1.   Historical note

2.   Scope and content

3.   Provenance

4.   Processing note

5.   Inventory

6.   Subjects


    List of finding aids

    R.I.H.S. Library page

    R.I.H.S. home page

 Jacob Babbitt Papers

 Merchant, Bristol, R.I.

 Papers, 1798-1838.

 Size: 0.75 linear feet

 Catalog number: MSS 19

 Processed by: M. Keller, 1979

 Slightly revised, Rick Stattler, August 1996.

 USE MICROFILM   E445 .R4, part 2, reel 1 (all filmed except Volumes 7-8)


©Rhode Island Historical Society

Manuscripts Division

 


Historical note:


             Jacob Babbitt was born October 22, 1769 at Taunton, Massachusetts. He settled in Bristol, Rhode Island in 1790, and began working as a silversmith. Surplus cash was put into the purchase of shares in trading vessels bound for the West Indies. By 1805, successful voyages and re-investments enabled Babbitt to step up from artisan to merchant, with his own ships and his own sugar warehouse on the Bristol docks. During the War of 1812 he got cargoes past the British blockade by the use of forged papers (generally Danish), and concealment (disguising seaworthy vessels as leaky derelicts).

            After 1820, large forest tracts near the port of Matanzas, Cuba were cut over to clear land for sugar cane planting. Many New England merchants grew wealthy in the ensuing sugar bonanza. Babbitt's firm was deeply involved in selling to the planters food and machinery, extending credit, leasing warehouse space, managing estates, and shipping sugar to European markets. In addition to doing business for himself, Babbitt was associated in the firms of Jacob Babbitt & Co. (fl. 1817-1822) and Babbitt & Greene (fl. 1833-1836). He also acted with and as an agent for the DeWolf family.

            By the 1830s Babbitt had shifted much of his attention to a new business - that of textile manufacture. He ultimately owned two cotton mills in Bristol, where he died on March 8, 1850. Jacob Babbitt was the husband of Bathsheeba Stoddard (b.1773), and father of Sarah (b. 1790) and Jacob Jr. (b. 1809).


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Scope and content:


            The Jacob Babbitt Papers pertain to Babbitt's shipping and commercial activities in Bristol and the Caribbean, and in northern Europe as well, between 1798 and 1838. Included are notes, bills, accounts current of voyages, deeds and correspondence relating to trade in merchandise and in slaves. The papers are arranged in chronological order.

            Several letters from Babbitt can be also found in both the DeWolf Papers (MSS 382) and Spalding Papers (MSS 23) at the Rhode Island Historical Society. A letter addressed to his son, dated 1859, can be found in the Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection.


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Provenance:


             Five volumes, comprising the bulk of this collection, were purchased from dealer Nino Scotti in 1975. Another volume was purchased in 1978 from the Manuscript Company of Springfield. Most of the loose papers were probably found tucked into the volumes. According to the 1979 inventory, part of the collection was a gift from Paul C. Nicholson, though no further evidence of this can be found.

              The provenance of the two Commercial Bank check books (Volumes 7 and 8) is unknown. They were definitely at the RIHS in the 1980s They were identified and added to the collection in December 2010.


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Processing note:


This collection, except for Volumes 7-8, is available on microfilm as a part of:

            Schipper, Martin P, comp., A guide to the microfilm edition of Papers of the American Slave Trade. Bethesda, MD: University Publications of America, 2001. E445 .R4, Part 2


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Inventory:

Box

Volume/Folder

Item

Date

 

1

Personal accounts ledger, 1808-1818 and Journal, 1814-1817

1808-1818

 

2

Personal accounts ledger, 1823-1824, and Journal, 1823

1823-1824

 

3

Personal accounts

1835-1838

 

4

Jacob Babbitt & Co. invoice book

1817-1820

 

5

Babbitt & Greene receipt book

1833-1836

 

6

Babbitt & Greene letter book

1835-1836

 

7

Commercial Bank check book

1817-1818

 

8

Commercial Bank check book

1818-1820

1

1

Brief letter from R. Chace

12/5/1798

1

1

Receipt from S. Wardwell

1800

1

1

Account statement brig Agnes

1801

1

1

Account with Giles Luther

1801

1

1

Account sloop Aurora, John B. Earl.

1801

1

1

Account with Giles Luther sloop Aurora

1802

1

1

Receipt Billings Waldron

1802

1

1

Deed Babbitt and Leonard Bradford to Benjamin Bosworth

1809

1

1

Charter party brig Eliza Ann

1810

1

1

Letter from William Hunter

8/30/1813

1

1

Account with brig Maria Louisa and 2 receipts

1813

1

1

Account with sloop Advice

1813

1

1

5 receipts to Capt. Thomas Mayberry

1814

1

1

Tax receipt

1816

1

1

Insurance receipt

1816

1

1

Invoice of goods shipped on brig Eliza Ann

1816

1

1

Invoice of goods shipped on schooner Olive Branch

1816

1

1

Receipt for cargo on brig Eliza Ann

1817

1

1

Letter from Sterry & Stansbury

3/29/1817

1

1

Circular letter from James Dewolf

1/1/1818

1

1

Account with John W. Baker of Trinidad

1818

1

1

Receipt re brig Friendship

1818

1

1

Receipt from Benjamin Tilley

1818

1

1

Insurance certificate brigs Sally and Olive Branch

1819

1

1

Receipt to Elisha Dyer

1819

1

1

Invoice of cargo shipped on brig Cashier

1820

1

1

Letter from Benjamin M. Bosworth

5/25/1820

1

1

Letter from John W. Baker, Trinidad

7/20/1820

1

1

Letter from John Fletcher, Russia

8/28/1820

1

1

Letter from Samuel B. Mumford

12/11/1820

1

1

Invoice brig Mount Pleasant

1821

1

1

Receipt to W. Goodwin

1821

1

1

Letter from E. Elderkin

11/7/1821

1

1

Letter from Seth Barton

4/13/1822

1

1

Circular letter from Latting, Adams and Stewart

2/8/1824

1

1

Letter from Beriah Browning

10/23/1825

1

1

Letter from Edward Spalding

2/12/1826

1

1

Letter from Edward Spalding

2/21/1827

1

1

Letter from J.L. Pitman?

4/28/1831

1

1

Memorandum, "Molasses HHds Furnished"

undated

1

1

Bit of poetry

undated


 


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Subjects:


Antigua - Commerce

Baker, John W.

Barton, Seth


Bosworth, Benjamin M.

Bradford, Leonard J. (b.1780) 

Browning, Beriah

Business records - Rhode Island - Bristol

Cuba - Commerce

Deeds - Rhode Island - Bristol

DeWolf, James (1764-1837)

Earl, John B. (d.1807)

Elderkin, Eleazar

Fletcher, John

Germany - Commerce

Hunter, William (1774-1849)

Merchants - Rhode Island - Bristol

Merchant ships, American

Mumford, Samuel B.

Pitman, J.L.

Russia - Commerce

Slave trade

Spalding, Edward (1792-1851)

Trinidad - Commerce

West Indies - Commerce


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RIHS1822