1787 Huie Reid Dumfries VA Note 4 Dutch Oven & Salt Robert Elgin, Benjamin Smith For Sale

Offered is an exceptional original Revolutionary-era merchant order written in 1787 and addressed to Mr. Huie (James) Reid of the renowned mercantile firm Huie, Reid & Company, headquartered in Dumfries, Prince William County, Virginia. Few surviving manuscripts capture the everyday commercial life of the Early Republic as vividly as this remarkable document.

The handwritten order requests several essential household goods:

• Two bushels of salt
• One Dutch oven
• One frying pan

The goods were to be sent by Mr. Robert Elgin, who served as the bearer of the order. Signed by Benjamin Smith, the document provides a fascinating glimpse into the commercial network that supplied Virginia\'s farmers and families during the first years of the United States.

This manuscript represents far more than a simple shopping list.

Written only four years after the Treaty of Paris formally ended the American Revolution, it documents the rebuilding of commerce in northern Virginia as merchants once again imported manufactured goods into the Chesapeake. During this period, rural Virginians relied upon merchant houses like Huie, Reid & Company for nearly every finished product they could not manufacture themselves.

The requested items tell a remarkable story.

A Dutch oven was among the most valuable cooking implements owned by an eighteenth-century household. Heavy cast iron, fitted with a tight lid and designed to hold hot coals above and below, it served as the primary baking oven for bread, pies, biscuits, roasted meats, and stews. Together with the requested frying pan, it formed the foundation of an early American kitchen.

Likewise, two bushels of salt represented a substantial purchase. Salt was indispensable for preserving pork, beef, fish, butter, and hides before refrigeration existed. It was one of the most important commodities traded throughout colonial America and the Early Republic.

Taken together, these purchases suggest the outfitting of a household or farm during the nation\'s formative years.

Among the most historically significant aspects of this manuscript is its connection to Huie, Reid & Company, one of the leading Scottish-American merchant firms operating in post-Revolutionary Virginia.

The company was established in the thriving tobacco port of Dumfries, located on the Potomac River in Prince William County. During the 1780s, Dumfries ranked among Virginia\'s busiest commercial ports, serving as a major shipping center for tobacco exported to Great Britain while importing manufactured goods from Europe and the Caribbean.

Partners in the firm, including James Reid, maintained an extensive mercantile network serving customers throughout Prince William, Stafford, Fauquier, Loudoun, Fairfax, and neighboring counties.

Huie, Reid & Company imported:

• Salt
• Iron cookware
• Dutch ovens
• Frying pans
• Tea and sugar
• Textiles
• Nails and hardware
• Agricultural tools
• Plantation supplies
• Luxury imported goods

Their surviving business correspondence has become one of the finest documentary records of Virginia commerce during the years immediately following American independence. Customer orders preserved in institutional collections closely resemble this manuscript, making this an outstanding surviving example of everyday trade conducted through one of Virginia\'s most important merchant houses.

The document is signed by Benjamin Smith, believed to be the Prince William County native born on September 15, 1769, to Caleb Smith and Sarah Johnson.

The Smith family had been established in Prince William County for generations and were among the area\'s respected agricultural families. Benjamin\'s father, Caleb Smith, died in 1778, and his will identifies Benjamin together with his siblings, including Jeziah, Nimrod, and Aaron Smith, documenting the family\'s long-standing presence within the county.

At approximately eighteen years of age in 1787, Benjamin stood on the threshold of adulthood. Young men of this period were beginning independent lives, establishing farms, acquiring household equipment, and entering commercial relationships with local merchants.

The contents of this order strongly support that interpretation. Purchasing a Dutch oven, frying pan, and a large quantity of salt represents precisely the type of provisions needed to establish or maintain an independent household.

Benjamin later married Susannah Shirley, daughter of Richard Shirley, around 1788 before moving south into South Carolina. Like many Virginians of the post-Revolutionary generation, he ultimately joined America\'s westward migration, settling in Boone County, Indiana, where he died in 1853.

His life reflects the remarkable migration of early American families from the Tidewater South into the expanding western frontier.

The order directs that the goods be sent \"by Mr. Robert Elgin.\"

Robert Elgin was born in September 1760 in Charles County, Maryland, the son of James Elgin and Ann Anderson. By the 1780s he was associated with Prince William County, Virginia, where he became part of the local commercial community.

His appearance in this manuscript likely identifies him as the trusted bearer or courier responsible for transporting Benjamin Smith\'s order to Huie, Reid & Company and returning with the requested merchandise.

Though a seemingly small detail, Elgin\'s presence illustrates how eighteenth-century commerce depended upon neighbors, merchants, and local travelers carrying orders and goods between rural farms and commercial ports.

Robert later spent much of his life in Virginia before eventually settling farther west, dying in 1853, making him another representative of the generation that witnessed both the birth and expansion of the United States.

Sir

Please to send by Mr. Robert Elgin

two bushels Salt

one Dutch Oven

one frying pan

and you will oblige

your humble servant

Benjamin Smith

1787

• Original handwritten ink manuscript.
• Approximately 5 × 2 inches.
• Minor edge wear, folds, and age toning consistent with eighteenth-century commercial correspondence.
• Excellent overall condition considering its age of more than 235 years.

This manuscript beautifully illustrates everyday life in the first decade of the United States. While military records and political papers dominate surviving Revolutionary-era material, documents recording the ordinary commerce that sustained American families are considerably scarcer.

It connects:

• One of Virginia\'s premier post-Revolutionary merchant houses.
• A documented Prince William County family.
• A known local courier.
• The purchase of essential household goods that defined eighteenth-century domestic life.

It is a tangible reminder that the success of the new nation depended not only upon famous statesmen and soldiers, but also upon merchants, farmers, craftsmen, and ordinary citizens rebuilding local economies after years of war.

As such, this manuscript stands as an outstanding artifact of Virginia commerce, early American domestic history, genealogy, and the economic foundations of the Early Republic, making it an exceptional addition to any advanced collection of Revolutionary-era Americana or eighteenth-century manuscripts.