Scottish merchant and Tory, of Hale's Ford (Franklin Co.), Va. Letters, papers, and mercantile records of Hook; of the mercantile firm of Bowker Preston, Hook's son-in-law, and Smithson H. Davis at Goose Creek, Bedford Co., Va.; and of a similar firm of Asa, Smithson H., and Alexander G. Holland and John D. Booth at Hale's Ford and Germantown, both in Franklin Co., the Holland family apparently being connected with the Hook family by marriage. John Hook's papers consist of daybooks, ledgers, letter books, and memoranda of his mercantile firm and its branch stores, as well as plantation and land records of his extensive holdings and genealogical materials. There is also information concerning sequestration proceedings brought against him by David Ross, a former business partner. The records span the last quarter of the eighteenth century and document the American colonial and post-revolutionary trade system. Records of Bowker Preston and Smithson Davis concern the operation of their mercantile firms, 1813-1830, and include information on goods purchased in Philadelphia, New York City, and Richmond and Lynchburg, Va., and on the tobacco trade in Virginia, especially the effects of the panic of 1819. Records of the Holland family consist of merchants' correspondence, ledgers, account books, and daybooks.
