William Earle & Co. Records (MSS 395)

The bulk of the material in this collection consists of business letters, bills and receipts for William Bowers and William Earle between the dates 1829 and 1873. A large portion of this material concerns ship management. Many of the records relate to towing fees, crew accounts and shipping arrangements. The most heavily represented vessels are the ship Lion (circa 1845-1857), the schooner D.W. Vaughn (circa 1860-1870), and the schooner Amos Falkenberg (circa 1865-1875). Others ships frequently mentioned are the brig Rising States (circa 1833), the brig Moscow (circa 1835), the brig Smyrna (circa 1835), the schooner William Irish (circa 1875), and the schooner H. Blackman (circa 1872). These ships dealt mainly in coastal trade. Frequent ports of call were New Orleans, Mobile, Charleston, Wilmington, Baltimore, Newark, Elizabeth, New York, New Bedford and Boston. Cargoes included coal, nails, rum, potatoes, cotton and oil.

There are also records from ships involved in foreign trade. The Smyrna visited Spanish, Dutch, French, English and Caribbean ports in 1836 and 1837. The Lion engaged in whaling and trading in the South Pacific between 1852 and 1857. There are several documents concerning port entry, ship collisions and wrecks.

There are also extensive records relating to ship chandlery sales of rope, anchors, charts and other supplies. Railroad freight is also a common topic. Finally, there are a few personal letters to all three of the firm's partners interspersed throughout the collection.

There is a nearly complete run of the firm's account books, including ledgers, petty ledgers, day books, journals, letter books and inventory books, spanning from 1838 to 1877.

Most prominent among the firms that did business with Earle and Bowers were: rope supplier William Tew Tilley of Newport, R.I.; canvas supplier Nathaniel Snow of Boston; ship chandlers Taber & Co. of New Bedford; duck suppliers MacKintire, Laurie & Co. of Boston; and shipping agents George P. Bowers of New Orleans.

The collection also includes a small number of papers from other members of the Earle and Bowers families. One 1815 letter is addressed to an earlier Lloyd Bowers (d.1827), a Providence ship captain who had been involved in the slave trade. Another 1823 document relates to Oliver and George Earle. Finally, there are several papers concerning William Lloyd Bowers during the Civil War. Bowers served as a captain and quartermaster in the 1st R.I. Volunteer Infantry. The collection includes a letter he wrote from Libby Prison in Richmond dated 7/25/1861, which describes the Battle of Bull Run where he was captured. It is alleged to be the first letter from Libby Prison that was received in Providence. The collection also includes three documents re his discharge in January 1862; and two other letters addressed to Bowers re efforts to get mail to him, 12/30/1861 and 10/9/1864.

Also of particular interest are the following items:

A personal letter from cousin Henry Hoppin Jr., acknowledging the gift of a flag to the Kingston Guards militia unit, dated 7/5/1832

An undated letter from a seaman named James Wathen of the brig Forest. Wathen complained that his boat was "one man short, and the rest of the crew enervated by dissipation and intemperance." Wathen adds that "I trust most heartily you will have an opportunity of teaching Mr. Lefaye that the merchants of Providence are no longer to be imposed upon by the villainy and cupidity of sailor boarding house keepers. He has done me a very serious injury, and I feel confident you will not spare him." Edward P. Lafaye kept a sailor's boarding house at 97 South Main Street in 1832, near Bowers' chandlery shop at #114.