Devereux Family Papers

James Devereux (1766-1846) was born in Wexford, Ireland, the son of James and Eleanor (Murphy) Devereux. He came to America with his uncle, shipmaster John Murphy, in 1780 and was mastering vessels for Clifford Crowninshield and other notable Salem merchants by 1792. In 1799, James mastered the first American vessel, the Franklin, to sail to Japan. James gradually developed his own shipping business to the Far East, Russia, South America, Europe and the West Indies. He owned twenty or more vessels, usually in partnership with other merchants, including Moses and Penn Townsend, Robert Stone, Dudley Pickman, Nathaniel, Zaccheus, and Zachariah Silsbee, Joseph Ropes, Richard Wheatland, Joseph Peabody, Joshua Ward, Richard Crowninshield, William and Joseph Orne, and Joseph Waters.

James and his wife Sally (Crowninshield) (1768-1815), daughter of John and Mary (Ives) Crowninshield, had eight children who survived infancy. Their sons John (1796-1856) and James Devereux (1806-1831) also entered the shipping business. John served as master of his father's brig Osprey and James as the Osprey's supercargo. James Jr.'s shipping career was cut short by his death in 1831. After John closed the final financial transactions of his father's business in the 1830's he became an attorney in Philadelphia.

James (1766-1846) and Sally's son Nicholas (1808-1848) was an attorney for the Essex County Court of Common Pleas. Their daughter Abigail (1803-1888) married shipping merchant William Dean Waters (1798-1880).