Historical note:

            Rowland Hazard (1763-1835) was the son of Thomas "College Tom" Hazard (1720-1798) and Elizabeth Robinson of South Kingstown, R.I. He entered a mercantile partnership in 1789 with his first cousin John Robinson Jr. (1767-1831) of Charleston, South Carolina. Peter Ayrault was admitted to the partnership in 1794, which then became known as Hazard, Robinson & Co. By 1796, business was being transacted under the name of Hazard & Ayrault. This partnership was dissolved around 1803. Hazard continued financing merchant voyages for most of his life, often trading with his older brother Thomas "Bedford Tom" Hazard Jr. (1758-1828). His trade was largely along the Atlantic coast and the Caribbean, with Charleston, New York and Rhode Island serving as hubs, and his cargo included everything from salt to spermaceti oil to cheese. Hazard seems to have been a substantial merchant, although not one of the largest of his day. He suffered serious financial setbacks around 1807, when several of his ships were captured by French privateers acting under the Decrees of Berlin and Milan.

            In 1802, Hazard began to invest in the textile industry, acquiring a half interest in a South Kingstown fulling mill, and in 1804 a carding machine in the same location. This was the beginning of the Narragansett Cotton Manufacturing Company. After 1810, Hazard's son Isaac P. Hazard came to play an important role in this business. In 1819, Isaac and another son, Rowland G. Hazard, took full control of this company and developed it into the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, which became one of the dominant businesses in southern Rhode Island.

            In 1819, Hazard settled in Pleasant Valley, N.Y. as his primary residence, where he resided until his death. He continued to travel frequently to South Kingstown and Charleston for both family and business reasons. He sold his financial interest in the business to his son Isaac in 1821.

            Rowland Hazard married Mary Peace (1775-1852) in 1793. The village of Peace Dale was named in her honor. She was the daughter of merchant Isaac Peace and Elizabeth Gibson, who were both originally from Barbados, but settled in Charleston, S.C. Mary was raised in Charleston, and spent a year studying in London as a girl. Her family eventually relocated to Bristol, Pennsylvania, and the Hazards spent a great deal of time there. Mary was in Bristol almost exclusively from 1807 to 1820, helping to care for her aging father until his death. The nine children were also raised in Pennsylvania to a large extent. Mary and Rowland's children were as follows:

Isaac Peace Hazard (1794-1879), bachelor, active in mills.

Thomas Robinson "Shepherd Tom" Hazard (1797-1886), historian, spiritualist. Six children.

Elizabeth Gibson Hazard (1799-1882), spinster.

Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801-1888), two children, active in mills.

William Robinson Hazard (1803-), married, eight children

Joseph Peace Hazard (1807-1892), bachelor, spiritualist.

Isabella Wakefield Hazard (1809-1838), spinster

Mary Peace Hazard (1814-1874), spinster

Anna Hazard (1820-1905), spinster

Bibliography:

Bagnall, William R. The Textile Industries of the United States... (Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1893), volume 1, 283-292.

Cole, J.R. History of Washington and Kent Counties... (New York: W.W. Preston & Co., 1889), pages 494-496.

Hazard, Joseph P. Note on inside cover of his 1822 cyphering book in subgroup 13.

Hazard, Thomas R. Recollections of Olden Times (Newport, R.I.: John Sanborn, 1879), pages 189-191.

Robinson, Caroline E. The Hazard Family of Rhode Island 1635-1894 (Boston, Mass.: published for author, 1895)

Return to top

Scope and content:

            This collection includes much of Rowland Hazard's mercantile correspondence and financial records. Interspersed with these records are a smaller amount of personal papers. As Hazard spent most of his life in business partnerships with several family members, the line between personal and mercantile is impossible to draw precisely. There is very little material from Hazard's wife Mary, other than a terse diary she kept in 1788 as a girl in London. Some of the later bills are in her name.

            The collection also includes deeds, agreements and other legal documents. Many of Hazard's memorandum books in box 1, folder 23 include accounts with Afro-Americans or Native Americans from 1807 to 1812, including cuddy Marks, Hannah Cuddimunco, Ruth and Cato Brown, and "Betty (Black Girl)." Of particular interest is a bill of sale for a slave that Hazard's partner Peter Ayrault purchased in Charleston.

            Two additional boxes of Rowland Hazard's papers can be found in the archives of the James P. Adams Library at Rhode Island College. Several volumes of business ledgers relating to his mercantile partnerships and to his Peace in-laws can be found at Harvard University's Baker Library. A single 1794 letter to Mrs. Rowland Hazard can be found at the Newport Historical Society. An Isaac Peace receipt book dated 1778 to 1783 is held by the University of South Carolina.

Return to top

Provenance:

            The bulk of these papers were donated by the Hazard family as part of the Hazard Family Papers in 1985; they had been deposited in 1975 and 1983. Several items had previously been donated by Caroline Hazard in 1945, including the Mary Peace diary. A substantial bundle of Hazard & Ayrault and Hazard & Robinson records were donated by the Peace Dale Library in 1980; most of these items are marked "#80-6-24". The two daybooks dated 1797-1805 and 1809-1818, and possibly other papers, were donated in 1973 by the John Carter Brown Library.

Return to top

Processing note:

            This collection is part of the Hazard Family Papers, which were processed with support from the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, the Beinecke Foundation, and the extended Hazard Family.

            This collection was originally half-processed circa 1985. It was reorganized in its present form in 1997 with the assistance of the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities.

Return to top

Inventory:

Series 1: Correspondence.

Includes many letters written to Hazard's various partnerships. Arranged chronologically.

Box 1, folder 1. 1787-1790

Box 1, folder 2. 1791-1793

Box 1, folder 3. 1794 - January

Box 1, folder 4. 1794 - February

Box 1, folder 5. 1794 - March to May

Box 1, folder 6. 1794 - June to September

Box 1, folder 7. 1794 - October to December

Box 1, folder 8. 1795

Box 1, folder 9. 1796

Box 1, folder 10. 1797

Box 1, folder 11. 1798-1799

Box 1, folder 12. 1801-1804 (none from 1800)

Box 1, folder 13. 1805-1808

Box 1, folder 14. 1811-1818 (none from 1809 or 1810)

Box 1, folder 15. 1820, 1822-1823 (none from 1819 or 1821)

Box 1, folder 16. 1824-1825

Box 1, folder 17. 1826-1831

Box 1, folder 18. 1832-1835

Box 1, folder 19. Undated

Box 1, folder 20. Letter book, Hazard & Robinson, 1789-1791

Box 1, folder 21. Letter book, 1824-1826

Series 2: Account books. A wide variety of bound financial records.

Box 1, folder 22. Bank account, 11/1794-4/1795. Hazard, Robinson & Co.

Box 1, folder 23. Cash journals:    1805-1812

                                                            1809-1810 (with one page of 1804 bank accounts)

                                                            1809-1813 (with Newport bank accounts 1803-1805)

                                                            1813-1814 (sugar / tea sales)

Box 1, folder 24. Cash journals:    1815-1817

                                                            1820-1823

                                                            1833-1835

Box 1, folder 25. Daybook, 1797-1805. Hazard & Ayrault.

                        Includes accounts with mill spinners and weavers.

Box 1, folder 26. Daybook, 1809-1818. Includes mill and store accounts.

Box 1, folder 27. Farm accounts, 1838-1839. Mary Peace Hazard.

Box 1, folder 28. Ledger, 1791-1798. Hazard & Robinson; Hazard & Ayrault. Indexed.

Box 1, folder 29. Ledger, 1795. Hazard & Ayrault. Indexed.

Box 1, folder 30. Memoranda book, 1792-1795

Box 1, folder 31. Milling and farm accounts, 1831-1835. New York.

Box 1, folder 32. Receipt book, 1790-1794. Hazard & Robinson.

Box 1, folder 33. Receipt book, 1824-1835. Pleasant Valley, N.Y.

Box 1, folder 34. Waste book, 1813. In very poor condition.

Box 1, folder 35. Weaver's accounts, 1806-1808.

Series 3: Loose accounts. Receipts, bills, memoranda and other miscellaneous financial documents. The majority obviously relate to mercantile ventures, but there are also personal accounts interfiled.

Series 3, subseries 1: Hazard & Robinson.

Box 1, folder 36. 1790-1792

Box 1, folder 37. 1793

Series 3, subseries 2: Hazard, Robinson & Co.

Box 1, folder 38. 1794

Box 1, folder 39. 1795

Box 2, folder 1. 1796-1797

Box 2, folder 2. Undated

Series 3, subseries 3: Hazard & Ayrault.

Box 2, folder 3. 1796-1797

Box 2, folder 4. 1798

Box 2, folder 5. 1799

Box 2, folder 6. 1800-1804

Box 2, folder 7. Undated

Series 3, subseries 4: Rowland Hazard. On his own account. Earlier personal ventures are interfiled with the partnership records.

Box 2, folder 8. 1800-1802

Box 2, folder 9. 1803-1804. Including household accounts.

Box 2, folder 10. 1805-1807

Box 2, folder 11. 1808

Box 2, folder 12. 1809

Box 2, folder 13. 1810-1811

Box 2, folder 14. 1812

Box 2, folder 15. 1813

Box 2, folder 16. 1814

Box 2, folder 17. 1815

Box 2, folder 18. 1816

Box 2, folder 19. 1817

Box 2, folder 20. 1818

Box 2, folder 21. 1819

Box 2, folder 22. 1820-1822

Box 2, folder 23. 1823

Box 2, folder 24. 1824

Box 2, folder 25. 1825

Box 2, folder 26. 1826

Box 2, folder 27. 1827

Box 2, folder 28. 1828

Box 2, folder 29. 1829

Box 2, folder 30. 1830. Includes household accounts from New York.

Box 2, folder 31. 1831-1832. Includes household accounts from New York

Box 2, folder 32. 1833-1836. Includes household accounts from New York

Box 2, folder 33. Undated.

Series 3, subseries 5: Narragansett Cotton Manufacturing Company.

Box 2, folder 34. 1807-1820

Series 4: Peace family papers Papers relating to Mary (Peace) Hazard (wife of Rowland Hazard) and her parents.

Box 2, folder 35. Letter, Francis Gibson to sister Elizabeth (Gibson) Peace, 1/11/1775. With typed transcript.

Box 2, folder 36. Isaac Peace diary / weather journal, 1797-1804 (formerly cataloged as diary of Thomas "Nailor Tom" Hazard, but clearly not)

Box 2, folder 37. Isaac Peace papers, 1763-1815:

                                    Deed to Samuel Woolston, 1763

                                    Account with Hanbury & Gosling, 1773-1782

                                    Will, 1811

                                    Account with Joseph Peace, 1815-1816

Box 2, folder 38. Mary Peace diary, written in London, 1788.

Box 2, folder 39. Mary Peace cyphering books (2), circa 1790.

Box 2, folder 40. Letters received by Mary (Peace) Hazard, 1794-1842

Series 5: Miscellaneous. Land records and other documents.

Box 2, folder 41. Articles of agreement 1793-1797 (listing ship crew members):

                                    Sloop Industry, 11/1793

                                    Brig Industry, 9/1794

                                    Ship William, 2/1795 and 8/1797

Box 2, folder 42. Bonds, 1795-1806

Box 2, folder 43. Deeds, New Shoreham (Block Island) land, 1806-1811

Box 2, folder 44. Deeds, North Kingstown land, 1826-1835

Box 2, folder 45. Deeds, South Kingstown land, 1778, 1800-1819

Box 2, folder 46. Deeds, South Kingstown land, 1820-1831

Box 2, folder 47. Deeds, misc.

                                    South Carolina land, 1805

                                    Dutchess County, N.Y. land, 1832

Box 2, folder 48. Deeds of property: 

                                    Sloop Union, 1826

                                    Schooner Experiment, 1817

                                    "Negro wench Leah and Negro girl Charlotte", 1795

                                                (from John Grove Taylor of S.C. to partner Peter Ayrault)

                                    "Black Man by the name of Cesar", 1793 (fragment)

Box 2, folder 49. Diary page, undated, unsigned. Travels in Massachusetts.

Box 2, folder 50. Leases of land, 1789-1835

Box 2, folder 51. Mercantile agreements and memoranda, 1789-1812

Box 2, folder 52. Navigation book, 1797-1799. Lists dates of sailing, masters, destinations.

Box 2, folder 53. Partnership agreements:Hazard & Robinson, 1789

                                                                        Hazard, Robinson & Co., 1796 (2)

                                                                        Hazard & Ayrault dissolution, 1803 (2)

Box 2, folder 54. Petitions: re Peace Dale Lyceum, undated

                                                re Peace Dale school house, 1829

Box 2, folder 55. Power of attorney certificates, 1790-1804

Box 2, folder 56. Miscellaneous:

Poem, "To the Memory of Gideon I. Wanton, Addressed to His Sister", by Amy ___, Newport, 1787. Transcribed for Rowland Hazard by cousin M. Robinson.

            Ship's protest, Havana, 1800

            Newspaper clipping of national statistics, 1807

            Memo on birth of Isabella Wakefield Hazard, 6/3/1809, Bristol, Penn.

            Codicil to will of Rowland Hazard, 1823

            Warrant for arrest of Stephen Oatley, 1823

            Probate summons, 1835

Return to top

Subjects:

Afro-Americans

Ayrault, Peter

Diaries - 1788

Diaries, 1797 - 1804

Gibson, Francis

Hazard, Mary (Peace) (1775-1852)

Hazard, Thomas Jr. (1758-1828)

Hazard & Ayrault

Hazard & Robinson

Merchants - South Carolina

Narragansett Manufacturing Company

New York - Commerce

Peace, Isaac

xPeace, Mary. See Hazard, Mary (Peace)

Robinson, John Jr. (1767-1831)

South Carolina - Commerce

Textile industry - Rhode Island - South Kingstown

End of finding aid - return to top

RIHS1822