Scope and Content Note
The papers of Neil Jamieson cover the years 1757-1789, with most of the material concentrated between 1760 and 1776. The collection consists of correspondence, accounts cargo manifests, invoices, supply orders, receipts, and a few legal records organized into five series: Correspondence, Financial Records, Legal File, Miscellany, and Oversize.
Neil Jamieson was the partner in Glassford, Gordon, Monteath & Company, one of the firms constituting the Glassford group of interlocking partnerships of Glasgow tobacco trading companies. The business interests of the company in Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Great Bridge were conducted under the name of Neil Jamieson,[1] and the Jamieson Papers are a record of the business activities of the Virginia company.
The Jamieson Papers present an overall view of the tobacco trade with Scotland and are particularly illustrative of the store system used by Glasgow merchants. As tobacco production expanded and planters moved further inland, merchants established chains of stores at various localities to collect the annual crops and to sell goods and slaves. The correspondence series contains numerous letters from other Glassford agents in Maryland and Virginia, such as Arthur Morson at Falmouth, Adam Fleming at Cabin Point, Henry Riddell at Piscataway, James Lyle at Manchester, and Alexander Henderson at Colchester. These storekeepers kept Jamieson abreast of prevailing prices and quantities of tobacco, corn, wheat, and other crops in their areas. In some instances, the agents placed orders with Jamieson for supplies and maintained accounts with the Jamieson store. The correspondence also shows how Jamieson coordinated the shipment of tobacco and other products from Virginia, hiring cargo space and sometimes having ships constructed when company ships were not available.
The Jamieson Papers also present insight into the financial operations of tobacco trade. The practice of extending credit in exchange for tobacco and other crops, the keeping of running accounts with planters, the problems of debt collection, the setting of prices at the General Court sessions, and the pattern of trade that existed between Spain, the West Indies, and Virginia, are all evident in the collection.
When the Revolutionary War started, many of the principal Glasgow agents were directed to ports controlled by the British. In February 1776 Jamieson left Norfolk, took refuge with Lord Dunmore’s fleet, and finally reached New York in September. The papers contain several pay orders between June and September drawn on the account of the government, His Majesty’s service, or Lord Dunmore. From his arrival at New York until 1784, Jamieson continued to trade in prize goods on behalf of the Glassford firm even though the partnership for the Virginia store had been terminated as of November 1, 1778. In 1786 he appeared before the commissioners of the Crown at Halifax in an effort to recover compensation for the loss of the Virginia properties, and afterwards placed his New York business in the hands of agent and left the country. A few documents relating to his claims for compensation are included in the legal series of the papers. A journal representing Jamieson’s financial transactions, October 1775–May 1778, and a listing of losses claimed for the Norfolk, Falmouth and Cabin Point stores cited as part of the Neil Jamieson Company are located in Volumes 212 and 228 respectively of the John Glassford and Company Records in the Library of Congress.
Correspondents in the Jamieson collection include Robert Christie Jr., Robert Donald, Adam Fleming, James Glassford, John Glassford, Alexander Henderson, James Lyle, Mayne & Co., David Meade, John Montgomerie, Arthur Morson, George Muter, Henry Riddell, William Robertson, Daniel Sanford, Daniel Triplett, Henry Tucker, and James Wallace.
1. Research in U.S. sources and the Strathclyde Regional Archives in Glasgow revealed no further information about Janieson.