Records of the U.S. Custom House,

Bristol-Warren, Rhode Island

Records, 1790-1882

Size: 65 linear feet

Catalog number: MSS 28 sg2

Processed by: Harold Kemble, circa 1980

Expanded by Rick Stattler, October 1999

USE MICROFILM HD8039 .S4 R46 1982 (Certificates of enrollment

of vessels May-December 1801; Abstract of endorsements of changes of

masters’ names on Registers, etc. 1822-1855; Abstract of Protections

granted to American Seamen 1822-1827; Abstract of licenses to vessels

under 20 tons 1818-1855; Abstracts of Permanent and of Temporary

Registers, issued and surrendered in 1820-1855)

©Rhode Island Historical Society

Manuscripts Division

The United States Custom Service was created by an act of the Congress dated July 31, 1789 (1 Stat. L, 24) as a branch of the Treasury Department. It was responsible for the collection of duties on imports, the registering and licensing of vessels, the enforcement of all regulations restricting import and export of goods, and the enforcement of laws governing the entry and clearances of seamen and ships' passengers.

A supplementary Customs Act (1 Stat. L, 24-29) provided for the establishment of custom districts and ports of entry, the appointment of customs officers, and regulations for the collection of duties. This act created fifty-nine custom districts in eleven states. No provision was made for Rhode Island, which had not yet ratified the Constitution of the United States.

The Act of June 14, 1790 (1 State. L, 127) created the Rhode Island custom districts of Providence and Newport. Both towns were constituted Ports of Entry and for each were appointed a collector, a naval officer and a surveyor. There were seven Ports of Delivery--Pawtuxet, in the Providence district, and North Kingstown, East Greenwich, Westerly, Bristol, Warren and Barrington in the Newport district.

In 1794, Congress passed an act prohibiting the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Bristol merchants involved in the trade chafed at the aggressive enforcement of the law by the Newport customs officials. Traders James D'Wolf and Shearjashub Bourne began lobbying for a separate customs district that would be more amenable to their business. Providence merchant John Brown, a former slave trader and vocal defender of the trade, was elected to the House of Representatives in 1799. He ushered legislation through Congress that created the Bristol Customs House on February 23, 1800. Jonathan Russell was appointed as the first collector, and he continued the enforcement of the slave trading laws. After the D'Wolf family circulated a petition for his removal and generally asserted their political clout, Jonathan Russell was fired by President Jefferson in February of 1804. The new collector, Charles Collins, was a major investor in the slave trade and a brother-in-law of James D'Wolf. He served as collector through 1820.

Each district employed a variety of officials including a collector, naval officer, surveyors, weighers, gaugers and inspectors. Appointments were made by the President of the United States, and were usually accompanied by considerable infighting and intrigue. The position of district Collector, because of its attendant political influence and control over the maritime commerce of the district, was a particularly valued job and one of the most honored and lucrative of government appointments.

The Providence Custom House Collector, as chief officer of the district, was responsible for collecting duties and keeping records of all financial transactions for reporting to the Treasury Department. He was required to enforce the revenue laws and impose fines, penalties and forfeitures. He was responsible for the appointment and paying of the other custom officials; for the admeasurement and documentation of American merchant vessels; licensing of fishing vessels; registration of American seamen and ships' passengers entering and clearing the port; maintenance of custom buildings and property; collection of funds for the administration of the Marine Hospital and records of the Pension Agency, and the placement of harbor stakes and buoys.

The Naval Officer, equal in rank with the Collector, was required to keep copies of all manifests and entries; to estimate custom duties; to keep separate records, and to countersign certain of the Collector's accounts,

The Surveyor, under the supervision of the Collector, kept a daily record of all vessels arriving. He was assisted by the inspectors, weighers and gaugers in estimating impost and tonnage duties on goods. The surveyor also supervised cargo lading for drawback, the collection and payment of bounty allowances and fees on goods, and the admeasurement of foreign vessels for tonnage duty.

The salaries of collectors of customs districts were paid from specified fees and a commission on the amounts paid by the district into the Treasury Department. Naval officers, surveyors, weighers, gaugers, and measurers were paid entirely from fees. Inspectors were paid a fixed sum per day.

Although the basic function of the Custom House remained relatively unchanged during the nineteenth century, its duties became more complex and specialized as the volume of maritime commerce grew. The Treasury Department required the custom collectors to keep increasingly detailed accounts of the custom house's activities and its importation statistics.

After the war between Britain and France was declared in 1793, the customs districts were required to regulate exports in addition to imports. Between 1798 and 1809, the customs enforced various embargo and non-intercourse laws, issued special clearances or permits and reported any violations of the laws.

The Marine Hospital, providing for the care of sick or disabled seamen, was founded in 1798, and the customs officials were required to collect hospital dues from vessels arriving from foreign ports and to make reports of these dues to the Treasury.

After 1819, the customs districts were required to collect passenger lists from all incoming vessels from foreign ports for the preparation of United States immigration statistics.

In addition to the above activities, the customs district was charged with keeping the records of the naval and army pension agency. The collectors were designated as pension agents in 1790 and were directed to pay the military pensions which had been granted by the states and which had been assumed by the United Sates.

Other functions of the customs district were to warehouse goods imported in a custom warehouse until duty could be paid (established in 1846); to keep the official records of the sale of vessels, after 1850; and to regulate steamship commerce. Although steamship trade began in the 1830s, the first steamboat inspectors were appointed in 1852 and were required to issue licenses after inspection and to enforce safely regulations.

Coughtry, Jay. The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807 (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1981), 221-229.

Kemble, Harold. "United States Custom House - Providence, Rhode Island: Records, 1789-1900" (unpublished typescript in Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division).

The records of the Bristol/Warren Custom House date from 1790 to 1899. Some of the records (1790-1797) predate the federal custom offices and were the records kept by the state customs service.

A card index to the Bristol/Warren crew lists was prepared in the 1980s by volunteer Renee White. The index covers the years 1802 to 1865. It is stored in a wooden cabinet on a shelf at the end of the collection. The crew lists after 1865 are not indexed.

Unlike the Providence Custom House Papers, the Bristol/Warren materials are organized chronologically and include the following types of records: business letters, manifests for inward and outward coastal and foreign trade, seamen protections, licenses, imports and exports, crew lists, entries and clearances, passenger and crew lists, whaling voyages, lists of sick and injured, marine hospital records and postal records.

The earliest correspondence files include letters to and from many important early Federalists. The following is a selected list:

Bosworth, Samuel. Collector/inspector of the Revenue at Bristol. Correspondence, 1791-1801.

Ellery, William (1727-1820). Letters from, 6/16/1794, 7/24/1794, 10/15/1794, 11/27/1794, 8/24/1801, 3/1806, 5/5/1806, 11/10/1808, 12/24/1808, 2/1809. Also copy letters to Ellery, 1794.

Gallatin, A.A.Albert (1761-1849). Many signed letters and circulars from, 1801-1813.

Rush, Richard (1780-1859). Frequent correspondence as comptroller of the Treasury, 1812-1814.

These records almost certainly arrived in 1902 as part of the records delivered by the Providence Customs Collector. This gift was mandated by an act of Congress, and is discussed in the October 1902 issue of Rhode Island Historical Society News Sheet. The Bristol/Warren records are not specifically mentioned there, but they are mentioned in conjunction with the Providence records in the April 1918 issue of Rhode Island History.

These records were organized circa 1980 in conjunction with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, by a staff including Harold Kemble, Caroline Preston, Lucinda Manning and others. The historical note for this subgroup was taken almost verbatim from their guide to the Providence records. Rick Stattler typed in the box list as a volunteer in 1993, and completed the finding aid in 1999.

Bosworth, Samuel. Collector/inspector of the Revenue at Bristol. Correspondence, 1791-1801.