Letterbook, 1775-1781.

ArchivalResource

Smith, Paschal Nelson. Letterbook, 1775-1781.

Letterbook, 1775-1781.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122559281

Consists of 708 copies of letters written in several hands relating to the business and personal affairs of Paschal Nelson Smith from July 1775 to August 1781. The correspondence indicates that a large part of the business included the selling of shares in and/or the outfitting of privateers as well as the sale and dispersal of their commodities. Much of it involved sending merchant ships out with cargo to be exchanged at various ports of call for goods or hard currency. Many of the letters were written to captains of particular boats directing them where to go and telling them what cargo to take on. Scattered throughout the letters are references to current events such as military movements in New England and New York, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the enlistment of Isaac Sears in the Colonial Army, actions of the Colonial Legislature, the decline in value of paper money, and the effects of British embargoes and blockades on commerce. Correspondents include Benedict Arnold, Hannah Arnold, Rebecca Smith Aspinwall, Horatio Gates, John Grenell, James Jarvis, Henry Knox, Lewis Morris, John Ramsay, David Sears, Isaac Sears, Henry Smith, Oliver Smith, and Baron von Steuben.

1 microfilm reel.

Winterthur Library