Oct 02, 2012 - Sale 2287

Sale 2287 - Lot 344

Price Realized: $ 1,080
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(NEW HAMPSHIRE.) Archive of Portsmouth merchant and politician Ichabod Goodwin. 1 linear foot, comprising approximately 125 letters received by Goodwin, 50 letters signed by Goodwin, several hundred paid bills and other documents, and 45 small memorandum books; most of the documents still folded and bundled with docketing and wrapper labels, a few items torn or stained but generally clean and fresh. Vp, 1798-1902, bulk 1821-51
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Additional Details

Ichabod Goodwin (1794-1882) was a shipping merchant from Portsmouth, NH, best remembered for his service as New Hampshire governor in the first months of the Civil War. This archive consists mostly of his mercantile papers from 1821 to 1851, with a few scattered papers from later in his career. Goodwin traded extensively in Charleston, SC; Savannah, GA; and Liverpool in England. Cotton and rice often made up a large part of his cargo. His most regular correspondent was his Savannah agent George B. Cummins, represented by 84 letters dated 1847, 1850, and 1851, often written on the blank second sheet of the printed Savannah Shipping and Commercial List. 16 letters from Goodwin to his wife Sarah, 1833-44, add a personal touch. From Goodwin's political career is a draft letter to President Zachary Taylor inviting him to Portsmouth, 1849. The collection also includes 11 letters and circulars from his term as governor, most relating to New Hampshire troops in the Civil War, 1861, most notably orders sending the First New Hampshire Infantry Regiment to the front, 20 and 21 May. The lot also includes two earlier documents: manuscript bylaws of the Union Insurance Company of Portsmouth (incorporated in 1815); and fragments from a manuscript list of victims in the 1798 Portsmouth yellow fever epidemic, apparently unpublished. Inventory available upon request.