Patrick Tracy Jackson Papers 1766-1869 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Sources Collection Description Related Materials Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Jonathan Jackson

Jonathan Jackson (4 Jun. 1743 - 5 Mar. 1810) was born in Boston to Edward Jackson (1708-1757), a merchant and manufacturer, and his wife Dorothy Quincy. After graduating from Harvard in 1761, Jackson apprenticed as a clerk with Newburyport merchant Patrick Tracy. Jackson went into business alone in Feb. 1765, but due to poor health entered into a partnership with John Bromfield (1743-1807) in 1766. After the death of his first wife, Jonathan Jackson married Hannah Tracy, the daughter of Patrick Tracy, in 1772, and in 1774, he dissolved his partnership with Bromfield to enter into a partnership with his brothers-in-law Nathaniel and John Tracy.

Jackson, Tracy & Tracy continued until 1777, when it folded due to losses resulting from the Revolution's disruption of trade. Jonathan Jackson served in the Continental Congress in 1782, after which he entered into a partnership with Stephen Higginson. Jackson & Higginson enjoyed little success, and Jonathan Jackson went on to several salaried positions, including supervisor of internal revenue for the Boston district, treasurer of Harvard College, and treasurer of Massachusetts. He had nine children, including Patrick Tracy Jackson and Hannah Jackson Lowell, wife of Francis Cabot Lowell.

Patrick Tracy Jackson

Patrick Tracy Jackson (14 Aug. 1780 - 12 Sep. 1847) was born in Newburyport, Mass., the youngest son of Jonathan Jackson and his second wife, Hannah Story Jackson. At the age of fifteen, P.T. Jackson was apprenticed to William Bartlett, a Newburyport merchant. After a career at sea on behalf of both Bartlett and his elder brother Henry Jackson from 1799 to 1808, P.T. Jackson established himself in Boston as a merchant specializing in the East and West Indies trade. Despite curtailed shipping interests during the War of 1812, Jackson collaborated with his brother-in-law Francis Cabot Lowell (1775-1817) to establish a textile factory in Waltham and with him founded the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813. The Waltham factory was the first to gather all the steps of converting raw wool into cloth into one operation.

By 1820, the success of the factory and the limited water power of the Charles River led Jackson to establish the Merrimac Manufacturing Company, additional cotton factories along the Merrimac River, and the city of Lowell, named for Francis Cabot Lowell. In 1830, problems of transportation and communication by canal and turnpike convinced P.T. Jackson to oversee the construction of the Boston & Lowell Railroad, the first railroad to receive a charter from the General Court and established the standard American rail gauge. Despite a desire to retire after the railroad began operating in 1835, a restless nature and some poor business decisions kept Jackson active in business until his death in 1847.

Sources

Faulkner, Harold U. "Jackson, Patrick Tracy," Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. 9, pp.552-553. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933.

Lowell, John Amory. Memoir of Patrick Tracy Jackson: Written for the Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review. New York : Press of Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, 1848.

Porter, Kenneth Wiggins. The Jacksons and the Lees: Two Generations of Massachusetts Merchants, 1765-1844. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1937.

Wright, Conrad, and Viens, Katheryn P., eds. Entrepreneurs: the Boston Business Community, 1700-1850. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, distributed by Northeastern University Press, 1997.

Collection Description

The Patrick Tracy Jackson papers, 1766-1869, contain business papers of Patrick Tracy Jackson and his father Jonathan Jackson, as well as estate papers, including those of Francis Cabot Lowell.

Jonathan Jackson's business papers consist of account books of the partnerships he entered over the course of his career, including Jackson & Bromfield, Jackson, Tracy, & Tracy, and Jackson & Higginson. The account books kept by Jackson, Tracy, & Tracy contain ships' accounts, including the brigs Elizabeth, Hibernia, and Pallas, and the sloops Mermaid, Conway, and Lively.

The bulk of Patrick Tracy Jackson's business papers consist of account books documenting his personal investments and accounts, including his stock holdings in companies including the Boston Manufacturing Company and the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. Jackson's papers also include records of his seafaring career, the brig Vancouver, and the Union Canal Lottery. The collection does not include many papers related to Patrick Tracy Jackson's interest in early railroads, except for a memorandum book containing notes on railroads and textile mills

The collection also contains records of the estate of Francis Cabot Lowell, a trust for Louisa Higginson and her children, and the estate of Gardiner Greene. Francis Cabot Lowell's estate papers include an inventory, accounts, and guardian accounts.

Related Materials

The following collections contain additional manuscripts concerning Patrick Tracy Jackson and his family:

Jackson family papers, 1602-1889

Francis Cabot Lowell papers, 1742-1903

Lee family papers, 1535-1957

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mrs. Helen E. Jackson, Newcastle, Maine, Dec. 1998.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Patrick Tracy Jackson papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.