William Jarvis (merchant)
Encyclopedia
William Jarvis was an American
diplomat, financier and philanthropist
best known for introducing the merino
breed of sheep into the United States
from Spain
.
family, William Jarvis was the son of Dr. Charles Jarvis, a Boston physician who owned the former Governor William Shirley
house on today's State Street. His son William watched the elder Jarvis, an ardent patriot, deliver addresses during the Revolutionary
era, and later recalled hearing Boston Sheriff Handerson read the Declaration of Independence
from the balcony of the Old State House
. Like other prominent Bostonians of his day, Jarvis had a mingling of Revolution and money-making in his genes.
He was sent to schools in Boston, Philadelphia and New Jersey
, and completed his mercantile training in a Norfolk, Virginia
, counting house
. He returned to Boston and entered into business for himself. But within six years disaster struck: Jarvis had guaranteed the debt of a New York
mercantile house belonging to a friend and business associate, which obligation the friend defaulted on. Jarvis paid off the liabilities, but it entailed selling many of his own assets. Fledgling merchant Jarvis was nearly wiped out. To recoup his fortune, he bought a clipper ship and moved to Europe
, where he dealt widely across the continent in commodities and built a successful trading house, William Jarvis & Co.
As a result of his European trading, Jarvis became familiar with Lisbon
, Portugal
, and being well-connected in Washington, D.C.
, was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson
as the United States consul
in Lisbon. Jarvis served in the post for a decade. Before returning to the United States, Jarvis purchased a flock of some 4,000 merino sheep and smuggled them out of Spain, taking advantage of Napoleon's
conquest in snapping the Spanish stranglehold on the merino wool market. It was a strategic move: Jarvis kept State Department officers apprised of his every move in snagging some of the rare merinos.
On returning to America, Jarvis gave eight merino sheep to Jefferson. He made an additional gift to sitting President James Madison
as well. Jarvis sold some of his new merino sheep, but kept most of them at his newly-purchased estate in Weathersfield
, Vermont
, where he had secured the services of a Spanish shepherd to tend them. Jarvis became a 'merino zealot,' speaking to audiences around America and extolling the virtues of the newly-imported breed. He employed up to 20 seasonal workers at his Weathersfield Bow compound, census data show, to handle the labor-intensive tasks associated with wool
production and sheep raising. Eventually Jarvis had the sheep bred and sold nationwide. He also employed a network of merchants in Europe and America who assisted him in selling his wool across America and the continent. In addition, he funneled some into a textile
mill he partially owned in Quechee, Vermont
.
For several decades, especially following the blockade
during the War of 1812
, when prohibitions on British wool sent demand for domestic wool soaring, Jarvis' strategy yielded prodigious returns. So-called 'merino mania' gripped Vermont. Farmers clamored for the newly-imported breed, and sheep raising skyrocketed across the East Coast
. Newly-built New England
textile mills gobbled up all the wool they could get. Prices skyrocketed for the fine merino wool with its unique water-shedding qualities and longer fiber. Vermont became the toast of the nation's agricultural community. By 1830 merino sheep had become the state's principal livestock.
A few statistics tell the story. Merino sheep were more productive than other breeds -- a secret well-known to the Spanish, and the reason why the Spanish guarded their flocks so closely. Prior to the introduction of the merino, New England farmers had two breeds of sheep from which to choose, neither noted for the quality of its fleece. The coming of the merino changed all that. In 1812, the average fleece of a Vermont sheep was only six percent of the animal's weight. By 1844, that figure had more than doubled to 15 percent, and by 1865 it had risen to 21 percent. This was monumental change, and it wrought a sheep boom that filled the pockets of Vermont farmers.
Sadly, that euphoria did not last. By 1837, there were over one million sheep in Vermont. But the industry was held captive to the nation's evolving tariff
laws, alternately shielding and then exposing domestic producers to cutthroat foreign competition. Jarvis himself spent tens of thousands of dollars on pamphlets arguing the case for tariffs and trying to jawbone legislators, including Henry Clay
, into supporting them.
But the price of a pound of wool dropped from 57 cents in 1835 to 25 cents in the late 1840s. Vermont producers, who were among the highest-cost producers in America, given the state's small farms and rocky land, were squeezed hard. Many farmers went out of business, and others had to scramble to keep their farms and not go hungry. Today the small village of Weathersfield, once the envy of its day with its fine old stone church, bears mute testimony to the glory days of 'merino mania.'
William Jarvis, one of the most powerful Republicans in the Connecticut River Valley, a gentleman farmer and wealthy, earned a reputation during those dark days for helping Vermont farmers with his largesse.
In 1808, he married Mary Pepperell Sparhawk of Boston, a fellow descendant of Sir William Pepperell of Massachusetts. (Jarvis' wife was the niece of his mother, the former Mary Pepperell Sparhawk Jarvis.) Mary Sparhawk bore him two children before her death in 1811. Six years later, he married Anna Bailey Bartlett, the daughter of Hon. Bailey Bartlett
of Haverhill, Massachusetts
, a member of the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution, a Presidential Elector, a High Sheriff of Essex County
(to which post he was appointed by John Hancock) as well as State Senator and County Treasurer. William Jarvis and the former Anna Bartlett had ten children.
William Jarvis died in 1859. Earlier, in 1813, Jarvis had deeded land in Weathersfield to the local school district with the proviso that the Jarvis family could use some portion of the land as their family burial ground in perpetuity. Consul Jarvis was laid to rest in that burying ground in Weathersfield, near his home in Weathersfield Bow in 1859. Other family members, including his son Major Charles Jarvis, lie interred beside him today.
Even in death, Consul Jarvis's ties to merino sheep would overshadow his other accomplishments. The epitaph
on his gravestone reads: "William Jarvis, son of Dr. Charles Jarvis born in Boston 4 February 1770 died 21 October 1859. He was consul for Lisbon and acting Charge d'affairs of the United States for Portugal from 1802 to 1811. To have served nine years in a difficult situation, under such able and patriotic presidents as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison is alone a sufficient eulogy on his fidelity and capacity. He was the first large importer from Spain and distributor throughout the Union of that useful animal, the Merino sheep, which greatly contributed to lay the foundation of the woolen manufactures of this country. His early life was checkered by the vicissitudes of fortune but by industry, perseverance, intelligence and good faith, he made himself independent, and spent his latter years in tranquil retirement amidst a numerous family; his last aspiration of affection being gratified by laying his bones in peace amidst those whom he loved in life." On Jarvis's tombstone is carved a merino sheep in bas relief.
But the lasting legacy of William Jarvis may be the landscape he left behind. Before the advent of merino, much of Vermont was fenced with timber
. The merino boom gave Vermont farmers a purpose for all those rock cairn
s dotting the hills they had struggled to till. Farmers hard-pressed to find enough timber for fencing turned to stone. So today's Vermont picture-calendar landscape might not look as it does without the hand of William Jarvis. In that sense, perhaps, this New England merchant helped fashion the poetic landscape of fellow Vermonter Robert Frost
, who wrote:
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast...."
"Ringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me --
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'"
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
diplomat, financier and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
best known for introducing the merino
Merino
The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...
breed of sheep into the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Biography
Born in Boston to a Boston BrahminBoston Brahmin
Boston Brahmins are wealthy Yankee families characterized by a highly discreet and inconspicuous life style. Based in and around Boston, they form an integral part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment...
family, William Jarvis was the son of Dr. Charles Jarvis, a Boston physician who owned the former Governor William Shirley
William Shirley
William Shirley was a British colonial administrator who served twice as Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and as Governor of the Bahamas in the 1760s...
house on today's State Street. His son William watched the elder Jarvis, an ardent patriot, deliver addresses during the Revolutionary
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
era, and later recalled hearing Boston Sheriff Handerson read the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
from the balcony of the Old State House
Old State House (Boston)
The Old State House is a historic government building located at the intersection of Washington and State Streets in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Built in 1713, it is the oldest surviving public building in Boston, and the seat of the state's legislature until 1798. It is now a history museum...
. Like other prominent Bostonians of his day, Jarvis had a mingling of Revolution and money-making in his genes.
He was sent to schools in Boston, Philadelphia and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, and completed his mercantile training in a Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, counting house
Counting house
A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...
. He returned to Boston and entered into business for himself. But within six years disaster struck: Jarvis had guaranteed the debt of a New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
mercantile house belonging to a friend and business associate, which obligation the friend defaulted on. Jarvis paid off the liabilities, but it entailed selling many of his own assets. Fledgling merchant Jarvis was nearly wiped out. To recoup his fortune, he bought a clipper ship and moved to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where he dealt widely across the continent in commodities and built a successful trading house, William Jarvis & Co.
As a result of his European trading, Jarvis became familiar with Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, and being well-connected in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
as the United States consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
in Lisbon. Jarvis served in the post for a decade. Before returning to the United States, Jarvis purchased a flock of some 4,000 merino sheep and smuggled them out of Spain, taking advantage of Napoleon's
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
conquest in snapping the Spanish stranglehold on the merino wool market. It was a strategic move: Jarvis kept State Department officers apprised of his every move in snagging some of the rare merinos.
On returning to America, Jarvis gave eight merino sheep to Jefferson. He made an additional gift to sitting President James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
as well. Jarvis sold some of his new merino sheep, but kept most of them at his newly-purchased estate in Weathersfield
Weathersfield, Vermont
Weathersfield is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,788 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 44.2 square miles , of which 43.8 square miles is land and 0.4 square mile is...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, where he had secured the services of a Spanish shepherd to tend them. Jarvis became a 'merino zealot,' speaking to audiences around America and extolling the virtues of the newly-imported breed. He employed up to 20 seasonal workers at his Weathersfield Bow compound, census data show, to handle the labor-intensive tasks associated with wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
production and sheep raising. Eventually Jarvis had the sheep bred and sold nationwide. He also employed a network of merchants in Europe and America who assisted him in selling his wool across America and the continent. In addition, he funneled some into a textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
mill he partially owned in Quechee, Vermont
Quechee, Vermont
Quechee is one of five unincorporated villages in the town of Hartford, Windsor County, Vermont. Quechee is also a census-designated place. It is the site of the Quechee Gorge on the Ottauquechee River and is also the home to the Quechee Lakes planned community initiated in the late 1960s, which...
.
For several decades, especially following the blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, when prohibitions on British wool sent demand for domestic wool soaring, Jarvis' strategy yielded prodigious returns. So-called 'merino mania' gripped Vermont. Farmers clamored for the newly-imported breed, and sheep raising skyrocketed across the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
. Newly-built New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
textile mills gobbled up all the wool they could get. Prices skyrocketed for the fine merino wool with its unique water-shedding qualities and longer fiber. Vermont became the toast of the nation's agricultural community. By 1830 merino sheep had become the state's principal livestock.
A few statistics tell the story. Merino sheep were more productive than other breeds -- a secret well-known to the Spanish, and the reason why the Spanish guarded their flocks so closely. Prior to the introduction of the merino, New England farmers had two breeds of sheep from which to choose, neither noted for the quality of its fleece. The coming of the merino changed all that. In 1812, the average fleece of a Vermont sheep was only six percent of the animal's weight. By 1844, that figure had more than doubled to 15 percent, and by 1865 it had risen to 21 percent. This was monumental change, and it wrought a sheep boom that filled the pockets of Vermont farmers.
Sadly, that euphoria did not last. By 1837, there were over one million sheep in Vermont. But the industry was held captive to the nation's evolving tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
laws, alternately shielding and then exposing domestic producers to cutthroat foreign competition. Jarvis himself spent tens of thousands of dollars on pamphlets arguing the case for tariffs and trying to jawbone legislators, including Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
, into supporting them.
But the price of a pound of wool dropped from 57 cents in 1835 to 25 cents in the late 1840s. Vermont producers, who were among the highest-cost producers in America, given the state's small farms and rocky land, were squeezed hard. Many farmers went out of business, and others had to scramble to keep their farms and not go hungry. Today the small village of Weathersfield, once the envy of its day with its fine old stone church, bears mute testimony to the glory days of 'merino mania.'
William Jarvis, one of the most powerful Republicans in the Connecticut River Valley, a gentleman farmer and wealthy, earned a reputation during those dark days for helping Vermont farmers with his largesse.
In 1808, he married Mary Pepperell Sparhawk of Boston, a fellow descendant of Sir William Pepperell of Massachusetts. (Jarvis' wife was the niece of his mother, the former Mary Pepperell Sparhawk Jarvis.) Mary Sparhawk bore him two children before her death in 1811. Six years later, he married Anna Bailey Bartlett, the daughter of Hon. Bailey Bartlett
Bailey Bartlett
Bailey Bartlett was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts.He was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to Enoch Bartlett and engaged in mercantile pursuits there until 1789....
of Haverhill, Massachusetts
Haverhill, Massachusetts
Haverhill is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 60,879 at the 2010 census.Located on the Merrimack River, it began as a farming community that would evolve into an important industrial center, beginning with sawmills and gristmills run by water power. In the...
, a member of the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution, a Presidential Elector, a High Sheriff of Essex County
Essex County, Massachusetts
-National protected areas:* Parker River National Wildlife Refuge* Salem Maritime National Historic Site* Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site* Thacher Island National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...
(to which post he was appointed by John Hancock) as well as State Senator and County Treasurer. William Jarvis and the former Anna Bartlett had ten children.
William Jarvis died in 1859. Earlier, in 1813, Jarvis had deeded land in Weathersfield to the local school district with the proviso that the Jarvis family could use some portion of the land as their family burial ground in perpetuity. Consul Jarvis was laid to rest in that burying ground in Weathersfield, near his home in Weathersfield Bow in 1859. Other family members, including his son Major Charles Jarvis, lie interred beside him today.
Even in death, Consul Jarvis's ties to merino sheep would overshadow his other accomplishments. The epitaph
Epitaph
An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...
on his gravestone reads: "William Jarvis, son of Dr. Charles Jarvis born in Boston 4 February 1770 died 21 October 1859. He was consul for Lisbon and acting Charge d'affairs of the United States for Portugal from 1802 to 1811. To have served nine years in a difficult situation, under such able and patriotic presidents as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison is alone a sufficient eulogy on his fidelity and capacity. He was the first large importer from Spain and distributor throughout the Union of that useful animal, the Merino sheep, which greatly contributed to lay the foundation of the woolen manufactures of this country. His early life was checkered by the vicissitudes of fortune but by industry, perseverance, intelligence and good faith, he made himself independent, and spent his latter years in tranquil retirement amidst a numerous family; his last aspiration of affection being gratified by laying his bones in peace amidst those whom he loved in life." On Jarvis's tombstone is carved a merino sheep in bas relief.
But the lasting legacy of William Jarvis may be the landscape he left behind. Before the advent of merino, much of Vermont was fenced with timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
. The merino boom gave Vermont farmers a purpose for all those rock cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
s dotting the hills they had struggled to till. Farmers hard-pressed to find enough timber for fencing turned to stone. So today's Vermont picture-calendar landscape might not look as it does without the hand of William Jarvis. In that sense, perhaps, this New England merchant helped fashion the poetic landscape of fellow Vermonter Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, who wrote:
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast...."
"Ringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me --
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'"
Further reading
- VHS MSS: William Jarvis Vermont Historical Society, 1996-12-30. Accessed 2008-04-09.
- The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform and the Social Order in the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont, 1791 - 1850, Randolph A. Roth, 1987, Cambridge University Press, pp. 16, 103, 107, 113, 144, 145, 173-177, etc., on William Jarvis
- Excerpts from Correspondence between President Thomas Jefferson and William Jarvis, University of Virginia, virginia.edu Excerpts from Correspondence between President Thomas Jefferson and William Jarvis, University of Virginia, virginia.edu
- http://books.google.com/books?id=FGNHAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22william+jarvis%22+vermont&source=bl&ots=uWOwk02YMj&sig=U1qWY0hk0qbpxdrxJ1nTfVYzX5I&hl=en&ei=UlG_S9D6O4y4ngeg2PCwCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=falseThe Life and Times of Hon. William Jarvis of Weathersfield, Vermont, by His Daughter, Mary Pepperell Sparhawk Jarvis Cutts, Hurd and Houghton, New York, 1869]
External links
- William Jarvis's Farm, Vermont Historical Society
- William Jarvis State Historical Marker, Weathersfield History, Town of Weathersfield
- Grave of Mary Pepperell Jarvis, Haverhill, Massachusetts
- William Jarvis and Merino Sheep, Vermont Historial Society
- Death of the Hon. William Jarvis of Vermont, The New York Times, 25 October 1859