Latimer family.

James Latimer was the founder of the Latimer family mercantile and political interests in America. He settled in Delaware and became one of the founders of Newport in New Castle County. Among his eight children, George (b. 1750) and Henry (b. 1752) are represented in these papers. Henry remained in Newport, while George settled in Philadelphia, Pa. Henry was educated at the College of Philadelphia and then attended medical school in Edinburgh. Returning to Delaware in 1777, he served as a surgeon in the Continental Army. Along with his distinguished career as a doctor, Henry was active in local and national politics. He was a Representative in the U.S. Congress from 1793 to 1795 and a Senator from 1795 until he resigned in 1804. Henry also engaged in mercantile activities with his brother, George, and nephew, James.

Henry and his second wife, Ann Richardson, had five children: Sarah, John Richardson (b. 1793), Mary Richardson, Henry (b. 1799), and James, all born and raised in Newport. When Henry died in 1819, Henry, Jr. and John Richardson served as executors of his estate.

Sometime before 1816, John went to Philadelphia to receive training in a counting house, probably that of his Uncle George. George arranged for John and James, George's son, to enter the China trade. John made his first supercargo voyage to Canton in 1815. From that time until 1838, he made regular voyages between China and his home in Delaware. Profits from the years spent in China allowed him to retire at the age of forty. In 1838, he and his wife, Elizabeth Caldwell Keppele, moved to an estate known as "Latimeria." During his retirement years, John was elected to the Delaware constitutional convention, served as President of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, and was a member of the Executive Committee for the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg. He died at his home in 1865.

Henry, Jr. took an early interest in farming and spent his first working years in the agricultural business. On June 6, 1822, Henry married Sarah Anne (Sally) Bailey, daughter of Joseph Bailey, the president of the Bank of Delaware. They resided near Newport at Woodstock, the family home he had inherited from his father. The following year, Henry became a director of the Bank of Delaware. In 1841, he became president of the bank, a position he held for thirty-one years. He remained active in Delaware affairs until his death in 1885.