John Bertram Papers, 1855-1889, undated
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Not requestable
Scope and Content Note
The John Bertram Papers contain the shipping and business papers of John Bertram (1796-1882), a Salem, Massachusetts, merchant who traded with Aden, Bombay, Madagascar, and Zanzibar. Because the bulk of the collection runs from 1865 to 1875, there is no information relating to the first decades of Bertram's business and little documentation of the company in the years before Bertram's death in 1882. The collection also contains very little information regarding Bertram's business activities in the United States. The papers are divided into three series.
Series I. Agency Records contains correspondence and accounts of the Arabian, African, and London agencies which handled Bertram's foreign trade. The bulk of the papers run from 1865 to 1870, providing little documentation of the business during the decade before the company's takeover by Ropes Emmerton & Company in 1882.
Series II. Ships' Papers does not reflect the extraordinary amount of trade which Bertram's vessels conducted with Aden, Zanzibar, and Madagascar. Additional ships' papers for chartered vessels and sales of cargoes may be found with the agency papers. Of interest in the papers of the bark Glide is master's correspondence describing an 1868 Bedouin uprising in Muscat.
Series III. Business Papers is comprised of correspondence, financial, legal, and estate papers. The business correspondence describes Bertram's financial affairs and the distribution of cargoes in the United States. It also includes letters (1873-1878) from business associate George Ropes to Bertram's agent George R. Emmerton. These letters discuss the settlement of Bertram and Ropes' business relations. Also of note is correspondence regarding the closing of the Arnold Hines & Company's African agencies in 1879. Legal papers include agreements between Bertram and his agents, and loan agreements made between his estate executors and the future members of Ropes Emmerton & Company.
Dates
- Creation: 1855-1889, undated
Creator
- Bertram, John, 1796-1882 (Person)
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research use.
Biographical Sketch
John Bertram was born in 1796 on the Isle of Jersey. In 1807, the Bertram family immigrated to Salem, Massachusetts. John Bertram began his seafaring career in 1812, and he quickly rose through the ranks to become a respected shipmaster. In 1832, he retired from the sea to develop his mercantile interests. Bertram became of the first and largest concerns to tap the profitable resources of Aden, Zanzibar, Madagascar, and the east African coast. Relying on his foreign agents to handle the actual trading, Bertram exported cargoes of American manufactured cotton cloth and kerosene, and imported coffee, hides, cloves, gum copal, and ivory. Bertram shared his business interests with a number of American merchants. Many of his 45 ships were owned in partnership with other Salem merchants, including Michael and Henry F. Shepard, Andrew Ward, John B. Silsbee, and James B. Curwen. Bertram increasingly cooperated with George Ropes of Boston and Arnold Hines & Co. of New York as more and more vessels sailed to those ports rather than to Salem. Upon his death in 1882, Bertram left a sum of money to be loaned to those of his agents who wished to continue his African business. Three of these agents, Edward D. Ropes, E. Augustus Emmerton, and George R. Emmerton, took the loan and formed the Salem firm of Ropes Emmerton & Company.
Besides his shipping concerns, Bertram developed interests in railroads, Californian gold, shipbuilding, and civic affairs. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1841, 1857, and 1863 and was a noted philanthropist. Bertram married three times: Mary Smith (d. 1837) in 1823; Clara Millet (d. 1847, widow of Captain J. H. Millet) in 1837; and Mary Ann Ropes in 1848. His daughter Jennie married George R. Emmerton, a Bertram agent and later a member of Ropes Emmerton & Company. John Bertram died on March 22, 1882.
Extent
2.75 linear feet (6 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The John Bertram Papers contain the shipping and business papers of John Bertram (1796-1882), a Salem, Massachusetts, merchant who traded with Aden, Bombay, Madagascar, and Zanzibar.
Series List
SERIES I. Agency Records
SERIES II. Ships' Papers
SERIES III. Business Papers
Physical Location
Phillips Library Stacks
Provenance
The John Bertram Papers are a reorganization and integration of 4.5 boxes of manuscripts removed from the Ropes Emmerton & Co. Records (MSS 103), 3 agency letter and account books, 2 estate account books, and other material removed from the Shipping Collection. The papers and volumes are from unknown sources. Removed from the collection are several envelopes.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Sylvia B. Kennick, May 1983. Updated by Anne E. (Holmer) Deschaine, April 2012, July 2014.
Subject
- Bertram, John, 1796-1882 (Person)
- Emmerton, E. Augustus (Ephraim Augustus), 1827-1901 (Person)
- Emmerton, George R., 1836-1888 (Person)
- Ropes, Edward D. (Edward Dehonde), 1838-1902 (Person)
- Ryder, J. Orne (Person)
- Trumbull, Edward B., 1852-1934 (Person)
- Webb, Francis R. (Person)
- Webb, W. G. (William George), 1821-1890 (Person)
- Williams, James S. (Person)
- Ropes, Emmerton & Co. (Organization)
- Essex (Bark) (Organization)
- Glide (Bark) (Organization)
- Sachem (Bark) (Organization)
- Slide (Bark) (Organization)
- Taria Topan (Bark) (Organization)
Geographic
Topical
- Account books
- Administration of estates
- Cargo handling -- Hides
- Cargo handling -- Ivory
- Freight and freightage -- Hides
- Freight and freightage -- Ivory
- Investments -- Railroads
- Merchant agents -- Aden -- E. Augustus Emmerton
- Merchant agents -- Aden -- Edward D. Ropes
- Merchant agents -- Aden -- Francis R. Webb
- Merchant agents -- Aden -- Rustomjee Sorabjee Kharas
- Merchant agents -- Bombay -- E. Augustus Emmerton
- Merchant agents -- Bombay -- Francis R. Webb
- Merchant agents -- Bombay -- William George Webb
- Merchant agents -- Boston -- George Ropes
- Merchant agents -- Musqat -- E. Augustus Emmerton
- Merchant agents -- Musqat -- Francis R. Webb
- Merchant agents -- New York -- Arnold, Hines & Co.
- Merchant agents -- New York -- Maclean Marris & Co.
- Merchant agents -- Salem (Mass.) -- George R. Emmerton
- Merchant agents -- Tamatave -- J. Orne Ryder
- Merchant agents -- Tamatave -- James S. Williams
- Merchant agents -- Zanzibar -- Edward D. Ropes
- Merchant agents -- Zanzibar -- Francis R. Webb
- Merchants -- Massachusetts -- Salem
- Shipping
- Title
- JOHN BERTRAM PAPERS, 1855-1889, undated
- Author
- Processed by: Sylvia B. Kennick; Updated by: Anne E. (Holmer) Deschaine; machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan.
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Processing and conservation for the collection were funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Repository Details
Part of the Phillips Library Repository