This collection consists of 22 letters that Bermuda merchant Hezekiah Frith wrote to Frances and Thomas Darling, his daughter and son-in-law, and 2 letters to the Darlings from Thomas's cousin, Noyes Darling. Frith composed his first 6 letters to Thomas Darling, who lived in New York, while living with his daughter Frances and her newborn son in New Haven, Connecticut, from October 24, 1807-November 15, 1807. He shared family news and voiced his concerns about the possibility of war between the United States and European countries. By May 8, 1808, he had returned to Bermuda, where he wrote the remaining letters. Frith often discussed the effects international economic developments, such as the Embargo Act of 1807, on the local availability of food and other goods, occasionally illustrating his arguments by including prices. He wrote twice during the War of 1812 (October 28, 1812 and March 20, 1813) and continued to comment on economic matters until 1831, after which most of his letters concentrated on family news, particularly regarding his children and grandchildren. Of his letters, he addressed 17 to Thomas, 4 to Frances, and 1 to both; 3 of the letters addressed to Frances were written after 1831. The remaining items are 2 letters to Thomas Darling from his cousin, Noyes Darling, who wrote about the Greek writer Xenophon (August 15, 1806) and his inability to take in Joseph, the Darlings' son (February 29, 1820).
Hezekiah Frith was born in Bermuda in 1763, the son of William Frith and Sarah Lee. William Frith was a sailor and salt trader, and Hezekiah, like several of his siblings, also became a shipping merchant. Following the American Revolution, several of the brothers formed a partnership, trading goods between Bermuda, the West Indies, and the United States. Hezekiah Frith dissolved the partnership after his first marriage and opened a store on the Salt Kettle peninsula. During the Anglo-French Wars of the 1790s, he became a notorious and financially successful privateer, though he later lost much of his wealth. He eventually returned to his career as a merchant, settling in New Haven, Connecticut, where he worked with his son-in-law, Thomas Darling. Hezekiah Frith had three wives: Mehitabel Geary, Sarah Johnson, and Ann Marischal Keith ("Nancy"). He died in Bermuda in 1848.
After graduating from Yale in 1803, Thomas Darling worked as a wholesale merchant with the New York City firm McGregor & Darling. He married Frances Frith (1788-1871) in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1807, and they had 9 children: Joseph Frith, Ann Frances (1811-1886), Mehitabel, Thomas, Mary, Clarinda, Harriet, Susan, and Helen.
