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THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY
Second Series
By Walter Barrett, Clerk
1863
MERCHANT DESCRIPTIONS
CHAPTER 6
There have been many merchants of great celebrity in this city, named
Lawrence, but among all the Lawrence race, none have been more remarkable
than the brothers John and Isaac Lawrence. John was in business during the
war, and lived and did business at 162 Queen street (Pearl.) In 1795 he
took in his younger brother Isaac, who had been clerk with him for two
years previous, and the new sign was placed over the store 154 Water, corner
of Fly market. Isaac had received a collegiate education at Princeton
College, and intended to become a lawyer, but his health was poor, and he
went into business with his brother John. The firm of John & Isaac Lawrence
continued until 1803, when the brothers separated after doing a very
prosperous and extended commerce. They were owners of vessels, shippers of
good abroad, and importers. They did a very heavy West India but this was
owing to their having relations established in the West India Islands. In
fact, they had a brother named William, who owned a plantation in Demarara,
where he died. Another brother named Richard was also an eminent merchant in
New York, and died at Hell Gate, where he owned a country seat in 1816.
ISAAC LAWRENCE
When the house of J. & I. Lawrence dissolved, the store was at 208
Pearl, and Isaac lived at 40 Courtlandt street. Isaac continued on with the
business at the same place, 208 Pearl, until 1814. He was out of business
until 1817, when he became President of the United States Branch Bank, that
had been established in this city. The office was then kept at 65 Broadway.
His residence at that time was at 480 Broadway. He afterwards moved into a
handsome house he had built at 498 Broadway, above Broome.
Isaac Lawrence was a merchant in the most extended sense and meaning
of the word. From 1795 to 1815 there was not as great a chance to make
extended operations as a few years ago. He had been a director in the old
United States Bank that was located in the city, and so also was his brother
John. That old Bank of the United States commenced operation before 1792. I
think its charter expired in 1811.
Isaac Lawrence married Miss Cornelia Beach. She was a daughter of the
Rev. Abraham Beach, one of the ministers of Trinity church, and a man of
note in his day. Mrs. Lawrence was a very remarkable woman___an exemplary
Christian, and a perfect lady. She was charitable to all that came in her
way. She had many children___one son and several daughters. She brought them
up in the right way, and they took pattern after her.
They used to go to St. Thomas' Church, corner of Broadway and Houston
street, in its palmy days, when Dr. Hawks preached there, and there never
lived in this city such a family of beautiful daughters. They were the
prettiest girls in the city. They are all married to prominent men. Cornelia
married James A. Hillhouse, of New Haven. Harriet married John A. Post.
Isaphene married Dr. Benj. McVicker. Julia Beach married Thomas L. Wells;
Maria, the Rev. W. J. Kip; and Hannah, the pride of the family, married
Henry Whitney, a son of the late Stephen Whitney.
Isaac Lawrence had but one son, William Beach Lawrence. He received
all the advantages of an excellent education, and was intended for a public
career. He became Secretary of Legation at London, shortly after Mr. John
Quincy Adams became president of the United States, in 1825. While in London
he was extremely popular with all classes. Upon the accession to power of
General Jackson, Mr. Lawrence was supplanted by a partisan of that
gentleman. Mr. Beach Lawrence removed to Rhode Island some years ago, and
was adopted there by the democrats. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of
the State. He would have made an excellent merchant, had he entered upon the
career. He married a daughter of Archibald Gracie, the great merchant,
alluded to so frequently in these pages, and thus became brother-in-law to
James G. and Charles King, who had married sisters, and to the brothers
Gracie. No man was ever placed in a pleasanter position in life than
"Beach," as his relations called him. Surrounded by a loving sister, a
doting
father who left him rich, he has known or felt but few of the thorns of
life; and even now is quite a young man, and no one who meets him would
suppose for an instant that he was over forty years old. He has children.
One of them, William Beach Lawrence, Jr., is a young man of common promise,
and bids fair to keep up the reputation of the race he springs from. There
was one very painful matter connected with "Beach," and his father, I allude
to the father's indorsement for the son, and his final ruin in consequence.
In 1834 a lot of lots on Murray hill of Isaac Lawrence were sold to pay
Beach's debts for some $50,000, that last year were worth $800,000.
JOHN LAWRENCE
John Lawrence, the partner of Isaac, lived at 82 Murray street. He was
a great man in this city, and engaged in all the benevolent projects. He was
a Governor of the New York hospital, a Trustee of Columbia College, and a
Member of Congress. There were several John Lawrences living in New York at
the close of the last century, but the one I am now describing, who died in
the summer of 1817, if I am not mistaken, had been in Congress. He left
several daughters. They married into some of the first families. One married
John Campbell, another Benj. F. Lee, one John P. Smith, another Timothy G.
Churchill. After he moved from Murray Street, Mr. John Lawrence lived at 391
Broadway.
JOHN BURRELL
The president of the bank, in this city, was old Philip Livingston at
its commencement, and at its close Cornelius Ray. The directors were such
men as I have written about Thomas Buchanan, John Atkinson, Thomas Pearsall,
William Laight, William Bayard, Jacob Le Roy, and Archibald Gracie. Jonathan
Burrell was its cashier from 1791 to 1811. He lived in a fine old mansion at
49 Pine street.
When the Bank of America was chartered in 1812, the leading merchants
who got it up had an idea that it would take the place of the United States
Bank. Hence its comprehensive name, Bank of America. They made the late
cashier of the United States Bank, Jonathan Burrell, cashier. He afterwards
became vice-president, and he continued so until 1819. He lived then up at
388 Broadway, where, I think, he died.
Jonathan Burrell was a great patron of one of the most extraordinary
characters of his day. I mean a New York barber named John B. Huggins. He
flourished his razor for many years, about the commencement of this century,
and as late as 1808. Mr. Burrell believed in the United States Branch Bank,
and in the Bank of America; he would have trusted either with untold
millions, and he would have trusted Huggins with a more valuable
article____viz., his throat.
JOHN B. HUGGINS
Mr. Burrell was not alone in his faith in this barber. He shaved
Archibald Gracie, Col. Richard Varick, William W. Woolsey and William
Coleman of The Evening Post, Governor Oliver Wolcott, and Thomas Buchanan.
His shop was their favorite resort. He was an oracle of news. People regard
Robert Bonner as having carried genuine advertising and its humbug style to
an extravagant pitch in this age. He was not a circumstance to John Richard
Desbrosses Huggins, Empereur de Frisseurs, Roy de Barbers, Autocrat of
Fashions, &c., &c. In 1806, there were more daily papers than now. They
were "The American Citizen," "The New York Gazette," "The Mercantile
Advertiser," The Morning Chronicle," and "The People's Friend, morning
papers.
The afternoon dailies were "The Commercial Advertiser," "The Evening
Post" and "The Public Advertiser." Two of the first named dailies are now
flourishing. Of the weekly papers there were the "Republican Watch Tower,"
"The Spectator," The "Express," "The Herald," and the "People's Friend,"
printed from the daily offices. The regular weekly papers were the Museum,
Price Current Visitor, Republic and Spy.
In all of these papers did Mr. Huggins flourish, both in poetry and
prose. He had the cleverest writers of the day to aid him. He paid them like
an emperor. He commenced advertising in 1801. Hamilton wrote some of his
articles, and they were very clever. His place, during the last years, was
at No. 92 Broadway, opposite Trinity Church. Previous to that, from 1794 to
1800, Huggins kept his shop on the basement floor of the Tontine Coffee
house, then kept by Mr. Hyde. Here is one of his cards:
"JOHN RICHARD DESBROSSES HUGGINS
Knight of the Comb,
Ladies' and Gentlemen's Hair Dresser,
Tontine Coffee House,
"New York."
In these days the ladies had their hair dressed with great care, and
sometimes it was the case with gentlemen. Many of our old merchants have
kept awake and not laid down their heads, for fear of disarranging their
hair after it had been fixed (perhaps two days previous) for a great ball.
At No. 92 Broadway, Huggins kept a store, also, with trunks of
perfumery, essences, "lavender water, with amber perfume," "best pomatum,
high scented," fine smelling water," "milk of roses," "English honey
water," "bags, and pin cushions," "Spanish skin," "coral powder,"
"Venetian sponge," "pastes," "washes," "cosmetics." One of his pupils was
Maniort, who kept at No. 90 Broadway many years, and his pupil was George
Meyer, who keeps at No. 17 Park Row, under Power's hotel.
THE BANK OF AMERICA
The Bank of America was chartered for twenty years, with a capital of
$4,000,000. This was twice the capital of any other bank then chartered. It
was the sixth bank chartered by the State of New York. The president was
Oliver Wolcott, afterwards Governor of Connecticut, and who had been
Secretary of the Treasury under General Washington, and the first president
of the Merchant's Bank in this city, in 1803. The directors were Jonathan
Burrell, Archibald Gracie, William Bayard, Stephen Whitney, George Newbold,
and others who had been old United States Bank directors.
They did not succeed in making the Bank of America take the place of
the United States Bank; and in 1816, Congress chartered that institution
with a capital of $35,000,000 to last twenty years. It did last that time,
and then General Jackson crushed it. The branch in the city had its office
at No. 65 Broadway, and its cashier was lynda Catlin. Its president and
principal man was Mr. Isaac Lawrence, who until 1836, presided over its
destiny. He only lived four years afterwards, and died July 12, 1841. He was
one of the real aristocracy of the city, and was among the first.
ANCESTORS OF THE LAWRENCE SURNAME
There are two legitimate kinds____one descended from the old Holland
Dutchmen that came here in 1630, and thereafter, and another class of
English who came here in the same century, although a few years later. John
and Isaac Lawrence were of that stock. Three brothers came out to this
country in the troublesome times of King Charles the First. They were
passengers on board the ship "Planter," and landed in Massachusetts in 1635.
They were named John, William, and Thomas. From Massachusetts they emigrated
to Long Island in 1644, and took a patent of land from worthy old Governor
Kief. Old John afterwards moved to New York city, then New Amsterdam, and
was a great man among the Dutch and English. He was a merchant. He was
alderman from 1665 to 1672, and mayor in 1673. He was again alderman from
1680 to 1684, and mayor again in 1691.
One hundred years later, another John Lawrence, also a merchant, and
great grandson of the old one, was alderman from 1762 to 1765.
The eldest one was made Judge of the supreme court in 1693, and held
it until he died in 1699. He was born in 1618, in England. His will, in his
own handwriting, made when he was eighty years old, is still on file in the
county clerk's office.
From one of these brothers, John and Isaac Lawrence were
descended____a good old New York stock, by the English breed.
THE YELLOW FEVER OF 1798
I omitted to mention in my sketch of John B. Coles, his extraordinary
activity in his younger days whenever any affairs of benevolence were
concerned___wherever suffering humanity was to be relieved. Probably there
was never more suffering in this city than in the
yellow fever of 1798. From 29th July to 29th November, 2,086 died, and at
that time the city contained about 55,000 inhabitants. Its very first victim
was an old merchant, named Melancton Smith, who was taken sick in his store
in Front Street, near Coenties Slip. His death was followed by several of
his neighbors being taken ill, among them were Peter A. Schenck, the father
of Peter H. Schenck, of modern times. Almost at the same time it broke out
in Cliff street and Burling Slip, Ryder street, and Eden alley, at Golden
Hill street (since John.)
It raged greatly in Eden alley and Ryder street, where not a family
escaped it: and it terminated fatally to one or more members except in two
houses--one of Dr. Hardie, and the other Mr. McMaster, the grocer. All the
other families suffered fearfully.
Ryder street ran from Gold to Fulton, forming the letter L; it is now
called Ryder's alley. When called Ryder street, Dr. James Hardie and several
of our most respectable citizens lived in it. At No. 1 Ryder street was a
large printing office. It seems almost incredible now. The east corner of
Ryder street, facing on Fulton street, No. 67, is occupied by an old New
Yorker, named Edward Evans, for an extensive clothing establishment. The
only merchant in Ryder street is a young man, who keeps an extensive
establishment for old books. I frequently patronize him. From Fulton street
Ryder runs up a turn and goes out into Gold street. In this section the
fever raged fearfully. Eden alley was on the opposite side of Gold street.
At that time there was a prospect of a foreign war, and everybody was
engaged in making preparation. Companies were being formed, batteries were
being erected, subscriptions were being raised for the purpose of building
vessels of war to protect our commerce, when the yellow fever broke out. At
once all the war views were suspended. Speedy death was the only prospect.
Parents were deprived of their children, husbands of their wives, wives made
widows in a few hours, and from happy independence made beggars. Infants
cried for dead parents. Whole families were cut off. Half of the houses were
empty, and the frightened occupants fled to the country.
It was at such a time as this that John B. Coles evinced qualities
that made him a benefactor to his race and to the city. He was ever where
suffering was to be relieved, and he passed from one to another getting aid
and using it to the best advantage. He collected from the following persons:
From General Horatio Gates, who was then a resident here, $50; from
Archibald Gracie, $50; from Moses Rogers, $50; from Thomas Pearsall & Co.,
$100; from Tracy, $50; from a man in Staten Island he got two sheep, ten
bushels of Potatoes, six bushels turnips and twenty-five pumpkins. From
Teunis Quick, Mr. Coles received $40. From Charles L. Camman, $100. "A
man," gave Mr. C. $100, he was a man. Henry Seaman, $50. Herman Le Roy $50.
From Mr. Griffin in Newark, 480 Lbs. of beef. William Bayard, $100. Boonen
Graves gave Mr. Coles $100. Isaac Torboss gave five barrels of flour. John
McVicker gave $100. Thomas Lownder gave 100 loaves of bread. Thomas Pearsall
& Co., gave Alderman Cole $100. Hubert Van Waggenen, $50. Dominick Lynch
gave one ox, two pigs, two lambs, eighty chickens and sixteen bushels
potatoes. All the country towns sent down something. Walter Bowne gave $10,
G.G. Bosset gave twelve bottles syrup of vinegar, and two bottles of
"vinegar of four thieves." Pots of West Indies sweetmeats, lambs, fowls,
carl, cigars, loaves of bread, cart-loads of herbs and roots, potatoes,
beets, turnips, cabbages, carrots, radishes, thyme, barrels of pork, ducks,
butter, apples, hams, Indian meal, rye meal, corn, straw, catnip, seven
dozen castor oil, bag of beans, two cheeses, three pair of shoes, cords of
wood, barrels of cider, 1000 eggs, Two barrels shad, four geese, and
parsley. Such were the articles that poured in every day from different
sections of the State and New Jersey.
Good old merchant Thomas Buchanan sent in $100 and ten barrels of
oatmeal. John Watts too, sent in oxen, sheep, and forty barrels Indian meal.
Sir John Temple gave 100. Dirck Ten Broek gave fifty fat sheep. Of course,
in a time like this, another of our old merchants could not have been idle.
I allude to John Murray Jr., brother of Lindley Murray, the grammarian.
The common council, when the yellow fever broke out, borrowed a small
sum of money, to be appropriated to relieving the poor and distressed. In
September, John Murray Jr. came forward with $10,000 more.
It seems incredible to us now, the horrible accounts of yellow fever.
It was at one time a regular scourge to the city. Every few years it visited
New York and Philadelphia. In 1793 Philadelphia lost 4, 041. In 1795 New
York lost 732; in 1798, 2,086; and Philadelphia 3, 056. In 1803, New York
lost 609 out of 1,369 cases. In 1805 the yellow fever cases were about 600,
and deaths 202. In 1822 it raged here with unusual violence. The cases were
601, and deaths 230. The citizens all fled; part of down town was boarded
in. The custom house, post office, banks, insurance offices, and principal
merchants, all moved up into Greenwich village. Down town all the places of
public worship were shut up; but for this precaution the deaths would have
been as great as in 1798, when John B. Coles was so active. Mr. Coles
himself was buried in Trinity churchyard. How quickly good works are
forgotten. If I succeed in rescuing from oblivion such acts as his, I regard
myself as having performed a good work. Had De Witt Clinton done any thing
so creditable, it would have been heralded over the world; but done by an
insignificant merchant, it was hardly worth mentioning in old times.
Source: The Old Merchants of New York City
Author: Walter Barrett, Clerk Second series
Publisher: Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway
Entered according to the Act of Congress 1863
_____________________________________
Researched, Prepared and Contributed by Miriam Medina
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