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3. Provenance 5. Inventory 6. Subjects |
Tanner, farmer, and Republican of Warwick, Rhode Island. Papers, 1804-1873. Size: 1.5 lin. ft. Catalog number: MSS 790 Processed by: Harold Kemble Additions by Robin Flynn, March 2001 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
John Robinson Waterman (1783-1876) was the son of “Deacon” John and Welthian (Greene) Waterman of Warwick, Rhode Island. He was a descendant of Richard Waterman, one of the original proprietors of Providence; a grandson of Col. John Waterman, an officer of the Warwick militia during the colonial wars and the Revolution; and a great-grandson of Col. Benoni Waterman, also of the Warwick militia and a Surinam trader.
The Watermans had been involved in the occupation of leather tanning at least back to Benoni Waterman’s generation. In 1801, John Robinson Waterman joined the Warwick business. After his marriage to Isabella Warner, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Hill) Warner, in November 1805, Waterman lived on the family property in Warwick and simultaneously worked the tanning business and his farm. In 1808, he became a partner with his father in the tannery, which was renamed John Waterman Jr. & Son. The company continued under that name until 1830, when Waterman went into partnership with his apprentice Edmund Arnold, and the business became John R. Waterman & Company. Waterman left the business two years later.
Waterman moved his family to Providence in 1830 to continue the education of his children and to take a post as measurer for the Port of Providence. Politically, Waterman was a prominent and influential Republican and a supporter of Thomas Wilson Dorr, leader of the 1842 Dorr Rebellion. He served in the Rhode Island legislature from 1821 to 1828.
John and Isabella Waterman had thirteen children, seven of whom died in childhood or early adulthood. Isabella died at the age of 49 in 1832. John married second, in 1833, Phebe (Slade) Slade, widow of Elder Philip Slade and daughter of Jonathan and Mary Slade of Somerset, Massachusetts. He died at his Warwick homestead in 1876.
Bibliography:
Biographic Encyclopedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the 19th Century (Providence, National Biographic Publishing Co., 1881), 215-216.
Jacobus, Donald Lines and Edgar Francis Waterman. The Waterman Family Vol. 3: Descendants of Richard Waterman of Providence, Rhode Island, Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1954.
Waterman, John Robinson. Autobiographical sketch, 1850?, in the John Robinson Waterman Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society, box 2, folder 4.
Scope and content:
Of greatest interest in the collection are the letters of national and state political nature exchanged between the years 1822 and 1871 with: Phillip Allen , Israel Arnold, Samuel Willard Bridgham, Lewis Cass, Gamaliel Church, Job Durfee, Alexander Eddy, Samuel Eddy, David A. Fox, John Brown Francis, William Channing Gibbs, Charles Tillinghast James, Joseph Joslin, Henry Rousmanier, William Sprague, Thomas Steere, Benjamin Babcock Thurston, Wilkins Updike, and Charles Collins Van Zandt.
Several prominent men also wrote letters of a social or business nature to Waterman, including: James D’Wolf, Richard Ward Greene, Simon Henry Greene, Elisha Reynolds Potter, Sr., Stephen Randall, and William Read Staples.
There is an unusual letter from Col. William Battey dated October 28, 1812 with a sketch of the army camp near Albany and a description of camp life. Waterman demonstrated in his writings his particular interest in banks, banking and currency and public education and taxation. He was the inventor and distributor of “Waterman’s Specific Plaster” for treatment of various aliments, of which some brief record exists here. There are also records from the Watermans’ tannery, John R. Waterman & Son and John R. Waterman & Co., located at Warwick, Rhode Island, dated 1816 to 1834.
Provenance:
The 1859 and 1871 memoranda / account books may have been purchased from Mary S. Greene in late December, 1904. They were transferred to the collection from MSS 787, the papers of John Robinson Waterman’s grandfather and great-grandfather, Col. John Waterman and Col. Benoni Waterman, respectively. Several items, including Warwick militia papers circa 1807-1809, Warwick political party lists, road tax rolls, excise receipts, and commissions, were purchased from an unknown auction house in 1911. Two letters written by John Waterman (1812-1837), son of John Robinson Waterman, and all of the records of John Waterman & Son, dated 1816 to 1834, were transferred from MSS 9001-W. The provenance of the remainder of the papers is unknown.
Processing note:
The papers were processed by curator Harold Kemble some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s. In 2001, some items were transferred to the collection from MSS 787 (Benoni and John Waterman Papers) and MSS 9001-W (Miscellaneous Manuscripts); a list of the transferred items is in the collection file. Additionally, fifty-five items from a folder marked “uncatalogued additions” were distributed throughout the collection. Among these are several letters dated in 1819 and 1820 concerning a dispute involving Waterman’s uncle George Greene and a “Bardwell farm”; and some Warwick militia papers dated between 1807 and 1809. Because provenance of the redistributed items is unknown, each was marked on its reverse with an “X”, instead of an accession number, to keep them distinct from other papers in the collection. It is possible that they were part of the 1911 auction purchase mentioned above (accession # 1911.8.1-).
Inventory:
Box 1, folder 1. 1812.
Box 1, folder 2. 1819.
Box 1, folder 3. 1820.
Box 1, folder 4. 1821.
Box 1, folder 5. 1822.
Box 1, folder 6. 1823.
Box 1, folder 7. 1824.
Box 1, folder 8. 1825.
Box 1, folder 9. 1826.
Box 1, folder 10. 1827.
Box 1, folder 11. 1828.
Box 1, folder 12. 1829.
Box 1, folder 13. 1830.
Box 1, folder 14. 1831.
Box 1, folder 15. 1832.
Box 1, folder 16. To uncle George Greene, 1833/01/11.
Box 1, folder 17. 1833.
Box 1, folder 18. 1834.
Box 1, folder 19. 1835.
Box 1, folder 20. 1836.
Box 1, folder 21. 1837.
Box 1, folder 22. 1838.
Box 1, folder 23. 1839.
Box 1, folder 24. 1841.
Box 1, folder 25. 1843.
Box 1, folder 26. 1844.
Box 1, folder 27. 1845.
Box 1, folder 28. 1846.
Box 1, folder 29. 1847.
Box 1, folder 30. 1848.
Box 1, folder 31. 1850.
Box 1, folder 32. 1851.
Box 1, folder 33. 1852.
Box 1, folder 34. 1853.
Box 1, folder 35. 1856.
Box 1, folder 36. 1857.
Box 1, folder 37. 1859.
Box 1, folder 38. 1863.
Box 1, folder 39. 1864.
Box 1, folder 40. 1865.
Box 1, folder 41. 1867.
Box 1, folder 42. 1868.
Box 1, folder 43. 1869.
Box 1, folder 44. 1870-1872.
Box 1, folder 45. No date.
Box 1, folder 46. Letters by John Waterman (1812-1837) (son of JRW), 1828, 1829.
Financial papers and business records
Box 2, folder 1. JRW: account / memoranda books, 1827-1834, 1859, 1871.
Box 2, folder 2. JRW: bills and receipts, 1808-1819.
Box 2, folder 3. JRW: bills and receipts, 1820-1829.
Box 2, folder 4. JRW: bills and receipts, 1830-1839.
Box 2, folder 5. JRW: bills and receipts, 1840-1845.
Box 2, folder 6. JRW: bills and receipts, 1850-1859.
Box 2, folder 7. JRW: bills and receipts, 1860-1867.
Box 2, folder 8. JRW: bills and receipts, 1868, 1869.
Box 2, folder 9. JRW: bills and receipts, 1870.
Box 2, folder 10. JRW: bills and receipts, 1871, 1872.
Box 2, folder 11. JRW: bills and receipts, 1873-1876 and n.d.
Box 2, folder 12. John Waterman & Son: agreements, 1833, 1834.
Box 2, folder 13. John Waterman & Son: bills and receipts, 1809-1819.
Box 2, folder 14. John Waterman & Son: bills and receipts, 1820-1825.
Box 2, folder 15. John Waterman & Son: bills and receipts, 1826-1829.
Box 2, folder 16. John Waterman & Son: bills and receipts, 1830-1836 and n.d.
Box 2, folder 17. John Waterman & Son: correspondence, 1816-1829.
Box 2, folder 18. John Waterman & Co. records, 1830, 1831.
Box 2, folder 19. Waterman’s Specific Plaster, 1842.
Subject files
Box 3, folder 1. Autobiographical sketch, JRW, 1850?.
Box 3, folder 2. Banks, banking and currency, 1826-1869 and n.d.
Box 3, folder 3. Baptists (extract from history by Richard Knight), n.d.
Box 3, folder 4. Education and schools, n.d.
Box 3, folder 5. Gov. Arthur Fenner, anecdotes, n.d.
Box 3, folder 6. John Brown Francis obituary, 1864.
Box 3, folder 7. Militia (Warwick), 1804-1809.
Box 3, folder 8. Politics and elections, R.I. - Warwick and Providence, 1817-1869 and n.d.
Box 3, folder 9. “Reminiscence of Olden Times” by JRW, n.d.
Box 3, folder 10. Taxation, ca 1825-1850.
Box 3, folder 11. Warwick fence viewer records, 1854.
Box 3, folder 12. Warwick roads surveyor, 1841-1854.
Box 3, folder 13. Phebe Waterman estate, 1862-1868.
Box 3, folder 14. Waterman family notes.
Box 3, folder 15. Miscellaneous, n.d.
Land records
Box 3, folder 16. Massachusetts - Bristol County, 1832-1852.
Box 3, folder 17. New York, 1808-1841.
Box 3, folder 18. Rhode Island - East Greenwich, 1821-1827.
Box 3, folder 19. Rhode Island - Johnston, 1830.
Box 3, folder 20. Rhode Island - Providence, 1835-1837.
Box 3, folder 21. Rhode Island - Warwick, 1807-1857.
Subjects:
Business records - Rhode Island -- Warwick
Correspondence, 1812-1872
Deeds - Massachusetts -- Bristol County, 1832-1852
Deeds - New York, 1808-1841
Deeds - Rhode Island -- East Greenwich, 1821-1827
Deeds - Rhode Island -- Johnston, 1830
Deeds - Rhode Island -- Providence, 1835-1837
Deeds - Rhode Island -- Warwick, 1802-1857
Diaries, 1829
Education - finance
Political letter writing, 1822-1871
Tax administration and procedure
Tanning
Warwick, Rhode Island - Records
Waterman, John (1812-1837)
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RIHS1822