Collection Description

Early papers in this collection consist of a number of accounts and bonds of Captain Arthur Savage related to property at Boston, 1710-1733, including papers concerning a dispute over the estates of Henry Phillips and his wife, 1731-1733.

Papers of Samuel Phillips Savage, 1742-1790, relate mainly to his business interests and include accounts of financial transactions and invoices for goods imported from London, 1742-1771. Customers and creditors during this period include Ebenezer Backus, James Gardner, David Jeffries, William Hickling, Thomas Russell, and Thomas Tyler. Also included are personal and household financial papers, such as itemized bills for the renovation of a Boston building by Story Dawes, 1760; the repair of silver pieces by William Homes, 1756; and tailoring and boarding bills. Accounts and receipts to Edes and Gill and the lottery managers, 1767, document purchases of tickets in the Faneuil Hall lotteries.

Papers related to legal matters include writs of execution and warrants in an attachment case against Timothy Rockwood, 1788; a number of other warrants issued by Savage while sitting as judge of the Middlesex Court, 1788-1789; and documents pertaining to his mother's estate and that of Thomas Tyler. Occasional correspondence includes letters from his son William at Newburyport, Mass. in 1772 and 1781-1785 describing his activities in Jamaica.

Other Savage family correspondence consists of letters from the children of Dr. Samuel Savage to their parents at Barnstable, Mass. and other family members describing their travels and business ventures as commission merchants in Central America and the West Indies, including those of Samuel Savage, Jr., 1796-1799; William Henry Savage, 1800-1801; and Charles Savage, 1820-1835. Also included is a letterbook of Charles Savage containing business correspondence at Louisville, Kentucky, 1820-1824, where he established a merchandising branch of Savage and Co. for the Mississippi area, as well as papers of Henry Savage, 1833-1871, related primarily to his claims against the U.S. government for consular services at Guatemala.

The collection also contains significant correspondence of Hope Savage Shaw and her husband Judge Lemuel Shaw with her brother Charles and their nephew Samuel Hay Savage, 1840-1853. The bulk of this correspondence concerns family news, but included are occasional references to their relative Herman Melville's writing activity and whereabouts, 1850-1853. Further papers relate to the negotiations of Lemuel Shaw and Lemuel Shaw, Jr. with the State Department over the Savage Guatemalan claim and additional claims against Costa Rica and San Salvador, 1850-1876.

Samuel Hay Savage's papers also contain numerous receipts for household goods at Boston, 1882, and extensive correspondence with his agents in Guatemala over past claims and his brother Henry's estate, 1883-1890.