Brief guide to manuscripts collections| William L. Clements Library The University of Michigan John Holker Papers |
Holker was the son of Chevalier Jean Holker, an English Jacobite who fled to France in 1745 and became prominent in textile manufacturing. In 1777, father and son were involved in helping the American commissioners in Paris obtain supplies. With Franklin's support, John Holker came to America with Conrad Alexandre Geacute;rard, first French minister to the United States. Holker was presented to Congress as agent for the French navy in American ports and consul of France at Philadelphia. During the war he supplied arms and provisions to the French fleet.
By 1780 Holker was made consul general for Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York. While acting in this official capacity, he was engaged in extensive private business speculations with Robert Morris, William Turnbull, and Peter Marmie. Complaints about his financial activities led the French government to demand that he either observe the prohibition against public officials engaging in trade or resign. Holker resigned in 1781, preferring to continue his various business ventures--supplying Continental troops, speculating in western land, paper money, Pittsburgh ironworks, distilleries, saw mills, and salt works. Following the war, Holker settled at Springburg, Virginia, and although he returned to France briefly, died in America in 1822.
Official and private correspondence of John Holker, French consul general to the United States during the Revolutionary War, merchant, speculator.
This collection contains approximately 85 items relating to Holker's official consular duties and his efforts to supply the French fleet in American waters, 1778-1781. The major part of the collection concerns Holker's private business interests, primarily his partnership with Turnbull supplying the Continental Army. There is valuable correspondence between Holker and his associate John Barclay, 1807-1816, in which they discuss national politics and foreign affairs. The papers from 1825 to 1872 concern the settlement of his estate and family matters.
Purchased, 1932-1958
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