UNITED STATES STAMPLESS COVERS

EXTREMELY FINE 1797 DEAL SHIP LETTER FROM NEW YORK TO LONDON
 ELISHA COLT WRITES HIS BROTHER PETER COLT ABOUT WAR SHIPPING & THE DEPREDATIONS OF THE NAPOLEONIC WAR UPON THE ECONOMY IN THE STATES.

An Extremely Fine Deal Ship Letter in extra-ordinary fresh condition with nice GPO Inland Office Receiving Mark on the reverse. Includes a clearly written letter describing the depredations caused by the Napoleonic War. The recipient Peter Colt went on to found the industrial city of Paterson in New Jersey and his descendant invented the Colt revolver. Be sure to read the Biographical note below.

Addressed to Mr. Peter Colt to the care of Messrs William Rowlett & Co., Merchants, London
With manuscript "2" for inland postage from port to London .

Front: Black "DEAL/SHIP-LRE" 2-line cancel (R.S. #4) + Black "7" manuscript cancel for postage due for inland carriage in England also a ms "rec'd to hand 10th July at London" docketing notation. Addressed to: Mr. Peter H. Colt/to the care of/Messrs William Rowlett & Co/Merchants/London
Reverse: Two contemporary ink notations possibly "Roles/74" & "7 Let" possibly the payment of the 7d postage due. Black-brown Double Circle London General Post Receiving mark  (R.L. #6) "JY/B/8/97"
Notes: A nice example of a Trans-Atlantic Deal Ship Letter cover from New York to London. There is a docketing notation as well that indicates that Peter Colt received the letter to hand on July 11th 1797. A couple of comments. Peter Colt was a Friend of Alexander Hamilton and the Director of the Society for Useful Machinery (SUM) which was in the process of harness the Passaic River Great Falls in New Jersey (2nd highest major river falls in the Colonies). Colt had replaced the architect Enfant who was discharged for building too slow and over budget - [NOTE - he went on to design Washington DC and we can all see his pattern of late delivery and over budget performance is still alive and well ensconced in the capital]. Another interesting sidebar is that the United States decimalized its currency in 1792 moving from pounds and shilling to dollars and cents. Yet here, five years later, Elisha is still using "shillings" as the referent currency.

Alexander Hamilton, first as an aide to George Washington and then as Secretary of the Treasury was deeply involved with the implementation and success of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (SUM), which was founded in 1791.  He played a crucial role in choosing the Great Falls site of the Passaic River as the foundation for a new Industrial Town and  brought Pierre Charles L'Enfant into contact with the Society and himself helped in the preliminary design work for the raceway system. L'Enfant, later planner of Washington, D. C., was a European engineer/architect, but his plans were judged too elaborate and expensive and he was released by the Society in 1793, but many of his ideas and plans were used by his successor, Peter Colt.

Peter Colt, earlier Treasurer of the State of Connecticut, was made Superintendent of all of the Society's operations in 1793. He adapted L'Enfant's somewhat grandiose European-style plans to the American engineering conditions and standards of that time and completed the first raceway. He and his son went on to create the water mill powered industrial center later named Paterson, which for a hundred years was a dominant force first in cotton textile and later silk textile manufacturing. The water powered designs were so efficient that it was not until World War I that they were replaced by internal combustion generation. They also established the Duck Mill on Van Houten Street, and were the first to manufacture sail cloth (duck) from twisted cotton yarn instead of flax. This manufacturing process produced fabric that withstood moisture and could be mass-produced on a power loom beginning in 1824. By the 1830s the U. S. Navy purchased all its sails from the Paterson mills. Another descendant of Peter Colt was Samuel Colt - he manufactured America's first repeating revolver in the Paterson Gun Mill of his Patent Arms Company and then later moved the firm to Hartford, Connecticut.

Condition: Very Fine with usual file folds. Normal tear at wax seal and small piece missing as own below in content images.
Contents: Extensive Legible English:

Dateline New York, 7 June 1797. Elisha Colt writes his brother Peter H. Colt, "per the Ellie - Capt. Hervey to London"

Dear Brother,

     I have wrote you frequently since my being in this place, principally by Liverpool ships, which I hope will reach you in course tho they will not give you any pleasure the stagnation of Business in consequence detention of Property in French Ports, the depredations they have made on our Commerce and the great number of Failures in this Country has destroyed all confidence - the consequence has been an impossibility for me on my sole credit to make any Loans that would enable me to discharge the endorsements made for you - the papers you sent me for collection having all such as no money could be obtained on it.
     I am set down here in the Hardware line by purchasing of A & J Mowat the remains of their Store, they being obliged to close their Business in consequence of endorsements for R. Smith & Co, J. Riley, & Jonathan Wardell - it will take every shilling they are worth to pay, & possible they may not have sufficient - I shall be able unless something new turns up, to support my credit until November but I fear not longer unless the Shipments you contemplate are not only made but actually arrive here -
     The Last Letters I have received from you were of the 23rd & 28 March & 1 April - I find by them you begin to feel embarrassed - I fear you have more trouble to expect - I cannot but again Lament your want of Confidence in me before you engaged in this project of going to Europe - all the Land Dealers you had any thing to do with were Swindlers & Bankrupts - & the Barbers the greatest Raskels of them all -
     I feel a great deal of anxiety to know the results of the next meeting you expect to have with Mr Rowletts, indeed almost every letter promises me more particulars the next time you write, but which are as constantly omitted, perhaps the inferences naturally to be drawn from such hints are not so favourable as they ought to be -
     You must I trust before this have my Letters advising the Death of our Father, which took place in March - on this melancholy ovation I sincerely conclude with you - the rest of our Connection were all very well a few days past

                            I am with Affection & Esteem
                               Dear Brother sincerely yours
                                    Elisha Colt

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Please note that stampless cover catalogue numbers come from the following reference works: R. M. Willcocks, England's Postal History to 1840 with Notes on Scotland, Wales and Ireland (1975); R. M. Willcocks & Barrie Jay, The Postal History of Great Britain and Ireland 1981; Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Volumes 1 & 2, 2nd Ed. (1996); Barrie Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History Volume 3 London, 2nd Ed.(2005); Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Vol 4 (1988), Willcocks & Jay, The British County Catalogue of Postal History - Volume 5 (1990); American Stampless Cover Catalogue 2nd Ed. (1997); J.C. Arnell, Atlantic Mails - A History of the Mail Service between Great Britain and Canada to 1889 (1980); F. Jarrett, Stamps of British North America; W. S. Boggs, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada; Hargest, History of Letter Communications between US and Europe 1845-1874, Starnes, US Letter Rates to Foreign Destination 1847-GPU; Tabeart, United Kingdom Letter Rates 1657-1900; Moubray, British Letter Mail to Overseas Destinations 1840-1875, J.J. MacDonald, The Nova Scotia Post, Its Offices, Masters and Marks (1985)

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