This collection (51 items) is made up of financial records and correspondence related to merchants William and Robert Thompson of Thompsontown, Pennsylvania. The bulk of the collection is made up of receipts, invoices, and similar documents addressed to the Thompson brothers, particularly Robert, from 1815-1826. Most of these records pertain to purchases of various kinds of goods from merchants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; a smaller number of items relate to periodical subscriptions. Among the goods that the Thompsons bought were tobacco, oils, and shoes. The collection's early items largely consist of financial documents sent to William and Robert's father, also named William, as well as a newspaper clipping listing US exports between October 1800 and September 1801. A small group of correspondence includes personal letters to Robert Thompson; one correspondent wrote about the distribution of election tickets in Mexico, Pennsylvania (October 20, 1816).
William Thompson (1755-ca. 1813) and his wife, Jane Mitchell, had nine children: John, William, James, Robert, Isaac, Samuel, Sarah, Jane, and Elizabeth. The elder William Thompson owned a store in Thompsontown, Pennsylvania, in the early 1800s; after his death, the business was managed by his sons William and Robert. William and Robert Thompson frequently purchased goods from Philadelphia merchants from the mid-1810s to the mid-1820s.
