Overview
John Moulton was a shipmaster from Wehnam, Massachusetts, who commanded voyages for merchants including Israel Thorndike and Moses Brown. The John Moulton business papers consist of correspondence, shipping records, and personal papers, dated from 1778 to 1823, and some papers of his son, Augustus Moulton (1809-1886), dated from 1832 to 1835.
Dates
- Creation: 1779-1835 (inclusive)
Creator
- Moulton, John (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Materials stored onsite. Please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information.
Extent
1.75 linear feet (1 legal document box, 1 flat box)The John Moulton business papers consist of correspondence, shipping records, and personal papers, dated from 1778 to 1823, and some papers of his son, Augustus Moulton (1809-1886), dated from 1832 to 1835.
The records include correspondence with merchants and agents in the United States and Europe, invoices, customs documents, shipping articles, manifests, and protests related to voyages on vessels John Moulton captained, including the brigantines Mary and Nancy, and ship Reward. Carrying the cargo of Massachusetts merchants Moses Brown (1742-1827), Israel Thorndike (1755-1832), and Edmund Kimball (1762-1847), Moulton sailed to South Carolina, the West Indies, and Europe, trading rum, lumber, sugar, tobacco, and other dry goods. There are also letters from Moulton to Exeter, New Hampshire, merchant Benjamin Boardman, and legal documents related to the capture of the brig Nancy, which the two men co-owned, by privateers off Cape San Antonio, Cuba, in 1798, and records related to the capture of the Reward in 1806 near Malta.
Additionally, there are personal receipts of John Moulton for payments for clothing, travel expenses, and day labor; deeds and legal records, some of which were possibly related to his term on the Wenham Board of Selectmen; letters from Moulton to his second wife, Sally, dated 1803-1805; and a few receipts for taxes and goods, and accounts of Moulton's son, Augustus.
Biographical Note:
John Moulton was born in Wenham, Massachusetts, in 1762. Moulton was underage at the start of the Revolutionary War, but around 1776 he was permitted to join the Continental Army as a substitute for his father. After the war, he became a shipmaster, commanding voyages to the West Indies and European ports, and trading goods including lumber, tobacco, and rum for Beverly and Newburyport, Massachusetts, merchants. Moulton sometimes held a stake in the ship or its cargo. Two of the vessels he captained, the Nancy and the Reward, were separately captured by privateers in 1798 and 1806, respectively. Moulton owned a stake in the Nancy and her cargo, which were confiscated in Havana, Cuba, and he attempted to recover his losses until several years before his death.
Later in his life, Moulton was also a farmer in Wenham and a member of the town board of selectmen.
Moulton married his first wife in 1782, and they had one son, John, Jr., born in Beverly in 1788. She died three months later. John Moulton, Jr., died in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1801, while he was acting as a cabin boy for his father. Two subsequent marriages, to Sally Springer and Mary Bailey, produced eight more children, including Augustus (1809-1886).
John Moulton died of dysentery in 1824.
Physical Location
MANU
Provenance:
Purchase, 2014.
Accession no. M-14-007
Digitization Funding
Collections and items have been digitized with the generous support of The Polonsky Foundation.
Processing Information
Processed: September 2016
By: Brooke McManus
Preservation and description were supported by the Arcadia-funded Colonial North American Project at Harvard University.
Creator
- Moulton, John (Person)
- Title
- Moulton, John, 1762-1824. John Moulton Business Papers, 1779-1835 (inclusive): A Finding Aid
- Author
- Baker Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- bak00298
Repository Details
Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.
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