User:Gatoclass/SB/J. Williams

refs

 * family tree -web
 * insurance co director -htrust
 * dry dock bank incorporator 1848 -htrust
 * williams & co. 1850-51 -htrust
 * thorn & williams, shipyard locations 1830s -fulton
 * genealogy -htrust
 * son president greenpoint bank -htrust
 * member marine society of ny -htrust
 * "large and fine dwellings" for sneden and williams, north of bushwick creek -htrust
 * president american lloyds 1859 -fulton


 * jt obit -npc nyt obit -fulton
 * mrs j exemplary life -npc

Life and career
Jabez Williams was born on February 21, 1788 at Stonington, Connecticut, the third of eleven children to Joshua Williams (1749–1838), and the only child of Joshua's second wife Priscilla, née Ruff (~1760–88), who died while Jabez was still in infancy. A seventh-generation American, Jabez was a descendant of Robert Williams (1607–93), who emigrated with his wife Elizabeth on the ship Rose from Great Yarmouth, England, to New England in 1637. Robert Williams later became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, and "one of the most influential men in Roxbury affairs".

It is not known where Jabez Williams trained as a shipbuilder. By 1821, he had his own shipyard in New York, where he built the steamboat United States. By 1824, he had partnered with Stephen Thorne to establish the Thorne & Williams shipyard, located on the East River at the foot of Montgomery Street, Manhattan, where several vessels, including two steamboats, were completed through 1828. By 1830, this partnership had been dissolved, with Williams retaining possession of the yard. Williams from this point until a few years before the end of his career would operate under the company name Jabez Williams & Co. In the mid-1830s, Williams briefly employed the future noted yacht designer George Steers, when the latter was aged about sixteen and still learning his trade. In 1846, Williams moved his yard across the East River to the foot of North Sixth Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In June 1848, Williams and three partners&mdash;his son John T. Williams, son-in-law Samuel Sneden, and marine engineer James Cunningham&mdash;purchased a large tract of marshy land at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, consisting of about 500 lots and 1000 feet of waterfront, where they planned to establish a new shipbuilding district, both for their own use and for sale to other shipbuilders. Development of the locality, which entailed the excavation of large amounts of earth from a nearby knoll to reclaim waterfront marshland, continued into 1850 and was only achieved for the then "enormous" sum of $220,000. An additional plan by the developers to establish an “extensive foundry ... designed for the construction of heavy marine engines and boilers" on ten of the building lots at a cost of "upwards of $100,000" was subsequently abandoned. The acquisitions of Williams and Sneden included the estate, north of Bushwick Creek of Greenpoint's earliest settler, where both shipbuilders would later construct  "large and fine houses".

Williams launched the last ship from his Williamburgh yard in November 1850. The following April, he launched the first ship from his new Greenpoint yard; it was from this yard that Williams would later launch his renowned clippers Tornado and Simoon. Late in his career, Williams' eldest son John was apparently admitted into partnership, after which the firm was sometimes referred to as Jabez Williams & Son. Williams retired from shipbuilding around the end of 1853, after which his yard appears to have been divided between his two eldest sons John and Edward, each of whom used their allotment to operate their own independent shipyard.

In addition to his shipbuilding career, Williams served as an alderman of New York City in 1844–45. He was an incorporator of the Dry Dock Bank, founded in 1848, and a director of the Williamsburgh City Fire Insurance Company and of the Ship Timber Bending Company. In 1859, he became the first president of American Lloyds shipping register.

Personal details
Jabez Williams married Susanna "Ann" Tuthill (1797–1887) at Riverhead, Long Island, on 11 February 1819. The couple had nine children together, John Tuthill (1819–79), Susan Jane (b. 1822), Charles Lawrence (1823–34), Edward Francis (b. 1826), Cornelia Priscilla (1828–88), Horace Lambert (1830–31), Samuel (b. 1832), Sidney (1835–96) and David (1838–79). Williams' sons John, Edward, Samuel and Sidney followed their father into the shipbuilding industry; his older daughter Susan married shipbuilder Samuel Sneden, while his younger daughter Cornelia was an invalid who remained a lifelong resident of her parents' household, assisting with domestic duties.

Williams is referred to as "honest old Jabez Williams" in an early account, indicating that he had a reputation for integrity.

new

 * greenpoint earthmoving
 * southerner influence
 * bark isaac mead 1841
 * eagle 1843
 * pilot boat e k collins 1844
 * creole 1847 j williams & son
 * princeton 1848
 * yorktown 1850 -mys58
 * eclipse schooner 1854 -mystic1858

ships

 * tornado anecdote -htrust
 * angelique? debut 1834 -fulton
 * yorktown schooner 1850, pb 1850 -htrust
 * brig 1840 -htrust
 * simoon, julia ann pb 1852 -htrust
 * 2x schooners 3x packets 1x brig 1850; on stocks 2x clippers, 2x steamers 1 propeller -htrust
 * 1850 clipper for thomas wardle 1350 tons -htrust
 * washington, greenpoint, pilot boat 1849 -htrust
 * schooner 400 tons for charleston, surprise 1853 -nyt


 * lots of ships from 1875 article, last ship built 1854, also ef williams -npc
 * steamship? 1350 tons -fulton
 * atlantic 1845? -fulton


 * from l&s article:
 * lewis and 7th streets, schooner 160 tons 1832 -fulton
 * stonington 1834, united states 1821 -htrust -heyl v2 -dayton -st
 * chief justice marshall 1825 -st
 * transport 1828 w/thorn -gbook
 * independence (pb), baltimore petersburg 1837; wakulla, mary frances, juliette 1838; catharine, philura, peter demilt, wilson fuller 1839; 1 x pb 1840 -fulton
 * ship 700 tons 1840 -npc
 * edwin lewis, south carolina, bark 260, medana(?), st. mary, patrick henry, cabot, seguin 1845 -fulton
 * creole, wisconsin, schooner 250, 1847 -fulton


 * from fairburn
 * greenpoint eclipse -ms
 * emperor louisa celia catharine union s. carolina atlantic packets 1824-49, greenpoint 1849 simoon eclipse tornado owners -ms5
 * eclipse 1850 -ms3 record run ny to valparaiso -ms5 1852 -ms5
 * simoon 1852 -ms3 -htrust -htrust record passage -ms4 world trip? -ms4 world trip? -ms4
 * tornado 1852 -ms3 dims -ms3 "historic interest" -ms3 fast passage -ms4 world trip? -ms4
 * 3 clippers 1850s -ms3


 * john t
 * schooner 450t 1853 -nyt

Production table

 * john t
 * julia nm26
 * mary dunham nm36


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 * - align="left"
 * Eagle
 * Brig
 * align="center" | 1836
 * align="right" |
 * Francis Spies
 * "channel trade" (Panama?)
 * be Fast ship, eventually went to China trade, later a smuggler and later still slave ship, ran ashore and wrecked, Cuban coast.
 * - align="left"
 * Princeton
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1846?
 * align="right" | 1800
 * Frost & Hicks
 * Liverpool trade
 * be qwo lists a princeton of 1131 tons built for Frost & Hicks in 1838 but american lloyd's says the ship was built by pp&s.
 * - align="left"
 * United States
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1828
 * align="right" | 200
 * - align="left"
 * Catharine
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1829
 * align="right" | 350
 * Sutton & Co.
 * "Liverpool trade"
 * be
 * - align="left"
 * Mary Frances
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1831
 * align="right" | 350
 * Sutton & Co.
 * West India trade
 * be
 * - align="left"
 * Union
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1833
 * align="right" | 700
 * Wardell & Co.
 * New Orleans trade
 * First 4,000 bale cotton ship - be
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 * Ohio
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1834
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 * Samuel Truslow
 * Liverpool
 * - align="left"
 * South Carolina
 * Ship
 * align="center" | 1850
 * align="right" | 2000
 * Capt. Tucker
 * Charleston trade
 * be
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 * Sanguine
 * Steamboat
 * align="center" | 1849
 * align="right" | 200
 * Daniel Cotheal
 * Mobile, AL
 * be
 * align="right" | 200
 * Daniel Cotheal
 * Mobile, AL
 * be