Descriptive Summary
Administration Information
Biographical Note
Arrangement
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Benjamin Adams and Thomas Adams collection
Dates: 1781-1807
Collection Number: mssHM 83630-83688
Creator OR Collector:
Adams, Thomas, of Alnwick
Extent:
65 items in one box
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: A collection dealing with the Jamaican financial interests of Benjamin Adams and Thomas Adams; the collection consists of
correspondence, statements of bills and accounts, estate dealings and promissory notes.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Administration Information
Access
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities.
The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with
the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Benjamin Adams and Thomas Adams collection, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
Purchased from Jeff Weber Rare Books, April 2018.
Biographical Note
Benjamin Adams was an English businessman; he died in 1792. Thomas Adams was a solicitor, an agent for the Duke of Northumberland,
and the owner of Eshott Hall (Alnwick, Northumberland).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged chronologically.
Scope and Content
The majority of the material in the collection concerns the financial interests of Benjamin Adams and Thomas Adams in Jamaica.
Benjamin Adams was owed a significant sum by Jamaican landowner George Noble. Upon Noble's death (ca. 1790), Adams entered
into proceedings via attorneys James Corne Pownall and David Duncomb to recover his debt. The process was severely complicated
by the revelation that the cane plantation overseen by Noble, known as the Lottery Estate in Trelawney, Jamaica, was not actually
owned by him. After Benjamin Adams' death in 1792, the affair was taken up by the executor of his will, his brother Thomas
Adams. The collection consists of autograph letters and copies, statements of bills and accounts, estate dealings and promissory
notes; included is correspondence with, among others, William Cruden, William Morton Pitt and David Ross.
Indexing Terms
Personal Names
Adams, Benjamin, -1792
Adams, Thomas, of Alnwick
Subjects
Administration of estates -- Jamaica -- History -- 18th century
Administration of estates -- Jamaica -- History -- 19th century>
Debt -- Great Britain -- 18th century
Debt -- Great Britain -– 19th century
Lawyers -- England
Geographic Areas
Great Britain -– Commerce -- Jamaica
Jamaica -– Commerce -- Great Britain
Jamaica -- History -- 18th century
Jamaica -- History -- 19th century
Genre
Accounts -– 18th century
Accounts -– 19th century
Documents -– 18th century
Documents -– 19th century
Financial records -– 18th century
Financial records -– 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -– 18th century
Letters (correspondence) -– 19th century
Manuscripts -– 18th century
Manuscripts –- 19th century
Receipts (financial records) -- 18th century
Receipts (financial records) -- 19th century
Added Entries
Cruden, William
Pitt, W.M. (William Morton), 1754 or 1755-1836
Ross, David, approximately 1716-1777 or 1778