THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MARIS

About the Book

Orphaned at the age of three with his four sisters and brother, William Maris, following a basic Quaker education, moved from his native rural town of Springfield, Pennsylvania, to the bustling metropolis of early 19th-century Philadelphia when he was in his early teens.

Mentored by his older brother Richard, Maris opened a mercantile business on the city's rough and tumble wharves at nineteen. Three years later, in 1803, William married Jane Beaumont, daughter of John Beaumont, one of the wealthiest landowners and businessmen in neighboring Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

With his brother-in-law, Joseph Russell Evans, Sr., Maris expanded his mercantile business, establishing Maris & Evans, occupying its private wharf on the Delaware River with shipping routes to the West Indies, England, Spain, and Portugal.

In The Mysterious Mr. Maris, historian and author Roy Ziegler tells the alluring story of the rapid rise of a young, early 19th-century merchant who became a builder, bank president, and operator of four mills producing flour, cotton, wool, and flax linen in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Partnering with his father-in-law, Maris developed numerous construction projects in the growing town while continuing to expand his international mercantile business in Philadelphia during the early part of the industrial revolution. Follow Maris’s meteoric rise, financial indiscretions, and ultimate tragic end.

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