Thomas C. Cornell biographical sketch of Lucretia Mott

Sketch of the
Early life of [Lucretia Mott]
written out by Thomas
Cornell*, from notes
taken while talking
with his Aunts, in the
autumn of 1879

[sideways along left margin]
* A nephew of James Mott

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Lucretia Coffin was born on Nantucket,
Jan 3, 1793, and represented the oldest
families of the Island. Both her parents were
of the [Society of Friends]. Her father, as well
as her uncle, her mother's brother, Mayhew
Folger, commanded ships in the China trade
Nantucket was in those days one of the most
prosperous commercial centers of America,
and the Coffins, & the Folgers, & the Mayhews
were among its leading citizens, as well as
its earliest settlers. Thomas Mayhew was
the first European owner of Nantucket, under
a patent dated Oct 13, 1641, and in 1659 he
granted interests in the Island to nine others,
including Tristram & Peter Coffin, [Thomas Macy]
Christopher Stusseye, & others allied them or
afterwards to the Coffin Family. Benjamin
Franklin's mother was also a cousin of the
Nantucket Folgers, & he and Lucretia Coffin
were on their mother's side of a common
stock. Of her early life she related
in her 87th year, that her mother kept
a store in the front room of their dwelling
house, still standing in the principle
street of Nantucket, where she sold East
India & English goods, making her own
purchases & sales. For her Father was
often absent for long periods, having
followed the sea from his youth, and having
married only when he obtained the command

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[crossed out]
[command] of his first vessel in his 23rd year.
In 1800 when she was 7 years old he sailed
from Wood's Hole, (For Nantucket harbors
had not depth of water for large vessels)
in the ship, Trial, for China. In the straits
of Magellan he bought a lot of seal skins,
& shipped them in care of a friend who was
[captain] of another vessel. Subsequently
the Trial was seized in the Pacific
by the Spaniards for alleged violation of neutrality,
& although Capt. Coffin defended
himself in the Spanish courts of S.A. [South America], &
obtained decisions in his favor, he never
regained his vessel. While the controversy
was pending, he made his home
with a Spanish family of Valparaíso, and
learned so much of the language & of the
religion of the country, that after his return
he always encouraged the study of Spanish
& spoke well of the Catholic Church. He
finally crossed S.A. to Buenos Ayres [Buenos Aires], and
came home by another ship in 1803, having
been absent 32 months. (The seal skins
sent to Canton, made good returns in
silks, nankeens, china, tea, &c, so that
it was a profitable voyage.) [/crossed out]

After this experience Capt. Coffin
abandoned the sea, & in 1804 removed
to Boston, & went into business there, &
prospered. When his friend returned

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[crossed out]
and accounted for the seal skins shipped
from the straits of Magellan, the profits
on them were so large, that it made
the voyage of the Trial a successful one
to Capt. Coffin, although the ship itself
was confiscated by the Spaniards. [/crossed out]
Meantime his daughter Lucretia had
been at school on the Island & also in
Boston, & in 1806, when 14 years old was
sent to [crossed out: Boston] Nine Partners. While
she was there, in 1807, her uncle Capt.
Mayhew Folger sailed for China in
the ship Topaz, for Boardman & Pope
of Boston, he being himself part owner.
[crossed out] For the Captains of Nantucket were usually
part owners in the ships they sailed
and were their own super-cangos. On the
return voyage in the Pacific, Capt. Folger
found himself near an island, now
known as Pitcairn's Island, and being
in want of water, sought out the Island
& discovered there the mutineers of the
ship, Bounty, where they had been unmolested
for 19 years. Soon afterwards, at
Juan Fernandez, his own ship was seized
by the Spaniards for alleged violation of
neutrality, & taken to Valparaíso, where he
saw lying at the wharf, the ship Trial,
which 7 years before had been taken from
his brother-in-law, Capt. Coffin. But
[/crossed out]

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more fortunate than he, Capt. Folger recovered
$44.000 in the Spanish courts, and
returned with his ship to Boston in 1808,
bringing the news of his own success.

Lucretia Coffin remained at Nine
Partners 3 years, or until 1809, the latter
part of the time assisting in teaching.
In now telling of those early days, she
says the school was not rich, & paid its
teachers small salaries, perhaps $100 per
year, or so, in addition to their board.
There were 3 female teachers & 2 male
teachers, one of whom at this time was
James Mott. In 1807 her father presented
the school with a map of the U. States,
which she believes to have been the first
map in the school, although a pair of
globes had been previously [crossed out: presented] provided.
Like many other school girls
she thought when a pupil that the discipline
was sometimes unmeasurably strict, and
she relates that when one of the boys,
her cousin, was confined in a dark
closet on bread & water, she conspired
with her sister to give him bread and
butter, under the door.* The boys & girls
were not permitted to meet, except that
relatives might speak over a certain
fence on certain days. The desire for
further culture was not wanting among

[crossed out]
* She also tells of a favorite amusement
among the girls at that
school, which was to "play meeting."

On one occasion they hold a "meeting
for business," and had a case before
them of violation of the discipline.
Lucretia and another girl were appointed
to visit the offender and report to
the meeting. This they did, and
Lucretia remembered reporting as
follows.

"Friends, we have visited
Tabitha Field, and labored with
her, and we think, we mellowed
her some."
[/crossed out]

5

the teachers, for she says that while she
was teaching there, they formed a class
among themselves & took lessons in French
for 6 weeks, & she says she feels the benefit
of those lessons to day, in her ability to
understand many French words as they
occur in ordinary reading. She relates
that while at this school, the visiting
[committee] occasionally looked after them,
Elias Hicks being sometimes one of them,
and on one occasion in 1809, overhearing
a recitation of some of the girls, in which
the height of Chimborazo came in question,
he said he did not want the
girls to waste their time in such matters
as the height of mountains, but rather
to learn such things as might fit them
for their work in life. She characterizes
Elias Hicks in those days as "a
very narrow man, but an eloquent
preacher, and one who always drew
large crowds to hear him"

While Lucretia Coffin was at
Nine Partners, Thomas & George Odiowe
were doing a prosperous business in cut
nails, then a new thing in the world, and
desiring to extend the business, they induced
Capt. Coffin, in 1809, to remove to [Philadelphia]
to take charge of it there. He established
a commission business, of which the selling

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of the nails was an important part.
The nails were made at a factory at
French Creek, about 20 miles from [Philadelphia].
The business at first prospered, but
in the troubled times which followed,
resulted in large losses. [Thomas Coffin]
came to [Philadelphia] with $20.000. Of this he
saved but little, and was obliged to seek
other business. About 1812 he & his
wife & some others made a horseback journey from
Lancaster, in [Pennsylvania] to near the present
site of Massillon, Ohio, and Thomas
Roche, one of the number, settled there.
But [Thomas Coffin] returned to [Philadelphia] &
continued the commission business
till he died there, in 1815.

Lucretia left Nine Partners in
1809 to go to [Philadelphia] and James Mott
left soon after, and early in 1810
entered as a clerk the store of [Thomas
Coffin], & boarded with a plain friend
nearby. In 1811, they were married
he being not quite 23 years of age, &
she just past 18. They made their
home at her father's house until the
following Oct. when they hired a house
in Union St bel. 2nd at $325 a year
and went to house-keeping. Here their
first child, Anna, was born in 1812.
James Mott remained with his father-in-law

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[father-in-law], first as clerk, & afterwards as a
partner, until the old business had been
given up. But he was looking out for
new business. It was thought at one
time that there might be an opening
for him in the cotton mill of his uncle
Richard Mott at Mamaroneck, & in
this expectation he & his wife [crossed out: went] moved there
early in 1814*. But there [crossed out: was] proved
to be difficulties in the way. On the
Failure of this attempt they returned
to [Philadelphia] & James got employment in
a wholesale plow store, at a salary of
$600. The following year [Thomas Coffin]
died (1815) & then James Mott undertook
his business of commission merchant.
This business seems also to have
been unsatisfactory, for he was subsequently
in N.Y. employed in Jacob
Barker's bank. After 6 [months] he returned
to [Philadelphia] and was employed
by John Sarge, who did an extensive
business in dry goods, & agreed to
pay him $600 a year, his salary was
soon raised to $800, then to $1000,
then to $1200, each time making the
increase date back from the beginning.
Subsequently Sarge failed, & James
Mott, with one of the other clerks began
a new business in Cotton goods.

* A son, Thomas was born here.
He died the winter of 1818, a great
grief, a promising boy. "You'll
never have another like him."
This led to her preaching.

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This was not satisfactory, and he
afterwards became unwilling as a
matter of conscience to deal in the
products of slave labor, and gave
up cotton altogether. This was
about the year 1823. At this time
he had acquired the necessary capital
and went into business in woollen goods
and carried it on for many years,
with occasional heavy losses, especially
in 1837. He took his son Thomas
into partnership in 1840. He ultimately
accumulated a moderate
competency & retired from business
in 1852.

In the year 1817, Lucretia Mott
took charge of a school in [Philadelphia], and
in the following year began to preach,
being then 25 years old. She travelled
as a minister in [Pennsylvania], [Maryland], [Virginia],
and in New England. She always took
decided ground against intemperance,
& especially against slavery, & took an
active part in the organization of the
[American Anti Slavery Society], in 1833.
In the separation in the [Society of Friends]
in 1827, she and her husband
had sided with the Hicksites

9

She was a delegate to the
World's Anti Slavery Convention
in London in 1840, but was
not admitted because she was
a woman. On returning she
took an active part in advocating
equal political rights for men and
women, and was prominent in
the first woman's rights convention
held at Seneca Falls, in 1848.
James Mott was chairman of
the convention.