Showing 122 results

Archival description
Miles Ward collection
Collection · Microfilmed 1988 (originally created 1745-1777)

Collection consists of microfilmed copies of three account books, 1745-1754, 1753-1764, and 1765-1777, showing the history of fishing vessels and the relationships between merchant and individual fishermen over an extended period.

Ward, Miles
Forward family fonds
Fonds · 1750-1928

The fonds contains deeds, conveyances and other legal documents, 1750-1866, Captains' logbooks, 1842-72 (Samuel, 1842, William the Fourth, 1852, Britain, 1853, Harriet Ridley, 1863-65, Six Brothers, 1872), and a Furness Line sailing schedule, 1928.

The legal documents provide evidence of the acquisition, transfer and subsequent loss of the family's property in Carbonear from 1834 to the 1860s. They also provide evidence of the business activities and associations of the firm of George Forward. The Captains' logbooks detail the voyages of five of the Forward's fleet of foreign-going vessels.

The records are arranged in three series: 1. Legal documents; 2. Logbooks; 3. Other material.

Forward (family)
Ezekiel Price collection
Collection · Microfilmed 1968 (originally created 1754-1785)

Fonds consists of microfilmed records which were one of the Massachusetts Historical Society's earliest manuscript acquisitions. The original papers were donated to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Ezekiel Price in 1792. Included are manuscript letters, petitions, statistics, lists, and observations concerning the American Revolution, Maine lands and cod fisheries, Boston merchants, Boston town meetings, East India trade, and materials relating to William Bollan, John Hancock, Sylvester Gardiner, the Marquis de Vaudrieul, Edward Payne, and other Massachusetts founders

Price, Ezekiel
Michael Gill fonds
Fonds · 30 Oct 1756

Fonds consists of an autograph letter signed, Port of St. John's, Newfoundland, Oct. 30 1756, by Michael Gill, Commissary, certifying that George Nixon, master of the sloop Diligence, who landed a cargo of lumber from Piscatataqua, could not proceed from the harbour with his vessel as it was condemned. The cargo included a large lumber shipment of oak planks and maple boards, quite likely for shipbuilding for action in the French and Indian war.

Gill, Michael
Richard Derby ledger
Fonds · Microfilmed 1991 (originally created 1757-1790)

The microfilmed ledger is volume 1 of the Derby family papers, an extensive collection of business records and family materials belonging to the James Duncan Phillips Library, Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem.

The ledger records Richard Derby's debits and credits with other merchants, as well as with mariners, fishermen, shoremen, artisans, farmers, and widows from Salem and surrounding towns for the years 1757-76 and 1786-90. There is also a copy of Derby's will, dated 1783.

Derby, Richard
Joshua Burnham collection
Fonds · Microfilmed 1985 (originally created 1758-1817)

Fonds consists of microfilmed copies of ships' papers, including fishing and shipping papers, 1761-1790. They record trading activities with local merchants in Virginia and Maryland; unofficial cargo manifests; journal of a voyage on the sloop Phoenix; and work performed aboard the sloop Robinwood. Business and family papers contain correspondence, legal records, and financial papers relating to shipping and business affairs and include merchant correspondence, bonds and deeds, shipping accounts, and correspondence with family members.

Fonds is arranged in three series: Ships' papers (1761-1790); Shipping account books (1763-1788); Business and family papers (1758-1817).

Burnham, Joshua
Lester-Garland family fonds
Fonds · Microfilmed 1962 (originally created 1761-1833)

Fonds consists of the microfilmed records of the merchant families of Lester and Garland, including the daily diaries of Benjamin and Isaac Lester. These contain information on the daily activities of their business in Poole and Newfoundland, including information on ships, the fishery, weather, other merchants, and the political climate, giving an unparalleled account of the operation of a Newfoundland business establishment of the time.

The records also include an account of the French occupation of Trinity (July 1762) by Benjamin Lester, as well as the specifications for the construction of naval vessels and the proceedings of the Newfoundland House of Assembly (1834).

Fonds is arranged as follows: Diaries of Benjamin and Isaac Lester, 1761-1796 and 1765-1789; Accounts of the estate of Sir John Lester, 1808; Estate of George Garland, 1826; Benjamin Lester Garland, commissions in the militia, 1803-1831; Letterbooks of George Garland, 1794-1826; John Bingley Garland, appointment, 1833; and Captains' letterbook, 1827-1832.

Lester-Garland
Collection · Microfilmed 1988 (originally created 1767-1833)

Collection consists of microfilmed copies of three volumes of account books containing the Knight dealings with the hundreds of fishermen they hired, the export merchants to whom they sold their cod, and the dozens of maritime artisans and labourers who maintained their fleet of schooners. The account books cover the years 1767-81 and 1788-1833.

Knight, William
John Stevens account book
Fonds · Microfilmed 1988 (originally created 1769-1775)

Fonds consists of a microfilmed copy of the oldest known surviving account book from Cape Ann, Massachusetts. As a general provisioning merchant, Stevens carried a wide variety of wares. The account book is valuable for its portrait of fishermen as consumers. It also contains accounts under the name of Samuel Whittemore, 1786-1807.

Stevens, John
Daniel Rogers account book
Fonds · Microfilmed 1989 (originally created 1770-1790)

Fonds consists of a microfilmed ledger showing detailed credits of the customers of Daniel Rogers, from the fishing voyages of mariners to the butter delivered by local farm wives to his store. Entries for the 1780s describe the early development of the Cape Ann chebacco boat fishery.

Rogers, Daniel