Brown, Moses (12 September 1738–06 September 1836), merchant and philanthropist, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of James Brown, merchant, and Hope Power. The father died the next year, leaving a variety of properties and businesses, which indicates that his family was far from poor. Moses Brown had a few years of formal schooling before being apprenticed to his merchant uncle, Obadiah, to learn the intricacies of eighteenth-century commerce and to be adopted as a son and partner. After Obadiah died in 1762, Moses managed the business, and in 1774 married Obadiah’s daughter Anna, who bore three children, two of whom lived to maturity. Moses joined his three surviving brothers in the firm of Nicholas Brown & Co. to operate the family businesses. The profits of trade were diversified by manufacturing and money-lending. The Brown brothers inherited profitable candle and chocolate works and started a plant to smelt and work iron. They also tried at least one ill-fated slaving voyage....
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Brown, Moses (1738-1836), merchant and philanthropist
Sydney V. James and Gail Fowler Mohanty
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Brown, Obadiah (1771-1822), merchant and manufacturer
James L. Conrad Jr.
Brown, Obadiah (15 July 1771–15 October 1822), merchant and manufacturer, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Moses Brown, a merchant, and Anna Brown. He sometimes used the name Obadiah M. Brown to distinguish himself from other Browns with the same first name. Sickly as a child, he initially was educated at home and then attended the Friends New England Yearly Meeting School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, between 1784 and 1788. This was followed by an informal apprenticeship with Almy and Brown, a Providence cotton textile manufactory established by his father, one of four brothers who were successful Providence merchants and manufacturers. The manufactory was initially managed by Obadiah’s brother-in-law, William Almy, and a cousin, Smith Brown, although under the watchful eye of Moses Brown....
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Jackson, Patrick Tracy (1780-1847), merchant and industrial manufacturer
Dane Morrison
Jackson, Patrick Tracy (14 August 1780–12 September 1847), merchant and industrial manufacturer, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the son of Captain Jonathan Jackson, a merchant, and Hannah Tracy, a merchant’s daughter. He enjoyed more schooling than most young men of the post-Revolutionary period, attending Newburyport public schools and Dummer Academy. Growing up in a commercial family, however, he was anxious to prove his business acumen. From 1795 he served as an apprentice clerk to the wealthy merchant William Bartlett, as captain’s clerk to his brother Henry and as shipmaster on his own account. Jackson impressed experienced merchants and sea masters with his initiative and knowledge of navigation and maritime commerce. Four trading voyages abroad between 1800 and 1807 enabled him to gain both experience in the Eastern trade and a respectable capital base. He returned to the United States in the latter year and established his place as an East India merchant in Boston, where opportunities were greater than in Newburyport. Jackson established himself, as well, as a sound businessman with a reputation for sobriety, reliability, and dependability. In 1810 he married Lydia Cabot in Boston; the couple had nine children....
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Marshall, Benjamin (1782-1858), merchant and textile manufacturer
Fred Carstensen
Marshall, Benjamin (1782–02 December 1858), merchant and textile manufacturer, was born to a manufacturing family in West Riding, Yorkshire, England. At age sixteen he entered the cotton trade in Manchester. Seeking wider opportunity, in 1803 he sailed for America with his brother Joseph, arriving in New York in August. They brought a consignment of Lancashire cotton textiles with which to start an importing partnership; they soon opened a store at 10 Beekman Street. To pay for the imports the Marshalls began exporting raw cotton to the Lancashire mills, initially buying from New York middlemen. Benjamin soon recognized that they could simply buy directly at the source, in the South. Thus, Marshall started going south, principally to Georgia, for extended periods each winter, arranging purchases of cotton, pioneering a practice that later became standard among New York cotton exporters. Marshall also established an agent in New Orleans and bought several ships to engage in the southern coastal trade....
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Maybank, Burnet Rhett (1899-1954), politician and businessman
Julian M. Pleasants
Maybank, Burnet Rhett (07 March 1899–01 September 1954), politician and businessman, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of Joseph Maybank, a physician, and Harriet Lowndes Rhett. By birth, Maybank was a member of Charleston’s aristocracy and inherited a place in two of South Carolina’s oldest and most distinguished families. The Maybanks were an integral part of the Low Country plantation life in South Carolina, and the Rhetts were among the earliest settlers in Charleston. ...
