Leamy was born in Ireland in 1757[1] but educated in Spain, where he lived for several years; by 1781 he had moved to
Philadelphia in the United States.[2] He had established a business by October 27, 1785, when "John Leamy and Co., Merchants" appeared in the first Philadelphia City Directory.[3]
Business
Leamy became wealthy by venturing into the difficult trade with Spain when most merchants would not. When he lost his especially competitive position, trade stagnated, and he focused on domestic business thereafter.
Silhouette in the History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick
Merchants like Leamy "exhibited extreme flexibility in business dealings, including the willingness to ship provisions by indirect routes, to pay off corrupt bureaucrats, and even to transport slaves to gain admittance to ports that were officially closed." After 1792 he achieved a "commanding presence" in the Spanish trade, while "those who acted differently simply did not succeed."[6]
Rather than competing with other North American merchants, he cooperated strongly with New Yorkers John and Thomas Stoughton. They were never formal partners, but Leamy acted as their insurance broker while the Stoughtons chartered and provisioned his ships.[7] They worked together to exploit the opportunities offered by Spanish officials.[8] As agent he used his brother James Leamy, who lived in
Havana until his death in 1798,[9] while other merchants suffered from using unreliable correspondents.[10]
Expansion
In March 1788 an advertisement showed "Leamy and Elliot", but by December Leamy was in business on his own account.[1] In the late 1780s Leamy traded with
peninsular Spain,
Spanish Louisiana, and the
Spanish and
French Caribbean. He was the first to advertise
licorice in a Philadelphia newspaper, and in 1789 he was a very heavy advertiser of raw
cotton imported from
Cartagena in
New Granada (modern-day Colombia); he may have been the first American to import goods from that area.[11] The City Directory of 1791 lists him as "Agent for His Catholic Majesty",
Charles IV of Spain, but it remains unclear what this entailed.[12] By passing on secret information from peninsular Spain to the colonies, Leamy acted similarly to a consul, though he held no diplomatic title.[2]
By 1793 he was more focused on peninsular Spain and Cuba. Primarily he exported flour, bringing on average 2,000 barrels per voyage to Cuba, and returning to the United States with gold and silver
specie. He was responsible for transporting over $100,000 worth of specie from Havana to Philadelphia in 1794 alone.[13] The volume of this trade was such that the Cuban economy regularly became drained of specie and suffered food shortages as a result.[14]
After a temporary lifting of trade restrictions, on November 28, 1798, Leamy's frigate John arrived at
Montevideo carrying lumber, becoming the first United States vessel to enter the
Río de la Plata.[15] It probably returned with wool, hides and beef.[16]
To reduce the risk of his operations Leamy helped found the
Insurance Company of North America in 1792. He was a director and at first its best customer, with the company archives offering extensive evidence of his insured ventures, but he left it in late 1806 to found the Marine and Fire Insurance Company.[18]
Decline
Compared to the early years of success, Leamy's business was stymied from 1802 to 1807, the time
Valentín de Foronda [
es] spent as Spain's
consul-general in Philadelphia. Foronda was much more interested than his predecessors in strict enforcement of Spanish law, at the expense of Leamy's trade.[19] U.S.–Spanish trade was becoming more accessible, but after 1807 Leamy shifted toward domestic business,[20] especially marine insurance.[21]
He also used his merchant wealth to gain prominence in the Roman Catholic community, donating $200 to the original construction of
St. Augustine Church in 1796—the largest individual contribution.[25] Leamy was a pewholder and at one time president of the board of trustees at
St. Mary's,[21] where during the
Hogan schism he chaired a committee of pro-Hogan trustees.[26]
Personal life
The Leamy mansion in use as the Episcopal Hospital,
c. 1859
From
baptismal records of
St. Joseph's Church, Leamy's children include Mary (born September 21, 1792) with Mary Doyle,[27] and then with his wife Elizabeth Doughty:
According to a Catholic history, "his children became
Episcopalians ... and bitterly opposed to Catholicity."[33]
Leamy built an estate at the corner of Front Street and Lehigh Avenue in
Kensington, which he named Tusculum.[34] After his death the Leamy children used it as a summer home until Ann and Elizabeth donated the land to help establish the
Episcopal Hospital in 1852. The mansion did not house patients after 1863 and was eventually demolished to make room for purpose-built facilities.[35] B Street bordering the campus was formerly called Leamy Street,[36] and Tusculum Street still runs nearby.[37]
Death and legacy
John Leamy died on December 4, 1839, at age 82. While historian
Charles Lyon Chandler wrote that two days later he was buried in the cemetery at St. Mary's,[21] he is also recorded as being interred with his children at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.[38] His
will is preserved in the Philadelphia City Archives.[20]
Chandler said in 1953 that Leamy had received "little attention" compared to his contemporary
George Meade.[1] In 2003, Linda K. Salvucci concluded that "he was the most prominent American trader with the Spanish Empire of his generation, but John Leamy's significance has eluded students of Philadelphia's postrevolutionary commerce." Records of his business are spread across archives in Spain, the United States and Cuba.[20] The lack of a single collection of his business papers, and predominance in Spanish rather than American archives, may explain why he has been understudied.[23]
^Salvucci, "Anglo-American Merchants", p. 129: "Undoubtedly, it would be difficult to overstate the influence of religion in cementing official trust."
^His requests for licenses are in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, while correspondence with officials can be found in the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid. Salvucci, "Merchants and Diplomats", p. 10.
^Salvucci, "Anglo-American Merchants", pp. 127–128.
^Chandler, "Catholic Merchants", p. 96. Chandler speculates this trade connection may have influenced
Manuel Torres, who grew cotton, to come to Philadelphia.
^Warren, "Displaced 'Pan-Americans'", p. 351. Records about the schism are held by the
American Catholic Historical Society, Salvucci, "Merchants and Diplomats", p. 10.
^Baptized October 6. Reuss, "Sacramental Registers, 1792", p. 307.
^Baptized June 17: Reuss, "Sacramental Registers, 1794", p. 59. She died in 1807 and is buried at St. Mary's: Campbell, History, p. 120.
^Baptized July 5. Reuss, "Sacramental Registers, 1796", p. 330.
^Baptized May 7. Reuss, "Sacramental Registers, 1798", p. 14.
^Baptized September 10. Reuss, "Sacramental Registers, 1800", p. 475.
^Baptized August 23. Reuss, "Sacramental Registers, 1802", p. 232.
——— (June 1953). "Catholic Merchants of Early Philadelphia". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 64 (2): 94–103.
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——— (March 1905). "Sacramental Registers at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, Pa., of the Eighteenth Century. Fifth Series. Baptisms Administered by Fathers Neale, Keating, Cibot, Larroque, Elling and Ennis. From January to December, 1794". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 16 (1): 53–68.
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——— (September 1905). "Sacramental Registers at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, Pa., of the Eighteenth Century. Fifth Series. Baptisms Administered by Fathers Ennis, Houdet, De Barth, Neale, Carr and Whelan. From January to December, 1796". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 16 (3): 314–343.
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——— (March 1906). "Sacramental Registers at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, Pa., of the Eighteenth Century. Sixth Series. Baptisms Administered by Fathers Ennis, Carr, Neale, Houdet, Lagrange, Helbron and De Borniol. From January to December, 1798". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 17 (1): 1–32.
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——— (December 1906). "Sacramental Registers at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, Pa., of the Eighteenth Century. Sixth Series. Baptisms Administered by Fathers Carr, Kersauson, De Kerjean, Rosseter, McMahon, Helbron, Brennan, O'Brien, Staunton and Stafford. January to December, 1800". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 17 (4): 457–485.
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——— (June 1907). "Sacramental Registers at St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, Pa., of the Nineteenth Century. Seventh Series. Baptisms Administered by Fathers Rosseter, Carr, Stafford, Lacy and Fitzpatrick. January to December, 1802". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 18 (2): 216–239.
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