Merchant ship captain John F. Kennedy fonds, 1796-1862 RG 626

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10464/13091

The fonds consists mainly of letters from merchant ship captain John F. Kennedy to his wife Marcia Gray, written from 1796 to 1818. One letter is from Kennedy to James Mosher, a banker in Baltimore, dated December 28, 1808. Other print documents include two pages of financial accounts (1833- 1835); a one page family register recording births, marriages and deaths; and a manuscript fragment of a poem. The collection also includes 3 photographs. One is a photograph of an unidentified woman (possibly Marcia Gray Kennedy); a photograph of Lucy Hansel MacGrotty Phipps, dated October 8, 1862; and a photograph of a building in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, by American photographer Frank B. Berry (ca. 1890s).

Click here to view the Merchant ship captain John F. Kennedy fonds finding aid

Browse

Now showing 1 - 12 of 12

Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 27 October 1806
(1806-10-27) Kennedy, John F.
The letter is written from St. Thomas and Kennedy discusses the letters/telegrams he has received, "...this was received at a moment when I am in difficulties gives me a pleasing relief...I have been taken with all my -------- by the Brittish and all condemned. tho this is a great disappointment to me as it relates my further visions the loss will remarkably not be very great.
Open Access
Family Record - Kennedy
(1800s)
A brief family history of the Kennedy family. The dates are all within the 1800s.
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, "Tuesday noon"
(1811) Kennedy, John F.
The letter is brief (less than a single page), but it does mention the following "Bonaparte is broken by the A.D. Charles and obliged to retreat-".
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 13 December 1814
(1814-12-13) Kennedy, John F.
A letter begins "I arrived here eve yesterday after the most tormenting journey that ever mans endured...". The last note on the letter reads "Cigars No. 6, 7, 8 - are those marked in the original bill as of inferior quality".
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 11 July 1818
(1818-07-11) Kennedy, John F.
A letter from Kennedy while in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He mentions "I shall depart from this next saturday for Buenos Aires then take in a cargo for the Isle of France."
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 3 September 1817
(1817-09-03) Kennedy, John F.
The letter discusses a short time in Rio de Janeiro, he writes "My stay here will be very short not more I hope than five or ten days". He describes the place as "most disagreeable".
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 27 October 1815
(1815-10-27) Kennedy, John F.
The letter was written while Kennedy was in Gibraltar, he begins "I commenced writing to you yesterday when most unexpectedly Commodore Bainbridge got his whole fleet under way ------ obliged to close my letter without saying anything that I had to say and with much difficulty got it on board the Brig commanded by...". This letter was written at the time of the Algerian War and mentions that Commodore Stephen Decatur was on route home after defeating the Algerian pirates.
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 3 October 1814
(1814-10-03) Kennedy, John F.
The letter mentions the siege of Baltimore by the British during the War of 1812. Kennedy was recovering from illness in Norfolk, Virginia, and writes to his wife that “Your two letters of the 21st came together last evening. Their receipt has eased my mind more than it is in my power to express. I thought you or some of the children sick or dead, not hearing from you. Knowing that you are all well I feel an unusual comfort and happiness…My God what a time my love you must have had during the siege. Altho the fortune of man might have put an end to me or deprived me of a leg or an arm and put an end to all my hopes in this world, I regret my not being in Fort McHenry as the greatest misfortune of my life”.
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 6 November 1811
(1811-11-06) Kennedy, John F.
The letter discusses a shipment and mentions "it is bad enough, but better than first expected".
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 19 June 1796
(1796-06-19) Kennedy, John F.
In his June 19, 1796 letter he writes his ship will “go out under the protection of our fine frigate the Constellation”.
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 27 August 1805
(1805-08-27) Kennedy, John F.
The situation put Kennedy in a financial bind, who writes on August 27, 1805 that “the loss of the Jane at a moment when I required an immense sum of money to meet my engagements threw me into such difficulty that to make my payments required all my energy and industry to get money without borrowing or going into the disreputable schemes of slavers”.
Open Access
Letter from Merchant John F. Kennedy to Marcia Gray, 12 August 1805
(1805-08-12) Kennedy, John F.
In this letter dated August 12, 1805, he writes about the “loss of my favorite Brig Jane shamefully captured by the French…She is again recaptured by the British and sent to Jamaica, to which place I have this day sent our friend H. Child to pay the salvage and bring her home”.

Browse

Recent Submissions