The Koch-Messchert family papers

Jacob Gerard Koch, originally from Holland, was an affluent Philadelphia merchant who imported German linens to the United States from approximately 1796 to 1816. After Koch's death, his wife Jane appointed her brother-in-law Matthew Huizinga Messchert, also a former merchant in Philadelphia, and his son, Huizinga Messchert, a young attorney, to be the administrators of Koch's estate. Matthew Huizinga Messchert, like Koch, immigrated to America from Holland and participated in the German trade during the same period. The Koch-Messchert Family Papers consist of 1.5 linear feet of material and is comprised of shipping transactions, legal documents such as powers of attorney and passports, wills, inventories, account books, real estate papers, leases, court documents, and correspondence pertaining to the business of Philadelphia merchant Jacob Gerard Koch. The collection largely consists of papers relating to the settlement of Jacob Gerard Koch's estate, as well as personal correspondence of Jane Koch and the Messchert family.