Daniel Peck is in many ways an enigma.  His date of birth can only be guessed at, his lineage is unclear, his daughter’s name is not known, little if anything is recorded about his private life, and the overwhelming bulk of his business records – which must have been voluminous – are lost.  So when members and guests of the Society heard from Professor Siobhan Talbott of the University of Keele and Dr Sophie Jones of the University of Liverpool at the beginning of April, they described Peck as “almost lost of history”.  But not quite, because a fascinating letter-book covering Daniel Peck’s business activities over just a couple of years at the beginning of the eighteenth century has somehow survived.

Prof Talbott and Dr Jones are editing this letter-book for the Record Society, and in the Colin Phillips Memorial Lecture, they highlighted fascinating details of what preoccupied Peck, a merchant who operated from the port of Chester.  With the disruptions caused by the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14), insurance of his cargo was a major concern to Peck, but the price had to be justified by the value of the commodities he was trading in.  Sometimes it might be better to split the goods and send them in several smaller quantities so that the loss of any individual ship would not be catastrophic.

The letter-book includes the text of Peck’s own letters to others but only in rare and inexplicable cases were the replies copied out.  So we generally know what he told his agents and associates but not what they thought or said in return.  Most of the letters are fair copies of the final text, but a small number appear to be working drafts with crossings out, additions and edits, showing something of Peck’s thought processes as he sought to operate the most profitable merchants’ trade that he could.

Peck’s original links with the north-west are unclear – he had an uncle who operated from London, he had mining interests in North Wales and he later moved to run a mine in Scotland.  But for a while he must have been a major figure in Chester – he was granted the Freedom of the City in 1702 and was later elected to the Common Council.  When the Record Society’s edition of his letters from 1702 to 1704 comes out, edited by Prof Talbott and Dr Jones, it will provide a detailed account of his trade and activities in the city, giving the full text of the letters and a comprehensive introduction to Peck, the letter-book itself and what it can tell us about the time. 

The Colin Phillips Memorial Lecture gave us a tantalising glimpse of how valuable and interesting the volume is going to be.