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3. Provenance 5. Inventory 6. Subjects |
Newport and South Kingston, R.I., mariners and sugar refiners Family papers, 1714-1822. Bulk, 1743-1791. Size: 0.25 lin. ft. Catalog number: MSS 954 Processed by: Rick Stattler, May 1995 ©Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Division |
Historical note:
John Rouse (1692-1750) was born one the Isle of Guernsey, in Great Britain. He was a mariner, and emigrated to the Newport, R.I. He had a brother, Thomas ( d.1755), and two sisters Elizabeth Cook and Susanna Stoat who remained in Guernsey. John Rouse married Jane (d. after 1771); they had children Thomas (d.1756), Sarah and Jane (1731-1791). John Rouse was assumed to have died at sea, as was his son Thomas.
The daughter, Jane Rouse, married James Wilson ( -1757), son of Jeremiah. James was a South Kingston sugar refiner. They had two daughters, Jane (1751-1834) and Mary.
A biography of John Rouse can be found in Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, October 1931 and January 1932.
Scope and content:
This collection contains mostly papers of John Rouse and his daughter Jane Wilson. There is a series of interesting correspondence between the Rouses and their kin in Guernsey, 1743-1766, numbering about 27 items. Also included are estate records for Jeremiah, James and Jane (Rouse) Wilson, and John Rouse. There are papers of John Rouse's career as ship captain, including court testimony, a privateer commission for the ship Sarah, and many receipts. There are some receipts for a Richard Swan, who may have boarded the unmarried younger Jane Wilson after her mother's death. Also of interest are two poems written for this Jane Wilson in 1822, one of which provides an account of the great gale of 1815. There are also two receipts from prominent early physician Benjamin Waterhouse dated 1782.
Provenance:
Processing note:
This collection was donated by G. Andrews Moriarty Jr. in 1929, and was at one point pasted into a scrapbook, then removed. It was found in 1995 stuffed into one folder, and was sorted, foldered and boxed.
Inventory:
1. Rouse, John and Jane - Letters from Guernsey
From Elizabeth (Rouse) Cook, 1743-1762 (16)
Susannah (Rouse) Stoat, 1743 and 1763 (2)
William Cook, son of Elizabeth, 1762 (1)
2. Rouse, John - Receipts, 1734-1750
3. Rouse, John - Estate, with genealogical notes, 1749-1774, and copy of Denis Rouse birth certificate, 1699.
4. Rouse, John - Miscellaneous, 1740-1747
Testimony concerning conduct, 1740
Deeds of rights to privateer prizes, 1743 (2)
Land deed, 1743
Commission of ship Sarah as privateer, 1747
5. Rouse, Thomas - Correspondence with Guernsey, 1755-1756
To and from William Brock; To Isaac Dobree
6. Wilson, Jeremiah - Will, 1740
7. Wilson, James - Receipts, 1749-1757
8. Wilson, James - Estate, 1757-1760
9. Wilson, James and Jane - Deeds, bonds, leases, 1752-1762
10. Wilson, Mrs. Jane (Rouse) - Correspondence, 1761-1783
From William Cook of Guernsey, ca. 1762 (3)
To William Cook, 1762 and 1766 (2)
To unknown gentleman of Guernsey, 1762
From Henry J. Marchant, 1772
From Jonathan Stevens, 1783
11. Wilson, Jane (Rouse) - Receipts, 1756-1769.
(includes several from prominent merchant Aaron Lopez)
12. Wilson, Jane (Rouse) - Receipts, 1770-1791
13. Wilson, Jane (Rouse) - Estate, 1791
14. Wilson family - Miscellaneous
Letter, George Wilson to brother James, 1750
Medical recommendations from Wilson's mother Mary Triggs, 1752
Genealogical notes (published in N.E.H.G.R., 69-380)
15. Swan, Richard - Receipts, 1801-1805
16. Miscellaneous:
Unidentified accounts, 1714-1723 (3 leaves)
Deed, John Whitehorn to John Collins of Newport, 1755
Poems, unsigned, 1822, to Jane Wilson (one on gale of 1815, one on Newport in 1819)
Subjects:
Emigration and Immigration - Eighteenth century
Guernsey, Isle of
Lopez, Aaron (1731-1782)
Marchant, Henry (1741-1792)
Rouse, John (1692-1750)
Sarah (ship)
Shipping
Swan, Richard
Waterhouse, Benjamin (1754-1846)
Wilson, James (d.1757)
Wilson, Jane (Rouse) (1731-1791)
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RIHS1822