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ORIGINAL 1790 PHILADELPHIA MARITIME FREIGHT BILL
SLOOP PAROT • CAPTAIN EZRA LOWELL • NEWBURYPORT VOYAGE
JOSIAH & SAMUEL COATES • JOSHUA GILPIN • HAMILTON’S WHARF
Offered here is an original early American maritime freight bill dated October 8, 1790, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The manuscript records charges submitted by Captain Ezra Lowell for transporting twenty barrels of beef and thirty-eight boxes of candles for the Philadelphia mercantile firm of Josiah and Samuel Coates.
Contemporary Philadelphia newspaper advertisements published October 6, 7, and 8, 1790, identify Ezra Lowell as master of the sloop PAROT, then docked at Hamilton’s Wharf and scheduled to sail for Newburyport, Massachusetts, “on or before the 10th instant.”
The freight bill was prepared on October 8—while the advertisement was still running and only two days before the vessel’s announced departure. This close convergence of captain, city, date, and commercial activity strongly indicates that the beef and candles were cargo intended for the Parot’s imminent Philadelphia-to-Newburyport voyage.
MANUSCRIPT TRANSCRIPTION
“Messrs. Josiah & Samuel Coates
To Ezra Lowell for fraught [freight] of—
Twenty barrils of Beef at 1/10½ — £1.17.6
To Thirty Eight Boxes of Candles at /11 — £1.14.10
Philad’a Octo’r 8th 1790
Rec’d for the Candles — £1.8.6
£3.6.0”
The reverse is docketed approximately:
“Lowell’s Bill of freight 9th Trip
20 bls beef & 38 candles
9 Trip Octo. 8. 90”
Some abbreviated or faded words and figures remain open to interpretation.
ACCOUNTING AND CARGO
The manuscript appears to preserve a revision of the candle freight rate:
• Twenty barrels of beef at 1 shilling 10½ pence each: £1 17s. 6d.
• Thirty-eight boxes of candles initially calculated at 11 pence: £1 14s. 10d.
• Revised candle charge at 9 pence per box: £1 8s. 6d.
• Final freight total: £3 6s.
The arithmetic supports the final nine-pence rate exactly. Preserved beef and boxed candles were important commodities in the late-eighteenth-century coastwise trade. Beef could provision ships, merchants, households, and distant markets, while candles remained an essential source of domestic and commercial lighting.
CAPTAIN EZRA LOWELL
Ezra Lowell was a late-eighteenth-century American shipmaster engaged in coastwise commerce between Philadelphia and New England. The contemporary advertisement identifies him explicitly as master of the sloop Parot and directs prospective freight customers and passengers either to Lowell aboard the vessel or to Philadelphia merchant Joshua Gilpin.
This receipt provides original manuscript evidence of Lowell’s commercial activity and identifies a specific cargo handled immediately before the Parot’s scheduled October 1790 departure. The docket’s reference to a “9th Trip” suggests that the shipment belonged to a recurring series of voyages or freight runs.
THE SLOOP PAROT
The Parot—printed with one “r” in the period advertisement—was a commercial sailing sloop operating between Philadelphia and Newburyport, Massachusetts. Sloops were comparatively small and maneuverable vessels widely employed in the American coastal trade to transport passengers, foodstuffs, manufactured goods, and other merchandise between Atlantic ports.
The advertisement reads:
“For Newbury Port,
(Massachusetts)
The Sloop P A R O T,
EZRA LOWELL, Master;
Will sail on or before the 10th instant. For freight
or passage apply to the Master on board at Hamil-
tons wharf, or to
JOSHUA GILPIN.”
The October 8 freight bill falls directly within the vessel’s advertised loading period.
JOSIAH & SAMUEL COATES
Josiah and Samuel Coates were Philadelphia merchants associated with the city’s established Quaker commercial community. Their partnership participated in the movement and distribution of provisions and other merchandise through Philadelphia’s regional and maritime trading networks.
In this document, the Coates partnership appears as the commercial party responsible for freight charges on twenty barrels of beef and thirty-eight boxes of candles. The quantity confirms that this was a merchant shipment rather than an ordinary household delivery.
JOSHUA GILPIN
Joshua Gilpin (1765–1841), named in the advertisement as the Parot’s Philadelphia contact, was a notable merchant, manufacturer, papermaker, and advocate of American industrial and transportation development.
Gilpin belonged to a prominent Delaware Valley Quaker family and developed extensive commercial interests in Philadelphia. He traveled in Britain and studied European manufacturing and engineering practices, later becoming associated with improvements in papermaking and inland transportation. His role in the advertisement was that of the vessel’s shore-based Philadelphia agent, accepting inquiries for freight and passage while the Parot lay at Hamilton’s Wharf.
HAMILTON’S WHARF
Hamilton’s Wharf was the Parot’s advertised Philadelphia berth. Captain Lowell could be contacted aboard the vessel there while freight was being assembled for the upcoming Newburyport sailing. The manuscript provides a tangible connection to the everyday operation of Philadelphia’s eighteenth-century waterfront.
PAPER AND WATERMARK
The bill is written on laid rag paper and displays a pictorial watermark visible when illuminated from behind. The surviving design appears to show a fleur-de-lis within a crowned shield or cartouche, a form associated with European-made paper imported into early America during the Confederation and early Federal periods.
The laid construction, watermark, period ink, original calculations, folding pattern, and contemporary docketing are consistent with the document’s 1790 date.
HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
This manuscript documents several interconnected elements of early American commerce:
• Philadelphia’s coastwise maritime trade
• The Philadelphia-to-Newburyport shipping route
• A named vessel and identified shipmaster
• Hamilton’s Wharf and the Philadelphia waterfront
• The Josiah and Samuel Coates mercantile partnership
• Joshua Gilpin’s role as shipping agent
• Transportation of preserved beef and boxed candles
• Eighteenth-century British monetary accounting
• A probable freight-rate correction
• An identified voyage advertised in contemporary newspapers
The newspaper evidence transforms what might otherwise appear to be a routine account into identifiable documentation of a particular vessel, captain, berth, destination, agent, cargo, and departure window.
CONDITION
Original 1790 manuscript with expected age toning, fold lines, fading, handling wear, scattered marks, edge irregularities, and small areas of paper loss. There is a prominent tear extending upward from the center of the bottom edge to approximately the middle of the document. The tear remains visible and should be considered when purchasing. Period calculations and docketing appear on both sides.
Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description. Approximate dimensions are shown by the rulers in the photographs.
The newspaper advertisements illustrated or referenced in the research are reproductions and are not included as original newspaper issues unless specifically stated otherwise.
A scarce and highly researchable piece of early Federal-period Philadelphia maritime history with an unusually strong contemporary newspaper connection.
