Riggs Family Papers, 1817-1887 | Maine Maritime Museum Manuscript Collection Online Catalog

Scope and Contents: The collection consists of business-related correspondence and invoices regarding  the elder Benjamin Riggs, invoices for the firm Sampson & Riggs, and Moses Riggs' business concerns following the apparent demise of Sampson & Riggs.  Charter parties for various vessels and cargoes, ranging from lumber and fish to salt and ice, complement other shipping documents and captains' reports.  The potential sale of some vessels is discussed in correspondence in Folders 1 and 3.Folder 1 includes correspondence to the Riggs family, primarily Benjamin Riggs, from March 1826 to November 1867.  Documents of note include letters from Riggs' apparent agent in Boston, Gideon Snow, regarding voyages of the brig Pilgrim, captains' letters following an 1826 voyage from Gibraltar to New York, and a damaged and incomplete letter, likely from Trinity [La Trinite], Martinique.  One letter from and response to the Bath Custom House provides extensive information on the amount and type of traffic through the Gut on the Sasanoa River in 1867.  Several letters come from sailors or fishermen asking for positions on one of the Riggs' fishing schooners, and a number of other sailing vessels are mentioned in various invoices.  Finally, a long letter from James Beath to his sister mentions a number of individuals, including one Maxwell Reed, with whom Beath was apparently having a legal dispute.  Beath may have been a master of the Riggs vessel Liberator later in his life, but nothing else has been found about his connection to the Riggs family.Folder 2 contains charter parties, freight lists, lumber surveys, and other shipping information between the years 1817 and 1887.  Charter parties specify such cargoes as salt from the West Indies, liver oil to New York, and coastal trade in molasses, lumber, ice, and coal.  A government "Enrollment" certificate which provides the schooner Fox with the right "to be employed in the Coasting Trade and Fisheries" is also included.Folder 3 consists of correspondence to the company Sampson & Riggs in the year 1867.  Information regarding the purchase of dories and oars is included among general business correspondence.Folder 4 contains bills (1855-1864) submitted to Sampson & Riggs for payment for goods to a variety of vessels, including the schooners Queen of the West and Julia Franklin.Folder 5 includes a number of invoices submitted to various members of the Riggs family, primarily Moses and his son Kervin.  All receipts are for vessel-related supplies, and cover the years 1829 to 1887.  Most receipts come from Bath chandlers and general merchants.  Some vessels are specifically identified.Folder 6 contains a small book used primarily by Capt. John Johnson, probably of Woolwich, ME, to record mackerel and other fish catches made in the Gulf of St. Lawrence from about 1832-1844 on four different schooners, Richmond, Mary & Louisa, Ann, and Louisa.  Shares for each crewman (most are named), including the cook, are listed.  Also includes a few general vessel accounts. A few pages have been cut out.Folder 7 has a few miscellaneous items which came with the collection.  They include three sheets of blank stationery showing the Bath-built US Battleship Georgia, and a newspaper advertisement illustrating the steamer Elsie.