Commerce and conversation in the eighteenth-century Atlantic: The invention of Madeira wine

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Volumn 29, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 197-219

  Hancock, David ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0041712202     PISSN: 00221953     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/002219598551670     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. The role of conversation in modern business strategy has been examined by John J. Quinn, "The Role of 'Good Conversation' in Strategic Control," Journal of Management Studies, XXX (1996), 381-394;
2. Jeffiey D. Ford and Laurie W. Ford, "The Role of Conversations in Producing Intentional Change in Organizations," Academy of Management Review, XX (1995), 541-570.
3. Ian Steele, "Empire of Migrants and Consumers: Some Current Approaches to the History of Colonial Virginia," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XCIX (1991), 491;
4. Donald W. Meinig, The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History (New Haven, 1986), I, 65.
5. Charles Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History (New Haven, 1934-1938), 4v.;
6. Clarence Haring, The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947).
7. The term, "sociological," is not meant to limit the discussion to the subjects of modern academic sociology. The term more broadly refers to the social, economic, or ideational - as opposed to the formal, institutional, or structural - aspects of life in the past. For examples, see Frederick D. Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia, 1682-1763 (Chapel Hill, 1948);
8. Thomas Doerflinger, A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (Chapel Hill, 1986);
9. William T. Baxter, The House of Hancock (Cambridge, Mass., 1945);
10. Bernard Bailyn, The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1955). For recent work along similar lines, see
11. John Clark, La Rochelle and the Atlantic Economy during the Eighteenth Century (Baltimore, 1981).
12. Ralph Davis, The Rise of the Atlantic Economies (London, 1973);
13. Jacob Price, Capital and Credit in British Overseas Trade: The View from the Chesapeake, 1700-1776 (Cambridge, Mass., 1980)
14. ; Steele, The English Atlantic, 1675-1740: An Exploration of Communication and Community (New York, 1986);
15. Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Cambridge, 1995).
16. Kenneth Morgan, Bristol & the Atlantic Trade in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1993), 9-10, traces the stretching of one port's commercial lines. Similarly, American commodities were shipped to newer, more distant markets, as the century progressed.
17. Price, France and the Chesapeake: A History of the French Tobacco Monopoly, 1674-1791, and of its Relationship to the British and American Tobacco Trades (Ann Arbor, 1973), 2v.;
18. idem, The Tobacco Adventure to Russia: Enterprise, Politics, and Diplomacy in the Quest for a Northern Market for English Colonial Tobacco, 1676-1722 (Philadelphia, 1961);
19. Paul Clemens, The Atlantic Economy and Colonial Maryland's Eastern Shore: From Tobacco to Grain (Ithaca, 1980);
20. Peter Coclanis, The Shadow of a Dream: Economic Life and Death in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670-1920 (New York, 1989);
21. Robert C. Nash, "South Carolina and the Atlantic Economy in the Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Economic History Review, XLV (1992), 677-702.
22. On cloth distribution worldwide, see John Irwin and Katharine Brett, The Origins of Chintz (London, 1970), 3-6. Another mark of Atlantic economic integration was the rise of similar institutions and ideologies in different countries. Various cities served similar functions around the Atlantic rim. See
23. Anne Perotin-Dumon, "Cabotage, Contraband, and Corsairs: The Port Cities of Guadeloupe and Their Inhabitants," in Franklin W. Knight and Peggy K. Liss (eds.), Atlantic Port Cities (Knoxville, 1991), 61. Distinct similarities among labor markets emerged.
24. See Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-Maritime World, 1700-1750 (New York, 1993), 80. Similar kinds of economic management - that is, plantation experts - appeared in all empires and created "a unique market-oriented set of cash crop-producing areas"
25. (Pieter C. Emmer, " The Dutch and the Making of the Second Atlantic System," in Barbara L. Solow [ed.], Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System [New York, 1991], 79).
26. Phyllis Deane and William Cole, British Economic Growth, 1688-1959: Trends and Structure (Cambridge, 1967; 2d ed.), highlighted the importance of British exports to the rise of certain industries (like cotton manufacturing) and industrial production in the overall economy. They made no attempt, however, to incorporate consumer preferences into their calculations; they were concerned solely with large-scale production of goods and services. More recently, Joel Mokyr picked up this theme in discussing the importance of new technology to industries across the board (
27. The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress [New York, 1990];
28. Technological Change, 1700-1830," in Roderick Floud and D. N. McCloskey [eds.], The Economic History of Britain since 1700 [Cambridge, 1994; 2d ed.], I, 12-43). Two outstanding examples of the production school are
29. Richard Dunn, Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713 (Chapel Hill, 1972);
30. Price, Capital and Credit. 7
31. Colin Campbell, Lorna Weatherill, Carole Shammas, and Richard Bushman have all looked at issues connected to spending: Campbell, The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism (London, 1987);
32. Weatherill, Consumer Behavior and Material Culture in Britain, 1660-1760 (London, 1988);
33. Shammas, The Pre-Industrial Consumer in England and America (Oxford, 1990);
34. Bushman, The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (New York, 1992).
35. Ann Martin has provided the best succinct summary of the scholarship. Her distinctions between consumption, consumerism, and materialism deserve wider notice ("Makers, Buyers, and Users: Consumerism as a Material Culture Framework," Winterthur Portfolio, XXVIII [1993]. 141-157). Two collections of essays, one edited by John Brewer and Roy Porter that covers both sides of the Atlantic, and another edited by Cary Carson that covers America, have been highly influential:
36. Brewer and Porter (eds.), Consumption and the World of Goods (London, 1993);
37. Carson, Ronald Hoffman, and Peter Albert (eds.), Of Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Eighteenth Century (Charlottesville, 1994), especially Carson's chapter, "The Consumer Revolution in Colonial British America: Why Demand?" 483-697.
38. Jan De Vries avoids the causality problem by suggesting that rising production and consumption in the years from 1492 to 1776 were both the results of the spread of the European market economy ("Between Purchasing Power and the World of Goods: Understanding the Household Economy in Early Modern Europe," in Brewer and Porter [eds.], Consumption, 85-132).
39. Richard Bradley, A Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature (London, 1721), 59;
40. Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies (London, 1727), I, xxv, 320;
41. Samuel Johnson to Edward Cave, c. April 1738, in Bruce Redford (ed.), The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton, 1992), I, 14;
42. John and William Langhorne (trans.), Plutarch's Lives (London, 1770; new ed., London, 1786), I, 152;
43. John C. Stephens (ed.), The Guardian (Louisville, 1982), III;
44. George B. Hill (ed.), Boswell's Life of Johnson (Oxford, 1934), IV, 186;
45. Henry Fielding, Miscellanies (London, 1743; 2d ed.), I, 119, 123.
46. Peter Burke, The Art of Conversation (Cambridge, 1993), 91, provides the best modern explication of eighteenth-century "conversation," although he narrows his focus to speech acts, ruled by "the spontaneity and informality of the exchanges" and "their 'non-busmess-likeness.'" Several recent studies explore the characteristics of conversation behavior in modern society and although their work is not historically grounded, some of their insights are relevant:
47. Susan K. Donaldson, "One Kind of Speech Act: How Do We Know When We're Conversing?" Semiotica, XXVIII (1979). 259-299;
48. Stephen Levinson, Pragmatics (Cambridge, 1983);
49. H. Paul Grice, "Logic and Conversation," in Peter Cole and Jerry Morgan (eds.), Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts (New York, 1975), 41-58;
50. John Wilson, On the Boundaries of Conversation (Oxford, 1989). These scholars generally regard speech acts as oral forms distinct from literate discourse. One scholar who has paid attention to the similarities, as this article does, is
51. Robin Lakoff, Talking Power: The Politics of Language in Our Lives (New York, 1990), 40-53.
52. Hans Sloane, A Voyage to Jamaica (London, 1687), 10;
53. John Ovington, A Voyage to Surat in the Year 1689 (London, 1696), 13;
54. Graham Blandy (ed.), The Bolton Letters (Funchal, 1960), II, passim; "Inventories" Books, v. 1794-1797 & v. 1798-1800, Cossart & Gordon Papers, Madeira Wine Company Archives, Funchal;
55. Nicholas C. Pitta, Account of the Island of Madeira (London, 1812), 66;
56. William Gourlay, Observations on the Natural History, Climate and Diseases of Madeira (London, 1811), 15.
57. Thomas Murdoch to Francis Newton, May 4, 1792, v. 14, f. 180, Newton, Gordon & Murdoch to Harriet Horry, February 17, 1802, v. 23, f. 102, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
58. On alternative wines generally, see Alan D. Francis, The Wine Trade (London, 1972);
59. Warner Allen, Sherry and Port (London, 1952);
60. George Robertson, Port (London, 1978; 4th ed.), 12, 15, 16;
61. Julian Jeffs, Sherry (London, 1992; 4th ed.). Although Madeira was the first Iberian wine to be fortified, in the 1600s, Dutch merchants were already rectifying their own brandy and adding it to common beverage wines to produce brandewijn (named for the "burning" process of distillation), a drink more suitable for long-distance travel. On Madeiran
62. fortification, see William Vaughan, Directions for health, natural and artificiall (London, 1633; 7th ed.), a reworking of his Natural and artificiall directions for health (London, 1600);
63. Richard Saunders, Poor Richard, 1743 (Philadelphia, 1743),
64. in Leonard W. Labaree (ed.), The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven, 1960), II, 367; Francis Newton to Thomas Newton, August 4, 1753, Francis Newton to George Spence, October 27, 1753, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks, v. 1, ff. 62, 77.
65. Newton & Gordon to Kearny & Gilbert, January 25, 1768, v. 4, f. 171, Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, January 28, 1789, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; John Leacock to Michael Nowlan, June 2, 1779, Leacock Papers; Johann Wilhelm Von Archenholz, A Picture of England (Dublin, 1791), 203; James Gordon to Alexander Gordon, March 14, 1768, Gordon of Letterfourie Papers; Provedoria da Fazenda, no. 942, ff. 19-20, Arquivo Regional Madeira, Funchal; Newton & Gordon to Kearny & Gilbert, January 25, 1768, v. 4, f. 171, Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, January 28, 1789, v. 11, f. 218, Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, January 28, 1789, v. 11, f. 218, and June 15, 1789, v. 12, f. 86, Newton & Gordon to Thomas Gordon, August 19, 1789, James Gordon to Thomas Gordon, September 3, 1803, and Thomas Murdoch to Robert Lenox, September 30, 1803, v. 25, f. 173, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; James Gordon to Alexander Gordon, May 22, 1769, Letterfourie Papers; Newton & Gordon to Thomas Gordon, January 28, 1789, v. 11, f. 177, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; John Leacock, Sr. to William Leacock, May 29, June 27, 1799, Leacock & Sons Letterbook 1799-1802, 35, 52-58, Michael Nowlan to Gedley Clare Burges, February 25, 1762, Nowlan & Burges Letterbook, Leacock Papers.
66. Thomas Murdoch to Pierce Butler, October 18, 1800, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Spence, Leacock & Spence to John Erskine, June 26, 1762, John Leacock to William Leacock, May 10, 1796, Leacock Papers; Henry Laurens to Corsley Rogers & Son, May 16, 1755, in Philip M. Hamer (ed.), Papers of Henry Laurens (Columbia, S.C., 1968), I, 248; Newton & Gordon to John Diffell, January 17, 1776, v. 6, f. 38, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Thomas Newton to Newton & Gordon, November 26, 1759, Thomas Newton Letterbook, Madeira Wine Company Archives; Baynton & Wharton to Thomas Newton, October 2, 1763, Box 2, Cossart & Gordon Papers, Liverpool University Archives.
67. Aaron Hill to William Popple, November 30, 1740, in Aaron Hill, The Works (London, 1754; 2d ed.), II, 103.
68. John Leacock to William Leacock, April 3, 1789, Leacock & Sons Letterbook, ff. 71-75, Leacock Papers; Pochard Derby to Scott, Pringle & Cheap, June 1, 1767, Richard Derby Letterbook 1760-1772; John Searle & Co. to Elias Hasket Derby, March 23, 1788, Derby Family Papers, Box 12, Folder 6, Essex Institute; Pitta, Account, 71.
69. Nowlan & Burges to Samuel Hall, April 10, 1760, Nowlan & Burges Letterbook 1759-1762. Leacock Papers; Jonathan Swift to John Gay, March 19, 1729/30, in Harold Williams (ed.), The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift (Oxford, 1963), III, 381;
70. Herman Moll, Atlas Geographus: Or, A Compleat System of Geography . . . for Africa (London, 1714), IV, 692;
71. South-Carolina Gazette, 1761, 4;
72. Thomas Jefferson to William Small, May 7, 1775, Julian Boyd (ed.), The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton, 1950), I, 165.
73. Francis Newton to George Spence, June 9, 1756, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks, v. 1, f. 208; Francis Newton to Mackenzie & Edington, September 3, 1756, v. 1, f. 222, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. At first, the premium for older wines was £1 sterling for every year, but after March 1785, merchants were allowed to charge whatever "they [thought] the old wine [was] worth."John Leacock to Michael Nowlan, March 26, 1785, Leacock, Spence & Leacock Letterbook 1784-1789, f. 116, Leacock Papers.
74. James Gordon to Alexander Gordon, September 21, 1769, Gordon of Letterfourie Papers; William Johnston to Thomas Gordon, November 10, 1788, v. 11, f. 177, Newton & Gordon to Thomas Gordon, November 24, 1791, v. 14, f. 15, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; Francis Newton to Newton, Gordon & Murdoch, November 30, 1793, Loose Letters, Cossart & Gordon Papers, Madeira Wine Company Archives.
75. William Johnston to Thomas Gordon, March 25, 1787, v. 10, f. 380, and Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, August 5, 1793, v. 15, f. 207, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
76. Knowledge about the influence of the ocean currents and the trade winds was not fully acquired until after 1850, even though the currents and winds, and the place of Madeira in them, had been studied for centuries. David W. Waters, The Art of Navigation in England in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Times (London, 1958), 20-21, 147-148, 201-206, 261-268, 284-287, 311-312. The winds were examined by Edmond Hally, who delivered what became the locus classicus on the subject to the Royal Society of London in 1686: "An historical account of the trade winds, and monsoons, observable in the seas between and near the Tropicks, with an attempt to assign the phisical cause of the said winds,"
77. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London, 1686-1687), XVI, 153-168.
78. For later accounts, see Franklin's explication of the Gulf Stream, in Albert Smyth (ed.), The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1906), IX, 372-413;
79. Thomas Pownall, Hydraulic and Nautical Observations on the Currents in the Atlantic Ocean (London, 1787).
80. Sloane, Voyage to Jamaica, 10;
81. Warren Johnson Journal, sub January 12, 1761, in Milton W. Hamilton (ed.), The Papers of Sir William Johnson (Albany, 1962), XIII, 198;
82. Livra da Saida, no. 22, f. 24, Arquivo Nacional, Lisbon. Experiments are recounted in Thomas Gordon to Francis Newton, October 24, November 17, 1783, v. 8, f. 124, April 14, 1785, v. 8, f. 139, Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, November 20, 1789, v. 12, f. 177, and Thomas Murdoch to Francis Newton, September 1, 1792, v. 14, f. 322, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. On earlier uses of stoves, see Barry, Observations (London, 1775), 1-10, 48-58, 67-84, 442-443; Daniel Henry Smith to James & Alexander Gordon, December 1775, Gordon of Letterfourie Papers. As early as 1727, wine growers and makers along the Moselle appear to have been building iron stoves in their cellars and using them to meliorate wines. But the practice was not widely known, and no Madeiran mentioned German procedures. Barry's influence is a far more likely one on the Anglo-centered Portuguese. On Fernandes and the first estufas, see History of Estufa Heating, February 8, 1803, Arquivo Marino Ultramarino, no. 1,431, Arquivo Historico Ultramarino; Newton & Gordon to Henry Heskith, October 15, 1799, and to Edmund Middleton, April 20, 1801, v. 20, f. 67, v. 22, f. 367, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. The love of experiment should not be overlooked; it played an important part. Visitors to the island, especially those among the foreign merchant community, remarked on it. On later estufas, see Thomas Murdoch to John Campbell, April 14, 1798, v. 18, f. 316, Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, June 27, October 15, 25, 1799, v. 19, f. 337. v. 20, ff. 52, 81, Thomas Murdoch to Robert Lenox, February 2, 1802, v. 23, f. 81, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; John Leacock, Sr. to William Leacock, January 18, April 29, June 27, 1799, January 18, August 28, October 28, 1800, January 23, 1801, Leacock & Sons Letterbook 1799-1802, ff. 6-9, 27, 52-58, 107, 192-194, 223, Leacock Papers; Arquivo Marino Ultramarino, no. 1,431; Anonymous, A Guide to Madeira (London, 1801); Pitta, Account (1812). Throughout the period, however, firms remained reticent about placing their best wines in an estufa. See Newton, Gordon & Murdoch to Robert Lenox, v. 25, f. 173, September 30, 1803, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. On early trials with dung heating, see Daniel Henry Smith to James & Alexander Gordon, December 1775, Gordon of Letterfourie Papers.
83. John Leacock, Jr. to William Leacock, August 28, 1800, Leacock & Sons Letterbook, Leacock Papers; October 21, 1800, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks; John Leacock, Sr. to John Parker, March 21, 1798, and John Leacock to William Leacock, January 18, June 27, 1799, and August 28, 1800, Leacock & Sons Letterbook 1799-1802, ff. 6-9, 52-58, 192-194, Leacock Papers.
84. Normand Macleod to Sir William Johnson, August 4, 1766, in Hamilton (ed.), Papers of Sir William Johnson (1957), XII, 150;
85. Lyman H. Butterfield (ed.), Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), 136, 149;
86. The Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser, 23 Oct. 1797, 1;
87. Boston Gazette and Weekly Republican Journal, 23 Oct. 1797, 1;
88. Massachusetts Mercury, 24 Oct. 1797, 1;
89. Columbian Centinel, 25 Oct. 1797, 1.
90. Famous customers were often used to impress other prospective purchasers. John Marsden Pintard, for instance, "puffed" about his supply to George Washington and John Hancock (Joseph Gillis to Henry Hill, August 2-September 20, 1783, v. 9, ff. 14-16, Hill Letterbooks, John Jay Smith Family Papers "A," Historical Society of Pennsylvania). On the tailoring of packaging to suit buyers, see Newton & Gordon to John Munro, June 10, 1789, to Thomas Gordon, June 15, 1789, v. 11 ff. 75, 86, and to James Sheafe, March 18, 1801, v. 20, f. 315, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
91. Sources for the shipping prices charged by Madeiran exporters to middlemen distributors and consumers, even in the best years, are thin. There is no single series for the period from 1703 to 1807. The principal extant sources are the letters and accounts of the exporters themselves, as well as records of American and British importers. However, except for a letterbook kept by William Bolton, an island merchant, during the period from 1695 to 1715, and stray bundles of letters and accounts of other houses, firm papers have not survived for the years before 1739. Island shippers did not report prices systematically until 1753. The prices given in newspapers to advertise the sale of wines imported into America or Britain are useful and necessary in reconstructing colonial distribution patterns and purchasing constraints, but since they incorporate the importers' or tavernkeepers' markup, they do not reveal the exact prices of the wines from Madeira. By 1800, the shipping price of Madeira rose 3.02 times, as determined from the elements in John McCusker's composite commodity price index for Great Britain (How Much IsThat in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States [Worcester, 1992]). The sterling price index rose by a factor of 2.6 from 1703 to 1807. McCusker's price index for American commodities rose only by a factor of 1.2 during that period. Although it is difficult to know for sure, given the absence of an adequate series of exchange-rate data for the years 1783 through 1807, it is possible that Madeira became even more expensive in America than in Britain. On the rise to opulence, see Francis Newton to Newton, Gordon & Murdoch, May 29, 1798, Loose Letters, Cossart & Gordon Papers, Madeira Wine Company Archives.
92. John Leacock accurately described the situation when he wrote to William Waddell of New York that, in greatest measure, "the price depends upon the demand" (November 16, 1764, Spence, Leacock & Spence Letterbook 1762-1765, f. 185). That demand, in turn, was largely due to the number of people willing and able to drink the wine, as well as the amount of wine available for importation. The rise in demand in North America was undoubtedly the driving force behind the price increases of the late 17005; it overpowered the fact that the supply was increasing. Nevertheless, the organization of the distribution cannot be ignored; nor can the nearly constant warfare of the period. A British "factory" was established at Funchal at some point in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. Daily affairs were managed by a vice-consul who was subordinate to the Lisbon consul. In 1755, the Crown began appointing a consul to Funchal. The consul and vice-consul were always drawn from the British merchant group on the island. They enforced matters relating to trade law and monitored the breach of treaty privileges. The first recorded vice-consul was William Bolton in 1702 (Blandy [ed.], Bolton Letters, II, 21, sub November 1702; Brass-Studded Blue "Minutes" Chest, British Factory Records, Blandy's Office, Funchal; Arquivo Marino Ultramarino, no. 1,421). On self-regulation, see William Johnston to Thomas Gordon, September 14, 1785, v. 9, f. 84, Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, June 5, 1794, v. 15, f. 467, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
93. Report of the Governor of Madeira, October 17, 1761, no. 246, and Report of the Governor of Madeira and Public Notice, February I, 1768, nos. 289-290, Arquivo Marino Ultramarino. Concerning the rise of alternative wines after the Revolution, see Newton & Gordon to Hugh Moore, May 9, 1784, v. 8, f. 232, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks.
94. Thomas Murdoch to Thomas Gordon, October 2, 1800, v. 21, f. 40, April 30, 1802, Newton & Gordon Letterbooks. For previous feints, see Francis Newton to Newton & Gordon, March 26, 1794, and Newton & Gordon to Thomas Gordon, July 8, December 7, 1797. Loose Papers, Cossart & Gordon Papers, Madeira Wine Company Archives.
95. John Guerard to William Jolliffe, November 14, 1753, January 31, 1754, John Guerard Letterbook 1752-1754, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston. See also Hugh and Alexander Wallace to Johnson, November 20, 1772, in Alexander C. Flick (ed.), Papers of Sir William Johnson (1933), VIII, 662;
96. "The Autobiography of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXIII (1939), 434.