Letterbook of Greg & Cunningham, 1756–1757: Merchants of New York and Belfast

Edited by Thomas M. Truxes (London, 2001).

From the Introduction: “New York”

“New York in 1756 was an attractive and vibrant city.  'I had no idea of finding a place in America, consisting of near 2,000 houses, elegantly built of brick, raised on an eminence and the streets paved and spacious, furnished with commodious quays and warehouses and employing some hundreds of vessels in foreign trade and fisheries,' wrote a visiting British naval officer in August 1756, 'such is this city that a very few in England can rival it in its show, gentility, and hospitality.' The commercial section was concentrated about a block or so inland from the East River along Queen Street, Dock Street, Smith Street, and Wall Street, with its center at fashionable Hanover Square.  Merchant shops and counting houses were typically in two and three story brick or wooden structures in which merchants often maintained their living quarters.  The Custom House, located at the lower end of Broadway, and the Merchants' Coffee House, on the northwest corner of Wall and Burnet Streets, were readily accessible to the city's commercial district.”