Charles Apthorp was an English-born merchant and slave trader in Boston, Massachusetts. Apthorp managed his import business from Merchants Row, and "in his day he was called the richest man in Boston." He also served in the employ of the British government for various schemes it attempted to implement in North America.

Thomas Hancock was an American merchant and politician best known for being the uncle of Founding Father and statesman John Hancock. The son of an Anglican preacher, Thomas Hancock rose from obscurity to become one of the wealthiest businessmen in colonial Massachusetts, accumulating a 70,000 pound fortune over the course of his lifetime and becoming the proprietor of his own mercantile firm.