This exceptionally interesting collection consists of the archives of a London business family, the Howards, and their relations by marriage, the Eliots. The family were based in London, with homes in the City and various places round about, but they also had property and connections in several other parts of England.
The chief interest of the collection is in its quality as the personal record of a group of prosperous manufacturing and merchant families who were members of the Society of Friends. The Eliots were merchants and their account books, which cover both business and private expenses, together with letters and memoranda, reflect a picture of "City" life in the Eighteenth century. They attended the Change, Lloyd's and Child's and Jonathan's and other Coffee Houses, and dealt with a variety of business including trade overseas in cotton and duck cloth and Cornish tin and invested in "a voyage to Lima" and other merchant shipping ventures (including that of the Tuscany, unfortunately "Taken by the French and carried into Marseilles" in 1757). (See especially numbers 905, 928, 929, 944, etc.).
There is interesting material relating to John Eliot's estates supplemented by John Eliot's letters (e.g. Numbers 988-1011), which also mention a "good season" for pilchards, the decline of the docks at Topsham, the appropriation by the Government of some sugar pans near Exeter to use for French prisoners, etc. John's sister Mariabella also purchased in 1765 Pickhurst Farm, Hayes, Kent (Nos. 376-475).
There are amongst this collection a few letters and papers of later Howards, including an interesting pocket diary in which Samuel Lloyd Howard, grandson of Luke, jotted (unfortunately rather roughly in pencil) memoranda and sketches of impressions of his visit to America in 1854 (No. 1618). At sea his ship rescued the crew of the Hannay of Whitehaven, loaded with salt and flying a distress signal-"lay to and took all off, boy, baggage, chronometer, barometers and all".
At all periods the family kept in close touch with their relations in all parts of the country, including the Hows of Aspley, Bedfordshire, the Paces of Westmorland and London, the Leathams of Yorkshire as well as with fellow Quakers. This gives the collection a national rather than a local interest-indeed the family were not primarily associated with any one locality.
A curious document amongst the collection is a receipt dated 1824 for 8. 15s from R. Smith for freeing Hamma Fie, slave to Bentoo Demba, and signed with the mark of Madeba, Alcaide of "Birkow" (No. 1617/p.12). The Society of Friends Committee for African Instruction supported some missions, and Richard Smith, a friend of Luke Howard, was in Africa in the 1820's.
Quaker marriage certificates, of which there are several examples (eg. Nos. 117, 565, 1273, 1274, etc) give full details of both parties and are signed by members of the Meeting as witnesses. Birth certificates (e.g., Nos. 1275-1286, 1390-1393) give the date of birth and name, and were signed by witnesses to the baby's birth. The Society of Friends was in advance of both the State and established Church in respect of such documentation.
