Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Holker (1745-1822) date from 1777 to 1822. Holker was agent of marine for the French fleet in America as well as consul general and was closely associated with the business of supplying the French Army. He was the partner of Robert Morris, William Turnbull, and William Duer; and his private ventures in trade, coupled with his official activities, present a picture of the commerce of the United States during the Revolutionary War and provide source materials for the history of a considerable portion of the French assistance, military and economic, to the struggling colonies. The papers also contain material relating to the commerce of the United States from the close of the Revolution to the adoption of the Constitution
Holker was a silent partner in the firm of Parker, Duer & Company, contractors for supplying provisions to the Continental Army. Parker was one of the commissioners for superintending the embarkation of the British at the evacuation of New York City in 1783. Parker afterwards fled to Paris, and many of the later papers in this collection relate to Duer’s and Holker’s efforts to obtain redress from him through the courts. Also in the papers are accounts and correspondence relating to the purchase of horses for the French cavalry in 1780, in which the names of the owners and the price and description of each animal is given; the expenditures for the French fleet at Boston, 1778-1780; the report, attested by Tarle, of the expense of the French expeditionary force at Newport, Rhode Island, dated 28 October 1780; accounts of the proceeds of the sale of prizes taken by D’Estaing’s fleet, 1778-1781; returns of clothing issued to the light infantry under Lafayette, 26 September 1780; sundry returns of French prisoners on board the ill-famed British prison ships Jersey, Scorpion, and others, August and September 1780; an account of the loss of the ship Soucy, which contains Simeon Deane’s description of the capture and burning of Portsmouth, Virginia, by the British in May 1779; John Mitchell’s account of expenditures for the French fleet, 1780-1781; and bills of exchange negotiated by Holker, 1780-1781, for the expenses of the French Navy in America.
The papers also contain material relating to the affairs of the Continental Navy Board and to Robert Morris’s management of army subsistence affairs, as developed in the suit instituted by Holker against Morris for alleged mishandling of contracts. There is also a small but interesting correspondence between Holker, John Edgar, and Louis Tournier at Kaskaskia and New Orleans, 1785-1787, relating to the fur and ginseng trades.
Letters of more than ordinary interest among the Holker Papers include correspondence from the Commercial Committee of the Continental Congress; from Benjamin Harrison, Robert Morris, William Duer, Richard Peters, Henry Grand, James Wilson, Joseph Reed, John Rutledge, Thomas FitzSimons, James Mease, Matthew Ridley, Benjamin Franklin (various depositions taken before him), Edward Bancroft, Simeon Deane, William Turnbull, Gouverneur Morris, and Samuel Huntington; from the Frenchmen Jacques-Donatien Leray de Chaumont, Marquis de François Jean Chastellux, Conrad Alexandre Gérard, Chevalier de Anne-César La Luzerne, Lieutenant de Clonard, Marquis de Charles Armand Tuffin La Rouёrie, Jean-Marie-André de Capriol de Saint Hilaire, and Comte d'Alby Antoine de Sartine; drafts of Holker’s letters to La Luzerne, 1780; and his letterbook of Robert Morris’s letters, 1778-1779.
Business letters include correspondence with A. D. Le Griffon of Baltimore; Roulhac & Company, Edenton, North Carolina; Daniel Bell, Boston; Daniel Parker, New York; William Smith, Baltimore; and John Ross and Turnbull, Marmie & Company, Philadelphia.
The last items in the collection are two navigational exercise booklets kept by George W. Stillman. Included with the exercises is a journal of a voyage from Boston to Madeira, March 25 to April 11, 1805.