Nicholas Brown, the namesake of Brown University, is arrested
Writ for the Arrest of Edward Thurston and Nicholas Brown
[Providence]: United States District Court, July 18, 1797. Pro-forma document (approx. 8" x 11¾"), accomplished in ink, signed Edmund T. Ellery, Clerk, docketed on verso with notice of the arrest of both men. Official embossed seal of the R.I. District Court, docketed on verso; toned, previous folds, small breaks; all else very good. Defendants Edward Thurston and Nicholas Brown, for whom Brown University was named, were well known merchants of colonial Providence and Newport. The complainants in this case were Robert Murray and Stephen Tillinghast, New York merchants, who alleged that Edward Thurston and Nicholas Brown of Rhode Island have "taken and converted for their own use one half part of the Sloop Liberty and her Cargo the property of the plaintiffs of the value of Eight Thousand Dollars." Both Stephen Tillinghast and Robert Murray, although based in New York, had Rhode Island connections. Robert Murray was the brother of John Bowles Murray, who had worked in the counting house of Clark & Nightingale in Providence and in 1783 formed a partnership with John P. Mumford and Oliver Bowen, which established two commercial houses, one in New York City and the other in Alexandria, Va., and dealt heavily in teas. The Brown (Brown & Benson Co.) family traded frequently with the firm of Murray, Mumford, & Bowen in New York. Stephen Tillinghast (1768-1841) was born in RI of Daniel and Lydia (Hopkins) Tillinghast. The resolution of this particular case has not been found in the Federal Court Archives in Waltham, Mass., although it may be a continuation of a case involving Edward Thurston who was complained against by William Mackay in a case from June 30, 1797 involving the Sloop Juliet for $1600. Thurston, whose problems also included being searched as a Loyalist in 1776, went bankrupt in New York in 1805. Other cases involving Nicholas Brown (1769-1841) appear from 1805 and 1809. The case in 1805 involves a $200,000 dispute for non-performance with shipper and slave trader Pedro DuVal of Buenos Aires. The docket on the verso reads: "Rhode Island District July 19 I have arrested the bodies of the within named Edward Thurston and Nicholas Brown as commanded," signed "W. Perkins, Marshall." Item #57634
Price: $800.00
