Series I. Captain Joseph Lee (1744-1831) Papers documents his business as a shipbuilder, covering the years 1796 until 1831. Located in this series is correspondence regarding orders for ships, legal agreements with clients and workmen, accounts and receipts for construction materials, memorandums of ship dimensions, and drawings of hulls and ship decorations. Joseph's correspondence also includes letters concerning farming and merchant correspondence, circa 1809 until 1810, which reflects Joseph's and his son, Henry Lee (1782-1867)'s, joint investments in Calcutta goods. Of interest are letters, circa 1811, in which Joseph states his distaste of Napoleon and the thought of war with Great Britain. It should be noted that this series does not contain papers of Joseph's important mercantile trade with the West Indies and Spain, papers of his ships, his distillery or his project to build the Essex Bridge.