1817 Ship Endeavor Sale And On Reverse Hymn Or Prayer From A Newspaper Cutout. Sale Of Two Ships

1817 Ship Endeavor sale and on reverse Hymn or prayer from a newspaper cutout. Sale of two well-known ships after the death of Captain Simon Forrester in 1817. The Ship Perseverence and the Ship Endeavor, both built in Salem. Reverse side is a poem. The newspaper clip is from 1817 and from an unknown newspaper. Measures 4.375 to 2.75 inches.
Reference: 206-133
Estimate: $5-10
Capt. Simon Forrester, 1748-1817 After the Derby and Crowninshield families, the Simon Forrester family was probably the most important mercantile family in Salem by the end of the eighteenth century. Forrester, a sea captain, privateer, merchant, and shipowner, was born in Killeenach, Ireland, May 10, 1748. At the age of nineteen he decided to try his fortune in America and, over his father's opposition, made his way to Liverpool, where he “fell in” with Capt. Daniel Hathorne of Salem. Forrester shipped as a hand before the mast in Hathorne's vessel on the return voyage to Salem in 1767. He then apparently served an apprenticeship under Hathorne as a seaman and clerk, and by 1775, at the age of twenty-seven, Forrester was commanding trading vessels. On October 2, 1775, he was in command of Elias Hasket Derby's schooner Nancy. He successfully evaded the British fleet and completed a return voyage from Lisbon, Portugal, via South Carolina and Cape Francois, 25 Haiti. On December 7, 1776, Forrester married Rachael Hathorne 24 25 24. Phillips, Salem and the Indies, pp. 44-45. 25. Snell, "Historic Structure Report: Derby/Prince/Ropes Houses," p. 81.
(1757-1823), the daughter of his merchant benefactor. (Rachael's brother was to become the father of the noted Salem author, Nathaniel Hawthorne.) The War for Independence was then in full progress, and on July 12, 1776, the colony of Massachusetts granted Forrester his first commission as the captain of a privateer. Taking command of the 70-ton sloop Rover, armed with 8 guns, and carrying 80 men, Forrester made the first in a series of very successful privateering voyages in July 1776. In his two 1776 cruises he took six large prizes. He realized nearly L3,000 from the sale of these prizes and with this money he became part owner in 1778 of the privateer 12-gun sloop Black Snake, with Capt. Henry Phelps, and the sole owner in 1779 of the 163-ton brigantine Washington, captained by John Murphey. In 1780 he again took command of privateer vessels owned by others. He cruised from Salem on the sloop Centurion in January 1780 and then in June 1780 on the ship Jason. In 1781-1782, he commanded three vessels all owned by Elias Hasket Derby: the ship Patty, sailing in September 1781; the ship Salem Packet, sailing in November 1781; and the new ship Exchange, departing on February 12, 1782. The first two cruises were successful, but on the third, in the Exchange, Captain Forrester and his crew were captured by the British on April 2, 1782, as they sailed off to New York City. ^ 26 27 26. William Bell Clark and William James Morgan, eds. Naval Documents of Hie American Revolution, 6 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1964-1972), 3:1034-35. For Simon Forrester's firsthand 1776 accounts of experiences as a privateer, see Naval Documents, 6:607, 612-13, 619, 1196, 1251-99, and 1471. 27. Snell, "Historic Structures Report: Derby/Prince/Ropes Houses," pp. 104, 105, 106; Phillips, Salem and the Indies, pp. 83-84. 86After the Revolution, Forrester became a merchant and shipowner in his own right. Under the new U.S. Constitution, he also became a strong Federalist. In February 1791 he purchased house Lot 6A with a fine unfinished three-story mansion on it and waterfront Lot F-l, which included a wharf and warehouse, from Capt. Jonathan Ingersoll for L685. Forrester completed the mansion in 1791 and resided there until his death in 1817. In 1791-1794 he rebuilt and greatly enlarged Ingersoll's Wharf. In 1792 he constructed a new three-story wooden warehouse with a hip roof on the new wharf. Evidence just discovered reveals that by 28 September 19, 1794, his new wharf was already 280 feet long. Between 1805 and 1817, and probably during the 1809-1811 embargo, he extended his wharf by another 515 feet so that it reached a total of 795 feet into the South River. The fourth longest wharf in Salem, Forrester's wharf and his warehouse served as the base of his extensive mercantile operations from 1791 to 1817. During the period from 1790 to 1817, Forrester owned twelve vessels: the brigantine Good Hope, 1790; the barque Good Hope, 1792; the barque Good Intent, 1790; the ship Vigilant, 1799-1801; the ship Perseverence, 1794-1805; the brigantine Sukey, 1795-1812; the brigantine Eliza, 1811-1814; the ship Bonetta, 1803; the ship Endeavor, 1804-1817; the brigantine Little James, 1809; the ship Restitution, 1805-1812; and the ship Messenger, 1805-1814.^ 28 29 28. Salem, Essex Institute, "Record Book of the Survey of Salem Made in 1794 by Nathaniel Bowditch assisted by Captain John Gibault, September 1794," MSS. Previous documents (maps made in 1805) proved that it was 280 feet long in 1805. 29. Additional data on the vessels and their captains will be found in Snell, "Historic Structure Report: Ingersoll/Forrester/Central Wharf," pp. 32-33; see also pp. 35-36 for vessels owned by Forrester's sons, John, and Thomas H. Forrester. 87Simon Forrester died on July 4, 1817, and on the following day, Dr. William Bentley, an ardent Jeffersonian, commented in his diary of this strong Federalist: Yesterday died in Salem Capt. Simon Forrester, aet. 71. . .. He was an apprentice to Capt. Daniel Harthorne, Union Street & afterwards, much against the wishes of the parents, married one of his daughters. With a mind full of superstition [a Federalist no doubt], with a temper as boisterous as a tempest and with habits of occasional intemperance like a ship without a helm, he still retained so much of his industry in the active parts of life as to have more than common success. And for the last ten years when confined mostly to his bed, & often threatened by civil magistrate, he accumulated by the gifts of fortune so as to die the richest man in Salem [in 1817]. His wealth is given at 14 h[undred] th[ousand] D [o llars]. ^

Notes: good condition, cut-out from unknown newspaper, death of a sea captain, reverse a hymn.

$5 - $10

4.375" x 0.001" x 2.75"

Militaria, Military Documents & Ephemera

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