Deepening of debt problems: Analysis of debt questions: The English South Whale Fishery: Brief history of British whaling: Whaling connections: Gathering destruction of the convict service: The death of Rebecca Campbell: Financing the American Revolution:

 

The Blackheath Connection

Chapter 17

 

The deepening of debt problems:

 

    "Prisoner problems" spread in English society like ink in water. The old problem of lack of a police force was reconsidered. Jonas Hanway kept himself busy writing The Defects of the Police. (London. 1775. (Reprinted as The Citizen's Monitor. London, 1780). ([1])

 

    Before 1775, Campbell had been a conservative member of the London merchants dealing with the tobacco colonies. But he was the only one of them who was also deeply involved in West India trade on his own account. Between 1773 and 1775, the American radical in London, William Lee, and others using Wilkesite tactics succeeded in splitting the political unity of London's American merchants. ([2]) Olson notes, Campbell became one of influential London "core group". By 1778, Olson writes: ([3]) "Gradually the North American mercantile lobby came under the leadership of Duncan Campbell... who had abandoned the camp when it momentarily fell under Wilkesite leadership in 1775." Of a total of seventeen, Campbell was one of six Virginia signers of a petition to Parliament in 1778 requesting that, if negotiations for peace were begun, the Americans would be required to pay their debts in full, and another of 1782 requesting the same of the Earl of Shelburne. Legal mechanisms in the US for addressing the Creditors' debt matters did not exist till July 1790, and from the Creditors' points of view were slow to adjust to use.

 

     In 1775, London's top seven tobacco importers were William and Robert Molleson, ([4]) Christopher Court and Thomas Eden, Lyonel Lyde and Co., Dunlop and Wilson, Gale, Fear and Co., Wallace, Davidson and Johnson. And various firms "other and unknown", including Campbell's, which accounted for 44.3 per cent of the trade overall. ([5]) By 1774, reports Olson, ([6]) even the largest firms had no more than 2-3 senior men, often family-linked, and with the levels of colonial indebtedness there were limits to the number of clients they could handle. This indebtedness meant they could not easily  jettison inconvenient clients, so there seemed little point in Americans shifting their business due to political considerations or favouritism. In short, debtors and creditors were tied to each other.

 

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      Olson seems mystified as to why Campbell dropped out of London-American merchant politics during a crucial period, late 1774, and apparently ignored his fellow merchants? The reason was that his wife Rebecca had died, 7 December, 1774, leaving him with a motherless new-born, Little Duncan, and other young children. (By 25 January, 1775, Duncan's brother Neil was sitting as amanuensis by Duncan's sickbed as they wrote to Rebecca's brother John on Jamaica... the expected stop on remittances from America would make it difficult to pay [Duncan and John's] creditors in London... Duncan wished John and Duncan's own daughter Henrietta, who was then visiting Jamaica, to come to London to assist following Rebecca's death.) ([7])

 

    On 24 November, 1774 ([8]) one of Campbell's colonial correspondents, William Fitzhugh, wrote to James Russell warning of local "incendiaries" in the colonies. In December 1774, letters passed from Molleson to Lord Dartmouth. Olson suggests, in December 1774, London's merchant lobby failed to act quickly, when news of the latest decision of the Continental Congress on the non-importation of British goods reached London, On 19 December, 1774, the Wilkesite members of the core-group committee wanted a mass meeting of merchants and other Londoners set for 23 December, when they probably wanted to present a pro-America petition. ([9]) They figured, the wealthier conservatives would be on their holidays in the country. But on the day of the meeting for 23 December, a conservatives' wing, Blackburn, Barclay and Champion (Campbell being disarrayed by his wife's death), put an advertisement in a paper, calling another meeting for 4 January, 1775. So the conservatives finally dominated the meeting. A middle-position wing consisted of Samuel Athawes, John Sargent, Brigden, Norton, and Russell, who arranged for a conservative, the respected and by now-aged Lane, to preside, to get supportive letters from outports, and to prepare a non-Wilkesite petition. (Barclay by now was also an investor in the South Whale Fishery.)

 

     During January 1775, William Lee attempted to call mass meetings for a Wilkesite review of the debates set within a with a public forum, but Campbell, Athawes and Norton forestalled him by calling an exclusively mercantile meeting from which all but a few Wilkesites were kept out. ([10]) (It is difficult to imagine Campbell attending a meeting at which the public might have a voice). Athawes about 1774 were pro-American, Thomas and Rowland Hunt never signed a single pro-American petition. Nutt was on every committee to draft pro-American petitions. Rivals with Nutt in Carolina business were Graham, Johnson and Co., who remained "apolitical".

 

     On 4 January, 1775, ([11]) the Wilkesite merchants wanted a mass meeting, not one restricted to merchants-only. That is, they desired a melding of "public opinion" plus the views of their mercantile lobby. William J. Baker was one of the New York Merchants here. Molleson later assured Earl Dartmouth, a petition was supported by "all the principal men". Birmingham also petitioned on the same issues, but it was thought the Birmingham signers were not "directly involved". It soon became impossible to see precisely the interest of an "American merchant"; the difference between political liberty and mercantile interest tended to dissolve.

 

     By 11 January, 1775, ([12]) America core-group merchants were debating whether to include the Quebec Act among merchants' complaints. They concluded they were motivated [only] by their interests in trade to North America. But the situation was, no one could honestly or realistically claim to be interested in trade alone: politics had intervened forever. Pro-government pamphleteers such as William Knox advised the merchants, their interest lay in obtaining American subordination to a mercantile empire. ([13]) By 1 February, 1775, Russell in London had £100,000 owing to him in America, and Campbell's later associate Molleson was owed over £83,000 by Americans. Russell also had £15,000 worth of real estate in Maryland and Molleson £1200 in real estate there. ([14]) Before the revolution, about 1775, some of the leading Glasgow merchants with links in the colonies were Alexander Speirs and William Cunninghame. A petition to the House of Lords was signed on 7 February, 1775, ([15]) The Petition of the merchants traders and others of the City of London concerned in the American Commerce.

 

     The motives of the core-group men seem clear. After the revolution, the average core-group member claimed pre-war debts in 2.6 colonies, the average non-core merchant claimed debts in 1.6 colonies. ([16]) At least seven of the seventeen core-groupers had easy access to leading ministers. The average core-grouper claim for debts was £100,964,  while non-core-groupers claimed only £15,574. Meaning, the core-groupers, with their potential losses spread across 2.6 colonies, had enormous incentive to try to stop matters coming to a head. ([17]) If Campbell's affairs were any indication of generalities, many of the colonial agents were deserting the cause of their London connections, and it must have become increasingly impossible for the London men to recover debts, to continue old business, or finalise new business. (From 1776, or at least during 1776, Molleson's Maryland agent was Matthew Tilghman, a Maryland Congressman. Russell's agent in Maryland was John Grahame of Nantes, and he was presumably related to Charles Grahame. Molleson did business at William and Robert Molleson, of No 1, America Square, where he also had his residence). ([18])

 

     By spring, London's core group was in disarray, split on issues because now, an interest was indistinguishable from adoption of a cause, indeed, from an attitude about Imperialism. ([19]) William Lee and Josiah Quincy distributed lists of merchants in various camps, with much attention given to the sympathizers for the American cause. Molleson was in despair.

 

*    *    *

 

Analysis of the debt question:

 

"The situation of our public debts and the very great embarrassments which attended all our concerns on that account, were the principal causes, of that revolution which has given us the Constitution." ([20])< /p>

 

     An American historian,  Harold Underwood Faulkner, says that in "a brilliant article", Louis Hacker developed the thesis that the chief cause of the [American] Revolution was the mercantilist restrictions placed by the British government on expanding colonial merchant capitalism. ([21]) But American historians still seem sensitive about the question of money the pre-revolutionary Americans refused to repay: "debt repudiation". The question of duplicity with some individuals is also relevant - as with Hancock (a Boston patriot merchant), Hutchinson (a "tea importer" and former British governor recalled to London), both as earlier outlined, and Molleson (an American merchant in London). (John Hancock's mistress Dorcas Griffiths badly let down the cause when she nursed and fell in love with a wounded British marine captain from Bunker's Hill). ([22])

 

     The American historian Tommy Thompson ([23]) has concluded, even if many Marylanders were not paying their debts in 1774-1775, there is evidence that many individuals were hoarding money out of fear of bad times, as the Maryland merchant George Woolsey found. Part of Britain's mismanagement of its American colonies was to maintain a situation where there was too little coined money (specie) let into circulation. (Jamaica had too little specie circulating in 1753 when Campbell met his first wife there. When the Australian colony was created from 1788, it had no currency either!  These lacks of currency were just one aspect of a complicated and self-defeating monetary and financial system which made life uncomfortable for British colonists and their creditors at home. Squabbles over credit and remittances contributed to friction between merchants on both sides of the Atlantic, ([24]) and long later stimulated allegations about corruption in Sydney, Australia, on the part of the officers of the New South Wales Corps.)

 

       Maryland merchants in 1775 seemed particularly vulnerable to credit system  pressures. Maryland businessmen amassed personal estates about 2.74 times that of planter fortunes, but the merchants were in debt 5.31 times more than planters. ([25]) (What is curious here is that after the revolution, as Campbell found, it was easier to recover debts from Maryland than from Virginia).

 

     At the 1775 Maryland Constitutional Convention, there were elected a radical and a Campbell debtor, Colonel William Fitzhugh, Charles Grahame (chief agent for Russell in London), John Hall, Thomas Sim Lee, ([26]) Henry Lowes, and Capt. Charles Ridgely (who in late 1773 had still owed money to James Russell from the 1760s). Thomas Sim Lee became governor of Virginia in 1779. ([27])

 

     Against such colonial coalitions, Campbell nor Molleson nor any core group member could do anything. In early 1775, Molleson in London remained busy keeping Earl  Dartmouth informed of the latest American news. Molleson's link with Dartmouth was through Lord Marchmont, "an old Scottish Tory". ([28]) Earl Dartmouth was the aristocrat landowner of the Blackheath area of London. ([29]) But in all this, the history of British whaling should not be forgotten, especially as some of the merchants who had been interested in the 1773 Tea Deal retained their interest in whaling - but they also retained, rather than lost, various American connections.

 

The English South Whale Fishery:

 

Between 26 March and 11 May, 1773, Capt Cook noted, "Seals are to be found in great numbers about this bay, on the small rocks and isles near the sea coast" - at Dusky Sound, New Zealand. ([30]) The remark by 1791 was to attract the attention of the whaler John St Barbe at Blackheath, London and lead to his initiation of sealing in Australasian waters.

 

     The story of the English South Whale Fishery is a story of determination and considerable commercial courage in an unforgiving maritime environment, and as with the tobacco trade, a core-group of merchants allowed to speak into the ear of government was also involved. ([31])

 

A brief history of British whaling:

 

     Old Sebastian Cabot in 1553 was governor of the "Mystery and Company of the Merchant Adventurers for the discovery of regions, dominions, islands and places unknown.". ([32]) This Company sent off Hugh Willoughby to find China and lost two or three ships, but "found Russia" under Richard Chancellor. Hence the Baltic trade was established with the rise of the Muscovy Company, which in 1557 obtained a twenty-year monopoly on whaling "anywhere", especially about Iceland. By 1580, Richard Hakluyt was commenting on these developments. The first "Greenland whale" was killed by 1611.

 

      Early English whalers included Thomas Edge, and Marmaduke of Hull. William Baffin's name became attached to Baffin Bay. By 1618 the Scottish East India and Greenland Company had been formed, but the Dutch Company for such trading was larger than its English competitors. The English sent whalers from Leith and Yarmouth (for soap production), but whaling declined during the Civil War. By 1671, George Turfry and Co. were whaling, but still, whaling seemed on its last legs; attempts to re-establish it failed. In 1682, Leith soapmakers George Campbell and Robert Douglas tried again to revive interest in whaling.

 

      British whaling was often a dismal affair. ([33]) By 1709, the Pease brothers had tried whaling from Rotterdam, Ireland and England, and also from Hull. English whalers about 1721, after the South Sea Bubble had burst, included Henry Elking and Sir John Eyles, Eyles being a sub-governor of the South Sea Company who had helped rescue whaling finances when the Bubble burst. Soon, Greenland whaling enjoyed more investment. Then, the Bogle family, tobacco dealers with Dutch connections, tried a Glasgow whale fishery company. The Greenland fishery was revived by the South Sea Company by 1724, but encountered further disaster. By now, whalers were using 300-ton  ships. By 1733, a large loss had been encountered. ([34])

 

     As years passed, the New England American colonies were whaling with increasing success, and by 1761, the American spermaceti whale oil candle found popularity in London society. ([35]) British whalers sailed from Newcastle and Whitby, Liverpool and Bristol; Hull by 1754. Before this, Hull had imported American oil. The Greenland trade improved. A latecomer to the trade, London by 1753 fitted out 71 per cent of English whalers and 51 per cent of British whalers. Scots outports remained busy, with Leith active by 1749. By 1751, more Glasgow whalers worked. Dunbar port was whaling by 1752. In 1753 came more expansion with whalers from Aberdeen, and Dundee. But the whaling trade favoured eastern British ports. ([36]) Whaling was becoming more closely associated with shipowning. With war in Europe from 1756, the ferocity of the press gangs severely damaged whaling, and there was a run of poor seasons for whalers. By 1759, the number of whalers dropped from 83 to 49, down to 40. For a time, Whitby and Hull both abandoned the trade for a time, and British whaling stayed in decline after 1763. The American colonists remained far more adventurous, basing at Nantucket Island. Between 1764 and 1775, Greenland gave British 1168 tuns of whale oil per annum 1764-1775, while American whalers gave 3696 tons. ([37])

 

*    *    *

 

       From 1773, due to the struggle between Britain and North America, which damaged the New England whaling industry, Enderbys were short of whale oil for sale in England, which was used especially for candles. ([38]) The year 1775 is the date claimed by Enderby family for their establishment of the South Whale Fishery, but the British historian of whaling, A. G. E. Jones, who disparages the Enderby reputation for pre-eminence, says James Mather, Burton, C. A. Coffin, and Buxton and Co. were also involved by 1776. (Samuel Enderby Snr had several links by marriage to the Buxton family). ([39]) About 1775, Enderbys had out whaling the ships Experiment, Neptune and Rockingham. The latter ship name probably indicates the Enderby political line. ([40])

 

    Helpful in researching the British maritime of the period, more so relating to later developments with the colonisation of Australia, is The Samuel Enderby Book, 1775-1790. ([41]) Of the mostly-London merchants mentioned as whaling investors in this book, only two, George Hayley and Samuel Enderby, can be closely associated with lists of merchants preoccupied with questions of commercial conflict arising specifically after the Boston Tea Party.

 

     The Falkland Islands are the East and West Falklands, and about 778 islets in the South Atlantic. ([42]) A seal playground, they are windswept and cold, unappealing for settlement. As a resource base for seals, however, by 1774 the Falklands greatly excited whalers in both England and North America. Englishmen first landed on the Falklands in January 1690, with Capt. John Strong of Welfare. ([43]) The French cruised by in 1695. In 1740, Britain sent Commodore Anson to the South Seas, to harrass Spanish possessions and commerce. Anson did not visit the Falklands, but he did recommend the Admiralty establish a base there for the use of any British vessels rounding Cape Horn. His advice was ignored.

 

    France (her explorer Bougainville) claimed the Falklands on 5 April, 1764 and among other activities began sealing. In June 1764 there sailed from London the ship Dolphin Commodore Hon John Byron, plus Tamar Capt. Patrick Mouat, with instructions to survey the Falklands and locate the French community there. ([44]) Byron (the grandfather of the poet Byron) had also been instructed to search for the legendary North-West Passage across the north of North America, at the other end of the world from the Falklands; then to return home by the Pacific if he had not found any passage. Byron sailed in during January 1765 and formally claimed the islands for George III as the Falkland Islands, otherwise known as the Malouine Islands. ([45])

 

     When he returned from the Falklands, Byron convinced the admiralty to establish a garrison (which became Port Egmont) and to make a detailed survey. In September 1765  sailed the frigate Jason Capt. John MacBride, who arrived at the Falklands in 1766. Spain protested when it heard the French had a Falklands settlement, so France "sold" its interests to Spain, which was probably an outcome partly due to the long-ago Papal division of the world into spheres of influence for the Spanish and the Portuguese. ([46]) Britain settled the Falklands Islands in 1766, when, as Sanderson says, 33 English and 8 Scots whalers were out working. British whalers grew, from 50 in 1770 to 247 in 1788 - 31 of these whalers were (the ubiquitous) Scotsmen. The Spanish tried to expel the British invaders from 9 June, 1770. The Falklands were evacuated by the British in 1774, but never occupied by Spain.

 

    In 1767, Capt. Anthony Hunt of HMS Tamar had succeeded MacBride at the British Port Egmont, the Falklands, and the Spanish and British co-existed. ([47]) Later followed allegations of mutual trespass. In 1770 the Spanish captured Port Egmont and removed the British Garrison, but Britain was returned to occupancy by September 1770. Intensive commercial sealing had begun on the Falklands, as American and then British whaling expanded from the northern into the southern Atlantic. Dickinson suggests that word of commercial prospects may have reached American New England via Admiral Montague of the Royal Navy, who may have heard of seal numbers when serving under Anson, after Anson had returned from a voyage to Cape Horn. Montague could have passed on the Falklands story when he was commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

 

     A Portuguese-Jewish merchant from Newport, Rhode Island, Aaron Lopez, during the early 1770s developed links with George Hayley of Hayley and Hopkins of London.  Lopez had extensive whaling contacts throughout New England, especially with the Rotches of Nantucket. Rotches provided equipment and acted as purchasing agents for the United Company of Spermaceti Candlers, a consortium of three Jewish merchants including Lopez. Hayley and Hopkins were to service the London market. (Such links can be related to earlier information presented on the Boston Tea Party and whalers' links to shipping). The first American vessels to the Falklands probably arrived in 1772. Two years later, 1774, ten vessels from North America were finding good whaling catches there - ships could load in 6-8 weeks, and, observing this, Dickinson suggests the speed of loading indicated they were also sealing. Some vessels in use in 1774 were Montague Capt. Gamaliel Collins from Boston and Thomas Capt. David Smith from Truro, Cape Cod.

 

*    *    *

 

     Much credit for the original establishment of the Southern Whale Fishery goes to Francis Rotch, who in Dartmouth in Nova Scotia in 1775 helped organise a whale fleet to fish the South Atlantic about the Falkland Islands. Captains proceeding in that fleet were especially advised to send news of any success to George Hayley of London. Hayley had preceded Samuel Enderby Snr as prime mover of the English South Whale Fishery, and before his death was "president" of Lloyd's of London. ([48]) A glance at Lloyd's Register's list of underwriters for 1787 is illustrative. The 1787 list of Society members included the firms: George Abel; Angerstein, Lewis and Warren; Richd Buller and Co; John Campbell (apparently no relation to Duncan Campbell), A&B Champion; Champion and Dickasons; George Curling; Mark Gregory; Rt Hon Thos Harley; Paul Le Mesurier and Co; George Mackenzie Macaulay; James Mather; Nath Modigliani; John Motteux; Nathaniel Newnham; St Barbe and Green; Smith and St Barbe; Donaldson, Thornton and Donaldson.

 

     Some of these merchants by 1787 had East India Company connections, but it seems that not until 1800 could a merchant acceptably maintain links with both whaling and East India trade. In 1787, the Lloyd's list of ships in the service of the East India Company mentioned ships husbands including Mitford, D. Cameron (who was a ships' husband for Duncan Campbell's trade to Madras), George M. Macaulay with Pitt, W. Chapman, T[imothy] Curtis, T[homas] Larkins (who was related to Macaulay by marriage and via the name Sampson, linked also family-wise to the Enderbys). A list of 1787 ships also includes some ships later sailing with convicts to New South Wales. This information is useful, since it provides continuities concerning merchant biographies for the years 1775-1800, which become crucial.

 

    And linking these matters of shipping are some suburban accidents of life at Blackheath, London. At Blackheath about 1786 resided a partner of George M. Macaulay, John Turnbull, who lived at 32 Dartmouth Row, 1782-1791. ([49]) John St. Barbe (ex RN), (1742-1816) first resided at 17 West Grove, then at 26 Dartmouth Row, Blackheath, between 1784-1816. George Enderby (1762-1829) the son of Samuel Enderby Snr., lived at 22 Dartmouth Hill between 1799-1802, and then at 36 Dartmouth Row, 1802-1820, thence Croydon (he married Harriott Sampson, sister of Mary Anne Sampson, who married John Pascal Larkins of the East India Company, Larkins being related to Macaulay by marriage). ([50])

 

     Samuel Enderby Snr. 1718-1797 lived at 66 Hyde Vale, 1758-1764, then at 8 West Grove 1766-1788, then 14 West Grove where he died in 1797. Enderby Snr. also had a house in Earl Street in the City, a little north of the river, eight or less blocks from the old London Wall. ([51]) Enderby Snr had married Elizabeth, a daughter of Dr. George Buxton. (Later at 14 West Grove lived Twining, the highly respectable London tea wholesalers whose firm still exists). ([52])

 

     George M. Macaulay was a Blackheath golfer; his name listed in the Blackheath/Knuckle Club lists for 1787. In 1793 Macaulay was captain-general of the Blackheath Golf Club. Macaulay was also a common councilman in London between 1774-1784, then an alderman. Duncan Campbell was also a golfer, a club member from 1783, the earliest record (though he was probably golfing years before.) In 1787 he was on the golfing committee. In 1794, Campbell was "fined" for not accepting the captain generalship, which George Macaulay took up. An Alexander Campbell was on Montpelier Row 1800-1801. Lt. Col. Robert Campbell at Park Hill also in the golf club. Thomas Larkins (1746-1794) an East India Company husband who owned Warren Hastings was at Hyde Cliff from 1789 to his death about 1794.

 

    And so, whether one is discussing the Boston Tea Party, British whaling into the South Atlantic about 1775, and into the Pacific after 1786, or Duncan Campbell, convict transportation and tobacco trading, the ships used to transport convicts to Australia before 1800, or ships sailing for the East India Company... a great many of the connections of the merchants involved concentrate at Blackheath in London, including intimate family and residential connections. Blackheath was a significant area for mercantile maritime history between 1775 and 1800, the period so significant for the settling of Australia by Europeans, for the history of the opening of the Pacific Ocean to British shipping. Yet it has never been recognised as such... but we continue...

 

*     *     *     *     *

Whaling connections:

 

     In 1775, Leonard Jarvis, a boatbuilder of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, was building a ship for Lopez. Capt. Greenwood of the ship King George, returning from the Falklands in 1775, spoke to Jarvis. Jarvis then wrote to Lopez on 5 April, 1775. Lopez had lost a ship Leviathan off Brazil in 1773, on a voyage to the Falklands.([53]) In 1775, the Nantucket whalers, who were recognised by Thomas Jefferson himself as "a race apart" from other Americans, dealt more substantially with Englishmen - notably George Hayley, Champions, Dickason - than they did with mainland colonial Americans for sale of their oil and candles. Even though the Nantucket whalers tended to be Loyalists, much of their emigration to England and France after the American War of Independence was motivated by a sense of the injustice dealt the English when the American mainlanders repudiated their debts to English merchants.

 

     There had been a danger of starvation on Nantucket in 1775 due to the imposition of shipping blockades. But in the main, the Nantucket whalers were moved most by a concern for the integrity of their industry and a distrust of the Americans rather than by a love for the British, when they sought to secure their livelihood after the beginning of the American War of Independence. Interrupted by that war, the South Atlantic whaling fleet organised by William Rotch failed. He then moved to London to be employed by the firm, Champion and Hayley. After George Hayley's death, Rotch became chief clerk for the share of the partnership managed by Hayley's widow, Mary, a woman quite a force in her own right, apparently possessed of great personal magnetism. ([54])

 

     Over 1774-1775, Britain abandoned the Falklands on economic grounds, leaving only a plaque claiming British possession. This left the Americans free to operate. ([55]) Perhaps hearing Britain had abandoned the resource of the Falklands, in 1775, Lopez, Jarvis, Francis Rotch and one Richard Smith decided to station vessels at the Falkland Islands for the duration of hostilities during the American Revolution, whaling mostly, sealing when possible. ([56]) On 22 March, 1775, the ever-eloquent Edmund Burke told Parliament in his speech, "On Conciliation with America", of mariners going to Hudson's and Davis' Straits, near the Arctic Circle; and Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and too romantic to become an object of national ambition. but a resting place for mariners. Burke gave general praise for whaler courage.

 

    23 August, 1775 is an effective date for the start of the American War of Independence, since George III issued a proclamation declaring the colonies in a state of rebellion, and liable to be treated accordingly. ([57]) On 31 August, 1775 George Hayley in London wrote to Lopez, dubious about the Falkland Islands plan and worried the ships would not get away. ([58]) One man in command of this commercial expedition was Capt. John Locke of Minerva with his sailing instructions dated 4 September, 1775. Locke was to go whaling on the Brazil Banks, then sail to Port Egmont to meet Francis Rotch and experiment with seal oiling. Rotch planned to sail from London to Port Egmont with one ship, Capt. Scott, and accompanied by captains Benjamin Hussey, Benjamin Jenkins and Robert Long of Nantucket. George Hayley in London as usual was to receive progress reports from passing vessels. ([59])

 

     About 8 September, 1775 Francis Rotch and Richard Smith sailed for London in a ship Francis, to ask the British Government to support their operations to the Falklands, other ships being Falkland,  ([60]) Enterprise, Abigail, Minerva, and Diana, which were captured by the British Navy and their crews impressed. ([61]) Rotch persuaded the British Government to release the vessels and crews on the basis that he would purchase £10,000 worth of stores in London, and that he would to import and sell seal and whale oil from the Falkland Islands. He argued that his experienced Nantucket crews could be used by Britain to develop a London-based fishery in the Southern Hemisphere. ([62])

 

     In the marketing of whale produce, the London merchants involved included Enderbys, George Hayley with Champion and Dickason, and Richard Champion in Bristol (much the same group of whaling investors connected with the intended return voyages of regular tea ships to North America before the Boston Tea Party). The American whaling historian, Stackpole, says it is generally credited that Samuel Enderby first thought of sending a British fleet of whaleships into the Southern Whale Fishery, that Enderby later managed this by following Francis Rotch's first venture. But Enderby used British-registered vessels manned by Nantucket crews, the ships to be protected by the British navy. (With Alderman George Hayley an influential man at Lloyd's, the market for marine insurance, and Britain a naval power almost at war, a few words from Hayley to the ears of the wise in naval circles might not have gone astray in assisting the whalers here?) The Royal Society was mildly interested in all these matters. In 1776 they heard a presentation from Lt. Samuel W. Clayton, An Account of the Falkland Islands. (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, LXVI. 1776). ([63])

 

     By September 1775 Rotch's idea was to circumvent the New England coastal blockades imposed by the Americans and supply the London oil market directly from the sea. ([64]) But his venture failed. A sealer/whaler Britannia was captured by an American ship, Providence, when homeward bound, and Amazon was captured by HMS Atlantic.  Abigail brought a full cargo into London only to be scrapped, and Fox arrived in poor condition at Barbados in June 1776 and her cargo had to be sold there. Lydia was operating in 1777; her cargo fetched only a low price.

 

     During October 1775, George III proclaimed an embargo on provisions from England being sent to the colonies till further notice. ([65]) American sealing at the Falklands was also interrupted by the revolution from 1776. ([66]) Most of the Nantucket whaling fleet was destroyed and the American oil market collapsed. Some oil was intended to be shipped directly to London from the Falklands by some enterprising Americans, who thus hoped to avoid the British blockades of American ports. At this point, 1 April, 1776, an especially unrealistic member of the House of Commons suggested government should send convicts to either the West Indies or Falkland Islands. The suggestion engendered no response. ([67])

 

     After the fleet organised by William Rotch failed, Rotch moved to London to find employment with the firm, Champion and Hayley. After George Hayley's death, Rotch became chief clerk for the share of the partnership managed by Hayley's widow Mary. Rotch, who continued to advise Madam Hayley, was one of many Nantucketeers who after the American War retained passionate opinions about an injustice, the financial problems experienced by English merchants due to the Americans' debt repudiation. Rotch himself lost over £60,000 by the war, yet he realised how Britain had won control of the seas and therefore now had the potential to protect the whaling industry of which he was a committed leader. In essence, Rotch was an internationalist, aware of the value of whale oil and concerned about the integrity of the industry as much as the profitability and the security of the base from which the fishery might work. A devout Quaker, he had watched the emigration of some Loyalist Nantucketeers with disquiet. He convinced himself, mistakenly, that the English could become as concerned for the integrity of the industry as he was himself. And according to A. G. E. Jones, between 1776-1779. London sent 20 vessels into the southern whale fishery.

 

     Francis Rotch's ventures to Falklands terminated when Rotch returned from the Falklands in 1777. ([68]) Hayley it seems died in 1777 (though an often-given date is  1781), since Dickinson says Rotch in 1777 became business adviser to the Company and to Mary Hayley, a recent widow. She wished to continue as a whaler, although on a reduced scale. Dickinson suggests Madame Hayley and Rotch became romantically involved, and he may have induced her to try the Falkland Islands plan again. Francis' brother William Rotch disliked the Falklands plan; William wanted sea otter skins from the Northwest Pacific Ocean to sell to Canton, which would have entailed sailing around Cape Horn. (This would hardly have distracted Britain's attention from the Falklands, since the islands were thought to be useful for ships rounding Cape Horn).

 

     In 1778, 40,000 seal skins and 2800 tons of elephant seal oil valued at £40,000 were brought back to London. ([69]) Margaret Steven records that in 1780, London alone spent £300,000 per annum on whale oil for street lighting. ([70]) Thus began the English South Whale Fishery. Presumably, the entire venture had earlier been intended to be managed by men such as Hayley, Enderby and Champion in London, Rotch on Nantucket, and a man such as Lopez, before the Boston Tea Party, with the notion of processing and containing oil in established North American works before trans-shipment to London. It is also possible that an extra incentive might have been the reduced duties on tea sent from London to North America? The entire operation, of course, was ultimately managed from the City of London, which had originally developed the 1773 tea deal the Americans found so objectionable.

 

    (London had an old tradition about whales. On 6 September, 1781 a 24-foot whale was killed in the Thames above London Bridge and later bought by Alderman Pugh, an oil merchant. It was the custom for the mayor to have the first right to any such catch.) ([71])

 

*    *    *

 

         The Samuel Enderby Book is useful in identifying merchants whose role has remained controversial in the context of early convict transportation to Australia. Unfortunately, it does not proceed past 1790, but it does list, for 1775, some Southern  Fishery whalers from London as: Enderby and Son; Union, 100 tons Capt. W. Goldsmith, 22.5 tons whale oil, 19 tons sperm oil, £1517 from voyage; Neptune;  189 tons, Capt. N Coffin, 28.5 tons whale oil, 11.5 tons sperm oil, amount, from voyage, £1589; Rockingham, 189 tons, Capt. E. Clark, 20.5 tons whale oil, 19.5 tons sperm oil, £1720.

 

Whalers from the Samuel Enderby Book. 1775.......1775.........1775.........1775............1775

Vessels from the Port of London for the South Whale Fishery in the Year 1775. No premiums granted.

 

Firm Hayley; America; 150 tons, Capt. T. Macy, 25.5 tons whale oil, 30 tons whale oil, £1900; Abigail, 140 tons, Capt. R. Fitch, 25 tons sperm oil;

 

Firm Champion; Hanover, 112 tons, Capt. T. Pinkham, 31 tons sperm oil; Industry, 110 tons, Capt. E Gardner, 36 tons sperm oil;

 

Firm De Bond and Co.; Dennis, 150 tons, Capt. J. Meader, 15 tons whale oil, 28 tons whale oil;

 

Firm Harrison and Co.; Beaver, 140 tons, Capt. U? Coffin, 17 tons whale oil, 20 tons sperm oil;

 

Firm Harford and Co.; Sparrow, 110 tons, Capt. J. Chadwick. No figures. ([72])

 

     And here we turn to the further destruction of convict transportation.

 

*    *    *

 

The gathering destruction of the convict service:

 

      According to Coldham's lists of convict ships, departing England for America in January 1775 was a ship, Unknown, Capt. John Kidd; one of Campbell's captains. Other sources reveal that in March 1775 Justitia, Capt. John Kidd, for D. Campbell, arrived at Leedstown, Virginia, with 150 convicts. ([73]) As noted by Oldham,  The Virginia Gazette on 18 March, 1775 carried an advertisement advising of the arrival to the seed-bed of a coming revolution, Capt. Kidd's "healthy servants", to be sold at Leedstown on Wed. 22nd Inst.

 

The death of Rebecca Campbell:

 

     Campbell remained ill after the death of his wife in December 1774 and his brother Neil helpfully stood in as amanuensis.

 

Campbell Letter 36:

London 25 Jan 1775

John Campbell Esq.

         What I am writing is the diction of my Brother now lying in Bed by me ....[sends invoices of some little matters sent by Ann and Elizabeth Capt. Magnico]

   by the payment he has made to Currie and Shakespeare as noted below .... the total stop of Remittances from America which seems will now unavoidable take place for some time at least is likely to render him incapable of going further lengths in payments to Shakespeare and Currie .....

[mention of Mr Boyick and the name Burn ..... a clear market or a glutt ... if cannot sell in Jamaica, ship early by Ogilvy & Somerville] [... in receipt of a letter advising of Poor Mr Crooks death - who is to have the management of Crooks affairs - [mention of a bill of Dicksons - warning, Campbell will decline to pay bills unless an estate is in John Campbell's management]

He wishes to god it may prove convenient in all respects for you to accompany Henny home who you will easily conceive must be much wanted in his Family and he has the highest notion that your company would relieve him excessively by being by to receive a proper information of all his affairs in case of accident, and to be a second Father to his children ..... ([74])< /p>

 

Campbell Letter 37:

London 21 Feb 1775

Lord Selkirk

            A severe indisposition under which I have laboured for some time past has been the cause of the long delay in acknowledging the Letter I had the honour of Receiving from your Lordship. My Clarks as soon as they heard of the arrival of the Samson Capt. Cooper went on board and made the strictest enquiry about the Apples which your Lordship mentions were to come by that Vessel but found none such on board and the Capt told them upon repeated application there was none put on board his ship.

...[ mention of the Coldens omitting to send - agreeable to promise - gratitude to you & to Lady Selkirk]

     It gave me very great satisfaction to hear from your Lordship. If upon any occassion I can be in any degree serviceable to you here you will really oblige me much in giving me an opportunity of reviving the acquaintance I once had the honour of having with your Lordship and at the same time of shewing that I am with you.

PS. Should any other Vessel bring the apples your Lordship may rely upon their being forwarded to St Marys Isle.

 

*    *    *

 

     In March 1775, Molleson was one of three merchants presenting the king with an address to ask him to veto a Bill ordering a stoppage of trade with New England. At this time, he had to work against and compete with pro-American radicals in London such as Joshua Johnson and William Lee. ([75]) But none of these matters are mentioned in Campbell's surviving papers.

 

Campbell Letter 38:

London March 1st, 1775

Richard Nicholls Colden

           Yesterday I received your Letter of the 2 Febry covering John Watts bill on Harley & Drummond 200 pounds for which when the Cash received shall be disposed of as your Credit. My situation for some time past has rendered me less alert in my Counting House affairs than I used to be and therefore I hope you will forgive the hastiness of my letter: when my mind has returned to its former composure I shall probably write you more fully.

    I sincerely console with you on your great loss. But you have the consolation of a near Companion which must Greatly alleviate your distress. Think of me without such, left with no less than Eight children & delightful they are to me ....

         .... I remain Dear Sir

PS   I thank you cordially for the information you give about the proceedings of your assembly    You will much oblige by continuing your information on that score when leisure permits. God send a happy Accomodation of the dispute between the Mother Country and her Colonies. ([76])< /p>

 

[Note: Cadwallader Colden, the Lt.-Governor of New York, wrote a History of the Five Indian Nations. London, 1747.] ([77])

 

Campbell Letter 39:

Joshua Newall   per the Ipswich Capt Castle

    The distressed situation I have been in and a consignment and a severe indisposition under which I have laboured rendering me altogether unfit for business till very lately and that is the reason of my having been so long silent. I flatter myself you and Mrs Newall will not impute my Silence to want of respect but to the true cause I am sure from the knowledge she had of my once happy state and my family will easily believe the melancholy event which has lately happened must have thrown me in to a most distressed state of mind.  left without the best of wives and mother to Eight Children.  But on this subject I cannot dwell without losing myself in the description. I desired my Brother to communicate to you on this Melancholy event soon after it happened.  which letter as all messengers of bad news generally I suppose reach your hands Earlie enough... We have no office whatever here to search which relates to the little of Land in Jamaica or the West Indies, but all deeds and wills relating to land in Jamaica were requested and upon record in the Secretary's Office there without which they are not valid so as to affect ----- Lands and in order to gain the Knowledge of Mr Vaughans Title to the Estate you are about to purchase as desired by your letter I directed mr Solicitor to find out Mr Vaughan and attend him and his Solicitor to obtain an abstract how Mr Vaughan makes out his title - Mr Jones in Castle yard is Mr Vaughan's attorney - Mr Vaughan is entitled to the Estate in Jamaica both as Heir at Law to the late Duchess of Bolton and her father Lord Vaughan who was afterwards Earl of Carberry. --- the present Mr Vaughan is the son and heir of Mrs Vaughan, who lived in Lincolns Inn Fields and who was Heir to the Duchess - deaths intestate as to the Estates in Jamaica - My Solicitor thinks it will be most advisable for you to have the conveyance intended to be made from Mr Vaughan to you prepared here where it can be done with more acuracy and executed by Mr Vaughan in person and ...... Mr Vaughan resides for part of his year on his Estate called Golden Grove in Wales.

    Lord Carberrys will is I am informed entered upon record in the Secretary's office in Jamaica where you may search and see it. My Brother paid this Mr Vaughans Father the money for his new title to Saltspring and he can inform you upon the head of his Right. ([78])< /p>

 

        There departed England in April 1775 Thornton Capt. Finaly (sic) Gray for America, [Coldham's listings], sailing with convicts for Campbell. By 10 April, 1775 Campbell had bowed his head in resignation to many reverses, and he wrote "But their [sic] is a supreme direction of all human events that we must and ought all submit to with becoming resignation". ([79]) (While in June 1775, Baltimore merchant George Woolsey wrote to an English correspondent that colonials were very tardy in paying their debts). ([80])

 

Campbell Letter 40:

London April 21, 1775

The Keeper of his Majestys Gaol at Madiston

    My ship Thornton Captain Gray will proceed from Blackwall tomorrow Wind & Weather permitting and will certainly be at Gravesend on Sunday evening I must therefore desire the favour you will early on Monday morning put on board the Convicts in your Gaol under Sentence of Transportation as the Ship will depart immediately from thence upon receiving them

    I request you will take care to bring the needfull order from the Justice for such Convicts you send on board. You omitted to bring an order for Griffith Orlton this time twelve month which I beg you will now produce one otherwise I cannot obtain a certificate of his transportation." ([81])< /p>

 

Campbell Letter 41:

Campbell wrote to Richards Nicholls Colden on 31 May, 1775 about a business policy... "I do not allow Interest to any Correspondent that keeps money in my hands, as I hold it always ready at his Call. Thank God I have no occasion to use other people's money for carrying on my own Business." also mentions recovery of Mrs Colden, unhappy Accts a few days since of a skirmish between some of the Regular and Provincial Troops near Boston - asks Colden for reports from someone [Coldens] who is reliable. ([82])< /p>

 

     On 2 June, 1775, Congress had resolved nobody should sell supplies to the British, advance them money, or negotiate bills of exchange with them. Congress shortly sought to buy gunpowder. ([83]) In June 1775, the convict ship Elizabeth was in America for Stevenson, Randolph and Cheston of Bristol. Morgan discusses their American debts. In 1775, Stevenson. Randolph and Cheston of Bristol (SR&C) were owed about £8000  sterling by their connections in Maryland. ([84]) In July 1775, Isabella was in America for SR&C. SR&C soon collapsed, partly as William Stevenson had "appropriated" great sums of money from the firm. (Cheston later had to make claims against Stevenson's bankrupt estate). Problems from 1772 had led the two stepbrothers Stevenson and Cheston to end plans to send an annual ship in the West India trade. Morgan reports ([85]) Cheston had long been uneasy about the business and in 1781 he had visited Bristol to try to wind up SR&C's affairs. Later, from 1782 to 1798, he was engaged in trying to recover his firm's American debts, a matter meaning they listed  themselves with the British Creditors. ([86])

 

*    *     *

 

Financing the American Revolution:

 

     Campbell's role as a London tobacco merchant was blasted by the American Revolution. Soon after the revolution began, the American colonies revamped their export of tobacco. There loomed into view the remarkable Robert Morris, who from 1783 retained most American tobacco exports in his pocket. How did Campbell and other London tobacco merchants fare with Robert Morris from 1776?

 

     "The myth still persists that Robert Morris financed the Revolution out of his own pocket. It is rather the other way round - that the Revolution financed Robert Morris - he was nevertheless one of the great men of his time." ([87]) A historian of American finance, Ferguson, is careful to note the "usual secrecy" of the large merchant of the 1770s and the 1780s. "The structure of business relationships was shot through with a conspiratorial element." Business ties tended to remain a closely guarded secret. ([88]) It appears that out of such closely-guarded secrets, Morris developed a severe case of hubris, delusions as to his own credit, that by the late 1790s had entirely, and deservedly, unravelled his earlier reputation as the wealthiest man in the United States, notwithstanding his remarkable efforts to finance the revolution. British historians tend to overlook Morris' career, which means, by 1800, they have also overlooked aspects of the career of the London banker, and chairman of the East India Company, Francis Baring, as well as the battle between British and American credit that had to be fought as the Americans struggled out of the noose that threatened to strangle them, the financial system Britain had long foisted on the American colonies.

 

    Morris' father was originally a nailmaker, or ironworker from Liverpool who settled at Oxford in Maryland, acting as a tobacco agent for a Liverpool firm, (Oberholtzer says), Foster Cunliffe and Sons of Liverpool. ([89]) Robert was born on 31 January, 1734, in Liverpool, his grandfather a mariner. From Maryland, the growing Robert was sent to Philadelphia, where he connected with the noted merchants, Willings. Charles Willing,  merchant, had got his start with Charles and Thomas Willing in 1726, later Charles Willing and Company. Morris became a partner, which was rather unusual. When Charles Willing died, his business went to his son Thomas, who began his firm on 1 May, 1757. ([90]) Thomas Willing (called "Old Square Toes"), had been educated to the courts in London, Inns of Court, and had returned to Philadelphia to take a place with his father's existing firm. A link was Thomas Willing of London, who traded to Britain, Portugal, Spain, West Indies, using Mayne, Burn and Mayne in Lisbon, and in Madrid were Scott, Pringle and Company. Other links were with Jamaica, with Samuel Bean; Coddrington Carrington in Barbados and Andrew Lessley in Antigua. Robert Morris when with Charles Willing had proved successful as a supercargo on voyages to West Indies. At about age 25 he was captured by French privateers. The firm's trade to about 1778 involved flour and wheat to Ireland or Britain, lumber and provisions to the West Indies, dry goods from Britain, salt, lemons and wine from Portugal and Spain, rum and molasses from the West Indies; and Willing also headed an insurance group. Willing and Morris owned perhaps three ships. Morris, who initially took a conservative line when the revolution broke out, was chief manager by 1775.

 

    By March 1775, the London West India planters sent to the House of Commons a petition regarding trade, saying one-third of the total export of Britain was affected by the anti-trade regulations of North America, which put Britain's prosperity in jeopardy. One West Indian estimate was that up to 100,000 slaves might die, presumably of starvation. ([91]) At the time, the chairman of the West India merchants was Beeston Long. and neither Duncan Campbell, nor any Campbell, is listed as a member of the West India lobby group at this time, 18 January, 1775, regarded as the date of origin of the organisation of the West India Merchants and Planters. And in March 1775, threatened with war, possible shortage of supplies, and dying slaves, the West Indians offered £100  for anyone who could bring the bread fruit tree to the West Indies. They reiterated their offer in 1777.

 

    It has been calculated that by about 1775-1783, Britain had invested some £37 million  in the West Indies, and perhaps £5 million in the American slave colonies. ([92]) (The implication here might be that Duncan Campbell had invested more in Jamaica than the £35,000 he would now lose in North America?) About one quarter of the British goods shipped to Africa were of East Indian origin. Slavery and the demands of the West Indies were important stimuli to England's economic growth generally, Walvin suggests. In any case, both Britain and North America remained gravely concerned about the status of the British sugar islands. ([93])

 

     By December 1776, Benjamin Franklin had the view that the value of the commerce of the US was seven million sterling per annum. ([94]) In late 1775 The Americans planning their revolution felt obliged to create a secret committee to engage in trade, and so Robert Morris' services were recruited. ([95]) This secret committee was granted unusually wide and flexible discretionary powers, and "dealt in the remittance of goods, buying tobacco and other American products, and shipping them abroad". It now seems clear that Morris during his period on the committee diverted at least $80,000 for his own purposes and "did not replace it". Ever. ([96]) Another merchant on this early secret committee was Silas Deane, who used credit provided by Willing and Morris. By mid-December 1775, Washington's privateer ships were doing well, and the biggest capture by Capt. John Manley America was the brigantine Nancy, which carried useful  munitions. ([97]) Later, many men who might have made soldiers headed to sail on the American privateers, hoping to make their fortunes.

 

      Complex situations arose as new trading networks were set up, and the usual blurry and secretive distinction between private and public business, common to the day, prevailed. ([98]) Morris' partner in 1776 to Martinique was William Bingham, American commissioner. On Santo Domingo, Morris had his (Secret Committee) agent, Stephen Ceronio. In Williamsburg was Benjamin Harrison Jnr. David Stewart was at Baltimore. At New Orleans was Oliver Pollock, who also dealt with or for Willing and Morris. Charles Willing was on Barbados. In 1776, one firm operating was Willing, Morris, (Swanwick) and Co.

 

    Operating in Europe were Silas Deane, John Ross and Samuel Beale. Morris had a regular European clientele; Samuel and J. H. Delap at Bordeaux, Andrew Limozin at Le Havre, Clifford and Teysett of Amsterdam. Deane and Ross began to deal with LeRoy de Chaumont, a procurer of supplies for French army, and John Holker, who was later the agent of the French navy in America. There were also Clifford and Teyset of Amsterdam. ([99]) The Americans were forced to turn to European sources of credit. In the colonies, there arose firms such as Benjamin Harrison, paymaster of the Continental army in Virginia. Carter Braxton managed tobacco trading. Also operating in Morris' "circles" were Jennifer and Hooe, J. H. Norton ([100]) and Samuel Beale of Virginia, Hewes and Smith of North Carolina, John Dorsius of Charleston, John Wereat in Georgia, circa 1776.

 

     How such firms can be construed as independent, as distinct from being part of "Morris' circle", remains probably impossible to say, as they were being operated on the basis of a relatively new source of credit. But it would have been strange if this new circle of firms revolving around the plans of Morris and the Continental Congress were not watched in London by now-inconvenienced tobacco traders such as Duncan Campbell. The question is: how much watching was possible, how closely?

 

<Finis Chapter 17>

Words 9152 with footnotes 11475 pages 21 footnotes 100.