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).

Return to top

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.

Return to top

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.

Return to top

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

Return to top

Inventory:

Return to top

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

End of finding aid - return to top

RIHS1822