This collection contains 7 incoming letters to Stephen Deblois, a merchant in Newport, Rhode Island, and 2 incoming letters to his son, also named Stephen. L. Story wrote the elder Stephen Deblois on May 3, 1784, about their recent financial and legal disputes, which had resulted in Story's incarceration; he ended the letter with a proposal to resolve the situation. George M. Woolsey and the firm Coit & Woolsey, both of New York City, wrote 6 business letters to Stephen Deblois between 1797 and 1799. They often informed Deblois of the recent arrival of merchant ships from Liverpool and Bristol, which often carried hardware, cutlery, and dry goods to be sent to Newport. Some of their letters also concern finances, and some have partial draft responses by Deblois. The letters to the younger Stephen Deblois are Nathanial [Munday's] letter of August 18, 1812, regarding a debt he owed to Deblois, and Daniel E. Updike's letter of August 6, 1835, regarding Rhode Island politician Dutee J. Pearce and Andrew Jackson.
Stephen Deblois was born in Oxford, England, in 1735, and moved to Newport, Rhode Island, before the mid-1700s. He traded hardware and other goods and became a prosperous merchant. Deblois was married twice, to Jane Brown and Rebecca Wickham, and had six children: Ann, Stephen (1784-1853), Elizabeth, Rebecca, John, and Jane. He died on February 15, 1805. The younger Stephen Deblois also lived in Newport, where he was a merchant.
