Da Costa & Farr

Isaac Da Costa (1721-1783) migrated from London around 1750 and began a family in Charleston with his wife Sarah Pimenta Da Costa (c.1735-1793). In 1752, he placed an advertisement in The South Carolina Gazette noting his large supply of textiles, clothes, and shoes, as well as other dry goods such as tea, candlesticks, pewter dishes, and gunpowder. Seven years later, he announced the sale of an enslaved man who was “brought up chiefly in a [schooner],” and by the beginning of the 1760s, Isaac engaged in business with Thomas Farr Junior (d. 1778).¹ Operating together as Da Costa & Farr, Isaac and Thomas sold imported dry goods such as clothing, wine, rum, and sugar, before they parted ways in 1762, and potentially again in 1766. By 1778, Isaac began another business endeavor—Isaac Da Costa & Son—with his namesake, Isaac Junior (c.1751-1809). By the following year, the younger Da Costa joined Joseph De Palacios & Company.

¹ “To be sold,” The South Carolina Gazette, September 8, 1759, 4.