Cope family. Papers, 1787-1908.
Title:
Papers, 1787-1908.
Business papers include captains' letters, cargo books, bills of lading, disbursement vouchers, passenger lists and tickets, bills for ship maintenance, seamen's articles of agreement, orders for wages, and various other papers. Additional series in this section consist of "domestic letters," 1844-1884, requesting steerage tickets, together with some instructions for shipping materials. "Foreign letters," 1854-1863, are mostly from Tapscott, Smith & Co., Cope's passenger agents in Liverpool. Brown, Shipley & Co. acted as assignee and agent in Liverpool, and there is a group of Brown, Shipley & Co. letters, 1829, 1836-1874, reporting on unloading, sales, and loading of goods, and market conditions. There are further miscellaneous financial papers, cancelled checks, passenger certificates and lists. The Cope family section contains random correspondence and other papers of several members: Thomas P. Cope correspondence concerning the charter and location of Haverford School, 1831, the commission to enquire into the best means of conveying merchandise from the wharves to the Broad Street rail road, 1835, and the Irish Relief Committee, 1847; Thomas P. Cope receipt books, 1789-1792, 1806-1810; Francis Reeve Cope incoming letters from James S. Cox concerning the state of Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company affairs, 1867, and from others concerning later personal and philanthropic business, 1902-1903; Francis R. Cope personal receipt book, 1847-1892, Penn Normal and Agricultural School, S.C., contribution records, 1901-1908, and receipted bills, 1906; sundry family estate papers with letters and documents concerning property in Dauphin, Centre, and Susquehanna Counties; Pleasant family estate account books, 1838-1862; letters from Rebecca Drinker, Samuel Reeves and his heirs regarding payments from estate monies. The Reeves letters have further interest because of the story they tell of Samuel C. Reeves, from the witnessing of his father's death, through a troubled adolescence, to his adult struggles with drinking and finding occupation. The bulk of the section of papers from related families appears as a result of Francis R. Cope's marriage to Anna S. Brown, daughter of Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Moses Brown were commission merchants in textiles and other "domestic goods" coming to them primarily from Boston, Providence and New England mills, but also from Wilmington and Baltimore. The incoming correspondence, 1814-1819, and invoices, receipted bills, and accounts, 1815-1819, are from manufacturers among whom are: Almy, Brown & Slater, Providence; Lyman, Tiffany & Co., Boston; David Our & Co., Wilmington; and Sterling Manufacturing Co., Providence. Occasional letters from purchasers and a small group of letters from Moses to Jeremiah concern the sale of merchandise to western Pa., Ohio, Kentucky and other markets of the interior. Later Brown family papers consist of Susan S. Brown diary, 1893-1909, recording her medicinal treatments, and cancelled checks, 1885-1896. Henry Sandwith Drinker correspondence, 1787-1810, with his father Henry Drinker and his father-in-law James Smith reveals continuing disputes between the families, seemingly inspired by young Drinker's financial incompetence.
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12 lineat ft.
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