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Title: Domestic life in New England in the seventeenth century
Author: George Francis Dow
Release date: May 11, 2025 [eBook #76065]
Language: English
Original publication: Topsfield, Massachusetts: The Perkins Press, 1925
Credits: Steve Mattern and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOMESTIC LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ***
DOMESTIC LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND
IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
[Illustration: PARSON CAPEN HOUSE, TOPSFIELD
Built in 1683]
Domestic Life
in
NEW ENGLAND
in the
Seventeenth Century
A DISCOURSE
Delivered in the Lecture Hall of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City, it being one of a
Series designed to mark
the Opening of the
American Wing
_By GEORGE FRANCIS DOW_
[Illustration]
_TOPSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS_: Printed
for the Author at _The Perkins Press_,
just off the _Main Street_, 1925.
COPYRIGHT, 1925, GEORGE FRANCIS DOW
FIVE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED
[Illustration]
THE PREFACE
The publication of the following paper in its present form, became
possible when the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art found it
necessary to abandon their intention to publish a volume containing the
lectures given on the occasion of the opening of the American Wing. The
other lectures delivered in the course were devoted to the architecture
and arts of New England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
and it therefore seemed fitting that some account of the domestic life
of the period should also have a presentation. Within the limitations
of time and space it was only possible to touch lightly upon so
far-reaching a subject and the reader will soon discover that the
following pages may be somewhat over-loaded with facts gleaned from
original records. It also should be borne in mind that the public
records that have come down to us preserve a chronicle of the offences
of the day and generation while the uneventful lives of the honest and
the just frequently rest in oblivion.
_The evil that men do lives after them
The good is oft interred with their bones._
Nevertheless, there were fully as many sinners as saints living within
the control of the Puritan autocracy in the Massachusetts Bay and it
is to be hoped that the contemporaneous data here presented may aid in
bringing about a readjustment of values in the mind of some reader.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PARSON CAPEN HOUSE, TOPSFIELD _Frontispiece_
FRONT DOOR OF CAPEN HOUSE 2
FRONT ENTRY AND STAIRS OF CAPEN HOUSE 4
OVERHANG OF THE CAPEN HOUSE 6
PARLOR OF THE CAPEN HOUSE 8
JOHN WARD HOUSE, SALEM 12
PARLOR OF WARD HOUSE 16
KITCHEN OF WARD HOUSE 20
DRESSER IN KITCHEN OF WARD HOUSE 24
WELLCURB AND SWEEP, WARD HOUSE 28
[Illustration]
DOMESTIC LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
To picture the life in the homes of the colonists in the years
immediately following the settlement would require many screens. Then
as now life had its contrasts and utmost poverty existed but shortly
removed from comparative wealth. In 1657 an apprentice to a stone-mason
in the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, testified that it was a long
while before “he could eate his master’s food, viz. meate and milk,
or drink beer, saying that he did not know that it was good, because
he was not used to eat such victualls, but to eate bread and water
porridge and to drink water.”[1] A few miles away, in the town of
Ipswich, lived Madam Rebecka Symonds, writing in her sixtieth year to
her son in London to send her a fashionable “lawn whiske,” for her
neckwear. In due time he replied that the “fashionable Lawn whiske
is not now worn, either by Gentil or simple, young or old. Instead
where of I have bought a shape and ruffles, which is now the ware of
the gravest as well as the young ones. Such as goe not with naked
necks ware a black wifle over it. Therefore, I have not only Bought a
plaine one y’t you sent for, but also a Luster one, such as are most
in fashion.” The dutiful son also purchased for his mother’s wear a
feather fan; but he writes, to her “I should also have found in my
heart, to have let it alone, because none but very grave persons (and
of them very few) use it. Now ’tis grown almost as obsolete as Russets,
and more rare to be seen than a yellow Hood.” When the feather fan
reached Ipswich it was found to have a silver handle and with it came
“two tortois fans, 200 needles, 5 yds. sky calico, silver gimp, a black
sarindin cloak, damson leather skin, two women’s Ivorie Knives, etc.”[2]
Fine clothing surrounded itself with fine furnishings, according to the
standards of the period, and as the wealth of the Colonies increased
with the successful exportation of fish, lumber, beaver, and peltry, it
supplied them with all kinds of luxuries and refinements to be found
in the shops of London, Plymouth, or Bristol. The ships were crossing
frequently and the Colonies kept pace with the mother country much
as the country follows the city at the present time. All the while,
however, primitive living and also poverty existed everywhere. The
inventories of numerous estates show meagre household furnishings, and
many families of eight or more persons lived in houses only eighteen
by twenty-four feet in size, possibly with a shed attached. Alexander
Knight, a pauper in a Massachusetts town, was provided in 1659 with
a one-story house sixteen feet long and twelve feet wide having a
thatched roof and costing only £6 to build, which no doubt was typical
of the simple dwellings occupied by the poorer colonists in the early
days following the settlement.
When Governor Winthrop arrived at Charlestown in 1630 with the first
great emigration he found a house or two and several wigwams--rude
shelters patterned after the huts built by the Indians--and until
houses could be erected in Boston many lived in tents and wigwams,
“their meeting-place being abroad under a Tree.” Deacon Bartholomew
Green, the printer of the _Boston News-Letter_, related that when his
father arrived at Boston in 1630, “for lack of housing he was vain
to find shelter at night in an empty cask,” and during the following
winter many of the poorer sort still continued to live in tents through
lack of better housing.
[Illustration: PARSON CAPEN HOUSE, TOPSFIELD
Front Door]
There is a wide-spread misconception that the colonists on reaching New
England proceeded immediately to build log houses in which to live.
Historians have described these log houses as chinked with moss and
clay and as having earth floors, precisely the type of house built
on the frontier and in the logging camps at a much later period. A
well-known picture of Leyden street, at Plymouth, shows a double row of
log houses reaching up the hillside, which the Pilgrims are supposed
to have constructed. In point of fact, no contemporary evidence has
been found that supports the present-day theory. The early accounts of
what took place in the days following the settlements along the coast
are full of interesting details relating to day-by-day happenings but
nowhere do we find allusion to a log house such as modern historians
assume existed at that time.[3]
What happened at the Plymouth Colony after the _Mayflower_ came
to anchor? The wind blew very hard for two days and the next day,
Saturday, December 23, 1620, as many as could went ashore: “felled and
carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building,” and the
following Monday “we went on shore, some to fell timber, some to saw,
some to rive, and some to carry; so no man rested all that day.”[4]
Bradford writes “that they builte a forte with good timber” which Isaac
de Rasieres described in 1627 as “a large square house, made of thick
sawn planks, stayed with oak beams.” The oldest existing houses in the
Plymouth Colony are built in the same manner and some half dozen or
more seventeenth-century plank houses may yet be seen north of Boston.
Moreover, when the ship _Fortune_ sailed from Plymouth in the summer
of 1621 part of her lading consisted of “clapboards and wainscott,”
showing clearly that the colonists soon after landing had dug saw pits
and produced boards in quantity suitable for the construction of houses
and for exportation.
In the summer of 1623 Bradford mentions the “building of great houses
in pleasant situations” and when a fire broke out in November of the
following year it began in “a shed yt was joyned to ye end of ye
storehouse, which was wattled up with bowes.” It will be seen that this
shed was not crudely built of logs or slabs but that its walls were
wattled and perhaps also daubed with clay, in precisely the same manner
with which these colonists were familiar in their former homes across
the sea. An original outer wall in the old Fairbanks house at Dedham,
Massachusetts, still has its “wattle and daub” constructed in 1637.
What can be more natural and humanly probable than to find English
housewrights who had learned their trade overseas, building houses and
outbuildings on this side of the Atlantic in the same manner they had
been taught through a long apprenticeship in their former homes? Can we
of today assume that they, upon the spur of the moment, invented a new
type of building--a log house--a construction they had never seen in
England--a building also unknown to the Indians?
The houses of the Indians were “verie little and homely, being made
with small Poles pricked into the ground, and so bended and fastened at
the tops, and on the side they are matted with Boughes and covered with
Sedge and old mats.”[5] These were called “wigwams” and as they were
easily constructed and the materials were readily at hand many of the
poorer colonists built for themselves imitations of these rude huts of
the Indians. Governor Winthrop records in his “Journal,” in September,
1630, that one Fitch of Watertown had his wigwam burnt down with all
his goods, and two months later John Firman, also of Watertown, lost
his wigwam by fire.
[Illustration: PARSON CAPEN HOUSE, TOPSFIELD
Front entry and stairs]
Thomas Dudley writing to the Countess of Lincoln, in March, 1631,
relates: “Wee have ordered that noe man shall build his chimney with
wood nor cover his house with thatch, which was readily assented unto,
for that divers houses have been burned since our arrival (the fire
always beginning in the wooden chimneys) and some English wigwams
which have taken fire in the roofes with thatch or boughs.”[6] It
was Dudley who was taken to task by the Governor in May, 1632, “for
bestowing so much cost on wainscotting his house and otherwise adorning
it,” as it was not a good example for others in the beginning of a
plantation. Dudley replied that he had done it for warmth and that it
was but clapboards nailed to the walls. A few months later this house
caught fire “the hearth of the Hall chimney burning all night upon the
principal beam.”
The frequent references to the English wigwam seem to indicate that
some such temporary construction was usual among many of the colonists
at the outset. Settlers were living at Salem as early as 1626 and
Endecott, with a considerable immigration, arrived in 1628. Marblehead,
just across the harbor, was settled early and yet when John Goyt came
there in 1637, he “first built a wigwam and lived thar till he got a
house.”[7] The rude buildings also put up by the planters at Salem
must have been looked upon at the time as temporary structures for
they had all disappeared before 1661.[8] The town clerk of Woburn,
Massachusetts, writing in 1652, mentions the rude shelters of the first
settlers “which kept off the short showers from their lodgings, but the
long rains penetrated through, to their grate disturbance in the night
season: yet, in these poor wigwams, they sing Psalms, pray and praise
their God, till they can provide them homes, which ordinarily was not
wont to be with many till the Earth, by the Lord’s blessing, brought
forth bread to feed them, their wives and little ones.”[9]
“Before you come,” wrote Rev. Francis Higginson, the first minister at
Salem, “be careful to be strongly instructed what things are fittest
to bring with you for your more comfortable passage at sea, as also for
your husbandry occasions when you come to the land. For when you are
once parted with England you shall meete neither markets nor fayres
to buy what you want. Therefore be sure to furnish yourselves with
things fitting to be had before you come: as meale for bread, malt for
drinke, woolen and linnen cloath, and leather for shoes, and all manner
of carpenters tools, and a great deale of iron and steele to make
nails, and locks for houses, and furniture for ploughs and carts, and
glasse for windows, and many other things which were better for you to
think of there than to want them here.”[10] Elsewhere the good pastor
set down “A catalogue of such needfull things as every Planter doth
or ought to provide to go to New England” in which he enumerated the
necessary victuals per person for the first year, viz:
“8 Bushels of meale, 2 Bushels of pease, 2 Bushels of Otemeale, 1
Gallon of Aquavitae, 1 Gallon of Oyle, 2 Gallons of Vinegar, 1 Firkin
of Butter; also Cheese, Bacon, Sugar, Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon,
Nutmegs and Fruit.”
The household implements listed were:--“1 Iron pot, 1 Kettel, 1 Frying
pan, 1 Gridiron, 2 Skellets, 1 Spit, Wooden Platters, Dishes, Spoons
and Trenchers.”
Clothing, arms, and tools of all kinds of course must be taken and the
natural resources of New England and the fruits of their husbandry and
of the sea were expected to supply the rest of those things necessary
to life and comfort. Those who settled along the shore line north of
Boston found much “fat blacke earth” that yielded bountiful crops. The
soil to the southward of Boston Bay was lighter and less productive,
but the valley of the Connecticut was found to be of unsurpassed
richness.
[Illustration: PARSON CAPEN HOUSE, TOPSFIELD
Overhang and one of the “drops”]
Pastor Higginson wrote enthusiastically of the natural abundance of
the grass that “groweth verie wildly with a great stalke” as high as a
man’s face and as for Indian corn--the planting of thirteen gallons
of seed had produced an increase of fifty-two hogsheads or three
hundred and fifty bushels, London measure, to be sold or trusted to the
Indians in exchange for beaver worth above £300. Who would not share
the hardships and dangers of the frontier colony for opportunity of
such rich gain?
But the housewives in the far-away English homes were more interested
in the growth of the vegetable gardens in the virgin soil, and of
these he wrote: “Our turnips, parsnips and carrots are here both
bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England. Here are
stores of pumpions, cucumbers, and other things of that nature I
know not. Plentie of strawberries in their time, and penny-royall,
winter saverie, carvell and water-cresses, also leeks and onions are
ordinary.” Great lobsters abounded weighing from sixteen to twenty-five
pounds and much store of bass, herring, sturgeon, haddock, eels, and
oysters. In the forests were several kinds of deer; also partridges,
turkeys, and great flocks of pigeons, with wild geese, ducks, and other
sea fowl in such abundance “that a great part of the Planters have
eaten nothing but roast-meate of divers Fowles which they have killed.”
These were some of the attractive natural features of the new colony
in the Massachusetts Bay, as recounted by the Salem minister. Of the
hardships he makes small mention, for his aim was to induce emigration.
There was much sickness, however, and many deaths. Higginson himself
lived only a year after reaching Salem. The breaking up of virgin soil
always brings on malaria and fever. Dudley wrote “that there is not
an house where there is not one dead, and in some houses many. The
naturall causes seem to bee in the want of warm lodgings, and good
dyet to which Englishmen are habittuated, at home; and in the suddain
increase of heate which they endure that are landed here in somer * * *
those of Plymouth who landed in winter dyed of the Scirvy, as did our
poorer sort whose howses and bedding kept them not sufficiently warm,
nor their dyet sufficiently in heart.”[11] Thomas Dudley wrote this
in March, 1631. He explained that he was writing upon his knee by the
fireside in the living-room, having as yet no table nor other room in
which to write during the sharp winter. In this room his family must
resort “though they break good manners, and make mee many times forget
what I would say, and say what I would not.”
But these hardships and inconveniences of living which the New England
colonists met and overcame differ but little from those experienced
in every new settlement. They have been parallelled again and again
wherever Englishmen or Americans have wandered. In a few years after
the coming of the ships much of the rawness and discomfort must have
disappeared, certainly in the early settlements, and comparative
comfort must have existed in most homes. If we could now lift the roof
of the average seventeenth-century house in New England it is certain
that we should find disclosed not only comfortable conditions of living
but in many instances a degree of luxury with fine furnishings that
is appreciated by few at the present time. And this can now be shown
by means of the itemized inventories of estates that were carefully
made, listing the contents of a house, room by room, and enabling us to
visualize the interiors of the homes in which lived the pioneers of New
England.
[Illustration: PARSON CAPEN HOUSE, TOPSFIELD
The Parlor]
Among the early settlements made in the Colony of the Massachusetts
Bay was one at Agawam, now the town of Ipswich. The news had reached
Boston that the French were pushing their settlements westward along
the coast, bringing with them “divers priests and Jesuits,” which so
alarmed the Governor and Council that it was decided to forestall
the French and hasten the planting of new towns north of Boston. The
first move was to send the Governor’s son John, with twelve others, to
establish themselves at Agawam. There were no roads and so they sailed
along the coast in a shallop and took possession of the town site
in March, 1633. Their families and other settlers soon followed and
the increase of population was such that in August, 1634, the Court of
Assistants decreed that the place be called Ipswich, after old Ipswich
in England, “in acknowledgment of the great honor and kindness done to
our people, who took shipping there.”
Three months later, in November, 1634, one John Dillingham arrived
in Ipswich and the selectmen granted him six acres of land on which
to build a house. He was from Leicestershire and with his wife and
daughter had come over in the fleet with Winthrop in 1630, and remained
in Boston until he removed to Ipswich. Life in the frontier settlement
was too severe for him and he died during the next winter. On July
14, 1636, his widow, Sarah, made her “last will and testament” being
in “perfect memory though my body be weake & sick” and a few days
later she too was dead, leaving her orphaned daughter to be cared for
by Richard Saltonstall and John Appleton, under the direction of the
Quarterly Court. And this was not at all difficult for John Dillingham
had left a “goodly estate,” for the times. This Dillingham home has
been selected for analysis because it is one of the earliest estates in
the Colony of which we have exact and detailed information, a number of
documents relating to it having been preserved among the miscellaneous
papers in the Massachusetts State Archives.[12] Moreover, it shows the
furnishings and equipment of a settler living in a town of only two
years growth from the wilderness.
The Dillingham homestead consisted of a house of two rooms and
outbuildings with thirty acres of upland, sixty acres of meadow, i.
e., grass land, and six acres of planting ground near the house, of
which four acres were planted with corn. Apple trees and other fruits
were fenced off in the garden. For livestock there was a mare, three
cows, two steers, two heifers, four calves, and four pigs. There was
an indentured servant, Thomas Downs, to help cultivate the land and
care for the stock, and a maid, Ann Towle, who not only helped with
the housework but also worked in the fields. “She hath been a faithful
servant,” wrote Richard Saltonstall, executor of the estate, “and
though she was discharged by her mistress a little before her time was
out, yet it may be borne by the estate, considering her diligence.” Ann
had come over in the ship _Susan and Ellen_, which arrived in April,
1635. Her passage cost £5.
The Dillinghams occupied a good social position in the youthful
settlement but their two-room house did not contain any really fine
furniture. The parlor was also used as a bedroom, a practice which was
common everywhere in the seventeenth century. It had two bedsteads
valued at £1. 6. 8.; a cupboard, 10s.; a sea chest, 10s.; two “joyned
Chaires,” 5s.; a round table, 7s.; a deske, 4s.; and a band box, 2s.
There was also a large nest of boxes valued £2. and a small nest of
boxes worth only three shillings. The feather beds, boulsters, and
pillows on each bed were valued at about twice as much as a bedstead
and the coverlets averaged about £1. a piece. There were flaxen sheets
for Mrs. Dillingham’s bed and coarse sheets for the beds of the maid
and the indentured servant. A warming-pan bears silent testimony to
the cold of the winter season. Another bedstead valued at only three
shillings may have been in the garret and occupied by Ann Towle, the
maid. A chest stood in the kitchen--more generally spoken of at that
time as “the hall,” in accordance with the English usage--and two
boxes, probably used for storage and also for seats. That was all the
furniture listed in the kitchen that was considered of any value. The
tables, stools, benches, shelving, or other furnishings seemingly
necessary to housekeeping at that time either did not exist or were so
crude in construction as to have little or no value in estimating the
estate. We find five cushions, however, valued at fifteen shillings.
Mrs. Dillingham died possessed of a few really fine
furnishings--possibly treasured ancestral pieces--for she bequeathed a
silver bowl to the wife of Richard Saltonstall, and to the wife of John
Appleton she gave a silver porringer. It would be extremely interesting
today to know what has become of these two pieces of Colonial silver.
No other silver is mentioned but on shelving in the kitchen rested
40-1/2 pounds of pewter valued at £2. 14. 0. As a pewter plate of
the time weighs nearly two pounds and a platter much more the supply
of pewter for the table was not large. Wooden plates, trenchers, and
bowls are not mentioned, but there were twenty-five pewter saucers, six
porringers, seven spoons, and five shillings worth of knives. As for
table forks, they were practically unknown in the Colony at that time.
Governor Winthrop brought over a fork in 1630, carefully preserved in
a case, which is supposed to be the first and only table fork in the
Colony in the earliest days of the settlements. Knives, spoons, and
fingers, with plenty of napery, met the demands of table manners in the
seventeenth century.
The large fireplace in the kitchen had its usual equipment of pothooks,
fire shovel and tongs, gridiron, trivet, and bellows, and beside it
was an old dark lantern valued at only two shillings. There were iron
pots, kettles, skillets and ladles; a brass pot and a mortar. There
was a frying-pan with a hole in it and in a box were kept “bullets,
hinges and other smale things.” Two beer vessels were listed; a case
of bottles, two jugs, three pans, a tray, and two baskets. Such was
the simple equipment of the Dillingham kitchen. There were plenty of
table-cloths and napkins but no curtains at any of the windows. If a
broom were used it probably was made of birch twigs bound together
around a long handle. Candlesticks do not appear in the inventory and
the only store of food mentioned (aside from twenty-one new cheeses
valued at £2. 16. 0.) was seven bushels of rye, two firkins and a half
of butter, a half bushel of malt, six pounds of raisins, and some
spice. Our ancestors had a highly developed appreciation of the value
of condiments. In a Salem inventory at a somewhat later date appear
salt, pepper, ginger, cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmegs, and allspice.
Mrs. Dillingham’s wearing apparel unfortunately is not listed item by
item, but given a total value of £5. 8. 4. Her linen amounted to an
almost equal sum. Some of her deceased husband’s clothing is included
in the inventory, such as a coat with silver buttons, a red waistcoat,
a suit of serge and a black suit of serge unmade, a jacket of cloth,
and an old suit and cloak. Little Sara Dillingham, the orphaned child,
when sent to school to goodwife Symonds was supplied with “a stuffe
petticoat & waskote” and four “shifts with shewes”; also a gown that
cost £2. 10s. Perhaps after a time she may have been able to read and
fully appreciate the books formerly in her loving father’s chest.
They were:--“Perkins works in 3 volumes, Seaven Treatises bound in
2 volumes, the Spowse Royall, the bruised reade, & a little new
testiment.”
By way of contrast let us glance at the inventory of the possessions
of William Googe of Lynn, who died in 1646, ten years after Mrs.
Dillingham had willed that her body be “decently buyried” and her child
“religiously educated if God give it life.” Googe left a house and
twelve acres of land and the total value of his possessions amounted
to but £28. 11. 7, with debts of £4. 9. 7. He left a widow and three
small children, and though dying in very lowly circumstances he may
have known better times, for John Mascoll, the servant of Mr. Googe of
Lynn, was fined in 1643, for neglecting the watch. The title of honor,
“Mr.,” was used but sparingly in those early days and usually indicated
a degree of social standing in the community.
[Illustration: JOHN WARD HOUSE, SALEM
Built in 1684; showing overhanging second story, gable windows and
casement sash]
Googe had been a soldier, for among his personal belongings at death
were a sword and belt, a musket and bandoleers, and also gunpowder. One
cow and four hogs comprised his entire livestock, and five bushels of
wheat, ten bushels of Indian corn, and flax in the bundle lay in the
garret of his house, which was frugally furnished with a chest, a
chair, an old chair, a stool, and a trunk. The family probably slept
on pallet beds made up on the floor, for bedding is listed but no
bedsteads. They had a frying pan, a gridiron, a skillet, a posnet, an
earthen pot, six spoons, and the following wooden ware, viz: “3 wood
trayes & 3 wood boules & 3 wood dishes, 1s. 9d.; one runlitt, 1s.;
paieles & tubs, 3s.” Two bags valued at two shillings bring to a close
the list of the earthly possessions of William Googe of Lynn. When the
inventory was brought into court it very properly gave the goods to the
widow “for the bringing up of her three small children.” So reads the
record.
Doubtless there were many families in the Colony little better
conditioned, judging from the relatively small number of estates
settled through the courts when compared with the deaths and estimated
population.
Googe’s house and twelve acres of land were valued at only £8. This
must have been a very simple, thatch-roofed house of not more than two
rooms, comparable with the outlying farmhouse of Jacob Perkins that was
burned in Ipswich in 1668. And thereby hangs a tale. Master Perkins and
his wife had gone to town one summer afternoon leaving the house in
charge of Mehitable Brabrooke, a sixteen-year-old serving maid. We will
let the ancient document in the court files relate what happened.
“About 2 or 3 aclocke in the afternoone she was taking tobacco in a
pipe and went out of the house with her pipe and gott upon the oven on
the outside & backside of the house (to looke if there were any hogs in
the corne) and she layed her right hand upon the thatch of the house
(to stay herselfe) and with her left hand knocked out her pipe over
her right arme upon the thatch on the eaves of the house (not thinking
there had been any fire in the pipe) and imediately went downe into the
corne feild to drive out the hogs she saw in it, and as she was going
toward the railes of the feild ... she looked back, and saw a smoke
upon her Mistress’ house in the place where she had knocked out her
pipe at which shee was much frighted.”[13]
The wife of a neighbor came running to the assistance of Mehitable and
afterwards testified that when she reached the house she looked into
both fireplaces and saw no appearance of fire, only a few brands nearly
dead under a great kettle hanging in the chimney. She also looked up
into the chamber through the floor boards that lay very open on the
side where the smoke was.
Could photographs more vividly picture the scene? The thatch-roofed
farmhouse had two rooms on the ground floor and a chimney with two
fireplaces. An oven was built on the backside probably having an
opening inside the kitchen fireplace in the usual manner. The house was
of but one story judging from the low roof that the maid was able to
reach when standing on the oven, and the floor of the chamber in the
loft had wide cracks between the boards so that it was possible to look
through from below and see the under side of the roof. In similar homes
lived many a family in the early days in comparative comfort.
As for the careless Mehitable, she was brought before the Quarterly
Court on suspicion of wilfully setting the house on fire; a serious
offence, which as late as 1821, was the cause of the execution in Salem
of a sixteen-year-old boy. Among those who deposed at her trial was
a young man who said that as he and she were going into the meadow,
before the fire, to make hay, she told him that her mistress was angry
with her, but she had “fitted her now” for she had put a great toad
into her kettle of milk. As it turned out the Court ordered Mehitable
to be severely whipped and to pay £40 damages to her master Jacob
Perkins. It now seems incredible that a serving maid of 1668 could ever
get together so large a sum of money.
The settlers in the New England Colonies, unless persons of wealth or
possessed of large families, during the early years lived generally in
houses having but one room and an entry-way on the ground floor. Above
would be a chamber--sometimes only a garret. As the family increased
in size and became more prosperous another room would be added to the
house on the other side of the entry and chimney, making the structure
a so-called two-room house. Still later, with the need for more room, a
leanto would be built on the back of the house, thereby supplying three
additional rooms on the ground floor with a kitchen in the middle. The
earlier kitchen would then become a living-room or “sitting room”--in
the New England phrase. This earlier kitchen was usually called “the
hall” during the seventeenth century and in it centered the life of the
family. It was the room where the food was cooked and eaten. There the
family sat and there the indoor work was carried on. A loom sometimes
occupied considerable space near a window and frequently a bed was made
up in a corner, on which the father of the family slept, and there
sometimes also he died.
The principal feature of this common room was its huge fireplace in
which hung pots and kettles suspended by means of pot chains and
trammels from the hardwood trammel-bar or lug-pole that rested on
wooden cross bars and so bisected the wide flue in the chimney. These
large fireplaces in the early days were sometimes called “chimneys” in
the vernacular of the time. They were generally as wide as eight feet
and a ten foot opening is not unknown.
This cavernous opening was spanned by a wooden lintel--a stick of
timber sometimes sixteen inches or more square, and when exposed to a
roaring fire, piled high with logs, this became an element of danger,
the charring wood smoldering all night and setting fire to the house.
The trammel-bar in the flue also caught fire not infrequently and gave
way, allowing the pots and kettles to fall to the hearth, bringing
disaster to the dinner or to the curdling milk and sometimes to those
seated near. A trammel stick in the house of Captain Denney gave way
from this cause and a large kettle filled with wort[14] fell down and
spilt the boiling liquid over four of his children who were sitting
or lying on the hearth, some of them asleep, “which scalded them in so
terrible a manner, that one died presently after, and another’s life is
dispaired of” continues the record.
“Here is good living for those who love good fires,” wrote Higginson
in his “New-Englands Plantation,” and under the spell of the glowing
flames, the bare, whitewashed walls, the brown timbers and floor boards
of the ceiling, the dress of pewter, and the simple furnishings of the
room, enriched by the shadows, became a place full of cheer--a place
where privation and homesickness might be forgotten in the glow of the
bright firelight. On cold nights the short bench inside the fireplace
was a chosen place and the settle, a long seat made of boards with a
high back to keep off the draft, was drawn before the fire and here sat
the older members of the family.
The larger kettles hanging in the fireplace, were of brass and copper
and some of them were of prodigious size. Hot water was always to
be had and these kettles also served for the daily cooking, the
cheese-making, soap-boiling, and candle-dipping.
Much of the food of the average New Englander until comparatively
recent times consisted of corn-meal, boiled meats and vegetables and
stews. Every well-equipped household had its spits for roasting and
many had gridirons, but the usual diet of the average family was “hasty
pudding,”--cornmeal mush and milk--varied by boiled meat or fish served
in the center of a large pewter platter and surrounded by boiled
vegetables. Baked beans and stewed beans appeared on the table several
times every week in the year. Indian bannock, made by mixing corn meal
with water and spreading it an inch thick on a small board placed at an
incline before the fire and so baked, was a common form of bread. When
mixed with rye meal it became brown bread and was baked in the brick
oven with the beans and peas.
[Illustration: JOHN WARD HOUSE, SALEM
The Parlor]
The brick oven was a feature of every chimney. Sometimes in early
days it was built partly outside the house but so far as known the
opening was always in the kitchen fireplace. To reach it the housewife
must stoop below the oaken lintel and stand inside the fireplace,
taking care that her woolen skirts did not come near the flames. To
heat it for a baking, a fire was built inside, usually with specially
prepared pine or birch wood that had been split and seasoned out of
doors for a short time and then housed. The oven was hot enough when
the black was burned off the top and the inside had become a uniform
light color. The fire and ashes were then taken out by means of a
peel--a long-handled, flat-bladed shovel made for the purpose--and
when dusted out with a broom made of hemlock twigs it was ready for
the brown bread, beans, peas, Indian pudding, pies, and rye drop cakes
which were made with rye meal, eggs and milk and baked directly on the
bricks in the bottom of the oven. Potatoes and eggs were roasted in the
ashes of the fireplace.
Between the years of 1635 and 1655, court records and inventories of
estates in the Massachusetts Bay Colony mention the following articles
of food:
Bacon, beef, butter, cheese, eggs, fowls, lamb, milk, mutton, pork,
suet, veal, wild game, and cod, herring, mackerel, salmon and sturgeon.
Barley, beans, Indian beans, bran, cabbages, carrots, chaff, corn,
English corn, Indian corn, hops, Indian meal, rye meal, oatmeal, oats,
parsnips, pease, pumpions, rye, squashes, turnips and wheat.
Apples, berries, fruit, honey, raisins, sugar and vinegar.
Biscuit, blewlman, bread, cake, malt, salad oil, porridge, rye malt,
yeast, salt and many kinds of spices.
Much of this food was raised on the farm and nearly every family
had its garden. Such articles of food as were imported were usually
obtained at the shops in the larger towns by barter, as money was
scarce. In 1651, a farmer from the frontier town of Andover came
through the woods to Salem in his cart bringing twelve bushels of rye.
He stopped at a shop owned by George Corwin and from the daybook
kept at the time and still carefully preserved, we learn that among
other necessaries he carried home sugar for the goodwife and for the
children--a doll and a bird whistle.
In the early years domestic animals were too valuable to be killed for
meat but game was plentiful and was roasted by being trussed on iron
spits resting on curved brackets on the backs of the andirons. This,
of course, required constant turning to expose the roast on all sides
in order to cook it evenly--a task frequently delegated to a child. A
skillet would be placed beneath to catch the drippings. Sometimes a
bird was suspended before the fire by a twisted cord that would slowly
unwind and partly wind again, requiring some one in frequent attendance
to twist the cord. Families of wealth possessed a “jack” to turn the
spit. This was a mechanism fastened over the fireplace and connected
with the spit by means of a pulley and cord. A heavy weight suspended
by a cord which slowly unwound, supplied the power that turned the spit.
At night, on going to bed, the fire was carefully covered with ashes
in order to keep it for the next day. This was called “raking up the
fire.” If through poor judgment the fire didn’t keep some one would go
to a near neighbor to borrow coals, or if this was inconvenient, resort
was then had to the tinder box. Tinder was made by charring linen or
cotton rags and the tinder box was kept in the niche on the inside of
the fireplace, made by leaving out a couple of bricks.
In “the hall,” usually upon open shelves, but sometimes upon a dresser,
was displayed the pride of the housewife,--the dress of pewter and
lattin ware. “China dishes,” imported by the East India Company or made
in Holland, were used sparingly during the early years of the colonies.
There was much earthenware and stoneware bottles and jugs, but it was
woodenware and pewter that were commonly used. When Lionel Chute died
in 1645 he bequeathed his silver spoon to his son James.[15] It was
the only piece of silver in the house. Of pewter he died possessed of
fourteen dishes “small and great,” eleven pewter salts, saucers and
porringers, two pewter candlesticks and a pewter bottle. The widow
Rebecca Bacon who died in Salem in 1655, left an estate of £195.
8. 6., which included a well-furnished house. She had brass pots,
skillets, candlesticks, skimmers, a little brass pan, and an excellent
supply of pewter including “3 large pewter platters, 3 a size lesse,
3 more a size lesse, 3 more a size lesse,” having a total value of
£1. 16. She also had a pewter basin, six large pewter plates, and six
lesser, nineteen pewter saucers, two fruit dishes, an old basin and
a great plate, two candlesticks, one large salt and a small one, two
porringers, a great flagon, one lesser, one quart, two pints and a
half pint; and an old porringer. She also left “1 silver duble salt, 6
silver spoones, wine cup & a dram cup of silver.”
Giles Badger of Newbury left to his young widow, a glass bowl, beaker,
and jug valued at three shillings; three silver spoons valued at £1,
and a good assortment of pewter, including “a salt seller, a tunell
and a great dowruff.” The household was also furnished with six wooden
dishes and two wooden platters. In other inventories appear unusual
items such as a pewter brim basin, pewter cullenders, pewter beer cups,
pans, and mustard pots. Pewter tankards were common. There were new and
old fashioned candlesticks. Pewter salts came in three sizes and the
saucers were both small and large. In 1693, best London pewter plates
cost the Boston shopkeepers 9-1/2 pence per pound in quantity.
The seventeenth century “hall” must have had little spare room for its
daily occupants, for in addition to its table and chairs, its settle,
stools and wash bench, the long ago inventories disclose such chattels
as powdering tubs in which the salted meats were kept, the churn,
barrels containing a great variety of things, keelers and buckets,
bucking tubs for washing, and the various implements used in spinning
and weaving, washing and ironing, cooking and brewing, and the making
of butter and cheese. In the chimney hung hams and bacon and suspended
from the ceiling were strings of dried apples and hands of seed corn.
It is claimed by some that the floors were sanded. That certainly was
true at a later period but there are strong elements of doubt as to
the prevalence of this custom during the seventeenth century. Sand,
however, was used freely with home-made soft soap, to scrub the floors
which were always kept white and clean, and whenever an early house is
restored or taken down sand is always found, sometimes in considerable
quantity, where it has sifted down through the cracks between the floor
boards. The downstairs rooms had double floors but the chamber floors
were made of one thickness of boards with here and there a knothole and
frequently with cracks between the boards through which the dust and
dirt from above must have sifted down upon the heads of those seated
at dinner or engaged in their daily tasks in the rooms below. Not
only does the structural evidence show this to be true but a number
of instances occur among the papers in Court files, where witnesses
have deposed as to what they had seen and heard through the cracks in
chamber floors. A grandson of Governor Endecott once fell a victim of
two gossiping sixteen-year old girls who had spent some time on their
knees peeping through the cracks in a chamber floor. Capt. Richard
More, the last survivor of the company on the “Mayflower,” late in life
kept a tavern in Salem. He was spied upon in this manner and eventually
brought before the justices of the Quarterly Court to answer for his
evasion of the law set forth and maintained at that time.
[Illustration: JOHN WARD HOUSE, SALEM
The kitchen showing roasting jack, settle, birch broom, hands of seed
corn, etc.]
The parlor, called “the foreroom” at a later time, was the room where
guests of station were received. The best bed hung with curtains and
valance and covered with a rug, stood in a corner. In those days rugs
were not used on floors but as bed furnishings. Even the baby’s
cradle had its rug. Carpets, likewise, were too fine for wooden
floors and were used as table covers. Of bedsteads there were many
kinds,--high and low, canopy, close, corded, half-headed, joined, side,
standing, inlaid, and wainscott, and slipped under the higher bedsteads
during the daytime, were trundle or “truckle” beds in which the
children slept at night. Lionel Chute, the schoolmaster, had an “old
darnkell coverlet” on his bed while some of his neighbors possessed
branched and embroidered coverlets and several had coverlets made of
tapestry.
Among the better families the parlor and chamber windows had curtains
hung from rods. In the parlor stood one or more chests in which were
stored the family clothing and bedding, for closets did not exist
in the seventeenth century house. There were great chests and small
chests, long boarded and great boarded chests, chests with a drawer,
carved chests, wainscot chests, trunks, and boxes. A few stools
and chairs, a looking glass, a small table, and perhaps a cupboard
completed the furnishings of the well-supplied parlor. In Capt. George
Corwin’s best room there were chairs with leather bottoms and straw
bottoms, a clock valued at £2, a screen having five leaves, a napkin
press, and a “Scriture or Spice box.” White calico curtains hung at his
chamber windows and the maid had a “Calico Cuberd cloth” in her room.
Parlor walls were whitewashed and bare of ornament. The first families
owned a portrait or two in oils and here and there a map in unglazed
frame decorated a wall. The Puritan character did not warm to the fine
arts and austere living was the aim if not always the achievement of
the time.
The chambers in the second story must have been curiously furnished
rooms, containing a huddle of stores of all descriptions. Henry Short,
the town clerk of Newbury, died in 1673 leaving a goodly estate valued
at nearly £2000.[16] He owned a negro slave and his house was large and
well furnished. There was an old parlor and a new parlor containing
beds, chests, chairs, trunks, and boxes. In the chamber over the new
parlor there was a good feather-bed and bed clothing but no bedstead.
Wool and yarn were stored in this room together with boxes, tubs, some
feathers, and miscellaneous “lumber”--the phrase of the period for odds
and ends. The chamber over the kitchen, a comfortable room of course,
in winter, had its bed and bedding, also “5 hogsheds, 6 barrels, 5 Iron
hoopes, a pair of stock-cards, meale trough & other lumber, a parcell
of old Iron, a pike, a bed cord & other cordage.” Small wonder in such
a clutter that the rooms frequently had other tenantry than the human
occupants.
When Jasper Dankers arrived in Boston in 1680, the captain of the
packet took him to his sister’s house where he lodged. “We were taken
to a fine large chamber,” he writes, “but we were hardly in bed before
we were shockingly bitten. I did not know the cause, but was not able
to sleep.... My comrade who was very sleepy, fell asleep at first. He
tumbled about very much; but I did not sleep any the whole night. In
the morning we saw how it was, and were astonished we should find such
a room with such a lady.”[17]
With the present wide-spread belief in Puritan austerity of character,
there is associated a conception of a simplicity of dress and manners.
But the channels of information by which present day beliefs have
been shaped usually have been ecclesiastical, and bias and convenient
forgetfulness have been factors in outlining the composition of the
picture. Human nature and human frailities were much the same in the
seventeenth century as at the present time. In point of fact, our
New England ancestors when viewed as a body, are found to have had
standards of living far below those of today. The common speech was
gross in the extreme. Crowded living led to familiarity. There was more
drunkenness, profanity, loose living and petty crime in proportion
to the population than at the present time, and by no means did every
one go to meeting on Sunday. The ministers controlled the lawmaking
body and sumptuary laws were enacted which are enlightening. Because
of “newe and immodest fashions” the wearing of silver, gold and silk
laces, girdles and hat bands was prohibited. It was the fashion at
that time to slash the sleeves so that a fabric of another color worn
beneath would show in an ornamental manner through the slash. The
ministers decreed that neither man nor woman should wear clothing with
more than one slash on each sleeve and another on the back. “Cuttworks,
inbroidered or needle worke capps, bands & rayles,” were forbidden.[18]
Ruffs and beaver hats were prohibited, as was long hair. Binding or
small edging laces might be used, but the making or selling of bone
lace was penalized at the rate of five shillings per yard.
But this didn’t change human nature and although from time to time
offenders were taken into court and punished, the wearing of fine
clothing fashioned after the London mode continued and a few years
later the ministers tried their hand again. Any kind of lace was
anathema and “no garment shalbee made with short sleeves, whereby the
nakedness of the arme may bee discovered.” On the other hand, large
sleeves were forbidden, so the maids and goodwives of the time must
have been somewhat at a loss to know how lawfully to fashion their
clothes.
The minister at Ipswich grew so ill-tempered over the ungodly state of
the women in his town that he vented his spleen as follows:--“When I
hear a nugiperous Gentledame inquire what dress the Queen is in this
week, what the nudius tertian of the Court, I look at her as the very
gizzard of a trifle, the product of a quarter of a cypher, the epitome
of nothing, fitter to be kickt, if she were of a kickable substance
than either honoured or humoured.”[19]
The minister in the adjoining town, Rowley, actually cut off his nephew
from his inheritance because he wore his hair long in the prevailing
fashion. Later in the century the offense of wearing long hair was
forgotten in the unspeakable sin of wearing wigs. The Great and General
Court again took a hand and in 1675 condemned “the practise of men’s
wearing their own or other’s hair made into periwigs.” Judge Sewall in
his _Diary_ alludes to the custom. In 1685 three persons were admitted
to the Old South Church in Boston. “Two wore periwigs,” comments the
Judge.
“1708, Aug. 20, Mr. Chievar died. The Wellfare of the Province was much
upon his Spirit. He abominated Periwigs.”[20]
The Great and General Court at one time ordered that no person should
smoke tobacco in public under a penalty of two shillings and six pence,
nor in his own house with a relative or friend. But everybody smoked
who wanted to, even the maids, and the repressive legislation in time
met the usual fate of similar efforts to restrain individual liberty
and manners.
It is sweet to fancy Priscilla at her spinning wheel wearing the coif
and nun-like garb of the Puritan maiden of the poet and the artist.
But the inventories of estates in the early years of the Colony, as
well as at a later time, furnish evidence of a different character. The
variety of fabrics listed is amazing and holds its own with the modern
department store. There are most of the well-known fabrics of today,
such as calico, cambric, challis, flannel, lawn, linen, plush, serge,
silk, velvet, and many others; and there are also names that sound
strangely in modern ears, viz: cheney, darnex, dowlas, genting, inckle,
lockrum, ossembrike, pennistone, perpetuana, sempiternum, stammell, and
water paragon.
[Illustration: JOHN WARD HOUSE, SALEM
Corner of the kitchen showing dresser with its “dress of pewter,” wash
bench, meal chest, wooden ware, etc.]
As for dress,--the women wore bonnets, caps, silk hoods, coifs,
forehead cloths, ruffs, and whisks. Gowns, cloaks, mantles, and
muffs are mentioned frequently; as are many kinds of lace and even
fans and veils. Shawls and scarfs were not unknown and there were
gold, silver, and enamelled rings. At least one woman possessed a
mask, and stomachers were not uncommon. Tortoise shell combs appear;
all well-to-do persons wore gloves, and as for shoes--there were shoes
with French heels, fall shoes, and those with silver buckles. Even
shoe-strings appear in the inventories. There were silver, pewter, and
steel buttons and those of gympe, thread, and silk.
Laboring men wore leather and coarse fabrics and for others there were
suits, doublets, waistcoats and breeches. Trousers are mentioned;
also a cane and periwigs. Of caps and hats there were a number of
kinds--felt, castor, demi-castor, and even straw. Capt. George Corwin,
a Salem merchant, owned a cloth coat trimmed with silver lace, a
velvet coat, a tabby doublet, an old fashioned Dutch satin doublet,
four cloaks of various kinds, two pairs of golden topped gloves, one
embroidered pair, and a pair with black fringe. He also took his walks
abroad wearing silk stockings, with a hat encircled by a silver band
and carrying a silver headed cane or a plate hilt rapier, according to
fashion. He possessed two silver watches. Who shall say that the men
and women of the New England colonies did not dress well and live well
in the early days according to their means?
What was their conduct not only in their homes but in their relations
with their neighbors? Did they live peaceably and work together in
building up the settlements? Did they set up in the wilderness domestic
relations exactly like those they had abandoned over-seas? It was a
raw frontier country to which they came and it is apparent that at
the outset they felt themselves to be transplanted Englishmen. So far
as possible they lived the lives to which they had been accustomed
and they engrafted in their new homes the manners and customs of the
generations behind them. Most of them fully recognized, however, that
they were not to return; that they had cut loose from the old home
ties and it was not long before the necessities and limitations of
frontier life brought about changed conditions in every direction.
Politically, religiously and socially, they were in a different
relation than formerly in the English parish life. Many of them,
especially those somewhat removed from the immediate supervision of
magistrate and minister, before long seem to have shown a tendency to
follow the natural bent of the frontiersman toward independent thought
and action. Their political leaders made laws restricting daily life
and action and their religious leaders laid down rules for belief and
conduct, that soon were repellent to many. Civil and clerical records
are filled with instances showing an evasion of and even contempt for
the laws and rules laid down by the leaders of their own choosing.
Some of it doubtless was in the blood of the men who had come in
search of a certain individual freedom of action, but much of it may
be attributed to frontier conditions and primitive living. There
were many indentured servants, and rough fishermen and sailors have
always been unruly. Simple houses of but few rooms accommodating large
families are not conducive to gentle speech or modesty of manner nor to
a strict morality. The craving for land holding and the poorly defined
and easily removed bounds naturally led to ill feeling, assault,
defamation, and slander.
It has been stated frequently that in the olden times in New England
every one was obliged to go to church. The size of the meeting houses,
the isolated locations of many of the houses, the necessary care of the
numerous young children, and the interesting side-lights on the manners
of the time which may be found in the court papers, all go to show
that the statement must not be taken literally. Absence from meeting,
breaking the Sabbath, carrying a burden on the Lord’s Day, condemning
the church, condemning the ministry, scandalous falling out on the
Lord’s Day, slandering the church, and other misdemeanors of a similar
character were frequent.
A curious instance of Sabbath breaking occurred at Hampton, N. H. in
1646. Aquila Chase and his wife and David Wheeler were presented at
court for gathering pease on the Sabbath. They were admonished. The
family tradition has it that Aquila returned from sea that morning and
his wife wishing to supply a delicacy for dinner, fell into grave error
in thus pandering to his unsanctified appetite.
At the Feb. 29, 1648 session of the court held in Salem, eight cases
were tried. A Gloucester man was fined for cursing, saying “There are
the brethern; the devil scald them.” Four servants were fined for
breaking the Sabbath by hunting and killing a raccoon in the time of
the public exercise to the disturbance of the congregation. If the
animal had taken to the deep woods instead of staying near the meeting
house the servants might have had their fun without paying for it. Then
came a Marblehead case--a man who had sailed his boat into the harbor
loaded with hay that he had brought from Gloucester. This was on the
Lord’s Day at the time when people were going to the morning exercises.
He, too, was fined. Nicholas Pinion, who worked at the Saugus Iron
Works, was presented for absence from meeting four Lord’s Days
together, “spending his time drinking and prophanely,” and Nicholas
Russell of the same locality was fined for spending a great part of one
Lord’s Day with Pinion in drinking strong water and cursing Pinion’s
wife thereby causing jealousy in the family; and the woman in question
having broken her bond for good behavior, was ordered to be severely
whipped. The other cases were for swearing, in which the above named
lady was included; for being disguised in drink; and for living from
his wife. And so the court ended.
Drunkenness was very common in the old days. Every family kept on hand
a supply of liquor and wine, and cider was considered a necessity of
daily living in the country, where it was served with each meal and
also carried into the fields by the workers. It was stored in barrels
in the cellar and the task of drawing the cider and putting it on the
table usually fell to the younger members of the family. A man would
often provide in his will for the comfort of his loving wife by setting
aside for occupancy during her life, one half of his house, with a
carefully specified number of bushels of rye, potatoes, turnips and
other vegetables; the use of a horse with which to ride to meeting or
elsewhere; and lastly, the direction that annually she be provided with
a certain number of barrels of cider,--sometimes as many as eight.
Rev. Edward Holyoke, the President of Harvard College, was in the
habit of laying in each year thirty or more barrels of cider as he had
to provide for much entertaining. Late in the winter he would draw
off part of his stock and into each barrel he would pour a bottle of
spirit and a month later some of this blend would be bottled for use on
special occasions.
[Illustration: WELLCURB AT THE JOHN WARD HOUSE
Showing wellsweep, wooden bucket and girl dressed in the costume of the
late 17th century]
As an example of life and manners in seventeenth century New England,
the ministerial experiences of Topsfield may be cited. It is an inland
town near Ipswich and was settled in 1639. The first minister was the
Rev. William Perkins who had been a selectman and representative at
Weymouth and a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company
in Boston. Later he preached at Gloucester where one of his flock was
presented at court for unbecoming speeches against Mr. Perkins, saying
“if it were not for the law, shee would never come to the meeting,
the teacher was so dead ... affirming that the teacher was fitter to
be a ladys chamberman than to be in the pulpit.”[21] He removed to
Topsfield in 1656 and before long was collecting his salary through
the courts. Some of his flock retaliated and brought him into court
for drunkenness, when it appeared that he had stopped at the Malden
ordinary and called for a cup of sack but goody Hill told him that he
had had too much already and Master Perkins replied “if you think I am
drunk let me see if I can not goe” and he went tottering about the
kitchen and said the house was so full of potts and kettles that he
could hardly go.
In 1663 a meeting house was built in Topsfield, and the Rev. Thomas
Gilbert, a Scotchman, supplanted Mr. Perkins. The new minister also had
a love for good wine and after a time Mr. Perkins entered a complaint
and it appears from the records that one sacrament day Mr. Gilbert
entertained at dinner a number of the older men and women whose homes
were distant from the meeting house. He possessed a golden cup and what
was left of the sacramental wine was drunk at dinner, the cup being
passed around the table at least twice, the minister drinking deeply
with the not unusual result, for he forgot to give thanks and sang a
psalm with lisping utterance. Mr. Gilbert was followed in his pastorate
by the Rev. Jeremiah Hobart, a Harvard graduate, who, during his eight
years stay in Topsfield, became a familiar figure in the courts because
of suits for non-payment of salary, for cursing and swearing, and for a
damaging complaint for slander exhibiting much discreditable testimony.
Then came the Rev. Joseph Capen and during his pastorate of over forty
years the town and church enjoyed a peaceful growth interrupted only by
the witchcraft delusion of 1692 in which an attempt to appropriate land
of Topsfield men played an important part.
But manners and crimes vary with the centuries as do dress and speech.
In the year 1655, the following crimes were penalized in the courts of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony: eavesdropping, meddling, neglecting work,
naughty speech, profane dancing, kissing, making love without consent
of friends, uncharitableness to a poor man in distress, carelessness
about fire, wearing great boots, etc., and a few years later we find
other strange misdemeanors, such as abusing a mother-in-law, wicked
speeches against a son-in-law, kicking another in the street, leaving
children alone in the house, pulling hair, riding behind two fellows
at night (this was a girl, Lydia by name), sleeping in meeting and
dissenting from the rest of the jury.
With such minute supervision of the daily life of the colonists it can
readily be appreciated that it was an age for gossiping, meddlesome
interference with individual life and liberty and that in the course of
time nearly every one came before the courts as complainant, defendant
or witness. There were few amusements or intellectual diversions and
they could only dwell on the gossip and small doings of their immediate
surroundings. But all the while there was underlying respect for law,
religion and the rights of others. The fundamental principles of human
life were much the same as at the present day, and men and women lived
together then as now and as they always will--with respect and love.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
AN ACCOUNT OF SUPPLIES FURNISHED BY
THE COMPANY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY
TO REV. SAMUEL SKELTON, THE
MINISTER AT SALEM.
The following account of food, fabrics, household supplies and
equipment furnished by the Company of the Massachusetts Bay to Rev.
Samuel Skelton, the first minister at Salem, is of much economic
interest. The emigrants sailed from London about the middle of April,
1629 and reached the harbor of Naumkeak (now Salem) on June 30th. Mr.
Skelton died Aug. 2, 1634 and this accounting may have been made up
after his death. It begins in 1629 at the time of the departure from
England and covers an indeterminate period. The increase of livestock
over a period of _five years_ is described and this seems to indicate
the period of residence at Salem until his death.
It is enlightening to find that the Massachusetts Bay Company seems to
have maintained a company shop at which supplies of all kinds might be
obtained; and it is a matter for comment that the minister’s family
was supplied during the voyage and in the early days following the
settlement, with such luxuries as powdered sugar, salad oil, castile
soap and almonds, not to mention, also, a variety of spices, such as
pepper, cloves, mace, and nutmegs.
The original of this document may be seen in the Suffolk County Court
Files, Volume I.
Other interesting lists of all kinds of materials sent over by
the Company, may be found in the Company records printed by the
Commonwealth in 1853 (Vol. I, pp. 23-37) and also by the American
Antiquarian Society (Transactions, Vol. III, pp. 5-30e).
Coppie of An Accompte of monies M^r Skelton is Creditor viz.
li. s. d.
An^o 1629 Imprimis p so much w^{ch} should }
haue bene paid him in England } 20-00-00
towards fitting him for y^e voy^{adg} }
Item for Charges att Tillbury, Cowes,
& Plimoth, being wind bound 02-10-00
Item p Twenty ^{li} p Annum for 3
years is y^e some of 60-00-00
Item for on bushell of wheat flowe^r 00-15-00
Ite. for one bushell of oatmeale 00-10-00
Ite. for one holland & 2 ordenary
Cheess 00-10-00
Ite. for xx^{li} of powder sugar att 01-03-09
Ite. for one Loafe Cont 7^{li} att 1^s 6^d 00-10-06
Ite. for one sugar Loafe Cont 5^{li} att
1^s 7^d p li. 00-07-11
Ite. 6^{li} of pepper 00-12-00
Ite. Nutmeggs 4 oz 00-01-08
Ite. one oz. of Clovs, & one oz. of mace 00-02-00
Ite. iij^{li} of starch 00-01-03
Ite. xij^{li} of Rice 00-06-00
Ite. vj^{li} of Vntryed suett 00-03-00
Ite. one gall of aquavite 00-03-08
Ite. for one flitch of Bacon 00-14-00
Ite. Castle soape ix^{li} att 8^d p li 00-06-00
Ite. frute viz Rasons Corrants &
pruens 00-14-00
Ite. Safron ij oz 00-05-00
Ite. five qu of stronge water 00-08-00
Ite. Almonds ij^{li} at 1^s 2^d 00-02-04
Ite. xv^{li} of tryed suett at 8^d p. li 00-10-00
Ite. one gall of Sallert oyle 00-06-00
Ite. vj^{li} of Candles 00-03-00
Ite. v geese & ix ducks 00-08-00
An^o 1630 Ite. xij^{li} of Butter att 00-08-00
Ite. vj potts of Butter Cont. vij^{li} p pott 01-08-00
Ite. ij Cheeses about x li a pc 00-11-08
Ite. half a firkin of butter of M^r Gibbs 00-17-06
Ite. one Third p^rt of a barrell of w^t
biskett 00-10-00
Ite. one pott of honey vij^{li} wa^t att 00-07-10
Ite. one pott of butte^r att 00-03-00
Ite. x^{li} of Corrants att 00-05-00
Ite. [ ] Bacon 00-10-00
Ite. one doz of Candles 00-08-00
Ite. ij Cheeses att vj^d p li 00-11-03
Ite. iij Cheeses att vij p. li 00-17-09
Ite. one porkett 01-05-00
Ite. xij^{li} of tryed suett 00-08-00
Ite. vj gees & xij ducks 00-14-00
Ite. vj po: of powder suger about 20^d 00-10-00
Ite. v po: of powder suger 18^d 00-07-06
Ite. x^{li} of Loaf suger 01-00-00
Ite. Cloves & mace 00-01-00
Ite. ij oz of Nutmeggs j^s & Sinam^o 16^d 00-02-04
Ite. workmens wadges for Cutting
& bringing home wood against
winter about 03-00-00
---------
Suma to^{lis} 105-18-11
Item ⅌ so much p^d M^r Pearce[22]
for provisions of meale, pease,
Canvas, Carsey & etcr w^{th} 3^{li}
5^s 9^d after 25^{li} ⅌ Cent. & freight.
I say p^d the some of 12-15-01
Ite. for 3 quarts of aquavite 00-03-09
Ite. for x^{li} of Rice att 5d 00-04-02
Ite. 10^{li} of Butt[er] att 00-06-08
Ite. 4 Chees[es] att 01-03-04
Ite. 10 peeces of pork 00-11-08
Ite. more 20^{li} of Butter 00-10-00
Ite. more 4 bushells Virginia Corne 02-00-00
Ite. soape 7^s & vinege^r 4 gall^o 8^s &
1 g^l 2^s 00-17-00
Ite. 2 pecke of w^t salte att 00:03:00
---------
Sumis 18-14-08
And on the other syde the totall some of 105-18-11
---------
Suma to ^{lis} 124-13-07
Now ye Increase
The first yeare next after the receipte of the 2 heiffers, both the
Calues miscaried, one about a quarter ould dyed, the other neare upon a
yeare ould lost by the woolves.
The second yeare there was a heiffer Calfe and a bull Calfe, w^{ch}
heiffer is now in my hands And the Bull Calfe M^r Skelton sould att one
ye^r and three quarters ould for eight pounds.
The Therd yeare was which the beginning of winter weare
both eaten with the woolves. Now since the three foresaid years, the
next yeare after was Twoe bull Calvs, and an heiffer Calfe, the springe
before M^r Skeltons death.
And This yeare since was Three bull Calues Twoe wherof are dead the one
when it was about Twenty & twoe weeks ould, the other since winter did
begin. Now for the keeping of the Catle w^{ch} should haue beene att
the Companyes Chardge, hath wholly lyen vpon vs.
M^r Skeltons account w^{th} the Companie
M^r Skelton is D pr viz
li. s. d
⅌ 14 yards of Dutch serge Rec^d att 02-05-09
It. 17 yards of ffustian att 01-07-00
It. 11 yards of w^t English ieans 00-13-09
It. 12 yards of Red p petuana 01-16-00
It. 12 yards of Greene say 01-13-00
It. 12 yards of yellow say 01-13-00
It 12 elns of lin [torn] men 00-14-00
It. 14 elns Nouess [torn] llain 01-17-04
It. 20 elns o[f loc] krum 01-05-10
It. 20 elns stript [linsey] woolsye 01-09-04
It. [ ] yards [torn] buckrum 00-05-03
It. one peece of Noridg serg 00-15-00
It. 20 elns of Lockerum 01-05-10
It. 15 yards of w^t fflannell 00-15-00
It. 20 elns of Course Canvas 01-04 [torn]
It. one pound of whalbone 0 [torn]
---------
20-11-00
Item ⅌ so much p^d ⅌ M^r Renell
p^rt of M^r Pearce his bill, the some of 08-00-00
Item ⅌ 9^{li} of Iron att 3^d is 00-02-03
It. ⅌ one syth 00-03-00
It. ⅌ one fishing line 00-03-00
It. ⅌ 30 pound ocum 00-07-06
It. ⅌ 2000 Nails 6^d p C. 00-10-00
It. ⅌ 600 Nails 10^d p C. 00-05-05
It. ⅌ 1 Reame of paper 00-10-00
Item, borrowed of Cp. Endicot of
y^e Comp. 7 yrds of bays att 2^s 6^d
⅌ y^d is 00-17-06
halfe a elne of ffustian att 00-00-10
It. 2 yards & half of yellow Carsey
3^s 4^d 00-08-04
---------
Suma To^{lis} St. 031-19-05
Ite. 2 gall of Metheglen 00-08-00
It. one Lethe^r Jack 00-01-06
It. two Tubbs }
It. one wooden hand boule }
Ite. vinegar } 00-03-06
It. 3 peuter botle^s quarts }
It. one pinte peute^r botle 00-00-10
Ite. one hatt 00-10-00
---------
33-03-03
rec of M^r Winthrop Govern^r
Ite. 3 y^rds of Cambrick
6 y^rds & a h: of Loomeworke
2 Drinking hornes
8 p^r of shoes for men
6 p^r of gray stockings for men
6 p^r of stockings for women
6 p^r of stockings for children
10 y^rds of Carsey
Thred
2000 of pinnes
6 Alls
one webb of blew gartering
2 knots of Tape
[Illustration]
AN INVOICE OF ENGLISH GOODS SHIPPED TO
NEW ENGLAND ABOUT 1690.
In July, 1694, suit was brought in the Court at Boston, by John Caxy
of London, England, against Joseph Mallenson of Boston, to whom the
London merchant had consigned various goods for the Boston market, the
shipment consisted of a great variety of clothing, fabrics, hardwear,
implements, kitchen utensils and pewter. Mallenson not having remitted
for the goods, suit was bought and a copy of the invoice was presented
at court and is still preserved among the Massachusetts State Archives.
This document throws considerable light on the furnishings of the
colonial home at that time and the prevailing scale of prices.
Invoice and Contents of Sundry Goods Laden on Board the good ship
called the Friendship Capt. John Ware Comand^r bound from this Port
of London for Boston in New England and goes consigned to M^r Joseph
Mallenson for the proper Accompt & Risque of John Caxy.
One Large Fatt q^t Felt & Castor hatts as viz^t N^o. 1.
N^o. 1 3 doz: Boyes Felts Edged & Lin’d
at 14/p doz: £2.02.0
2 3 doz: ditto at 16 p doz: 2.08.0
3 3 doz: ditto at 18 p doz: 2.14.0
4 3 doz: ditto at 20/ p doz: 3.00.0
5 4 doz: Mens felts at 34^s 6.16.0
6 10 doz: ditto at 40^s p doz: 20.00.0
7 3 doz: ditto at 48^s p doz: 7.04.0
8 3 doz: Mens Carrolinas at 8/6 p ps 15.06.0
1 4 doz: Mens Castors at 5/6 13.04.0
2 3 doz: ditto at 6/6 11.14.0
3 2 doz: ditto at 7/9 9.06.0
4 2 doz: ditto at 9/ 10.16.0
5 1 doz: ditto at 11/ 6.12.0
6 doz: Rubers at 15^d p doz: 0.07.6
6 doz: ditto at 2/6 p doz: 15.00.0
a Large Fatt Cost 12^s 12.00.0
----------
£112.16.6
One Small Case haire Powder, & Wash Balls No 1.
4 doz & halfe of Sweet haire Powder at 8^d doz: 1.16.0
3 li of best Damask Powder at 3/ p li 0.09.0
7 gross Wash Balls at 8^d p g^s 2.16.0
a Case cost 2^s 0.02.0
-------
5.03.6
Two hh^{ds} Turnerie Ware N^o 1 & 2 as viz^t & 7 bundles of
Steel Shoe Shovells & Spads N^o 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
3 Pottle Tun Canns at 3.09.00
2 doz: Fine pint Tun Canns at 18.00.00
6 quart Tunn Canns at 06.00
3 Three pint Tunn Canns at 04.00
4 Snap Mouse Traps 01.00
4 Double fall Mouse Traps at 02.02
2 Single fall Mouse Traps at 01.04
2 Large Single fall Mouse Traps at 01.06
4 Wooden Ratt Traps with Springs at 05.00
1 doz: Punch Strainers Sett up 02.09
9 doz: 6 best Maple Treachers at 30/ p doz: 1.06.11
1 doz: Milk Trayes at 11.00
3 doz: Platters at 6/ 18.00
3 doz: hand Boles at 3/6 10.06
1 doz: Porridge Dishes at 11.04
2 doz: handle Boles at 8/p doz: 16.00
2 doz: Carved Spoons at 6^d p doz: 01.00
6 doz: Beer Tapps at 3^d p doz: 01.06
5 gs 2 doz: plaine Spoons at 2/6 p gro. 12.11
1 gs Course haire Cottons kom’d at 2/9 1.13.00
1 gs Midle hayre cottons kom’d at 3/3 1.19.00
6 doz: Large haire Strainers at 2/ p doz 12.00
3 doz: Small haire ditto at 18^d p doz 04.06
2 doz: Midle Bellows at 18/ p doz 1.16.00
1 doz: 6. Small ditto at 16/ p doz 1.04.00
1 doz: Sucking Bottles at 2^s 12.00
1 doz: Large Ladles at 1^s8 01.08
1 doz: Small ditto 01.00
12 doz: Steel Shod Shovells & Spads at 16/ 9.12.00
2 hh^{ds} Cost 7^s each 14.00
--------
25.03.10
One Case Lookeing Glasses N^o 3 as
N^o 1 6 Dressing Glasses 10 Inches in Sight at 5/ ps. 1.10.0
2 6 ditto at 6^s ps 11 Inches in Sight 1.16.0
3 6 ditto at 7^s ps 12 Inches in Sight 2.02.0
4 3 Glasses in Large Frames at 15/ ps 12 Inches 2.05.0
5 3 ditto at 18^s ps 14 Inches in Sight 2.14.0
6 2 ditto at 22^s ps 16 Inches in Sight 2.04.0
7 2 ditto at 28^s ps 18 Inches in Sight 2.16.0
8 2 ditto at 35^zs ps 20 Inches 3.10.0
A Case Cost 5^s 05.0
-------
19.02.0
One Case N^o 2 q^t as viz^t
N^o 1 2 Perriwiggs at 18^s p ps 1.16.0
2 2 ditto at 2^s 2.00.0
3 1 ditto at 25^s 1.05.0
4 1 ditto at 30^s 1.10.0
-------
6.11.0
N^o 1 2 doz: Child, woll hose at 5^s p doz: 10.0
2 2 doz: ditto at 6/8 13.4
3 1 doz: ditto at 8/ 08.0
4 1 doz: ditto at 10/ 10.0
5 2 doz: Womens Woll ditto at 9/6 19.0
6 2 doz: ditto at 10/6 1.01.0
7 1 doz ditto at 11/6 11.6
8 1 doz ditto at 13/6 13.6
9 1 doz ditto Mens Wool at 13/ 13.0
10 2 doz ditto at 15/6 1.11.0
11 2 doz ditto at 18/ 1.16.0
12 1 doz ditto at 20/ 1.00.0
13 1 doz ditto black at 22/ 1.02.0
14 1 doz Womens Worst ditto at 29/ 1.09.0
15 1 doz Mens Short Worst Mixt at 36/ 1.16.0
16 1 doz ditto at 38/ 1.18.0
17 1 doz ditto at 43/ 2.03.0
18 1 doz ditto black at 40/ 2.00.0
19 1 doz Mens Mixt Role at 45/ 2.05.0
20 1 doz ditto at 52/ p doz 2.12.0
21 1 doz ditto bla: & blew at 52^s 2.12.0
1 Case Cost w^{th} Cords 2/ 02.0
--------
28.05.4
Thirty One Quoiles of Cordage Con^t as vix^d
N^o. 1 3 Inch 1/4 qt 3.02.09
2 1 ditto 4 Inches 4.01.00
3 1 ditto 5 Inches 6.01.06
4 1 ditto 5-3/4 Inches 8.02.02
5 1 ditto 6 9.01.25
6 1 Quoile 3 2.03.25
7 1 Quoile 2-3/4 2.02.08
8 1 Quoile 2-1/4 1.03.13
9 1 Quoile 2-1/2 2.00.10
10 1 Quoile 2-1/2 2.00.12
11 1 Quoile 2-1/4 1.03.23
12 1 ditto 2-1/2 2.00.17
13 1 ditto 2-3/4 2.02.04
14 1 ditto 3 Inches 3.01.02
15 2 ditto 2 2.00.25
16 2 ditto 2 2.00.12
17 2 ditto 2 2.00.21
18 2 ditto 2 2.00.13
19 2 ditto 1 Inch 1/2 1.02.24
20 2 ditto 1-1/2 1.01.13
21 3 ditto 1-1/4 1.03.20
22 2 ditto 1-3/4 1.03.11
23 3 Quoiles 1-1/4 1.02.27
1 Cable 8 Inches 3/4 19.00.14
2 5-1/2 7.02.26
1 ditto 4-1/2 5.01.22
1 ditto 4-3/2 5.03.07
1 Quoile 2-3/4 2.01.11
1 Quoile 2-3/4 2.01.11
1 Quoile 2-1/4 1.01.08
For a Lyghter to carry it on board 15.00
One hh^d N^o 4 q^t wro^t Brass & wro^t Iron worke as viz^d
12 brass Kettles q^t 1 C. O.4^{li} at 15^d p li 7.05.0
2 pr of 8 Square Monument Candlesticks 15.0
2 pr ditto at 6^s 12.0
2 pr ditto at 5^s 10.0
2 pr ditto at 4^s 08.0
2 pr ditto at 3/6 07.0
2 pr ditto at 3/ 06.0
2 pr of 4 square ditto at 7/ 14.0
2 pr of ditto at 6^s 12.0
2 pr of Round ditto at 3/6 07.0
2 pr of ditto at 4^s 08.0
2 pr ditto at 4^s 6 09.0
2 pr ditto at 5/ 10.0
2 pr ditto at 5/6 11.0
2 pr ditto at 6/6 13.0
6 doz: Iron Sp^r Candlesticks at 5/6 1.13.0
2 Fine Mortars & Pestells at 4/ 08.0
2 ditto at 4/6 09.0
2 ditto at 5/6 11.0
2 ditto at 7/3 14.6
1 doz. Flower Boxes 11.0
1 doz Pepper Boxes 06.0
5 doz Brass Snuffers at 7/6 1.17.6
6 Snuffers Stands at 10.6
4 Snuffers Panns at 04.8
1 doz: Beife Forkes 07.0
1 doz Grid. Irons w^{ta} 98 Ribbs 17.0
18 plaine Bellows 1.03.0
4 doz: Alkomy Spoons at 12/9 11.0
2 doz: ditto at 2/3 04.6
1 doz: Brass Extinguishers 03.0
6 brass Ladles at 6^s 6^d 03.3
6 ditto at 9d 04.6
6 ditto at 14^d 07.0
6 Slices at 7^d 03.6
6 ditto at 9 04.6
2 doz: brass Save-alls at 5^s p doz 10.0
3 doz ditto at 4/ 12.0
3 doz ditto at 3/6 10.6
2 doz ditto at 3/ 06.0
1 doz dubble Iaggers 06.0
1 doz: ditto at 06.0
2 doz: Single ditto at 3^s 9 07.6
2 doz: Small mincers at 7^s 14.0
1 doz Large ditto at 15.6
1 doz Chopers 12.0
1 doz Cleavers 17.6
3 doz Small padlocks at 5^s 6 16.6
2 doz: ditto at 6^s p doz 12.0
2 doz: ditto at 7/9 p doz 15.6
1 doz ditto at 09.6
10 doz Scuers w^{th} fraimes 16.6
2 doz: Small Sp^r. Locks at 8^s p doz 16.0
2 doz Duble Sp^r Locks at 17/ p doz 1.14.0
4 bundles Frying Pans q^t 1 C. 1. 26^{li} at 45/ 3.09.6
1 hh^d Cost 6^s 06.0
-------
41.11.5
One Trunk N^o 1 q^t Nothing butt Buttons as viz^t
N^o. 1 12 gs Gimp Fallow Brest at 9^d p gro 09.0
2 48 gs Gymp Fallow Coatt at 1.11^d 2.04.0
3 34 baggs Coat Pillers q^t 136 gro: 18^d p gro: 10.04.0
4 10 gross bla: haire best at 20^d 16.8
5 10 baggs best Pillers Coats q^t 40 gro: at 23^d 3.16.8
6 24 gross Silke browne best at 23^d 2.06.0
7 13 baggs q^t 52 gross of Accor. Coats 2/6 p gs 6.10.0
8 12 gross bla: hayre Milo Coats 3/3^d 1.19.0
9 20 gross Cutt haire Coats at 3/10 p gs 3.16.8
10 30 gross Large Silke Coats at 3/10 5.15.0
A Trunk & Cords Cost 15/ 15.0
-------
38.12.0
One Large hh^d N^o 3 q^t of Tinnerie Ware as viz^t
6 Lanthorns at 2^s 3^d p L 13.6
5 ditto at 21^d 10.6
6 ditto at 18^d 09.0
2 Large fish kettles & plates at 5^s 10.0
2 Small ditto at 3^s 06.0
2 doz Slices at 2/6 05.0
6 Large pastry panns at 22^d 11.0
6 Small ditto at 14^d 07.0
3 Setts Kettles at 1.01.0
3 doz: Pockett Graters at 2^s p doz 06.0
3 doz ditto at 20^d 05.0
1 doz Large Square pudding pans at 14^s 14.0
1 doz ditto Small at 12^d 12.0
6 paire of Snuffers & panns at 18^d p 09.0
6 hanging Candlesticks at 12^d 06.0
2 doz: Large Corringers at 4^s 08.0
3 doz Midle ditto at 3^s 09.0
2 doz: Small ditto at 2/ 04.0
6 Large Funnells at 9^d ps 04.6
2 doz quart ditto at 6/ p doz 12.0
2 doz pint ditto at 4/ p doz 08.0
2 doz ditto at 2/6 05.0
2 doz ditto at 2/ 04.0
1 doz Large Sauce panns at 8^d p ps 08.0
2 doz: quart ditto at 6^d p ps 12.0
2 doz: point ditto at 4/6 09.0
2 doz: Flower Boxes at 3/6 07.0
2 doz: pepper boxes at 2/6 05.0
4 Large Dripping pans at 2/3 09.0
6 Small ditto at 20^d 10.0
1 doz Quart potts at 6^d ps 06.0
2 doz: pint ditto at 4/ p doz 08.0
1 doz: Large Round Pudding panns 13^d 13.0
1 doz ditto Small at 11^d 11.0
1 doz: Candlesticks at 6^d ps 06.0
6 Planish Candlesticks at 8^d 04.0
1 doz Casting Ladles at 4^d ps 04.0
1 doz: bread Graters at 7^d ps 07.0
1 doz: ditto at 4^d ps 04.0
1 doz: Tinder boxes & at 8s 08.0
8 Candle Boxes at 14^d ps 09.4
6 round Fish plates at 11^d ps 05.6
6 Cullendars at 16^d ps 08.0
1 doz halfe pint potts at 2^d ps 02.0
A Large Casque Cost 9^s 09.0
-------
18.04.4
One Bayle of Stuffs & N^o 8 q^t as viz^t
N^o 1 12 ps Worst. Fancies at 20^s 12.00.0
2 3 Woollen Shades at 22^s ps 3.00.0
3 6 playne Silke Crapes at 23/ ps 6.18.0
4 6 Stript Worst. Crapes at 23/ 6.18.0
5 2 Strip’t Silke Crapes at 26/ 2.12.0
6 4 Spotted Strip’t Silke Crapes at 26/ 5.04.0
7 2 Sattin Strip’t Crapes at 28/ 2.16.0
8 10 Strip’t Druggetts at 28/ 14.00.0
9 3 Woollen Damask at 29^s 4.07.0
10 6 Mixt Serges at 30/ 9.00.0
11 2 Strip’t ditto at 33^s 3.06.0
13 10 Silke Fancies at 36/ ps 18.00.0
14 6 Effigianes at 38/ ps 11.08.0
15 6 Silke Damaske at 46/ 13.16.0
16 3 Strip’t Cambletts at 46^s 6.18.0
17 1 Mock Calliminco at 3 3.00.0
18 1 Right ditto 4.00.0
19 3 Role ps Silke Fancies q^t 37:37:37-1/2
is 111-1/2 yd at 18^d 8.07.3
20 1 ps Red Flannel q^t 20 )
21 1 ps Yello ditto q^t 21 ) 110 yds at 14^d 6.08.4
22 1 ps ditto q^t 25 )
23 1 ps white q^t 44 )
peices 92
A Coard & Canvis paper & packing 1.04.0
4 doz: of Course hose in ditto Bale
--------
146.14.7
One Drume Fatt N^o 2 Containing Pewter as viz^t
12 Pottle Tankards at 3^s 10^d ps 2.06.0
12 Quart ditto at 3^s 1.16.0
24 Midle ditto at 2/6 3.00.0
24 Small ditto at 2/ 2.08.0
12 doz: Large Poringers at 9^s 6^d p. doz 5.14.0
12 doz: Small ditto at 8/ 4.16.0
3 pr New-fashion’d Candlesticks at 4^s 12.0
3 pr ditto at 3^s 09.0
2 pr Round ditto at 2^s 10^d 05.8
a Fatt Cost 07.0
One Drume Fatt No 3 q^t more Pewter viz^t
18 Large Chamber Potts at 2/10^s ps 2.11.0
30 Middle ditto at 2^s d^d 3.10.0
40 Small ditto at 2^s 4.00.0
12 doz Alkney Spoons at 2/9 1.13.0
24 doz Powder ditto at 2/3^d p doz 2.14.0
12 Large Salts at 2^s 2 ps 1.06.0
24 Middle ditto at 20^d ps 2.00.0
48 Small ditto at 12^d ps 2.08.0
18 Basons q^t 32-1/2 at 12^d 1.12.6
2 doz: Sawcers at 9^s p doz 18.0
4 doz Small ditto at 7^s p doz 1.08.0
2 Pottle Wine Measure Potts at 5/6 11.0
6 Quart ditto at 2/8 16.0
6 Pint ditto Potts at 22^d ps 11.0
6 halfe Pint ditto at 14^d 07.0
6 Quartern ditto Potts at 9^d p ps 04.6
a ffat Cost 7^s 07.0
One halfe Barell Fatt N^o 4 Con^t more pewter
N^o A 78 Dishes q^t 265^{li} at 9^d 1/2 10.09.9-1/2
A ffat Cost 3^s6 03.6
------------
£76.02.5-1/2
One Bayle of Lincy Woolsie Con^t 30 ps
No 7 at 31^s ps 46.10.0
Canvis &c^a 1.07.0
----------
47.17.0
Two Large Bayles of Kersyes N^o 4:5 viz^t
N^o A 3 Browns)
1 Gray ) at 26^s p ps. 5.04.0
B 3 Browne)
1 Gray ) at 28^s ps 5.12.0
C 1 Browne)
3 Grays ) at 30^s 6.00.0
D 4 Browns at 31^s 6.04.0
E 4 Browns at 32^s 6.08.0
F 3 Browns)
2 Grays ) at 35^s 10.10.0
G 4 Browns)
2 Grays ) at 37^s 11.02.0
H 4 Browns)
2 Grays ) at 38^s 11.08.0
I 6 Browns at 39^s 11.14.0
K 3 Browns)
2 Drabbs) at 42^s 12.12.0
1 Gray )
L 6 Honly Reds at 42^s 12.12.0
M 2 Grays )
1 Drabb )
3 Browns ) at 43^s ps 25.16.0
6 Nap’t )
N 3 Browns)
2 Grays ) at 58^s ps 14.08.0
1 Drabb )
O 3 Browns)
3 Grays ) at 55^s ps 20 yds Long 16.10.0
Canvis Cord Paper & packing 38^s p bayle 3.16.0
----------
159.16.0
One Bayle of Cottons of Severall Collers viz^t
6 White Cottons at 15/ 4.10.0
6 White ditto at 20/ 6.00.0
6 Red ditto)
5 Blew ditto)
5 Cloth Cullerd ditto) at 17^s p ps 19.11.0
5 Ashe Cullerd ditto)
2 Yellow ditto)
4 Red ditto at 23^s ps 4.12.0
1 Blew ditto at 24/ 1.04.0
Canvis & Packing 1.18.0
----------
37.15.0
One hh^d N^o 5 Con^t Sundry Lotts of Goods as Viz^t
12 hogskin Saddles Stirrups, Leathers bridles,
Girts & Snaffels at 14^s 8.08.0
N^o 18 li whited Browne Thread at 2/3 13.6
20 li ditto at 2/6 15.0
22 li ditto at 2/10 17.0
24 li ditto at 3/3 19.6
26 li ditto at 3/8 1.02.0
28 li ditto at 4^s p li 1.04.0
4:15 3 li Nunns Thread at 6^s 18.0
5:10 3 li ditto at 7^s p li 1.01.0
6:10 3 li ditto at 8/ 1.04.0
8:10 1 li ditto at 10^s p li 10.0
9:10 1 li ditto at 12/ 12.0
12:10 1 li ditto at 16/ 16.0
N^o 1 6 doz best Brown Thread at 22^s p doz 6.12.0
2 3 doz Cull^r ditto at 26/ p doz 3.08.0
3 4 doz: blew & Collerd Tape at 9/6 1.18.0
4 2 doz: blew & Collerd filletting at 13/6 1.07.0
5 1 doz: White filletting at 15 p 15.0
6 2 doz fine white Twist at 3/4^d 06.8
7 2 doz Narrow Holland Tape at 7^s p doz 14.0
8 2 doz broad ditto at 10/ p doz 1.00.0
9 3 Gross Cotton 6^d Ribbin at 10^s p gro 1.10.0
10 1 ps broad Strip’t 12^d Ribbin at 4/6 04.6
11 2 doz Pinns at 6/8 p doz 12.0
12 3 doz. ditto at 7/2 p doz 1.01.6
13 4 Mille Needles at 5/ p mille 1.00.0
14 2 Gross Womens Brass Thimbles at 5/6 11.0
15 6 doz: Mens Steel ditto at 7^s p gs 03.6
16 6 doz. horne Combs at 14^d 07.0
17 6 doz: ditto at 18^d 09.0
18 6 doz: ditto at 22^d 11.0
19 2 doz Ivory Combs at 3/6 p doz 07.0
20 2 doz ditto at 6/8 12.0
21 Old Brass Curtaine Rings at 14^d 07.0
22 2 doz. Small Inckhornes at 20^d 03.4
23 1 doz: Large ditto 02.9
24 1 doz Large Sands at 4^s 04.0
25 2 gro: Tin brest Buttons 12^d 02.0
26 6 gro: Large ditto at 15^d 07.6
27 6 gro: ditto at 18^d p gro 09.0
28 2 gro: Ell Thread Laces at 2/4 04.8
29 2 gro: ditto y^d & 1/2 at 3/8 06.0
30 1 gro: ditto Silke 2 yd^s at 30^s 1.10.0
1 hh^d Cost 5/ 05.0
Trunk N^o 2
31 6 gro: Large White Wastcoat Buttons
at 15^d 07.6
32 6 gro: fine Small ditto at 18^d 09.0
33 2 gro: gilt sleeve buttons at 3/4 06.8
34 1 doz: bla: Velvitt Markes lin’d w^{th} 14.0
35 1 doz: best ditto at 15/ 15.0
36 1 doz: best ditto lin’d w^{th} Silke at 22^s 1.02.0
37 1 doz: Callico quilted Caps at 9^s 09.0
38 1 doz: Holland ditto at 12/ p doz 12.0
39 18 yds Grey Lace at 3^d 04.6
40 20 yds ditto at 4^d p yd 06.8
41 33 yds ditto at 4^d-1/2 12.4-1/2
42 15 yds ditto at 5^d p yd 06.3
43 12 yds ditto at 6^d 06.0
44 16 yds ditto at 8d^d 10.8
45 34 yds bla: Silke bone Lace at 5d-1/2 p yd 15.7
46 42 yds ditto at 7d-1/2 1.06.3
47 24 yds ditto at 12d 1.04.0
48 16 yds ditto at 13d 17.4
49 18 yds ditto at 14d 1.01.0
50 2 Gro: Silke Bindins at 18/6 p gro: 1.17.0
51 2 Gro: Silke Galunes at 18/ 1.16.0
52 1 gro: Narrow: Black Silk purle for Tippett 05.0
53 2 gro: Brord ditto at 14^s p gro: 1.08.0
54 1 gro: White, Thready brord gause purle
at 10/6 10.6
55 2 doz: black & White Net Gause at 11/ p doz. 1.02.0
56 1 doz: black Mourning gause at 12.0
57 1 doz: White ditto at 12^s 12.0
58 2 doz: White Thread gause at 12/ 1.04.0
59 2 doz: black Silke ditto at 13/ 1.06.0
60 3 doz: Women Silke Girdles w^{th} Buckles 6/ 18.0
61 2 doz: Long ditto Copper Tassells at 3/9 07.6
62 1 doz: Rich Silke & Silver Tassle ditto 12/ 12.0
63 1 doz: best ditto at 15^s 15.0
64 1 doz: Romall handkerchiffs at 16^s p doz 16.0
65 1 doz: Silke ditto at 20^s p doz 1.00.0
66 1 doz: best Large ditto at 23^s 1.03.0
67 4 doz: black Moyhaire ring at 6/ 1.04.0
68 4 doz: Deep ditto at 7^s p doz 1.08.0
69 2 doz: Copper Cull^r & purled ditto at 6/ p doz 12.0
70 4 doz: Cullr Mixt ditto at 7^s 1.08.0
71 4 doz: Cloth Culler: bla: & Scarlett
ditto at 8/ 12.0
72 2 doz: Deep bla: Duble ditto at 9^s6 19.0
73 18 doz: Nar: fringe to Sett on ye Top
of Fringe 20^d 1.10.0
74 18 yds White Corded Thred fringe at 10^d yd 15.0
75 13 oz. 1/2 bla: bella. Silke fringe at 25^d 1.02.6
76 27 oz: best Nar: & Deep ditto at 21^d 2.07.3
77 12 oz: Copper Cull^r Nar: & Deep ditto at 22^d 1.02.0
78 18 oz: 1/16 d^o & white Nar: & deep
Mixtd. 2^s 1.16.1-1/2
79 21 oz 1/2 Clo: Cull^r blew & white Nar
& Deep 2-1/2^d 2.08.4
80 21 oz 1/2 Clo: Cull^r green & white corded
d^o 2/4^d 2.10.2
81 17 oz: 1/4 3/16 bla: Corded ditto at 2/
p doz 1.14.10-1/2
82 1 gro 1/2 Silke bread to Sett at Bottom
of fringe 14^s 1.01.0
83 5 ps ferrett 6^d Ribbon at 7^s ps 1.15.0
84 1 gro: bla: 1^d Taffety Ribbon at 7^s 07.0
85 2 gro: ditto 2^d ditto at 16 p gro 1.12.0
86 12 ps Dutch 7/4 Ribbins for binding
Drowls 20^d 1.00.0
87 4 ps 6^d Taffety Ribbon at 5/ 1.00.0
88 4 ps 8^d ditto at 9 ps 1.16.0
89 1 ps 10^d ditto at 11.0
90 1 ps 12^d ditto 13.0
91 4 ps Double Love Ribben 6^d at 6/ 1.04.0
92 2 ps 8^d ditto at 8 16.0
93 1 ps 10^d ditto at (?) 09.6
94 2 ps white Span. 6^d ditto at 8/6 17.0
95 1 ps ditto 8^d at 10 10.0
96 3 doz: Sattin Stripes 8^d Ribbon at 6^s 18.0
97 2 doz Cloth Cull^r & purple Figur’d 10^d
ditto 8^s 16.0
98 2 doz: blew & Green 12^d ditto at 11^s 1.02.0
99 2 doz Copper Cullr’d & bla: 14^d ditto at 13^s 1.06.0
100 81i Clo: Cull^r Silke w^{th} a Little bla: at 17/6 7.00.0
101 1 Childs Peake at 6/ 06.0
102 1 Womans Laced head dress at 10^s 10.0
103 1 ditto Laced at 13/ 13.0
104 1 Alamode Drowle Trim’d at 2^s w^{th} bla purl 02.0
105 1 Tippett ditto at 2/4^d 02.4
106 1 Best ditto at 6/8 Laced w^{th} bla: Silk? 06.0
107 2 doz: New fashon’d Peake Wyers at 18d
p doz 03.0
108 2 doz: Cornitt Wyers ditto at 2/ p doz 04.0
109 4 doz: Comode Wyers ditto at 4/ p doz 16.0
110 17 Roles at 5d p ps 07.1
111 4 doz New Fason’d pass Wyers at 10^s 03.4
112 1 gro: Strip’d Worsted at 9^s p gro 09.0
a Trunke & Coards Cost 12/ 12.0
----------
59.18.0
One Bayle of Linning Cloth N^o 3 Cont as viz^t
20 40:2 19:2 20 39 330:2
20 39:2 39:2 17 18 394
19:2 40: 39 20 20 435
19: 19:2 20 19:2 20 313:2
19:2 19 19:2 19:2 40 392
---------
20:2 20 19:2 19: 19:2 1864:2
17 20 62 40 40: 932:1
20 38:2 60 19:2 19:2
19 40 38 19:2 39:2
37 20 20 19:2 20:
19 19 19:2 20 19:2
20 19 20 18:2 39:2
19 19 19:2 20:2 19:2
24 19 19:2 20:2 19:
40 19 19:2 19:2 19
--------------------------------------
330:2 394 435 313:2 392
--------------------------------------
Is 932 Ells 1/4 of Kamells cloth at 6^d p ell 23.6.0
85 50 60 86 69 43 73 68 78 101 42
42 43 49 78 77 44 91 is 1129 of
Brown Oxenbrigs at 50^{li} p Role 1500
ells to a Role at 8^d p ell 37.12.8
---------------
60.18.8
---------------
£1127.17.7
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Essex County Quarterly Court Records_, Vol. II, p. 28
[2] Waters, _Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony_.
[3] In the Delaware settlement houses of logs split through the middle
or hewed square were built “according to the Swedish mode.”
[4] _Mourt’s Relation_, Boston, 1841.
[5] Higginson, _New-Englands Plantation_, London, 1630.
[6] _Force’s Tracts_, Washington, 1838.
[7] _Essex County Quarterly Court Records_, Vol. VI, p. 363.
[8] _Essex County Deeds_, Book V, leaf 107.
[9] Johnson, _Wonder Working Providence_, London, 1654.
[10] Higginson, _New-Englands Plantation_, London, 1630.
[11] _Force’s Tracts_, Washington, 1838.
[12] _Massachusetts Archives_, Vol. 15B, leaves 59-67.
[13] _Essex County Quarterly Court Records_, Vol. IV, pp. 56-57.
[14] Beer in the making.
[15] _Probate Records of Essex County, Mass._ Vol. I, p. 47.
[16] _Probate Records of Essex County, Mass._, Vol. II, p. 348.
[17] Dankers, _Journal of a Voyage to New York_, Brooklyn, 1867.
[18] _Records of the Mass. Bay Colony_, Vol. I, p. 126.
[19] Ward, _The Simple Cobler of Aggawam_, London, 1647.
[20] _Sewall’s Diary_, Vol. II, p. 231.
[21] _Essex County Quarterly Court Records_, Vol. I, p. 275.
[22] The master of the ship _George Bonaventure_ in which Mr. Skelton
came over.
Transcriber’s Notes
Perceived typographical errors in the author’s text have been silently
corrected.
Archaic spelling and inconsistent punctuation in quoted text and tables
have been retained as in the original.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation and compound words have been maintained
as printed.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the text.
The per sign ⅌ is a symbol used to indicate a ratio.
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