Lot 27
Business
The Professional Network of Philadelphia Attorneys and Merchants
This archive provides a glimpse into the emerging market economy of early national America from the correspondence of Philadelphia attorneys Edward Shippen Burd and Eli K. Price, Philadelphia merchant Daniel W. Coxe, and others.
[EARLY REPUBLIC.] Archive of 55 documents, most Autograph Letters Signed, 4 in French, 1805-1901, majority from 1830s and 1840s. 102 pp., most approximately 8" x 10". Documents have expected folds and toning; a few documents have tears on folds or from breaking seals and holes with the loss of small amounts of text.
Of these letters, 15 are addressed to Edward Shippen Burd, 3 to his wife, 11 to Daniel W. Coxe, and 8 to Eli K. Price.
Edward Shippen Burd (1779-1848) was born in Philadelphia to Edward Burd and Elizabeth Shippen Burd. His aunt Margaret “Peggy” Shippen married Benedict Arnold. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1794. He established a law practice in Philadelphia, where he specialized in property law. Burd married Eliza Howard Sims (1793-1860), a watercolorist, and they had three children. He was also involved in real estate and business ventures, including the Philadelphia Arcade and the Philadelphia Ice Company.
Daniel W. Coxe (1769-1852) was born in Philadelphia and began his career in the Philadelphia firm of his brother Tench Coxe (1755-1824). In 1791, he traveled to New Orleans as the agent of a Philadelphia firm. There he met Irish-born and English-educated Daniel Clark (1766-1813), with whom he formed a partnership in 1793 that lasted until 1811. When Clark died, Coxe received 170,000 acres of land in Louisiana to settle Clark’s debts to him, but Coxe later lost the land after an extensive legal battle with Clark’s daughter and the United States government. In 1800, Coxe married Margaret Burd (1780-1845), the sister of Edward Shippen Burd.
Eli K. Price (1797-1884) was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and began work in a shipping house in 1815. He studied law, gained admission to the bar in 1822, and soon established a reputation as a chancery and real estate attorney. He practiced actively for sixty years, and served as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate from 1854 to 1857.
Excerpts
- Mary Livingston to William Tilghman, June 5, 1824, Manor
“the facility for travelling affords every advantage. We now have a Steam Boat daily, besides the opposition Boat every other day, and the ‘James Kent’ a most splendid vessel, leaves New York at five in the morning & lands her passengers in Albany at five in the Afternoon. The interest in the North River Steam Boat Cause, continues very great. The Chancellor has promised his decision on the 20th of this month. the owners are very sanguine in their expectation of his granting an injunction, against the opposing party; for my humble self, I do not doubt it. he has [?] done so already, and I think the causes which actuated him, and Chancellor Kent before him, will continue to do so. In that case the question must be referred to the Court of Errors; thence, to the Supreme Court of the United States, and three years must be consumed ere the final decision against them can take place.”
Mary Masters Allen Livingston (1776-1855) married Henry Walter Livingston (1768-1810) in 1796, and they had at least six children.
Livingston’s letter references the case of the North River Steamboat, the first commercial steamboat to operate on the Hudson River (then the North River) between Albany and New York City. Robert R. Livingston cooperated with inventor Robert Fulton to construct the boat in 1807. The New York legislature granted them a long-term exclusive license to operate all steam-powered vessels in the waters of New York. Later, Aaron Ogden obtained a license from Livingston to operate ferryboats across the Hudson between New York and New Jersey. When Thomas Gibbons obtained a federal coasting license to ferry passengers from New Jersey to New York City, Ogden asked the New York courts to enjoin Gibbons from continuing. The New York courts issued the injunction, and Gibbons appealed to the federal court, arguing that his federal coasting license trumped New York licensing requirements. When it reached the U.S. Supreme Court as Gibbons v. Ogden, the Court sided unanimously with Gibbons in March 1824, interpreting the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution to give the federal government exclusive control over interstate commerce.
Although Gibbons v. Ogden settled the interstate commerce question, the North River Steamboat Company insisted that it held a monopoly over steam-powered voyages that began and ended in state waters. When John R. Livingston (1755-1851) began operating the Olive Branch between New York and Albany, the North River Steamboat Company filed suit for an injunction against him for violation of their monopoly. Chancellor Nathan Sanford decided on June 14, 1824, not to issue an injunction against Livingston, thus opening up New York waters to steamboat competition.
William Tilghman (1756-1827) served as the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 1806-1827.
Nathan Sanford (1777-1838) served as Chancellor of New York from 1823 to 1826, succeeding James Kent (1763-1847), who held the position from 1814 to 1823.
- Samuel Ringgold Jr. to George M. Dallas, February 1, 1827, Chester Town, Maryland
“Your Notice informing me of a meeting to be held at Mr Kanes office on the second day of February before the auditors appointed by the orphans court to audit & settle the accounts of Samuel Richards surviving Executor of William T Smith, did not reach me untill today I perceive by the Post mark that it was not put in the Office until the 27th which rendered it impossible for me to receive the Notice in time to appear before the Auditors either in person or by counsel which I should certainly have done had I of had due n[otic]e. If there should be any other similar meeting & I can possibly obtain notice in time I will attend.”
Samuel Ringgold Jr. (1796-1846) was born in Maryland, to Samuel Ringgold, a U.S. Congressman from Maryland. In 1818, the younger Ringgold graduated from the United States Military Academy and obtained a commission in the artillery. He developed a military saddle and introduced new artillery techniques, eventually rewriting the army manual for artillery. He served as a Major of Artillery in the Mexican War. He was mortally wounded by cannon fire in the Battle of Palo Alto near modern-day Brownsville, Texas, in October 1846.
George M. Dallas (1792-1864) was born in Philadelphia to future Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of War Alexander J. Dallas (1759-1817). The younger Dallas began a legal career, served as private secretary to Albert Gallatin, and worked for the Treasury Department and the Second Bank of the United States. From 1828 to 1835, he served successively as mayor of Philadelphia, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania Attorney General. He represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate from 1831 to 1833 but did not seek reelection. President Martin Van Buren appointed Dallas as Minister to Russia, a position he held from 1837 to 1839. President Franklin Pierce appointed him as U.S. Minister to Great Britain, and he served in that post from 1856 to 1861.
- Bonsall & Curtis to John Hare Powel, March 11, 1829, Philadelphia
“We have reasons to believe that we can obtain $200 per foot for your lot on North Side of Chesnut Street running back to the Centre Square. We are authorized to sell Mr Caldeleugh’s and Mrs Relf’s adjoining fifty feet at that price and Mr Johnston’s fifty at the corner of Juniper Street at 14 Dollars per foot. We will be perfectly candid and open with you on the Subject, that if the lots can be sold, they are wanted for the Mint Establishment and we think they would be willing to give $200 per foot for the whole front if Mr Johnston’s asking $14 does not prevent the purchase. It would be a very Ornamental Building to the Nehighbourhood.”
On July 4, 1829, officials laid a cornerstone for the second U.S. Mint building in Philadelphia at the intersection of Chestnut and Juniper Streets. Designed by William Strickland, the building was constructed of white marble with classic Greek columns in the front and rear. The building opened in January 1833 and served as the U.S. Mint facility until 1901. It was sold in 1902 and soon demolished.
John Hare Powel (1786-1856) was an American livestock breeder who founded the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society in 1823. He served in the Pennsylvania Senate from 1827 to 1830.
- Louisa Trefusis Rolle to Eliza Howard Sims Burd, December 4, 1830, Bicton, England
“Having heard from a Young person of the name of Elizabeth Lane who has offered to you as Ladies Maid that you wish to receive her Character from me, I beg leave to say I have always considered her a very well conducted & deserving girl, & have taken some pains to get her instructed in the duties of her station. I can say from experience (from her having assisted my maid a good deal last Winter) that she is a very good dress Maker; & I have no doubt after she has had a little more practice, will be a good Hair-dresser.”
Louisa Trefusis Rolle (1794-1885) was the second wife of the much older Baron John Rolle (1750-1842), with whom she shared a love of gardening. Together, they created a grand landscaped garden at Bicton in southeastern England, which became the Bicton Park Botanical Gardens.
- Margaret Goldsborough to Edward Shippen Burd, May 5, 1833, Easton, Maryland, with response of Burd to Goldsborough, May 8, 1833
“I regret to learn that Mr Chew still continues to persist in throwing obstacles in the way of having my uncles estate settled. There is certainly an unaccountable mystery in his conduct and it is the astonishment of every one that he is suffered to act in the way he does.”
Burd: “in reply I beg leave to state that I am doing everything in my power to enable me to distribute Mr Tilghmans Estate with safety to myself. Upon no other principle, can it be expected that I should distribute and upon no other principle am I willing to distribute. I am acting under the advice of Mr. Binney and the other counsel employed, who are well aware of my extreme anxiety to wind up the whole Estate as far as practicable.”
Margaret Tilghman Goldsborough (1795-1863) was born in Talbot County, Maryland, to James Tilghman and Elizabeth Buely Tilghman. Her father was the younger brother of Judge William Tilghman. She married Henry Goldsborough (1792-1832) in 1825, and they had two children before his death.
This correspondence involves the settlement of the estate of Judge William Tilghman. Burd served as the executor of Tilghman’s will.
- Margaret Goldsborough to Edward Shippen Burd, December 17, 1833, Easton, Maryland, with response of Burd to Goldsborough, December 20, 1833
“My feelings have been so deeply wounded at the neglect with which you have treated my last two letters, that I had determined not to subject myself to a similar mortification, but circumstances have occur’d within the last week or two that obliged me to do it, and I trust you will have the goodness and humanity at least to give me an answer. As the Executor of Judge Tilghman my Belov’d uncle, I feel that I have a right to apply to you in any case of emergency, and be assured that nothing but necessity, at this time compels me to write to you. I feel perfectly conscious too, that had the estate have been settled two or three years ago, we might have had the benefit of what our kind uncle intended for us, without perplexing either you or ourselves by writing so frequently.... I have been so truly disappointed in getting money collected, that I really have not the means of supplying my family with what is necessary—the money I receiv’d from you last Spring I loan’d out immediately and of course I could not get that—not to intrude longer on you I would ask the favour of you to send me a check for 3 or four hundred dollars, which at least wou’d answer my present necessities.”
Burd: “I have delayed answering them since their receipt by me under a hope that I might be able shortly to comply with your request, and in order to remove any idea of want of personal respect or attention, I now address you these few lines. I am endeavouring to put the Estate in such a position as that very shortly you will have the benefit of all that you may be entitled to, but cannot now make a remittance which I much regret.”
- Richard Lloyd to Isaac Elliott, ca. 1830s, n.p.
“Maria Lloyd Tilghman (mentioned in my uncles will as Maria Lloyd Hemsley) William Hemsley (my Niece & Nephew) & myself are the only heirs left to one 5th. You will remember that my Share of the Intestate Property was one 10th the 10th equally divided between my niece & Nephew.”
Richard Lloyd’s uncle was Judge William Tilghman, the brother of his mother Elizabeth Tilghman Lloyd (1754-1799).
- Thomas Gordon to Daniel W. Coxe, July 5, 1836, Trenton, New Jersey
“I have for some time past been of the opinion, speculations in property in and about cities were carried on to too great an extent, but it still appears to be wending its way—one successful speculator, excites the ambition of others, and these again others in arithmetical progression. It is difficult to say to what extent it may be carried, but I still believe, here and in other places it is going on too rapidly to last much longer—the markets must be nearly supplied and a retrogation, as in other things when over done must be the consequence.”
The concerns of Trenton surveyor and mapmaker Thomas Gordon were prophetic. The Panic of 1837 began ten months later, caused in part by excessive speculation, and plunged the United States into a major recession until the mid-1840s.
- John Delafield to Daniel W. Coxe, May 2, 1837, New York
“Without examining closely the Amt of paper sent to us for Collection, I am satisfied that Mr Mervilles estimates are Correct, the whole Course of that institution entitles it to the highest Credit and attention. With these opinions you may judge how painful must have been our position, when declining to pay the Checks of so valuable a Correspondent as the Agricultural Bank [of Natchez]. The necessity of the Case will be at once apparent when I state that the a/c of the Agril Bk. is overdrawn to the extent of about $70000, and that collections paper recd for acc of that Institution has been protested & returned during the month of April amounting to $103,000.”
John Delafield (1786-1853) was cashier and then president of the Phenix Bank from 1821 to 1838, when he was forced to resign.
- Horatio Allen to Philip Garrett & Andrew M. Eastwick, April 17, 1838, New York
“As I am not in possession of a plan of the Engine of which you have sent me the specification, I can only form an opinion of its similarity to that To make this plan of engine successfull in practice, arrangements not specified in the schedule are indispensable, which were introduced in my engine and every one of the objects fully realised.”
Horatio Allen (1802-1889) was a graduate of Columbia University and a civil engineer and inventor. In 1829, he assembled and operated the first steam locomotive to run in the United States, the Stourbridge Lion, for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company in Pennsylvania. From 1838 to 1842, he was the principal assistant engineer for the Croton Aqueduct, the major water supply system for New York City. He later worked with the New York Novelty Works, which built marine steam and other engines; served as chief engineer and president of the Erie Railroad; and consulted on other railroads and engineering projects.
- A. M. de Tousard to Edward S. Burd, July 5, 1840, Paris, France
“Paris is almost deserted by the fashion[able?] world, it is almost discreditable to be seen in Paris at this season of the year.”
- Daniel W. Coxe to Edward S. Burd, August 12, 1841, Philadelphia
“I can assure you our City was never healthier than it has been throughout the late hot weather, & it is decidedly safer that the Country at this season excepting a few mountain & sea shore establishments.”
- James Zacharie & Company to Daniel W. Coxe, May 14, 1842, New Orleans
“Within the last two weeks we have been kept in a great state of excitement by our Banks, growing out of their settlements between each other, as by the last Law of our Legislature, it was made the duty of the Banks to settle their weekly balances, but the manner of doing it, was not exactly pointed out, but at a meeting of the Bank Presidents shortly after, the Union (which was the last to accept the law,) had done so, it was agreed that all settlements, between the Banks should be made in Specie, but on the first settlement it was found that the Citizens Bank, (which had heretofore been considered very strong) and the Commercial had lost nearly all their Specie, and if continued would not have a dollar left in their vaults on a second settlement.... We think you need be under no apprehensions in regard to the safety of your Notes in the State Bank.”
- Robert C. Gist to Eli K. Price, June 9, 1842, St. Louis, Missouri
“I have received notice from Richd Peters Esqr commissioner appointed to settle the estate of Jacob Alter who is an applicant for the benefit of the Bankrupt Law, requiring me to prove my acct vs Taylor Dewey & Co. between the 13th & 20th Inst. As I have transmitted to you the evidences of their indebtedness to me, I must request you to attend to the matter for me immediately upon receipt.”
- Walter C. Livingston to Edward S. Burd, May 29, 1845, Philadelphia, with response of Burd to Livingston, July 26, 1845, Maidstone, Kent, England
“I applied a few days since to your Agent Mr E. K. Price for the inspection of a paper which I supposed you might have left with him but which he informed me was not among those you had entrusted to him.... I shall look for your reply by one of the fast steamers.”
Burd: “I have not the paper you allude to, with me. But in Consequence of another afflicting dispensation of Providence, which I experienced yesterday, in the loss of my beloved Daughter Elizabeth I shall proceed to Liverpool forthwith, whence I shall embark for Philada in the first packet & will then give you every satisfaction in my power.”
Elizabeth Burd (1815-1845) died on July 25 in Maidstone, Kent, England, and was buried there but later moved to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church cemetery in Philadelphia.
- James Gillingham to Eli K. Price, October 2, 1847, Pottsville, Pennsylvania
“I have received a lengthy proposition from Benjamin Potts and Alexander Sillyman, containing propositions for Renting the four Tracts of Land the property of Reeves & Matlack, for the purpose of mining Coal. But had not the Men have been such as all interested would like to negotiate with, I should have put a Veto thereon without consulting thee. They ask a Lease for 20 years on all the Land, the use of the Saw Mill, Timber, &c.... They to have the exclusive right to search for Coal for one year. They ask that Doctor Philips be put aside with his right of search, whatever it may be. As the Season is far advanced they would wish to commence operations forthwith. Thee will please reply to this as early as convenient.”
James Gillingham (1768-1865) was one of the first members of the Society of Friends in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and his house was a stop on the underground railroad for African Americans escaping from slavery in the South to Canada. He voted for George Washington for President and for Abraham Lincoln and at every presidential election in between.
- James Gillingham to Eli K. Price, April 24, 1849, Pottsville, Pennsylvania
“Some Months since, I received a Letter from Thos Matlack, making objections to Wm Stephenson’s assigning his Lease to a third Person, and proposing that he should name a price that he would take, for your consideration. This was not done at that time. He now offers to sell it for $400.00.... By refering to the Lease, thee will see what privileges are given.”
- Joseph Ogden to Eli K. Price, March 14, 1851, Woodbury, New Jersey
“Thomas A. Reeves has for some time past paid me the Interist on the Bonds I hold against the Estate of Thomas Reeves Junr. But now refers me to thee for payment. Now will thee be so good as to pay it into the Camden Bank Office.... And when done report to me. If thee wishes when I come to town I will caul and se thee.”
Joseph Ogden (1775-1863) was a Quaker and owned a hotel in Woodbury, New Jersey, where he served as president of the State bank for a time.
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