Jacob Barker Papers: Finding Aid
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Title: Jacob Barker Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1813-1863
Bulk dates: 1813-1823
Collection Number: mssBarker
Creator:
Barker, Jacob,
1779-1871.
Extent:
163 pieces in 2 boxes.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains letters and documents relating to war
loans to the United States Government made by New York financier and state
senator Jacob Barker (1779-1871) in 1814 and subsequent claims by Barker about them. Correspondents include American
statesman George Washington Campbell (1769-1848).
Language: English.
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[Identification of item]. Jacob Barker Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Purchased from C. W. Unger, dealer, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1926.
American financier Jacob Barker (1779-1871) was born in Maine to Quaker parents. At sixteen, Barker
moved to New York City and embarked upon what was to be a tempestuous business career; his
enterprises ran the gamut in shipping, oil, the press, banking, insurance, and the stock
market. Barker served in the New York State Senate in 1815-1816 and was one of the founders of Tammany Hall; he was a recognized
political power in the Democratic Party
party.
In 1814, Barker was actively involved in
raising a war-loan of five million for the United States government. This was accomplished at the cost of his own
bankruptcy, and he is often referred to as the Robert Morris of the War of 1812. Subsequent
claims against the government, in an attempt to recover personal losses, extended over a
period of forty years.
Having made and lost a series of fortunes, Jacob Barker died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at ninety two years.
This collection contains letters and documents relating to Jacob Barker's share in War
loans to the United States Government in 1814 and his later claims against the U.S. government
about the loans. Correspondents include George Washington Campbell.
Persons represented by three or more pieces:
- Anderson, Joseph. 3 pieces
- Barker, Jacob. 36 pieces
- Campbell, George Washington. 18 pieces
- Hazard, Thomas R. 3 pieces
- Homans, Benjamin 4 pieces
- McEwen, Hale, & Davidson 14 pieces
- Prime, Ward, & Sands 3 pieces
- Smith, R. D. 23 pieces
Some notable items include:
- Jacob Barker to Joseph Anderson, Comptroller of the Treasury Department. New York, Dec. 15, 1815. "...I exhausted all my resources in furnishing funds to the government when it was in distress, so much so that I had not a single thousand dollars at command to support my family, and if I had possessed the Indies, the whole would have been devoted to the use of my Country..."
- Ward, Halleck, & Little, assignees of Jacob Barker. Petition to the U. S. Congress. Washington, July 4, 1861.
For the most part these papers are unpublished, but some have been printed in American State Papers (Financial) and in the
House of Representatives, Report C. C. no. 258.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Barker, Jacob, 1779-1871 -- Archives.
Campbell, George Washington, 1769-1848 -- Correspondence.
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Claims.
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Finance.
Personal papers United States 19th century.
Letters (correspondence) United States 19th century.
Campbell, George Washington, 1769-1848.
Box 1
1809-1815
Box 2
1815-1863