Collection Description

Early papers in this collection relate to the business and legal affairs of Arthur Savage, 1708-1734. Included are documents concerning the estates of Mrs. Elizabeth Savage, 1708-1709, Samuel Phillips, 1729, and Henry Phillips, 1732-1733; an arbitration decree issued by Thomas Hutchinson and John Alford related to the dispute between Savage, John Oulton, and Cornelius Waldo over the ownership of the Province Galley; and accounts of merchandise shipped by London export agent Richard Partridge, mainly cargoes of raisins, 1731-1734.

Papers of Samuel Phillips Savage consist of receipts, accounts, invoices, deeds, and correspondence about business, legal, and judicial matters, 1740-1789. A considerable portion of these papers pertains to the Board of War, headed by Savage from 1776 to 1781, including accounts for provisions, ordinance, clothing supplies, and transportation. Letters from Nantes suppliers include recommendations for individuals interested in joining the American cause. Among the items of particular interest in this period are: Israel Whittemore's action to collect fees for providing and transporting cannon to Cambridge, Mass. in 1775, Apr. 1777; a letter from James Bowdoin describing the cannon-boring technique of the Bridgewater machine designer Maresquelles, 29 May 1777; an urgent appeal from Richard Devens to Alexander Shepard to supply firearms to Boston, 30 July 1777; and Samuel Otis's order to Savage for teams to meet the emergency, 1 Aug. 1777. Correspondents include Caleb Hopkins, Samuel A. Otis, James Sullivan, James Warren, Jr., Jonathan Williams, and the French supplier Penet Da Costa Freres Co. of Nantes.

Correspondence of the Savage family includes letters from William to his father describing his life at Jamaica, 1786-1790, and from Samuel to his parents while working as an export agent in Jamaica and Surinam, 1785-1799. Other family members writing from the West Indies include Elisha Doane Savage, 1803, and Charles Savage, 1817-1839. Charles primarily wrote to his sister Hope (Savage) Shaw from the West Indies, Central America, and Louisiana, where he describes his surroundings and the commodities and shipping business, including the purchase of the steamer Livingston in 1839. Correspondence of Samuel Hay Savage with members of the Lemuel Shaw family, 1840-1885, discusses his business activities as an export merchant at Tampico, Mexico, San Salvador, Sonsonate, Guatemala.

Shaw family correspondence contains early letters from Lemuel Shaw, Jr. while attending school at Northborough, Mass., 1836, and letters to Samuel Hay Savage on family news, including his sister Elizabeth's marriage to Herman Melville in 1847. Elizabeth (Shaw) Melville describes her wedding in a letter to Samuel in Sep. 1847. Letters of J. C. Sharp also contain information on the Melville family during visits to them in New York in 1849, including Melville's work habits and the production of his volume Redburn. Correspondence of 1863-1885 pertains to Henry Savage's claim for compensation from the U.S. government for his work as acting consul at Guatemala and San Salvador, 1830-1833.