Thomas Jenkins: Revolutionary and Hudson Proprietor
Nantucket relied almost exclusively on trade, receiving food and supplies from ships and getting income from seafaring voyages. Far from the mainland, the island was a harrowing place during the Revolution and its ships were prone to assault from privateers.
Seth Jenkins and others tried to convince both Britain and the Continental Government that Nantucket whale ships should be given certificates of passage because of the pacifist stance of their Quaker owners and shipmasters. However, because of these diplomatic interactions Nantucketers were sometimes accused of treason. And, indeed, though a majority were Quaker and pacifists, some people of the island had loyalist sympathies and some had revolutionary sympathies, with a few even fighting in the war.
The Rotch Counting House, Main Street, Nantucket with inset of plaque on front of building.
Originally from Nantucket and maintaining business interests there, Thomas Jenkins settled in Providence and became a wealthy maritime merchant trading in goods from the West Indies to London and various ports in eastern North America. During the war, his Nantucket storehouse was pillaged by British ships. Jenkins believed William Rotch, a Nantucketer and wealthy merchant, had facilitated the robbery and then discouraged a fleet of vessels from pursuing the British ship that had the contraband. Jenkins accused Rotch of high treason before the Supreme Legislature of the State of Massachusetts. Rotch was subsequently found not guilty.
“...said [British] Officers with a number of his people proceeded immediately to some Ware houses of your Complainant, and robbed him of — 260 barrels of Sperm Oil, 1800 lbs of Whale Bone, 2300 wt. of Iron, 1200 lbs of Coffee, 20,000 wt of Tobacco, and a number of smaller articles, all of which they carried off, together with a Brig,”
At the end of the war Nantucket loyalists established whaling communities in Nova Scotia and elsewhere. The Rotch family established a whaling community in Dunkirk, France. Jenkins and the Hudson proprietors clearly threw their lot in with the new revolutionary country as they found a safe harbor in the Hudson Valley.