Israel Thorndike business records

The Israel Thorndike business records, dated 1740-1899, consist of correspondence, invoices, accounts, legal papers, and spoliation claims related to Thorndike's shipping ventures and partnerships, as well as family correspondence and household accounts. The collection also includes records of the Boston Sugar Refinery, Provident Institute for Savings in Boston, and several other New England merchants.

There are some records dated 1776-1782 concerning Brown & Thorndike's investments in building and financing voyages of privateer ships Black Prince and Pilgrim during the Revolutionary War. Correspondents in the collection include Thorndike's business partners Moses Brown, George Dodge, David Sears (1752-1816), and London agent Thomas Dickason & Co., ship captains William Leech and Tarbox Moulton, and his nephew and supercargo Andrew Thorndike. Letters regard trade and shipment of goods, the demand for certain commodities in Europe, and the East and West Indies, prices current, and market fluctuations and instability caused by ongoing conflict between Britain and France.

In addition, there are correspondence and documents related to the capture of Thorndike's ships by privateers, which increased in occurrence as the Napoleonic Wars continued, and the legal steps taken to recover his property through the British Court of Vice Admiralty and the French government. In the latter case, his estate pursued French Spoliation claims after his death, and there are letters and ships' papers used in court cases attempting to settle those claims.

Invoices, bills, accounts current, and bills of lading in the collection reflect the cargo Thorndike traded and imported, such as pepper, sugar, coffee, cocoa, molasses, and East India goods like nankeens. There are also marine insurance papers, crew lists, and bills from shipwright Enos Briggs (1746-1819), Paul Revere (1735-1818), and other tradesmen for work done building Thorndike's ship Cyrus.

An addenda to the collection contains papers related to the ships Alexander Hodgdon and Cyrus, brigantines Rambler and Fairy, and schooner Three Brothers. These papers, sometimes grouped in wrappers, were kept in original order. There are also assorted business and personal accounts, bills of lading, correspondence, and miscellaneous shipping papers. The addenda further include bills of lading of the New York firm H.L. Routh & Co.; it is unclear if these are connected to Thorndike, his partners, or heirs, although a possible relation is Thorndike associate William Routh.

Additionally, there are personal accounts for the Thorndike family, including tuition bills for his sons, who attended boarding schools like Phillips Academy, Andover, and Phillips Exeter Academy; and charges for private instruction for the children, usually paid by Thorndike's wife, Anna, as well as bills for clothing, shoes, and accessories. There are also bills for tutoring girls not related to the family, most likely the daughters of Thorndike servants and shipmasters.

Papers of wholesale merchant Benjamin Winslow of Boston, and Dudley Hall, of Medford, Massachusetts, as well as papers of the Clifford family of New Hampshire, are mainly dated after the death of Israel Thorndike. Winslow's papers include records for his store in Boston and his railroad investments. Hall's papers contain bills for operating Temple Place, for which he may have been a proprietor or treasurer, and shares in railroad companies. It is unclear how the men were associated with Thorndike, although they may have served as executors of his estate. The Clifford family were merchants and landowners, and their records include deeds and invoices for commodities they purchased.

The records of the Boston Sugar Refinery include prices current for sugar in New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and bills and accounts for refining and shipping sugar products. The records of the Provident Institute of Savings in Boston include bills and invoices for office supplies, furniture, acquiring shares in other banks, salaries for clerks and door attendants, advertising in papers, day labor like cleaning and washing in the office, and repairs to the bank building.