Benjamin Davis, Baker?
He was then a Baker in Govert. Service.That detail has gone into every profile of Davis written from that source. Articles have discussed Davis as an example of the baking profession.
That puzzles me because nothing in Davis’s past shows any connection to baking. (Gingerbread, yes. Running a bakery, no.)
In Boston, Davis was a general import merchant, usually dealing in dry goods. He also invested in distilling, whaling, and other enterprises. Whigs denigrated him as a “Huckster,” not a baker. The goods he lost at Boston included “Iron, Tea, Liquor, Stockings, Haberdashery…”
Later the same Loyalists Commission document quoted Davis as saying that when he was captured on his voyage to New York in 1776 “He was then going into Trade on advice of Sir W. How.” The term “Trade” meant general mercantile trading. The cargo Davis was bringing to the city? Wine, not flour or bread.
An advertisement in the 13 Dec 1777 Royal Gazette shows that Benjamin Davis had opened a store in New York “in Queen-Street, the corner of King-Street.” He offered Madeira wine, tea, candles, sugar, cloth, clothing, blankets, and “An assortment of childrens toys.”
On 23 May 1778 “Benjamin Davis, & Son,” advertised in the Royal Gazette from “their Store, No. 229, Queen-Street, the Corner of King-Street.“ They sold cloth, garments, notions, and wine.
In 1779 the father and son offered “A neat and elegant assortment of BOOKS.” In 1781 they had “Four hundred gallons choice fresh South Carolina ORANGE JUICE.” In 1782 they advertised “Garden SEEDS” shipped from London. Several of their newspaper ads offered the cloth and trimmings for military uniforms. But never bread.
That firm’s advertisements disappeared after August 1783 as the British military left New York. That’s why I’m confident these merchants were Benjamin Davis, Sr. and Jr., from Boston. (Because of course there were a bunch of men with that name in Revolutionary America.)
It’s conceivable that Benjamin Davis, Sr., provided some capital for a bakery that supplied the British military in New York, but there’s no sign he was involved in running that operation. And I wonder if the word “Baker” was correctly transcribed.
TOMORROW: Benjamin Davis, to the end.
6 comments:
I agree with you that "baker" is likely a mis-transcription. I imagine it might be challenging, even today, to check the original page?
The quotation comes from a 1904 transcription of documents then in the Ontario Bureau of Archives, so the first question is where those documents might be now. Are they still at the provincial level, or have they gone into Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa?
There are probably parallel documents or early copies in Britain’s National Archives in London. My recollection is that the Audit Office series contains a lot of the Loyalist material.
I don’t think this material has been digitized. Indeed, since there is an official transcription published and that has been digitized, it might be low priority for scanning.
So, yes, checking this line would have to be done the old-fashioned way, through travel or hiring a researcher and someone leafing through actual paper.
I thought perhaps "baker" was quoted from THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE LOSSES AND SERVICES OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS 1783 TO I785 BEING THE NOTES OF Mr. DANIEL PARKER COKE, M.P., a fun book that includes numerous details not noted in the more formal claims. However I can't find Davis there. The only mention of baking I can find is in his claim to the Crown, A.O. 12/10/205-206, submitted by his son, but in senior's words. After detailing how his merchant business was essentially ruined in 1770 by his refusal to agree to non-importation and how in 1774 he converted one of his warehouses to a barracks for a regiment (the barracks burning down the following spring "by some Accident in a Surgeon's Room"), Davis Sr. goes on: "In the year 1775 I undertook the furnishing 2 Bake Houses with a number of hands to Bake Bread for the Troops, I carried on that Business for near twelve Months, so short was the Time limitted for leaving the place, and so intent was I in saving a large Quantity of Flour belong to Government and in serving out Bread to the Army that I had not opportunity of saving my own Goods but was obliged to leave behind..." It seems this was a short term venture when he had few other options. There is no indication from his claim that once in NYC and free to resume his merchant business he was ever otherwise involved in baking.
Excellent work! More info was indeed waiting in the Audit Office files.
So Davis financed “2 Bake Houses with a number of hands” for the army but didn’t get his own hands sticky, and he left that venture behind in Boston.
Another new detail is that the barracks fire started in “a Surgeon’s Room.” Or should that be “Sergeant’s”? The Massachusetts Spy said the fire was “occasioned by a serjeant of said regiment delivering cartridges to the men by candle-light.”
Interesting to ponder whether it is an auditory error, a clerk mishearing Davis's dictation. The actual written word in A.O. 12/10/206 is definitely "Surgeon."
Guess we can’t doctor that document.
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