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Rhode Island
Stampless Covers & Letters
1800 Stampless Letter Signed by
Treasury Secretary Oliver Walcott
to William Ellery Collector of the Port of Newport, Rhode island
Signer of the Declaration of Independence (Docketed by Ellery)
(Scroll Down for Complete
Text of Letter & Historical Background)
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Docketing written by
William Ellery
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This very interesting letter
from Secretary of the Treasury,
Oliver Walcott to William
Ellery, Collector of Customs
for the Port of Newport,
Rhode Island concerns a request from James
and Charles D'Wolf,
(two
members of the slave trading D'Wolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island)
to unload the cargos of two of their ships in the East
India trade at Bristol instead of Newport. The letter
also mentions a division of
the district of Newport into two separate districts for
the collection of customs.
(There are records
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indicating that this
division had already taken place in February of this year.) The letter is signed by Oliver
Walcott and is docketed,
as shown above by William Ellery,
who along with Stephen Hopkins
signed the Declaration of Independence
for Rhode Island. There were no postal markings on the cover side of the
letter and it was most likely carried by private courier. William
Ellery was the collector
for Newport from 1790 until
his death in 1820. He
was anti-slavery and he had
several run-ins with the D'Wolfs and other slave traders including John
Brown of the Providence Brown family. The complete text
of the letter is reproduced
below followed by a
NOTE: I have seen three versions for the
spelling of D'Wolf//De Wolfe//DeWolfe and in this letter it was rendered
as DeWolfe. In another letter to John D'Wolf from one of their Captains,
it is spelled D'Wolf -
View:
1825
Letter to John D'Wolf)
View:
Biography
of William Ellery |
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Treasury
Department
March 29th 1800 |
Sir,
The subject of a division of the district of
Newport, is I find likely to occasion considerable duplication
-- I wish therefore that it may receive a deliberate
consideration and that I may be favored with your sentiments --
Nothing will be done this session, you will therefore have time
to mature your opinion.
Messrs James & Charles DeWolfe represent
that they expect two India ships, which they are desirous of
unloading at their own wharves -- It is certain that the entry
must be made at Newport where the duties must also be secured
and the permits granted -- The obligation to unload at Newport
is not so clearly expressed in the law of 1790 or 1799 as I had
imagined -- I wish to know, whether any danger to the revenue,
or inconvenience to the business of the district, would result
from allowing the vessels to be discharged at Bristol under the
eye of the surveyor and such inspectors as you may specially
designate -- The point is new and unsettled -- If no special
inconveniences would result, I should be inclined to grant the
indulgence as a far less questionable measure than the erection
of a new district -- If you are satisfied that the permission to
discharge at Bristol, after the entry at Newport will involve no
troublesome consequences, and the vessels arrive before you can
write and receive an answer from me, the business may take that
course -- Otherwise you will be pleased to state your objections
-- I have been careful in my letter to Messrs DeWolf's to go no
further than to say that I have written to you for information
on the subject of their application. |
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I am very
Respectfully
Sir
Your Obed Servant
Oliver Walcott |
William Ellery
Esq
Collector of Newport |
| View Page Two
- William Ellery Biography |
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