The Remarkable Rise of Eliza Jumel (50 page)

6
. Ibid., 15.

7
.
New-York Gazette & General Advertiser
, January 12, 1805, [3] (announcement). BM 710-J, second inventory, filed December 17, 1836, reveals that Desobry had a one-third share in the business and Stephen retained two-thirds.

8
. Silvia Marzagalli, “Guerre et création d'un réseau commercial entre Bordeaux et les États-Unis, 1776–1815. L'impossible économie du politique,” in
Guerre et économie dans l'espace atlantique du XVIe au XXe siècle
, eds. Silvia Marzagalli and Bruno Marnot, Actes du colloque international du Bordeaux, October 3–4, 2003 (Pessac: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2006), 385.

9
. The most common alternative port that he used was San Sebastián, in Spain. My assessment of the scope of his trading activities is based primarily on a careful reading of shipping reports that appeared in American newspapers between 1799 and 1814. These reports are accessible through the
America's Historical Newspapers
database (Readex).

10
. See, for example, purchases listed in NYHS-BV Jumel, as well as NYHS-JP, box 4, folder [6], certificate of goods delivered to Pedro Queheille by the brig
Sally Tracy
, which departed New York for San Sebastián on November 28, 1808. For the use of American beeswax in Europe to make candles, see “American beeswax,”
Albany Argus
, December 13, 1869, [2].

11
. See, for example, the certificate of goods delivered to Pedro Queheille and a certificate of May 2, 1811, listing goods to be shipped to Bordeaux by Stephen Jumel on the schooner
Maria Louisa
(both in NYHS-JP, box 4, folder [6]).

12
. My
summary of Stephen's imports is based on dozens of shipping reports printed in New York newspapers between 1799 and 1814 that detail the cargoes he received.

13
. Silvia Marzagalli, “The failure of a transatlantic alliance? Franco-American trade, 1783–1815,”
History of European Ideas
34, no. 4 (December 2008), 463.

14
.
New York Gazette and General Advertiser
, September 17, 1805, [2];
New York Gazette and General Advertiser
, August 2, 1805, [2].

15
. NYPL-Letter Book, July 6, 1808, to Batard, Sampson, & Sharp; August 23, 1808, to Samuel Ward.

16
. NYPL-Letter Book, August 4, 1808, to John Perry [
sic
]; August 4, 1808, to Batard, Sampson, & Sharp;
North American and Mercantile Daily Advertiser
, June 2, 1808, [3] (the latter article notes the exoneration of the cargo, but states that the brig was carried into Portsmouth rather than Plymouth).

17
. NYPL-Letter Book, August 4, 1808, to John Perry [
sic
].

18
. “An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States,”
New-York Evening Post
, December 26, 1807, [2].

19
. New York City Works Progress Administration Writers' Program,
A maritime history of New York
. (1941; repr., Brooklyn, NY: Going Coastal, 2004), 87.

20
. NYPL-Letter Book, October 26 and December 5, 1808, to F. Philippon Jr.

21
. NYPL-Letter Book, December 5, 1808, to Captain Berry.

22
.
New-York Gazette and General Advertiser
, February 11, 1809, [3]; “Government look out,”
Augusta
[GA]
Chronicle
, March 11, 1809, 2 (reprinting information from the
New York Public Advertiser
).

23
. Heaton, “Non-importation,” 185.

24
. Ibid., 192.

25
.
New-York Commercial Advertiser
, August 3, 1809, [3].

26
. NYPL-Letter Book, April 14, 1810, to Gordon S. Mumford.

27
. Ibid.; Heaton, “Non-importation,” 193.

28
.
Commercial Advertiser
, February 1, 1811, [3];
Poulson's American Daily Advertiser
, February 14, 1811, [3].

29
. NYHS-JP, box 4, folder [2], James Berry to Jumel & Desobry, January 19, 1811.

30
.
New-Hampshire Gazette
, April 3, 1811, [3].

31
.
Repertory
, July 30, 1811, [3].

32
. Mary Elizabeth Ruwell,
Eighteenth-century capitalism: The formation of American marine insurance companies
(New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1993), 99.

33
.
New-York Gazette & General Advertiser
, May 7, 1803, [3];
New-York Gazette & General Advertiser
, May 14, 1811, [1].

34
. NYPL-Letter Book, August 3, 1809, to Skiddy.

35
. NYPL-Letter Book, August 17, 1809, to Skiddy.

36
. NYPL-Letter Book, January 17 and February 16, 1810, to Skiddy.

37
. NYPL-Letter Book, June 21, 1810, to Batard, Sampson, & Sharp.

38
. NYPL-Letter Book, August 18, 1810, to Batard, Sampson, & Sharp.

39
. E.g., Philippon Jr. and Baron Jr. in New Orleans, Mr. Coquillon in Savannah, François Depau in Charleston, Soulage V. André in Norfolk, J. Bujac in Philadelphia, Martin Foäche in Havana. These names were gleaned from NYPL-Letter Book and Jeanne Chase, “War on trade and trade in war: Stephen Jumel and New York maritime
commerce (1793–1815),”
Bulletin du Centre d'Histoire des Espaces Atlantiques
, nouvelle série, no. 4 (1988), 128.

40
. See the NYPL-Letter Book for many letters to Pery. There his name is spelled “John Perry,” but I have used the French form of the name throughout for the sake of consistency.

41
. E.g., a letter of September 15, 1820, to Monsieur Perry [
sic
] fils ainé, in NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 6, letter book of Stephen Jumel.

42
. NYPL-Letter Book, August 4 and September 12, 1808, to John Perry [
sic
].

43
. NYPL-Letter Book, October 7, 1809, to John Ducasse, October 9, 1810, to Charles Wright.

44
. NYPL-Letter Book, April 16, 1810, to Walter Bowne and John Delafield; November 15, 1810, to Walter Bowne, the Colombian Insurance Company, and John Delafield.

45
. “Further disasters by the late storm,”
Connecticut Courant
, January 8, 1812, 3; NYHSAHMC, Jumel, Stephen, wardens' certificate recording a sale of damaged goods from the
Maria Louisa
, January 23, 1812.

46
. NYHS-JP, box 4, folder [5], Pedro Quehuille to Jumel and Desobry, February 7, 1813, with added note of April 30, 1813.

47
. BM 710-J, examination of Eliza B. Burr, December 17, 1836; NYPL-Letter Book, November 21 and 24, 1808, to John Phelan; August 18 and September 5, 1808, to Thomas B. Cook; Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford Bridge Company Record Book, 1809–1850, Ms 32203, vol. 1.

48
. New York County, Land and Property Deeds, Liber 297:86–88; Liber 94:206–8; Liber 96:330–33, and Liber 89:435–41; B-779, box 112, deposition of Nelson Chase.

1
. Advertisement for the New York and Albany Mail Stage, in
American Citizen
, January 4, 1810, [1].

2
.
Moreau de St. Méry's American journey
, 96 (see chap. 8, n. 3).

3
. 1876 Bill of Complaint, letter 24.

4
. Shelton, 3–4, 17.

5
. Ibid.,
chapters 3
and
6
.

6
. Ibid., 128–31.

7
. Ibid., 134.

8
. Ibid., 135–36.

9
. New York County, Land and Property Records, Liber 88:79-86; NYHS-BV Jumel, entry for March 13, 1810. They purchased lots five, seven, and nine through fifteen.

10
. New York County, Land and Property Records, Liber 88:86–92.

11
. For the property lines as described in this paragraph, see J. B. Holmes,
Map of the Jumel, Murray, Burrill, Dickey and other estates showing the farm lines as they existed 100 years ago and the present streets, drives and boulevards
, 1887 [NYPL, NYC Farm Map 44]; C. J. Hunt,
Map of property in Harlem formally belonging to the Bowers, Smedes, Benson, Bussing, and other estates, showing the topography [
sic
] old roads, lanes &c. as they existed 100 years ago and the present streets, boulevards, drives &c.
, March 1887 [NYPL, NYC Farm Map 46].

12
.
New-York Daily Gazette
, March 24, 1792, [4].

13
. Ibid.
(for all quotations in this paragraph).

14
. “Rambles in the environs. Fort Washington,”
The New-Yorker,
June 1, 1839, 167.

15
. NYHS-BV Jumel, entries for January 13, 1813; November 1813 (sometime between November 2 and November 5, but the exact date is not recorded); and November 27, 1813.

16
.
Mercantile Advertiser
, December 7, 1814, [4].

17
. Ibid.

18
.
New-York Gazette & General Advertiser
, October 8, 1810, [2].

19
.
Mercantile Advertiser
, December 7, 1814, [4] (for all details in this paragraph).

1
. [Anne Newport Royall],
Sketches of History, Life, and Manners, in the United States
(1826; repr. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970), 242 (for all quotations in the paragraph).

2
. New York County, Lands and Property Records, Deeds, Liber 97:394–97.

3
.
Minutes of the Common Counsel of the City of New York 1784–1831
, vol. 7 (New York: The City of New York, 1917), 136.

4
.
New-York Gazette & General Advertiser
, August 18, 1814, [2] (advertisement).

5
. Although referred to as “new” in 1814, the only references to it in Stephen's receipt books (NYHS-BV Jumel, entries for April 25 and September 8, 1814) are suggestive of upgrades rather than a major building campaign: payments for painting, installing windows, and ironwork.

6
. For a business venture he engaged in with Stephen in 1808, see NYPL-Letter Book, James B. Durand to Jumel & Desobry, December 6, 1808. For his inventory a few years before he moved to 150 Broadway, see
New-York Commercial Advertiser
, February 24, 1807, [2] (advertisement). 150 Broadway is identified as his home address in the city directories from 1818/19 to 1820/21. Thereafter his home address is not provided, but a letter from Stephen to Eliza indicates that he was still their tenant in 1829 (MJM 98.12, Stephen Jumel to Eliza Jumel, January 22, 1829).

7
.
New-York Gazette & General Advertiser
, August 18, 1814, [2] (advertisement for the property). His business is listed at 150 Broadway in the city directories from 1813/14 through 1816/17.

8
. Stephen paid the Manhattan Company $8.75 for a year's worth of water deliveries beginning May 1, 1814. See NYHS-BV Jumel, entry for January 21, 1815.

9
. Stephen's intention not to return to the United States is clear from comments in later letters, e.g., NYHS-JP, box 1, folder 3, Stephen Jumel to Eliza Jumel, June 6 and November 9, 1818.

10
. The information in the subsequent paragraphs on the books Eliza checked out comes from the following source: New York Society Library, Circulation Ledger, 1814–1815. Where the specific edition Eliza read could be identified, I have cited it. Most of the identifications were made using the 1813 catalogue of the library's collections (
A catalogue of the books belonging to the New-York Society Library; together with the charter and by-laws of the same
[New-York: Printed by C. S. Van Winkle, 1813]). For Eliza's membership in the library, see New York Society Library, Shareholder Payments, 1807–1814.

11
.
Alf
Von Duelman
[
sic
];
Or, the History of the Emperor Philip and his daughters
, translated from the German by Ms. A. E. Booth (London, 1794). Although the book is not listed in the 1813 catalogue of the library, other readers, including Jane Schermerhorn and Anna Maria Schieffelin, checked it out in 1814 and 1815.

12
. Patrick Bridgwater,
The German gothic novel in Anglo-German perspective
(Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi, 2013).

13
.
Pliny the Younger's letters, from the Latin, with observations
, by the Earl of Orrery (London, 1752);
Pliny the Younger's letters, with occasional remarks
, by W. Melmoth (London, 1786).

14
. Joseph F. Kett and Patricia A. McClung, “Book culture in post-revolutionary Virginia,”
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society
94, no. 1 (Jan 1, 1984):123, 128, and table 5.0.

15
. The circulation ledger refers to “Racine 2d” [i.e., second] rather than “2ème” [i.e.,
deuxième
], implying that she checked out volume 2 of an English rather than French set, but this may have been the fault of a clerk unfamiliar with French numbering. The 1813 catalogue of the library's collection contains only a French and not an English edition of Racine's plays: the three-volume
Oeuvres de J[ean] Racine
(Paris, 1755). The library owned
Racine's Letters to his Son
as well, but this was a single volume, not a multivolume set.

16
.
Mercantile Advertiser
, Dec. 30, 1814, [2] (advertisement). The work, titled
Paul and Virginia
, was probably the eponymous three-act opera by Joseph Mazzinghi and William Reeve, which opened at Covent Garden in 1794.

17
. Charles Drelincourt,
The Christian's consolations against the fears of death …
(Edinburgh: Printed by A. Murray & J. Cochran, 1771).