Scope and Content Note
The Lovering-Taylor family papers span the years 1727-1926, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the years 1776-1888. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, financial papers, business records, legal papers, biographical and genealogical material, clippings, and printed matter. The collection is organized into six series: Diaries , Family Correspondence , General Correspondence , Financial and Business Papers , Miscellany , and Oversize .
Although five generations of the Taylor and two of the Lovering family are represented in the papers, the collection focuses primarily on the business activities of Joseph Taylor, Latin scholar and Loyalist Boston merchant who was a partner in the firms of Amory’s & Taylor, later Amory, Taylor, & Rogers, and finally Taylor & Rogers. When Boston was evacuated during the Revolutionary War, Taylor was in England, but his partner, Samuel Rogers, moved the business to Nova Scotia and later to New York. In mid-1777, Taylor returned to America. Rogers went to England in November 1777. Taylor continued to transact business in New York until 1785 when he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Toward the end of 1795 he returned to Boston and established himself as a mercantile insurance broker.
Joseph Taylor’s papers present the shipping trade from the Loyalist point of view. The General Correspondence series contains numerous letters from Rogers and a few from Taylor between the years 1777 and 1785 that document in detail the difficulties of conducting trade during and immediately after the war and include comments on the military and political situation during the war. The letters also show how delays in communication, problems of credit, and doubts concerning decisions affecting the business placed a strain on the relationship between the two men that eventually led to the dissolution of the partnership.
After the end of the Revolutionary War, the United States government finally paid American debts owed British merchants, but the Loyalists were forced to seek restitution from the British government. The collection includes memorials that support Taylor’s claims for losses incurred as a result of the war. The papers also contain a file that explains Taylor’s financial connection with the Associated Loyalists and presents his claims for a share of any compensation awarded George Leonard, as leader of the Associated Loyalists, for services rendered the British cause during the war.
During the wars of the French Revolution, American commerce suffered at the hands of both France and Great Britain. Both countries captured American ships. However, after the conclusion of Jay’s Treaty, the French regarded America as an ally of Britain, and French privateers freely attacked and seized American ships. As a broker underwriting marine insurance policies on ships and their cargoes, Taylor sustained financial losses during this quasi-war with France. The Lovering-Taylor Papers contain several groups of papers relating to these spoliation claims. The General Correspondence includes letters written in 1802 by merchants in New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and Boston that illustrate the efforts of Americans to organize and seek redress for shipping losses caused by foreign governments. Evidence of other attempts to present claims is found in the collation of insurance policies with ships prior to 1864, in papers relating to the detention of ships in South America, and in the first spoliation claims file. However, the major group of papers pertaining to the claims was assembled after Congress passed the 1885 act for the ascertainment of claims of American citizens for spoliations committed by the French prior to July 31, 1801. The General Correspondence between 1876 and 1888 deals almost exclusively with the efforts of Charles T. Lovering (born 1846) to initiate claims for losses of his great-grandfather, Joseph Taylor. The post-1885 French spoliation claims file reflects the tedious research and documentation necessary to establish the validity of Taylor’s claims by his heirs.
The Taylor family’s ties to international trade are also shown in the papers of Charles Taylor, particularly in his letterbooks covering the years 1796 and 1797, and in the accounts and property papers in the Financial and Business Papers series. The remaining financial papers are mostly personal and deal with routine accounts, bills and receipts, acquisition and management of property, and the estates of various members of the Taylor and Lovering families.
The Miscellany series includes a holograph and a printed copy of the oration that Joseph Taylor delivered in Latin at the funeral of Edward Wigglesworth of Harvard and a printed copy of the Patent for Plymouth published in 1751.
Other family members represented include William Taylor (1714-1789), Abigail Taylor Amory (born 1739), Charles Taylor (died 1837), Hannah Jones Welles Taylor (1776-1845), Mary Taylor Lovering (born 1813), and members of the allied Amory (Emery) and Welles (Wells) families.
Additional correspondents include John Amory, Jonathan Amory, Rufus Greene Amory, Thomas Amory, Benedict Arnold, Samson Salter Blowers, Buchanan & Young Co., Charles Wood & Co., John Cruden, Robert Digby, William E. Earle, William Lee (1739-1795), George Leonard,, Wm. Robb, Gilbert Robertson, Samuel Rogers, Samuel Philips & Co., James Short, William Taylor, Captain James Tucker, Joshua Upham, and Daniel Webster.