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Collection

Jonathan Murduck account book and memoranda, 1803-1805 (majority within 1804-1805)

1 volume

This volume contains financial records, patient records, and memoranda related to the affairs of Jonathan Murduck, who sailed to Calcutta, India, in 1803, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1804-1805. Accounts pertain to goods shipped on the Louisiana in 1804, Murduck's personal purchases at Port-au-Prince, and medical consultations for ships' officers at Port-au-Prince. Memoranda concern medical cases and trade between the United States, the Caribbean, India, China, and Sumatra.

This volume contains almost 200 pages (numbered 15-212) of financial records, patient records, and memoranda related to Jonathan Murduck, who sailed to Calcutta, India, in 1803, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1804-1805. Accounts pertain to goods shipped on the Louisiana in 1804, Murduck's personal purchases at Port-au-Prince, and medical consultations for ships' officers at Port-au-Prince. Memoranda concern trade between the United States, the Caribbean, India, China, and Sumatra, and medical cases.

Groups of financial accounts, medical records, and memoranda overlap throughout the volume. The earliest dated sections, which appear toward the back of the volume, pertain to an 1803 voyage to Calcutta, India; these include Murduck's financial records, a list of items purchased in Calcutta, a list of books, a list of personal objectives for the voyage, and an account of the author's daily routine. The volume contains essays on trade between Philadelphia and Calcutta, Sumatra, and "Cochin China" (pp. 194-210), as well as "Notes for [a] History of yellow fever" (p. 211). Pages 106-107 contain a recipe for a wood varnish. Other memoranda and notes concern the market at "St. Domingo," trade between the United States and the Caribbean, the effects of the French Revolution on Hispaniola, and the trade of tortoiseshell, sage, and nitre or saltpeter.

The bulk of the records pertain to Jonathan Murduck's finances and medical practice at Port-au-Prince in late 1804 and early 1805, including an invoice of items shipped on the Louisiana in October 1804, expenses related to the Louisiana, Murduck's personal financial accounts, accounts of private expenses, and records of sales and purchases of goods such as coffee. Medical records list the names of captains and other officers treated at Port-au-Prince, as well as the costs of medicines and/or consultations. Two case studies refer to patients afflicted with gonorrhea. A fragment laid into the volume also concerns medical cases, and the final page contains a pasted-in fragment containing "Notes for a Letter to Dr. Rush" concerning prevailing diseases in Port-au-Prince.

Collection

Leckie family papers, 1794-1808

50 items

The Leckie family papers document the business activities and relationships of Alexander Leckie and his sons, who traded dry goods between England, the United States, and the Caribbean around 1800.

The Leckie family papers contain 44 letters, 3 ledgers, 2 inventories, and a receipt, spanning 1794-1808. The materials primarily document the business activities of the Leckies, who traded dry goods between the United States, England, Jamaica, and Haiti. The correspondence contains many details on the nature of an ambitious mercantile business and matters affecting it during this period. These include political disruptions that threatened trading, especially in Santo Domingo (August 31, 1797), insurance of cargoes, the suitability of certain kinds of goods for specific markets (August 5, 1797), and the types of materials bought and sold, such as cloth, groceries, soap, and candles. The inventories provide further specifics on types of items and prices.

The letters also reveal family relations and their repercussions on the business. In their correspondence, the Leckie brothers frequently quarreled with and chastised one another. They found particular fault with Alexander, who, according to his brothers, made a number of bad contracts (April 7, 1795), as well as an "unfortunate and premature attachment" to a young woman in Virginia (December 28, 1795). In a letter of February 4, 1802, George discussed Alexander's enormous debts ("Alexander could not be indebted at New providence in any less sum than 100.000 Dollars"). Despite this, all three remained in the business at least until 1808.

William Leckie's letters, in particular, show him to be a keen observer of society. In a letter of August 15, 1802, he described the rapid growth of cotton as a crop, the construction of Washington, D.C., and his views on the American social and political scene. His comments on the growing tensions over slavery in the south would prove prophetic: "I have thought that two circumstances are likely to operate at possibly no very distant day to the disadvantage of this happy Country, the first is the great laxity of morals & religion…The other is the increasing quantity of blacks…who are all natives & many of whom can read & write, these will perhaps prove the bane of all the Southern States & by their struggles for freedom involve nearly one half of the Union in Civil Wars."