[SUBSTANTIAL ARCHIVE OF MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DELANO FAMILY SHIPPING BUSINESS] by [Delano, Benjamin]: [Delano, Joshua] - 1798-1870].

[Various locations in Massachusetts, mostly Kingston and Boston, plus other locations such as Plymouth, Halifax, and New Orleans, 1798-1870].. 192 manuscripts documents, ranging from 2 1/2 x 6 inches to 12 x 7 1/2 inches, including a handful of partially-printed forms. Occasional staining and foxing, a few small holes, but overall very good. An interesting and informative collection of documents relating to the shipping activities of Benjamin and Joshua Delano, members of a prominent New England shipping family. The Delano shipping business was based in Kingston, Massachusetts, where Delano's Wharf, built by Benjamin in 1803, still stands. The lion's share of the documents present here pertain to Benjamin Delano. The documents are primarily account sheets, invoices, and receipts, mostly for the purchase of a wide variety of products, and date mainly from before 1844. It is a vital record of an important New England family's business dealings during the early years of the developing American nation.

The products bought, services paid for, and occasional items sold by the Delanos include gin, port wine, brandy, duck, cast iron pumps, lead pipe, chain, nails, sugar, tea, fish, ivory knives, forks, paper, quills, pencils, mahogany boxes, bird's eye maple, flour, sweet oil, belaying pins, block pins, bread, felt hats, barrels of cordial, coffee, pork, beef, rum, salt, metal, sewing twine, tobacco, molasses, shoes, boots, chickens, turkeys, hogs, veal, corn, and more.

The merchants with whom the Delanos trade are numerous and include Luther Briggs, James Fuller, John R. Bradlee, Nathan Carruth, John M. Marston, William Fisk, George Dana, Solomon Washburn, Joseph Clark, Abner Alden, Rufus Ripley, Parker H. Pearce, Charles Cobb, Joseph Foster, Charles Bartlett, Josiah Robbins, Jacob Hall, Lysander Bartlett, Josiah Thatcher, Abraham Quincy, William Humphrey, and others.

The receipts are sometimes made out to "Captain" Benjamin or Joshua Delano. An interesting receipt from April 1801 signed by Benjamin Delano notes that he paid $200 for his brother Joshua regarding a "Voyage to Martinico." On November 4, 1804, Benjamin paid $13 to Samuel Dickson for painting a schooner. Benjamin bought flour and molasses from John Kennedy of Boston on April 6, 1805. On April 7, 1806, Benjamin enumerated a freight shipment from Boston to Kingston of nine staples such as molasses, coffee, and flour, and also "wharfage," "truckage," currency exchange, and commissions. In February 1839, Benjamin purchased pantaloons, a double-breasted vest, and the requisite thread, buttons, and linings from a Kingston merchant named Justus Harlow. On April 24, 1838, Benjamin paid $7.50 for five days work to Philander Sampson. The documents pertaining to Benjamin are all in a similar vein.

One document records that on December 27, 1799, Capt. Joshua Delano purchased a litany of products from Samuel Harris, including gin, lisbon wine, wine glasses, oil, mustard, tobacco, sugar, and soap. There is also an accounting sheet listing expenses for Joshua Delano in 1801, including a schooner to Martinico, the same voyage mentioned above for which Benjamin paid $200. The accounting sheet also lists purchases from Joshua for coffee, rum, labor for unloading ships in Boston, and other business expenses. Five folio pages from New Orleans in 1864 detail the costs associated with maintaining a schooner called the Island Bell in Havana. As with many American shipping companies, the Delano family made a fair trade in the West Indies.

A deep and valuable collection of original manuscript documents relating to an important Massachusetts shipping firm in the first half of the 19th century, worthy of further research.