Scope and Content Note
The records of John Glassford and Company span the years 1743-1846, but bulk largest in the period 1760-1820. They include ledgers, journals, daybooks, inventories, cashbooks, and letterbooks for the various mercantile firms which represented or succeeded John Glassford and Company in Maryland and Virginia. The records are organized geographically into two series: Maryland and Virginia.
John Glassford (1715-1783) was one of the most prominent and prosperous of the Scottish “tobacco lords.” Glassford, an original member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures, was a leading force in the establishment of Glasgow, Scotland, as an international trading center. By the latter part of the eighteenth century, he controlled a major portion of the Chesapeake tobacco trade, despite having never travelled to America. Represented by agents or factors, Glassford established a system of branch stores along the Potomac River for the purpose of purchasing tobacco directly from planters. By this method of direct purchase, Glassford and his associates were able to pay higher prices for tobacco than English consignment merchants. While higher prices brought the Scottish firm new customers, its ability to extend credit and provide planters with consumer goods helped to insure its domination of the Chesapeake tobacco trade. The sale of goods such as hardware, rum, wine, sugar, salt, and slaves became a major source of revenue for the branch stores.
This collection reflects the daily transactions normally carried on in the branch stores. The transactions were often recorded in rough form on throw sheets and then carefully recorded in the store's journal (or daybook) and ledger (or account book). Accounts were maintained for each individual or firm trading with the store and for various types of produce or goods collected for export or resale. Numerous names of slaves appear in both the daybooks and account books. A major portion of the collection deals with the Revolutionary War era. The letterbooks of Alexander Hamilton, factor for Piscataway, Maryland, and Robert Fergusson, factor for Georgetown, Maryland, reveal the difficulty Glassford and Company and subsequent firms encountered when collecting pre-war debts. Inventories for the schooners Felicity and Plato also appear in the collection.
Under the firm name of Glassford and Company, Glassford operated stores in Maryland at Baltimore, Benedict, Bladensburg, Chaptico, Georgetown (later part of Washington, D.C.), Leonardtown, Llewellin's Warehouse, Lower Marlboro, Newport, Nottingham, Piscataway, Port Tobacco, and Upper Marlboro. John Glassford and Archibald Henderson under the firm of Glassford, Henderson & Company operated stores in Virginia at Alexandria, Colchester, and other sites; and with associates James Gordon and Walter Monteath, Glassford operated Glassford, Gordon, Monteath & Company at Quantico, Dumfries, and Norfolk.
With the death of John Glassford in 1783, the surviving members of Glassford and Company, Henry Glassford, James Gordon, Henry Riddell, John Campbell, and Archibald Henderson, presented the power of attorney for the company to Robert Fergusson, factor for Georgetown. It is unclear when the company passed out of the hands of the Scottish merchants and into the control of local owners. From 1800 to 1816 the firm of Vincent & Fergusson carried on the bulk of the business. From 1816 to 1834 the firm was called Thompson, Edelen & Company. In Glassford and Company's most successful years, those prior to the American Revolution, the company owned a fleet of twenty-five ships and imported ten percent of all tobacco received by Great Britain. The value of Glassford's yearly imports over this period has been estimated to be in excess of £500,000.
The collection includes records of the following firms: Glassford and Company; Glassford, Henderson & Company; Glassford, Gordon, Monteath & Company; Henderson, Fergusson & Gibson; Findlay, Hopkins & Company; James Brown & Company; Boyle, Scott & Company; Jamieson, Johnstone & Company; Shortridge, Gordon & Company; James Gordon & Company; Vincent & Fergusson; and Thompson, Edelen & Company. Prominent names found in the collection include William Bayles, William Byrd (1728-1777), Landon Carter, George William Fairfax, William Fitzhugh, Neil Jamieson, Henry Lee, Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, George Plater, Hector Ross, George Washington, and Lawrence Washington of Chotank.