John Coffin Jones business records

The John Coffin Jones business records consist of correspondence, accounts, legal documents related to investments, and ships' papers, dated 1762-1827.

The records contain papers related to voyages of Jones and his partners to trade commodities including sugar, pepper, turmeric, and cotton in Europe and Asia, endorsement of notes, and several lawsuits in which he was involved over protested bills of exchange.

There is correspondence between Jones and his agents in foreign countries regarding consignment of his goods, letters with partners in shipping and trade ventures, including his brother-in-law Thomas Lee, M.M. Hays (1739-1805) and Henry Jackson (1747-1809), and Jeffrey & Russell. Topics include privateering and condemnation of Jones' ships, the political atmosphere in America and Europe and the impact of war on trade, the market for indigo, cotton, sugar, pepper, coffee, and flour, and insurance of cargo. There is also correspondence regarding lawsuits and disagreements Jones had with Lee and Jackson over settlement of their accounts. Most of the outgoing correspondence from Jones is either copies or drafts of letters.

Jones' financial papers and ships' papers include accounts with other merchants and agents for transatlantic shipping, trade of goods such as hemp, sugar, staves, pepper, spermaceti, and cloth in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Asia, insurance for ships and cargo, and net proceeds from goods consigned to his agents overseas. There are also receipts, invoices, deeds, protested bills, and promissory notes, many of which Jones exchanged with Newport, Rhode Island, insurer Abraham Touro (1777/78-1822), nephew of M.M. Hays. The ships' papers additionally contain correspondence.

There are also court documents, correspondence, and other papers related to lawsuits in which Jones was involved over protested notes. In one case, Jones sued Boston merchant James Swan (1754-1830) for endorsing over to him protested bills of exchange of French Consul General Philippe de Létombe, and he subsequently sued Stephen Higginson & Co. for nonpayment of a bond on the notes. There are also documents from Jones' lawsuit seeking to recover payment from the French government, which was dismissed in court. The Swan and Higginson suits extended to a dispute over commission on cargo, and there are letters to court-appointed referees, including Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814; Harvard AB 1762) about the case. Other legal papers include numbered exhibits used in a lawsuit filed by Jones and business partners Jeffrey & Russell against Philadelphia land speculator James Greenleaf (1765-1843), claiming Greenleaf endorsed over to them fraudulently secured notes, and documents showing Greenleaf settled the case by deeding his shares in land in Georgia and Virginia and interest in the North American Land Co. to the plaintiffs. Jones and Jeffrey & Russell also gained interest in the Bellows Falls Company, which was incorporated by Vermont Congressman Lewis R. Morris (1760-1825) and New Hampshire surgeon William Page (1749-1810) to build canals on the Connecticut River, from Greenleaf.

In addition, the collection contains accounts of Jones' father, Ichabod Jones, also a merchant, and his cousin Stephen Jones, who managed the family store in Machias, Maine.

The collection was rehoused and its original order disturbed in 1942 after it was gifted to Harvard Business School; the records were reorganized in 1949, largely by account name or ship name. This arrangement and folder titles were retained when the collection was processed as part of the Arcadia-funded Colonial North American Project at Harvard University in 2016.