Samuel Abbot business papers

The Samuel Abbot business papers consist of 46 volumes of daybooks, journals, ledgers, cash books, receipt books, sale books, and letter books, as well as correspondence, accounts, bills of exchange, and legal records, dated 1754-1819.

The bulk of the collection concerns Abbot’s store and import business and his partnership with stepson John Kneeland in Samuel Abbot & Co., and Kneeland’s management of his Boston affairs and investments after Abbot moved to Andover. There are also family accounts, letters, and legal papers, including bills of sale for boys and men enslaved by Abbot, and bills and receipts for household service and other labor on his Andover house and farm.

The financial papers contain accounts current, invoices, bills, and receipts from British agents and merchants through whom Abbot imported dry goods and other manufactures to Boston, including Harrison Ansley & Co., Hayley & Hopkins, and Trecothick & Thomlinson. There are also orders to Abbot from New England merchants and retail customers for dry goods, indigo, molasses, spices, chocolate, hardware, and other merchandise from his store, and their accounts current and settled. Abbot had business or corresponded with a number of Sons of Liberty from Boston, and there are multiple accounts with John Hancock (1737-1793; Harvard AB 1754), attorney Josiah Quincy (1744-1775; Harvard AB 1765), and physician Joseph Warren (1741-1775; Harvard AB 1759). Other Boston merchants in the collection include Thomas Hancock (1703-1764), J. & J. Amory, Cyrus Baldwin (1740-1790), and Melatiah Bourn (1722-1778).

Additional records include bills of exchange, memoranda of notes purchased and sold, deeds to land in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, agreements, bonds, powers of attorney, and attachments of goods to Abbot stemming from legal action against debtors.

There are also records from Abbot’s tenure as an Overseer of the Poor in Boston and as Andover town treasurer, receipts for his financial contributions to the Continental Army, and accounts related to his support of the First South Parish Church.

Abbot’s letter books contain copies of his outgoing correspondence to other merchants and customers. Loose correspondence in the collection primarily consist of letters to Abbot from Kneeland, George Abbot, Jr., and other family, friends, and merchants, regarding orders from his store, settling accounts, Abbot’s investments in land and securities, the economy and current events, and personal and household matters, including the sale and deaths of people enslaved by the Abbots, and the hire of free black men as servants. There are a number of letters regarding Abbot’s investment in a property in New Hampshire known as Monadnock No. 4, later the town of Acworth, and his dealings with Sampson Stoddard (1709-1777; Harvard AB 1730), a storekeeper in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, who held the rights to the charter.

Other frequent topics are the 1764 Boston smallpox epidemic, the Townshend Acts and the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the war’s impact on trade and on the poor in Boston, and fiscal and monetary policies enacted by the Massachusetts General Court and the Continental Congress, particularly related to debt and currency. Letters after the war reference activities of politicians and government officials, and local and national elections, as well as the federal debt and Congress’ demands against states, economic conditions in Massachusetts, Shay’s Rebellion, and the Jay Treaty.

Letters from Kneeland to Abbot in Andover largely concern his management of Abbot’s investments in various types of notes and certificates, and collection of debts outstanding to Abbot & Co., the national banking system, and his opinions on legislative intervention in the economy. Letters from people delinquent in their accounts with Abbot reference varied challenges they faced in paying creditors, namely they could not collect their own debts and had no way to obtain money. They often instead proposed using deeds to their land, houses, or other property as security on the collateral. Abbot engaged lawyers to pursue claims against a number of these accounts in court, and there are letters from attorneys, including Pelham Winslow (1737-1783) of Plymouth, James Bridgham (1741-1783) of Brimfield, and Robert Auchmuty (1725-1788) of Boston, about actions taken on Abbot’s behalf, dealing with estate administrators, and discharging deeds awarded to Abbot in successful lawsuits.

Letters from merchants often assured Abbot and Kneeland they would settle their accounts after their own businesses recovered and they resumed importing goods from the West Indies and Europe. There are also letters to Abbot and Kneeland from their British creditors, seeking payment after the war concluded, including Mary Hayley (1728-1808), a London merchant and the widow of George Hayley of Hayley & Hopkins.

Among the correspondents from Massachusetts were Samuel Phillips, Jr. (1752-1802; Harvard AB 1771), merchant and founder of Phillips Academy in Andover; potash manufacturer and merchant Ephraim Starkweather (1733-1809) of Rehoboth; Joseph Kellogg of Chatham; Haverhill merchant John White; Salem merchants Daniel King and Matthew Mansfield; David Cutler of Newbury; Joseph Morrill of Biddeford; Samuel Emerson of Plymouth; Samuel Lethbridge of Wrentham; Nathaniel Cudworth of Sudbury; Colonel John Mosely of Westfield; and Newburypurt shipping merchant Caleb Tappan. There are also letters from Samuel Hobart (father of Kneeland’s first wife Ann), Jacob Jewett, Amos Fisk, and John Hale of Hollis, New Hampshire; Henry Prescott of Newcastle, New Hampshire; Joshua Moody of Falmouth, Maine; Joseph Nash of Providence, Rhode Island; and Henry Daggett of New Haven, Connecticut.

Letters to Abbot from his relatives generally relate to illnesses, social activities, and travel. Kneeland’s son, Samuel Abbot Kneeland, writes about his studies and living situation at Harvard College; Stephen Abbot, an officer in the Continental Army, often reported on events during the Revolutionary War. Abbot’s in-laws Samuel (circa 1720-1813) and Prudence Penhallow (circa 1730-1810) of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, also were frequent correspondents.