Thomas Mullett

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Thomas Mullett (also Mullet) (1745–1814) was an English businessman and supporter of the American Revolution.

Early life[edit]

Mullett was a Quaker from Taunton, Devon, the son of Jane Mullet; Thomas Melhuish (c.1737–1802), a Quaker minister and shopkeeper, became his stepfather when his mother remarried.[1] He left the Society of Friends on marrying.[2] He moved to Bristol and there was involved with the Broadmead Baptist congregation, being secretary of the Bristol Education Society (founded 1770) that supported the local dissenting academy. He was a reformer and friend of Horatio Gates.[3][4]

In Bristol, Mullett was in business as a stationer; and also by 1771 a papermaker, taking over from John Stock as the local manufacturer.[5][6]

American Revolution period[edit]

A friend of John Wilkes, Mullett became a leader of Bristol radicals, with Henry Cruger and Samuel Peach.[7] In the 1774 general election, Cruger and Edmund Burke were elected as Bristol's Members of Parliament. Mullett wrote an account of the election with the Bristol list of voters published as The Bristol Poll-Book, but managed to offend Burke by identifying him too closely with Cruger.[8] Burke was willing in 1779, however, to help Mullett release James Caton, a pro-American, from the press gang, with John Dunning applying under habeas corpus.[9]

Jared Sparks conjectured that Mullett might have been the author of an unsigned letter from Bristol, to William Palfrey and containing intelligence, dated 16 February 1776.[10] In British politics, Mullett favoured parliamentary reform; and he also supported the American Revolution. In 1778 he joined a Bristol committee for the relief of American prisoners. He travelled three times to America during his life. On his first American journey, just after the end of the American Revolutionary War, in 1783, he visited George Washington at Mount Vernon.[3][11][12] He wrote to John Wilkes about his travels, from Charleston, South Carolina, on 15 February, describing how he had started from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the prospects of trade, with New York impressive; noting also the remaining strong feeling against some of the British military leaders from the war.[13]

Later 1780s[edit]

Cruger was the senior partner in firms including Mullett. Henry Cruger & Co. of Bristol was dissolved at the beginning of 1785.[14]

In 1787 Mullett was advising Alexander Hamilton, at the time of the Constitutional Convention.[15][16] In February 1788 he was in Bristol, recently returned from America, and called on Sarah Fox the diarist to pass on news.[17] He kept up payments on his Broadmead pew to 1788.[3] Cruger, Lediard & Mullett of Sise Lane, London, was dissolved on 25 March 1788.[14] In 1789, Mullett was listed as a merchant in New York.[15]

French Revolution and Napoleonic War period[edit]

Mullett moved to London around 1790, and was in business there with Joseph Jeffries Evans, his nephew by marriage, as an agent for American trade.[3][18] In 1802 Thomas Mullett & Co. were listed as merchants of 11 Broad Street Buildings.[19] Evans died in 1812, at age 44.[20]

Mullett was a regular correspondent of the politician Samuel Whitbread.[21] He supplied Whitbread with figures for a major speech in parliament against the Orders in Council used to enforce the wartime blockade against the UK's enemies (as did George Joy); as well as appearing before the House of Lords on 22 February, and attending as one of the petitioners in person against them on 23 March, in 1808.[22][23][24]

Jonathan Russell, the American diplomat, kept Mullett informed of his 1812 negotiations with the British government.[25] When in 1822 Seth Hunt suggested that Russell had also kept Mullett briefed about the negotiations for the Treaty of Ghent, a high-profile libel case arose, lost by Hunt.[26][27] Towards the end of the War of 1812, Jacob Barker tried to raise money for the US government from Mullett & Co.[28]

Death[edit]

Mullett and his company supported the Society of Friends of Foreigners In Distress.[29] He died at Clapham on 14 November 1814.[5][11] A sermon on his death was preached by John Evans at his interment at Bunhill Fields on 23 November 1814.[30][31] In February 1815 the house of Mullett, Evans & Co. stopped payments, and went into receivership.[32]

Associations[edit]

Peter Van Schaack, Cruger's son-in-law, knew Mullett and had a high opinion of him.[33] Mullett had an introduction in 1783 from Samuel Stennett, a friend, to James Manning, President of the Baptist College of Rhode Island (now Brown University). The relationship resulted in a donation of books from the Bristol Education Society to the College.[34]

In 1783–5, Mullett corresponded with Robert Robinson.[35] In London, he became a close friend of Henry Crabb Robinson.[3]

Family[edit]

Mullett married Mary Evans (born c.1743), daughter of Hugh Evans and sister of Caleb Evans the Bristol minister. She died in October 1800.[18][36] She was connected to the London Baptist minister Timothy Thomas, son of Joshua Thomas, who married her half-sister Sarah.[37] After her death, Thomas Mullett and his son-in-law became Unitarians, in the Worship Street congregation of John Evans (1767–1827).[38]

Of the children of Thomas and Mary Mullett:

  • Two sons died young, in 1771.[39]
  • Frederick (died 1834)[40]
  • Mary Anne (1777–1857) married Joseph Jeffries Evans, son of Caleb Evans by his first wife Sarah Jeffries, in 1796.[3][38][41][42]
  • Sarah, the second daughter, was married to Charles Henry Hall (1781–1852), on 30 March 1815, by William Dealtry in Clapham; Hall was a sheep and horse breeder in Pomfret, Connecticut, and brother of Ann Hall.[43][44][45] He had spent some time as American consul in Cadiz.[46] In April 1814 he gave Mullett & Co. as a convenience address, anticipating being in London in June.[47]
  • Jane married James Webbe Tobin, in 1807.[48][49]

Mary Mullett Evans, second daughter of Joseph Jeffries Evans, married Henry Moule, on 1 July 1824.[50][51] Frederick Mullett Evans was her brother.[52]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Metford, Joseph (1928). "The Life of Joseph Metford, 1776–1863". Journal of the Friends' Historical Society. XXV: 34, 48.
  2. ^ *Memoir in the Gentleman's Magazine by John Evans
  3. ^ a b c d e f Timothy D. Whelan (2009). Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845. Mercer University Press. pp. 423–4. ISBN 978-0-88146-144-2.
  4. ^ Timothy D. Whelan (2009). Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845. Mercer University Press. p. 25 note 114. ISBN 978-0-88146-144-2.
  5. ^ a b Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. E. Cave. 1814. p. 606.
  6. ^ Brian Attwood, The BIAS Paper Mill Survey, BIAS Journal Vol. 5 (1970) (PDF), at p.6
  7. ^ Ian R. Christie (1970). Myth and Reality in Late-eighteenth-century British Politics: And Other Papers. University of California Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-520-01673-6.
  8. ^ F. P Lock (1998). Edmund Burke: Volume I, 1730–1784. Clarendon Press. p. 380. ISBN 978-0-19-820676-7.
  9. ^ Edmund Burke (1967). The Correspondence of Edmund Burke. CUP Archive. p. 105. GGKEY:LT6ZBQU95T4.
  10. ^ Jared Sparks (1852). The library of American biography. C. C. Little and J. Brown. p. 400 note.
  11. ^ a b Aldridge Guild Reuben Aldridge Guild; Reuben Guild (April 2010). Life, Times, and Correspondence of James Manning. Applewood Books. p. 310 note 1. ISBN 978-1-4290-4353-3.
  12. ^ Hugh Owen (1873). Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol: Being a History of the Manufacture of "the True Porcelain" by Richard Champion; with a Biography Compiled from Private Correspondence, Journals and Family Papers; Containing Unpublished Letters of Edmund Burke, Richard and William Burke, the Duke of Portland, the Marquis of Rockingham and Others, with an Account of the Delft, Earthenware and Enamel Glass Works, from Original Sources. Bell and Daldy. p. 320.
  13. ^ British Library. Dept. of Manuscripts (1 January 1975). The American War of Independence, 1775-83: A Commemorative Exhibition Organized by the Map Library and the Department of Manuscripts of the British Library Reference Division, 4 July to 11 November 1975. British Museum Publications for the British Library. pp. 166–.
  14. ^ a b "No. 13030". The London Gazette. 1788. p. 476.
  15. ^ a b "From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Mullett, 23 July 1787". Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  16. ^ "To Alexander Hamilton from Thomas Mullett, 23 July 1787". Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  17. ^ Sarah Fox; Madge Dresser; John Frank (2003). The Diary of Sarah Fox née Champion: Bristol 1745–1802. Bristol Record Society. p. 104.
  18. ^ a b Timothy D. Whelan (2009). Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845. Mercer University Press. p. 32 note 146. ISBN 978-0-88146-144-2.
  19. ^ James Raven (2002). London Booksellers and American Customers: Transatlantic Literary Community and the Charleston Library Society, 1748–-1811. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 445 note 420. ISBN 978-1-57003-406-0.
  20. ^ "Deaths". London Courier and Evening Gazette. 25 December 1812. p. 4. Retrieved 18 May 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  21. ^ Bradford Perkins (1961). Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805–1812. University of California Press. p. 324. ISBN 978-0-520-00996-7.
  22. ^ Bradford Perkins, George Joy, American Propagandist at London, 1805–1815, The New England Quarterly Vol. 34, No. 2 (Jun., 1961), pp. 191–210, at p. 197. Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc. DOI: 10.2307/362526. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/362526
  23. ^ Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (1808). Journals of the House of Commons ... By order of the House of Commons. p. 836.
  24. ^ Thomas Carson Hansard (1812). The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time. Hansard. p. 641.
  25. ^ Bradford Perkins (1964). Castlereagh and Adams: England and the United States, 1812-1823. University of California Press. p. 15 note 23. GGKEY:YJNDE1Y28TJ.
  26. ^ H. Niles,Editor (1822). Niles' Weekly Register from March to September,1822-VOL.XXII or Volume X-New Series. p. 378. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  27. ^ Henry Clay (5 February 2015). The Papers of Henry Clay: Presidential Candidate, 1821-1824. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 271 notes 5 and 6. ISBN 978-0-8131-5669-9.
  28. ^ Jacob Barker (1855). Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker: Of New Orleans, Louisiana ; with Historical Facts, His Financial Transactions with the Government, and His Course on Important Political Questions, from 1800 to 1855. s.n. p. 94.
  29. ^ An Account of the Society of Friends of Foreigners in Distress. (Established 1806.) for the year 1867. Society. 1867. p. 85 and 78.
  30. ^ Whitley, William Thomas (1916). "A Baptist Bibliography; being a register of the chief materials for Baptist history, whether in manuscript or in print, preserved in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies". Internet Archive. London: The Kingsgate press. p. 94. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  31. ^ Collections of the New-York Historical Society. I. Riley. 1859. p. 202.
  32. ^ Abraham H. Venit, An Unwritten Federalist History, The New England Quarterly Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 1948), pp. 241–252, at p. 246 note 16. Published by: The New England Quarterly, Inc. DOI: 10.2307/361753. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/361753
  33. ^ Henry Cruger Van Schaack (1842). The Life of Peter Van Schaack, LL. D.: Embracing Selections from His Correspondence and Other Writings During the American Revolution, and His Exile in England. D. Appleton & Company. p. 212.
  34. ^ Reuben Aldridge Guild (1864). Life, Times, and Correspondence of James Manning. p. 310 and 340–1.
  35. ^ George Dyer (1796). Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Robert Robinson. G. G. and J. Robinson. p. 256.
  36. ^ The Scottish Journal. 1848. p. 251.
  37. ^ Morgan, D. Densil. "Thomas, Joshua". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27232. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  38. ^ a b N. Roe (2010-05-28). English Romantic Writers and the West Country. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-230-22374-5.
  39. ^ John Evans (1818). The Juvenile Tourist (4th ed.). Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy; Simpkin & Marshall. p. 298.
  40. ^ T. Whelan (2 February 2016). Other British Voices: Women, Poetry, and Religion, 1766–1840. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 269. ISBN 978-1-137-34361-1.
  41. ^ Cave, Edward (1796). The Gentleman's Magazine. p. 167.
  42. ^ New and general biographical dictionary (1814). The general biographical dictionary. Revised by A. Chalmers. p. 403.
  43. ^ The Monthly Magazine: Or, British Register. 1815. p. 368.
  44. ^ Cincinnati Art Museum; Julie Aronson; Marjorie E. Wieseman (2006). Perfect Likeness: European and American Portrait Miniatures from the Cincinnati Art Museum. Yale University Press. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-300-11580-2.
  45. ^ Hall, David Brainard (1883). The Halls of New England : Genealogical and biographical. Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell's Sons. p. 254. Retrieved 18 May 2016 – via Internet Archive.
  46. ^ Henry Stephens Randall (1863). Fine Wool, Sheep, Husbandry, etc. New York, C. M. Saxton; Boston, A. Williams & co. [etc., etc.] p. 43.
  47. ^ An Early Chapter in the American Sheep Industry, Bulletin of the Business Historical Society Vol. 6, No. 5 (Nov., 1932), pp. 1–6, at p. 5. Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College DOI: 10.2307/3111117 Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3111117
  48. ^ T. Whelan (2 February 2016). Other British Voices: Women, Poetry, and Religion, 1766-1840. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-137-34361-1.
  49. ^ Small, David. "Tobin, James Webbe". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58446. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  50. ^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes. 1914. p. 399.
  51. ^ "Married". Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. 9 July 1824. p. 3. Retrieved 18 May 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  52. ^ "Marriages". Bell's Weekly Messenger. 25 August 1860. p. 8. Retrieved 18 May 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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