|
|
Obadiah HuntFrom The Peopling of New York CityObadiah Hunt  Obadiah hunt was born in 1676 and died on October 30, 1760[1]. He had three children who were named Obadiah, John and Zebadiah[2]. He was a well known tavern keeper and also a slave trader with the Caribbean[3]. Lepore mentions that his slave, Warwick, was accused inthe 1741 slave conspiracy and I was able to find the names of two other slaves that he owned: Toby and Wooster, which were both put up for sale and listed in Peter Zenger's New York Weekly Journal[4]. Obadiah was not the wealthiest man in New York but he was able to live a comfortable life through his slave trading and his work as a tavernkeeper. I found various articles dealing with Obadiah's travels to Barbados, Jamaica and various other places in the Caribbean which further emphasizes his slave trading; however the more important point of this is that the dates on these records show that they were much later in his life. I can see that Obadiah was more interested in his tavern as a younger man and he eventually sold it to earn some money. Then as an older man he got involved in the slave trade and continued to take part in that business until the last days of his life. This last statement I made is quite literal because I found an article showing that Obadiah left for Barbados during the year of his death, when he was about 85 years old[5]. Interestingly most of the information I found for Obadiah Hunt was because of a valuable antique that he once owned. The antique is a silver tankard that is priced at more than half a million dollars[6]By following this antique I was able to find its previous owners, which of course included Obadiah Hunt. Hunt arrived to New York sometime before 1695 and attended Trinity Church[7]. This showed me that he was a well established dependable man that led a good life to the standards of society at the time. I also found out that Hunt's tavern is located on 35 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan and he ran it for almost 20 years[8]. Hunt also lived in the apartment above his tavern this way he was near his workplace and did not have a hastle getting to work. This meant that Obadiah was also a very social person in order to have the ability to run the tavern for such a long time. He must have had great charisma in order to keep all of his clients coming back every time to enjoy their time at his tavern. I know that Obadiah also cared very much about his tavern and kept it in very good condition. He was even chosen to host various events involving people with important government positions such as the minutes of the Common Council of New York City on October 20, 1718 who said: "The tavern of Obadiah Hunt is chosen as the house of entertainment by the corporation of the city, on the anniversary of the king's coronation." The city chose to hold its festivities there again, a few weeks later on November 5. In September 1720, a gala dinner was held at Hunt's Tavern in honor of the visiting Royal Governor, William Burnet. He again hosted a Royal Governor, John Montgomerie, in April 1728[9]. When he was about 60 years old however he decided to sell the tavern and in 1735 he finally advertised its sale and I was able to find this article[10]. By selling the tavern he also sold his house and therefore moved to another location; I was not able to find this other location yet i do know he traveled very often after he sold his tavern. I see that Obadiah was a very active person that liked to keep himself busy; whether it was taking care of his family, tavern or his business across seas. The characteristics i found most interesting were that he was able to maintain a bustling business for 20 years and that even at his old age he was the one taking the trips to the Caribbean instead of sending a servant, which shows that he did not want anyone to do his work if he had the ability to do it himself.
References
|
