Guide to the John Brown Papers , 1743-1829

Rhode Island Historical Society
121 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
Tel: 401-273-8107
Fax: 401-751-7930
email: reference@rihs.org

Published in 2009

Collection Overview

Title:	John Brown Papers
Date range:	1743-1829
Creator:	Brown, John, 1736-1803
Extent:	1 linear foot
Abstract:	John Brown (1736-1803) was born in Providence, R.I., the fourth son of merchant James Brown II (1698-1739) and Hope (Power) Brown (1702-1792). He began his working life in partnership with his three brothers (Nicholas, Joseph and Moses) and his uncle as Obadiah Brown & Co., a mercantile firm that traded in rum, slaves, molasses and other goods. The firm was renamed Nicholas Brown & Co. after the death of Obadiah in 1762.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	Rhode Island Historical Society
Collection number:	MSS 312

Scope & content

The bulk of this collection consists of correspondence, much of it with family members. As these papers were gathered from several different sources, few of them are actually letters addressed to Brown. Many are letters Brown sent to his son James, his daughter Sarah (Brown) Herreshoff, or his son-in-law John Francis. Only a small portion of the correspondence deals directly with Brown's mercantile concerns.

Also included are deeds, a few scant business records, "cyphering books" in which Brown practiced his school lessons, many of his estate papers, and miscellaneous papers of his widow.

Among the more interesting items are a 1790 letter written by future president John Adams expressing his great annoyance that Rhode Island had not yet ratified the U.S. Constitution; and a long series of letters in which John Brown attempts to impart business precepts and other rules for living to his son James.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Adams, John, 1735-1826
• Brown, James, 1761-1834
• Brown, Moses, 1738-1836
• Francis, Abigail (Brown), 1766-1821
• Francis, John, 1763-1796
• Herreshoff, Sarah (Brown), 1773-1846

Subject Organizations

• Brown family

Subject Topics

• Cyphering books - 1749-1755
• Merchants - Rhode Island - Providence
• Rum industry - Rhode Island
• Slave-trade - Rhode Island - Providence

Geographical Names

• China - Commerce
• Providence, R.I. - Commerce
• West Indies - Commerce

Subject Topics

• Rhode Island/Local Interest

Arrangement

• Series 1: Correspondence and documents
• Series 2: Maritime business records (formerly called Merchant Marine)
• Series 3: Estate records
• Series 4: Family records and miscellaneous

Historical note

John Brown (1736-1803) was born in Providence, R.I., the fourth son of merchant James Brown II (1698-1739) and Hope (Power) Brown (1702-1792). He began his working life in partnership with his three brothers (Nicholas, Joseph and Moses) and his uncle as Obadiah Brown & Co., a mercantile firm that traded in rum, slaves, molasses and other goods. The firm was renamed Nicholas Brown & Co. after the death of Obadiah in 1762. This firm in turn dissolved in 1774, and John Brown went into business on his own account. He briefly took on his son-in-law, John Francis, as a partner in 1792, until Francis' untimely death in 1796.

John Brown was among the leading American merchants and businessmen of his day. He remained active in the slave trade and in distilling rum. He was the first Rhode Island merchant to break into the lucrative trade with China by sending the General Washington to Canton in 1787. The ship was one of the first American vessels to arrive in China. Along with his uncle Moses Brown, he led the merchants in Providence to found the Providence Bank in the early 1790s. John was elected the first President of the bank in 1791. John Brown also came into possession in 1795 of 210,000 acres of land in the Adirondacks in New York State which he and his heirs spent considerable time and money trying to develop. His home on Power Street was described by John Quincy Adams as "the most magnificent and elegant private mansion I have ever seen on the continent."

In addition to his mercantile activities, Brown was active in many civic circles as well. He was an ardent patriot, helped organize the famous burning of the British ship Gaspee in 1772, and served as a civilian on a wide variety of committees during the war. He served in the Continental Congress from 1784 to 1785, and as a United States Representative from 1799 to 1801. He was active in the First Baptist Church, and was treasurer of Rhode Island College (later Brown University) for 21 years. He also promoted the construction of the Washington Bridge across the Seekonk River at Fox Point in 1793, and supervised the paving of city streets.

Brown's involvement in the slave trade took many forms. He had been involved through ownership of slave vessels for most of his life, beginning with shares in his family's Wheel of Fortune in 1759 and Sally in 1764. He began investing outside of the family in slave ships in 1769, and was a partner in several voyages before his death, though the trade was never at the center of his business. Beyond owning vessels, Brown was also a vocal supporter of the slave trade, defending it in the press and in Congress, often in direct conflict with his abolitionist brother Moses Brown (1738-1836). In 1797, he was the first Rhode Islander, and quite possibly the first American, to be tried under the Slave Trade Act of 1794. Though he was acquitted of criminal charges, his ship Hope was forfeited and placed at auction. He beat another prosecution in 1798. In 1799, Brown and others personally paid a call upon Samuel Bosworth, the Surveyor of the Port of Bristol, warning him not to take part in an auction of a slave ship the next morning. Bosworth ignored the thinly veiled threats, and while walking to the auction the next day this federal employee was kidnaped and deposited two miles down the bay. This effectively intimidated the officials, and effectively put a halt to local enforcement of the Slave Trade Act.

John Brown married Sarah Smith (1738-1825) in 1760. They had six children: James IV (1761-1834); Benjamin (1763-1773); Abigail (1764-1766); another Abigail (1766-1821); Sarah (1773-1846); and Alice (1777-1823).

James, the only surviving son, never married, and never developed a taste for the family business. Abigail married John Francis (1763-1796), who was briefly in partnership with John Brown. Sarah married Charles Frederick Herreshoff (1763-1819), who was briefly involved in the Brown family business and lost large sums of money on its behalf. Alice married James Brown Mason (1775-1819), a physician and U.S. Congressman.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	Use restricted to the microfilm version published as Papers of the American Slave Trade, Series A: Selections from the Rhode Island Historical Society, Part 1: Brown Family Collections by University Publications of America, 1998. A copy of the microfilm set is available in the Reading Room at the RIHS Library, Call No. E445 .R4 pt.1. It is also available at the Rockefeller Library at Brown University and many other libraries around the country.
Use of the materials:	Researchers are advised that express written permission to reproduce, quote, or otherwise publish any portion or extract from this collection must be obtained from the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Preferred citation:	John Brown Papers, MSS 312, Rhode Island Historical Society
Contact information:	Rhode Island Historical Society 121 Hope Street Providence, RI 02906 Tel: 401-273-8107 Fax: 401-751-7930 email: reference@rihs.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The bulk of this collection arrived in several gifts and deposits by family members Henry A.L. Brown and Norman Herreshoff between 1965 and 1976. Other smaller gifts from 1840 onward have also been integrated with this collection. More details on the provenance of this collection can be found in a note in the collection file at the repository.
Processing information:	This collection was first processed in 1978 by Nathaniel Shipton. Starting in 1995, the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization at Brown University, in partnership with the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and the Rhode Island Historical Society, conducted a two year collaborative project to arrange, describe and catalog records relating to the Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island. The John Brown Papers where reprocessed at that time as part of the Brown Family Papers Project which was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. At that time, one item listed in the 1978 inventory, a memorandum book dated 1772-1774, could not be located; it was likely returned to a depositor. In 1996, 17 letters and a diary relating to Sarah (Brown) Herreshoff were transferred to the Herreshoff-Lewis Family Papers, though letters between her and her parents were kept in the John Brown Papers.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Rick Stattler.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Mark Chepkwony 2009 June 24
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Bibliography:

The Chad Brown Workbook; A Continuing Family Genealogy of the Descendants of Chad Brown. 2nd edition. Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1987. Hedges, James B. The Browns of Providence Plantations: Colonial Years. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1952. Rogers, L.E., ed. The Biographical Cyclopedia of the Representative Men of Rhode Island. Providence: National Biographical Publishing Co., 1881. 51, 189.

Inventory

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