TRADE WITH DEMERARA PARKER (Charles Stewart, 1771-1828, Partner in McInroy Parker & Co., Trading into Demarara)

Autograph letter signed to his partner  Samuel Sandbach  (1769-1851, Mayor of Liverpool 1831-1832), replying on behalf of Mr McInroy, who is on Jury service, saying they will "take the copper on from Messrs Borradailes" at 18p per lb., he is "pleased with the sale of my Cotton altho' it would appear the price is rather declining", paying off Mr Porter "would be a bad precedent to come to anything like a final Settlement with Him without doing the same with every other person ... we recommend you to send him about £600 ... which will leave something in our hands for after clap - Conceiving Lace to be an article much easier to procure with you than here, I would recommend your sending it from Liverpool", also urging him "to state to Mr Porter ... that we shall look to him in case of need to refund the whole or any part of the money ... a friendly accommodation which we have granted to no one besides himself", and asking "Have you any word of the William Heathcote?", with a P.S. "there are no negro hats to be had here at any thing like Mr Hopkinsons limits ... Mr McInroy promised a few by way of favor @ 18/- which he sends out on account of this house in Demerary", 1 side 10" x 8", address on conjugate leaf with Glasgow postmark, Glasgow, 24th September

James McInroy arrived in Demerara, now part of Guyana, in 1782, and acquired a sugar plantation. In 1792 he was joined by Samuel Sandbach, Charles Stewart Parker, and George Robertson, as McInroy, Sandbach & Co., with a Glasgow office known as McInroy, Parker & Co. In 1804, a branch was founded in Liverpool, which in 1813 became the company headquarters instead of Glasgow. The firm, known from 1813 as Sandbach, Tinné & Co., was finally dissolved in the 1980s.
McInroy seems to have been an opportunst - British privateers had captured Demerara in 1781, although it was restored to the Dutch in 1783. It was finally recaptured by the British in 1803.
Charles Stewart (or Steuart) Parker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the son of loyalist merchant James Parker (1729-1815). He was educated in Scotland and went as a clerk to Grenada in 1789.
In 1797 copper was coined at a penny an ounce. As this letter shows, the copper was now worth more than the face value, and in the next coinage of 1806 the coins had to be made smaller.

Item Date:  1804

Stock No:  54245      £875

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