Auction details
Jay T. Snider Collection
offered by
6 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036-1902 ![]()
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LOGAN, James. Autograph manuscript account of the costs involved in preparing the "Ship Mary Galley" for a voyage presumably to the West Indies. [Philadelphia]: 1708/9. 1p., large sheet (380 x 313 mm). Signed within the text by Logan. Verso blank, docketed. Condition: splits to folds with some losses. [With:] Autograph letter signed from Edward Foy to James Logan discussing the "Mary Gally", thanking him for his administration of the vessel and giving news of the war and the "Expectation of Peace." Bristol: 17 October 1709. 1p. (310 x 195 mm). Blank verso, docketed. Condition: old folds. an interesting pair of documents, revealing the costs of outfitting a voyage and demonstrating the close economic links between bristol and philadelphia. This accounting of the expenses of the Ship Mary Galley prepared by Logan, who owned 5/16th of a share in her profits, records in detail the preparations for a commercial voyage, including the use of slaves to load ballast, the costs of various supplies, the salaries of joiners, carpenters, the cook, and others, and most significantly from a monetary perspective the cargo of pork, staves and bread. The account also records the names of each owner: Logan, William Trent, Isaac Norris, Pentecost Teague, George Heathcote, Abraham Bickley, William Poole and Richard Hill. Interestingly, this very document seems to have been consulted by James F. Watson during his research for his 1830 Annals of Philadelphia, in which he writes within a section on colonial trade: "I give here a specimen, from a bill of outfits of a Philadelphia vessel in 1708-9, in which were sixteen distinct and separate divisions of eight ownerships in the 'ship Mary Galley,' -- her total expenses were £415" (Watson, Annals, p. 88). The Foy family were prominent in Bristol for much of the 18th century and apparently owned this ship being used by Quaker merchants in Philadelphia. It is not known when Edward Foy and Logan reached an agreement over the management of the "Mary Galley" but he had written to Logan from Virginia on 26 July, and had only recently returned to Bristol. In this letter, Foy gives Logan news of both William Penn ("I have seen the Proprietor Since my Arrival") and the wars then raging in Europe: "This day comes the sure and welcome news that Mons surrendered they being afraid of the fate of Tournai being made prisoners of war... [and commenting on the French King Louis XIV] we shall bring the old sinner to repentance, who has peace in his mouth but mischief in his heart." Logan had evidently told Foy that he was about to return to England, as Foy finishes by noting that it "Shall be joyful to see you here according to your advice." On 3 December 1709 Logan left Philadelphia, and sailed to England via Portugal eventually arriving in London in March 1710.ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images:
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