Autograph Letter Signed by Samuel Wetmore. 4 pp., in ink, on conjugate lettersheet. This is a retained duplicate, with notation "Original for General Kyd, duplicate" at top of first page. 24.7x19.8 cm (9¾x7¾").
Yankee trader Samuel Wetmore has been left in charge of the Canton offices of the trading firm of Wetmore & Co., owned by his cousin William Wetmore, while the latter was traveling to London (where he married another cousin, Esther Phillips Wetmore) and the United States. He reports on various commercial matters from a China on the brink of rebellion and war, as the opium trade of British, and to a lesser extent American, merchants was having dire consequences for the local populace. In part: "My dear Wetmore, The General Kyd sails this evening for London & very little has taken place since the date of my last. We have sold the following... to Halls & Robberts at 3 mos credit... for all of which we shall probably be obliged to late terms in payment... We have made arrangements for disposing of 50 parcels(?) of Turkey Opium at 46... payment in Singh _____ ____ at 17 tails(?). To effect this we were obliged to let the fuson have 10 cts... The opium to be delivered to him on delivery of the teas which will take place after Chinese New Year. Should he adhere to this bargain it will prove a very excellent arrangement..."
William Shepard Wetmore (Jan. 26, 1801-June 16, 1862) was born in Vermont, and raised by his aunt and uncle in Connecticut following the death of his mother when he was one years old. William’s uncle, Samuel Wetmore, was a merchant and at age 14 William went to sea. In 1823, he was shipwrecked near Valparaiso, to which port he had gone as supercargo of one of the ships of Edward Carrington & Co., of Providence, a business partner of his uncle. In Valparaiso he went to work for the firm Richard Alsop of Middletown, Connecticut. This eventually led to a partnership of Alsop, Wetmore and Cryder in 1825 with John Cryder of Philadelphia. He retired from the firm around 1831, and, apparently on advice from his doctor, left for Canton, China where in 1833 he established the firm of Wetmore & Co. with Joseph Archer of Philadelphia. The company went on to be one of the largest mercantile houses in the East Indies brokering tea, tea papers, silks, spices, wines, ports, hemp, pearl buttons, copper and coffee, and on occasion opium, though apparently in lesser quantities than rival British houses. His many contacts in South America and elsewhere stood him in good stead, providing key information on business conditions.