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A Colonial Bankrupt: Ebenezer Hancock, 1714-1819

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

W. T. Baxter
W. T. Baxter
Affiliation:
London School of Economics
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Extract

This is the tale of a nonentity and failure. Were it not for the fame of his brother, the great John, we should know nothing of Ebenezer Hancock. As it is, a handful of his papers have been handed down to us, mixed up with the letters of Brother John the statesman and Uncle Thomas the merchant prince. Because he played poor relation to these celebrities, we can follow the life of a mediocre man who would in the ordinary course of events have been utterly forgotten; what is perhaps more interesting, we can trace his ill-starred business doings, which were probably a great deal nearer to the norm than were memorably successful ventures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 1951 , pp. 115 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1951

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References

1 Bates, S. A., Records of the Town of Braintree (Randolph, 1886), p. 784.Google Scholar

2 Paige, L. R., History of Cambridge (Boston, 1877), p. 343.Google Scholar

3 Bostonian Society MSS., March 2, 1761, John Hancock to Rev. D. Perkins; and John to Plbenezer, December 27, 1760, quoted in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 1909–10, p. 194.

4 Suffolk County Probate Records, 13, 484; Hancock MSS., letterbook (Baker Library, Harvard Business School), November 17, 1764.

5 Hancock MSS. (Baker Library, Harvard Business School), especially case 28. For fuller details regarding the machinery of barter, see my House of Hancock, Cambridge, 1945. As a further example of the triangular method of debt settlement, consider Davis' account (Hancock MSS., 20, 1). Davis sold twine and duck to the partners. He got back some of his debt in odds and ends of goods, and also with the help of “my order on you in favour Jos. Hamond for 12 shillings,” i. e., by drawing a bill, for an insignificant sum, possibly payable in kind.

6 Hancock MSS., 23, 4, give much data on the voyage, but not enough for us to find the amount of profit:

From this profit, Gray and the partners would have to deduct expenses that we do not know, viz., the cost of the original “outsets” from Boston.

7 Hancock MSS., 27, 1, Gray's letters of August 5 and September 20, 1767.

8 Boston Public Library MSS., G.41.8. III 142, February 6, 1768.

9 Hancock MSS., 27, 1, April 25, 1768.

10 Hancock MSS., letterbook, February and April, 1768.

11 Hancock MSS., 20, 1, October 14, 1768, Fleet's account.

12 Hancock MSS., letterbook, July 26 and November 21, 1769, Hancock to Hayley.

13 Massachusetts Historical Society MSS., December 29, 1770, Hayley to John Hancock.

14 Boston Public Library MSS. 254, January 11, 1771. Ebenezer had married Elizabeth Lowell in 1767 (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Register, LIV, p. 316), and they had four children (ibid., IX, p. 352).

15 Boston Public Library, Ch.M.1.8. 129, John to Ebenezer, December 5, 1771; Hancock MSS., letterbook, December 12, 1771.

16 Boston Public Library MSS. 272, Warrant dated June 12, 1776; A. E. Brown, John Hancock (Boston, 1898), p. 250.

17 New England Historic Genealogical Society, Register, IX, p. 352, and LIV, p. 316.