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3. Provenance 4. Inventory 5. Subjects |
F. & S.W. Greene Records Commission Merchants of East Greenwich, Rhode Island and N.Y. Records, 1815-1819 Size: 2 linear feet Catalog number: MSS 466 Processed by: Harold Kemble ca 1985, Lori Salotto, November 1999 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
Franklin Greene (1780-1864) was born in Potowomut Neck, Warwick, Rhode Island to Elihue and Jane (Flagg) Greene. He was educated at Brown University, class of 1799, and sub-sequently moved to Providence. He married his first cousin, Emily Greene, and they had four children. In 1817, three years after his first wife's death, he married Elizabeth Bowen,
daughter of Dr. Pardon and Elizabeth (Ward) Bowen and they had six children.
Samuel Ward Greene (1794-1872) was born in Potowomut Neck, Warwick, Rhode Island to Christopher and Deborah (Ward) Greene. Samuel never married and spent most of his time in Chile. He operated flour mills and was successful in his mercantile pursuits.
Franklin and Samuel Ward Greene, first cousins, formed the partnership of F. & S.W. Greene in December 1815. They were commission merchants using harbors at Providence and East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and New York City, New York. They conducted their business locally, as well as up and down the east coast. Among their accounts of significance to Rhode Island were the Potowomut Manufacturing Company, a family-owned cotton manufactory in Rhode Island; the Kent Manufacturing Company; the Union Dyeing Company; Hope Manufacturing Company; and the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company.
The bankruptcy of Franklin Greene may have been the cause for the dissolution of the partnership in 1817. Samuel Ward Greene continued to take personal responsibility for the liabilities of the company, which seem to have been satisfied by 1819.
Bibliography:
Clarke, Louise Brownell. The Greenes of Rhode Island with Historical Records of English Ancestry. (New York, 1903). pp. 210-212, 332-333, and 335.
Kemble, Harold. "Finding Aid for F. & S.W. Greene." 1986.
Scope and content:
This collection contains the financial records for the partnership, F. & S.W. Greene.
Included are bank books, correspondence, invoice books, a letter copy book, payables, receipts, receivables, sales books, and ship records, 1815-1819. See also the personal correspondence of Samuel Ward Greene (Mss 952) for these years.
Provenance:
These records are believed to have arrived as part of the "Albert C. and Richard W. Greene Collection." The actual date of the accession is not known for sure, but the collection was in hand by the late 1940s. Therefore, the date of 1948 was assigned to the collection.
Inventory:
Volume 1: Accounts current, 1816-1818
Volume 2: Accounts payable and receivable, 1815-1819
Volume 3: Bank book, 1815-1817
Volume 4: Bank book, 1817
Volume 5: Invoice book, 1815-1817
Volume 6: Invoice book, 1816-1817
Volume 7: Letter copy book, 1816-1817
Volume 8: Receipts, 1816-1817
Volume 9: Receivables, 1817
Volume 10: Sales book, 1817, also includes Christopher Greene ledger, 1827-1831 and Elihue Greene ledger, 1831-1832
Box 1, folder 1: Accounts, 1815-1816
Box 1, folder 2: Accounts, 1816
Box 1, folder 3: Accounts, 1816
Box 1, folder 4: Accounts, 1817
Box 1, folder 5: Accounts, 1817
Box 1, folder 6: Accounts, 1818
Box 1, folder 7: Accounts, 1819
Box 1, folder 8: Letters, December 1815 and 1816
Box 1, folder 9: Letters, 1816
Box 1, folder 10: Letters, 1816
Box 1, folder 11: Letters, 1816
Box 1, folder 12: Letters, 1817
Box 1, folder 13: Letters, 1817
Box 1, folder 14: Letters, 1817
Subjects:
Hope Manufacturing Company (Providence, R.I.)
Kent Manufacturing Company (Coventry, R.I.)
Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company (Providence, R.I.)
Greene, Franklin (1780-1864)
Greene, Samuel Ward (1794-1872)
Merchants - R.I. - East Greenwich
Merchants - New York
Potowomut Manufacturing Company (Warwick, R.I.)
Union Dyeing Company (Providence, R.I.)
United States - History - 1815-1861
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RIHS1822