcott & Co., commission merchants, in partnership with James Watson, Moses Rogers, Archibald Gracie, and William W. Woolsey, in New York City. The firm dissolved in 1805, and Wolcott continued as an independent merchant, primarily in the China trade. Prior to his return to Connecticut in 1815, Oliver Wolcott was a director of the Bank of the United States, 1810-1811, and the first president of the Bank of America, 1812-1814. He was also the first president of the Merchants' Bank, 1803-1804.

Call Number

MssCol 4221

OCLC

227004398

Author

Wolcott, Oliver, 1760-1833.

Title

Oliver Wolcott letterbook, 1803-1808.

Additional Formats

Available on microfilm; New York Public Library; *ZL-481

Available as digital images.

Restricted Access

Apply to Manuscripts and Archives Division for access at http://www.nypl.org/mssref.

Access

Surrogates must be used in lieu of original volume.

Funding

Digitization was made possible by a lead gift from The Polonsky Foundation.

Biography

Oliver Wolcott (1760-1833), was United States Secretary of the Treasury, 1795-1800; United States Circuit Court judge for the Second Circuit, 1801-1802; and governor of Connecticut, 1817-1827. Wolcott also served as the state comptroller of Connecticut before joining the United States Treasury Department in 1789, and presided over the Connecticut constitutional convention in 1818. He was deeply involved in mercantile and banking affairs in New York City during his hiatus from public service. In 1803 Wolcott established the firm of Oliver Wolcott & Co., commission merchants, in partnership with James Watson, Moses Rogers, Archibald Gracie, and William W. Woolsey, in New York City. The firm dissolved in 1805, and Wolcott continued as an independent merchant, primarily in the China trade. Prior to his return to Connecticut in 1815, Oliver Wolcott was a director of the Bank of the United States, 1810-1811, and the first president of the Bank of America, 1812-1814. He was also the first president of the Merchants' Bank, 1803-1804.

Location of Other Archival Materials

Related collections include the Oliver Wolcott and Co. account books, 1804-1815; New-York Historical Society; New York, N.Y.

Finding Aids

Index of recipients available in repository and on internet.

Source

Purchased from Healy, 1929.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Collection guide and digital images

Occupation

Merchants.

Added Author

Oliver Wolcott & Co.

Research Call Number

MssCol 4221