Background

Author: Nev. Ramsden

The How family of Whitehaven

Of all the merchant families trading in or out of Whitehaven then the How family is the one that has left the least impact on the historical record. What there is mainly concerns the ramifications of Peter How ( c.1730-1772 ) being declared bankrupt in 1763.

Peter How was an important Whitehaven merchant with a fortune based on the tobacco trade.

He had interests in coal and iron-ore mines and set up an iron-working forge at Low Mill in 1750. Debts incurred by the forge and the decline in the tobacco trade may have contributed to his bankruptcy in 1763. Resolving the problems that followed on from this event took a very long time to settle, as there was a Creditors meeting scheduled for the 10 January 1794.

William Eilbeck, a younger son of a Gosforth family of Eilbecks, was engaged about 1725 by Peter How and Joseph Aderton [of Appelby, Westmorland], both Whitehaven merchants, as their agent in Virginia. William Eilbeck settled in Virginia where he acquired a considerable estate originally called Mattawomen, but later changed to Araby. He married and his only child Ann Eilbeck, married George Mason, a close friend of George Washington and one of the leading figures in the fight for freedom from British domination.

Peter How was the builder of one of the most interesting houses in Whitehaven. It had highly ornate carved plaster ceilings which were strongly reminiscent of the plaster work on the ceiling of St. James Church. Later he became involved in a business venture with John Younger and John Wilkinson in the manufacture of tobacco and soap which went bankrupt in 1766; whilst John Younger is the man who first engaged John Paul Jones as an apprentice seaman.

The tobacco trade, which was the principal import from Virginia, was in the hands of a small group dominated by the Kelsicks, Gales, Lutwidges and Blacklocks, who were joined later by Peter How.

By 1740 the importation of tobacco into Whitehaven had risen to over 4,400,000 lb. each year and the partnership of Thomas Lutwidge, Peter How and Richard Kelsick accounted for nearly half of this, just over 2,000,000 lb.

Letter from Robert Carter of Virginia to Peter How & Captain Richard Kelsick, July 7, 1731

Rappa[hannock, Lancaster County, Virginia] - July 7. 1731

Mr Peter How & Capt Richard Kelsick, Gentlemen

I having the opportunity of discoursing Capt Kelsick and understanding from him that you had sold some of my 30 hogsheads of tobo sent yo in the Mazareen last year when he came away I have nothing to add to that matter in that matter only to wish you may meet with a good Market for them

Herein you have a bill of Loading for 20: hogsheads of tobo more in the same Ship consign'd to yo for sale Resting in hopes that both this and the last Parcel may return a living price I am, Gentlemen,

Your very humble servant, Robert Carter

In January 1748 Peter How was appointed a Land Tax receiver for a part of Cumberland;

and according to Mrs Elizabeth Lawrence-Dow **, Peter How was the most important ship owner of the period with shares in no less than sixteen vessels. He was active as early as 1737 but the period when he was at the height of his prosperity was the decade 1754-1764. It was about the latter year that his co-partnership with John Younger and John Wilkinson caused their bankruptcy. Peter How had interests in coal and iron-ore mines and set up an iron-working forge at Low Mill in 1750, but the debts incurred by the forge and the decline in the tobacco trade would have contributed to his bankruptcy in 1763.

** a researcher into Virginia’s shipping records; and taken from ‘The Westward Movement’ - Daniel Hay

Some Whitehaven merchants grew very wealthy, particularly Peter How [ born 1699]. In 1742, at the beginning of the French trade, he called upon his London drawer George Fitzgerald for £30,000 in just eight months. John Spedding (Peter How’s brother-in-law, perhaps), thought that the trade would raise him a ‘monstrous fortune’, and at his death in 1772 the London Daily Advertizer described him as “for forty years one of the most principal merchants in the north of England”

Such success stories need to be carefully balanced against the reverse side of the trading coin. Thomas Lutwidge, one of Whitehaven’s most respected early merchants, overstretched his resources and seems to have ended his days in a Dublin debtors’ gaol, sometime in 1744. But the most spectacular of all was Peter How's own failure in 1763 for between £40,000 and £50,000.

Extracts taken from:- Coal and Tobacco: The Lowthers and the Economic Development of West Cumberland, 1660-1760.. by J. V. Beckett, Professor of History – pub. by Cambridge University Press

How & Kelsick Merchants of London

The identity of the members of the firm of How and Kelsick, London is revealed by a power of attorney from Peter How and Richard Kelsick of Whitehaven in the County of Cumberland, England, dated 1740, by which they appointed John Champ and William Jordan of Richmond County, Virginia as their agents.

taken from: Richmond County, Virginia Record. Order Book 1 p. 152.

The effect of these documents is to show that the How & Kelsicks were carrying on their commercial activities in both London and the County Cumberland in the first half of the Eighteenth Centuries.