1803 London to New York transatlantic commerce letter

The letter is marked “Duplicate.” A January 9, 1803 docket appears on the item. Its most important postal features are the New York clamshell marking dated February 19, 1803, and the red SH 19 rating.

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  • An early incoming transatlantic folded commercial letter from Hannay & Logan of Liverpool, dated December 22, 1802, to John Nicholson in Boston

    An early incoming transatlantic folded commercial letter from Hannay & Logan of Liverpool, dated December 22, 1802, to John Nicholson in Boston. The letter is marked “Duplicate.” A January 9, 1803 docket appears on the item. Its most important postal features are the New York clamshell marking dated February 19, 1803, and the red SH 19 rating. The red SH 19 is consistent with a 19-cent ship-letter charge: a 2-cent ship fee plus 17 cents in inland postage. The February 19 New York date is the date of the postal marking, not the date the letter was written.

  • Hannay & Logan - Liverpool - 3rd Jany/1803

  • The surviving correspondence deals with cotton, sugar, and shipment arrival or transfer.

    The “Duplicate” notation is characteristic of the effort to protect important business correspondence against delays or loss at sea. The contents make this more than an isolated marking: they place the cover in the Atlantic commercial networks of the early nineteenth century. I would not assign a specific origin to the cotton without a clearer documentary basis.