The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Creator: Enoch Silsby

Title: Bills and letterbook

Dates: 1799-1810, 1830

Call No.: Col. 432

Acc. No.: 66x151.4-.19, 84x7

Quantity: 17 items

Location: 34 K 3

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

Enoch Silsby was a Boston merchant, born probably in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1778. He was the son of Samson Silsby. In 1830, his business was located at 21 Long Wharf, Boston. At that time, he apparently owned at least three homes in Boston on Prince, Somerset, and Washington streets.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

Collection contains one letterbook and sixteen bills and receipts addressed to Enoch Silsby of Boston. The letterbook contains copies of letters written by Silsby in Boston, Salem, and Savannah, Georgia, between October 27, 1799, and March 15, 1810. Most deal with legal matters surrounding the case of Sarah and Abigail Silsby and others vs. Enoch Silsby and Thomas Young, administrators of the estate of Daniel Silsby, deceased. After Enoch and Thomas had won a decision in Georgia against Enoch's elderly aunts, requiring them to part with a portion of Daniel's estate, the aunts appealed the case to the Supreme Court. While in Georgia (in Savannah), Enoch took the opportunity to send a number of shipments of cotton back to Massachusetts, which are mentioned in some of the letters, as is the offer of three slaves for sale by Mr. Jacob Danforth. (See letter from Augusta, Georgia, January 1803; also July 1803 letter to Rev. William Bentley). At the end of the volume are lists of bank notes sent to or by Silsby.

The bills primarily document the purchase of such household items as furniture, kitchen utensils, tinware, bedding and linens, hardware, and cleaning equipment. Furniture noted includes dressing tables, bureaus, card tables, bedsteads, mirrors, mahogany chairs, and a couch. Linens include tablecloths, comforters, and blankets. Also noted are locks, lamps, pails, tubs, kettles, and laundry equipment.

ORGANIZATION

The bills are in accession number order.

PROVENANCE

Bills purchased from N.D. Scotti. Letterbook purchased from Robert F. Lucas.

ACCESS POINTS

People:

Silsby, Daniel - Estate.

Topics:

Furniture - Prices.

Receipts (Acknowledgments)

Invoices.

Tinware - Prices.

Household linens.

Kitchen utensils.

Locks and keys.

Bedding.

Dwellings - Maintenance and repair.

Wills - Cases.

Inheritance and succession - Georgia.

Inheritance and succession - Massachusetts.

Cotton - Prices - Georgia.

Decedents' estates.

Slaves - Georgia.

Laundry – Equipment and supplies.

Bills.

Letters.

Merchants.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 34 K 3

Folder 1: Receipts and bills, to Enoch Silsby, Boston:

.4 J. M. Allen to Mr. Emmons, for dressing bureau, bedstead, mahogany chairs, waiters, and knife tray, November 1830. Paid by “E.S.”

.5 Samuel Curtis to Enoch Silsby, for looking glasses, November 25,1830.

.6 Blake & Kittredge, to E. Silsby, for couch, pair of card tables, a set of tables, bedstead, bureau, wash stand, toilette table, bed ticks, feathers, and chairs, December 3, 1830.

.7 Edward Watson to Mr. Silsby, for gold bordered trays and a set of castors, November 3, 1830.

.8 George W. Robinson & Co., to E. Silsby, for “wood wares”: pails, wash tubs, wash bench, rolling pin, “c. horse” [clothes horse], pins [clothes pins?], clothes basket, dipper, mortar and pestle, bread trough, folding board, knife tray, brooms, sieve, and hearth and floor brushes, November 2, 1830.

.9 Jonathan Emmons to Enoch Silsby, for tin ware: Japanned lamps, oil canister, tin pans, Japanned wash bowl, kitchen spit(?), drudging box, dish covers, colander, Japanned canister, funnel, oil feeder, grater, skewers, skimmer, iron fender, sheets of tin, November 2,1830.

.10 Wm. & G. W. Adams, blacksmiths, to E. Silsby, for locks and lock parts, screws, drills, wedges, hand hammer, shims, shelf for grate, September 16, 1830, paid March 1831.

.11 Charles Brooks & Co., to Enoch Silsby, for “hardware”: pots, pot covers, bails, dish kettle, a pair of dogs, toaster, axe, coffee mill, bellows, shovel and tongs, brass warming pan, spider, skillet, gridiron, sauce pan, tea kettle, iron spoons, bake pan and bail, flat irons, hammer, pot hooks, November 3, 1830.

.12 G.,W. &,B. F. Simmons, to E. Silsby, for blankets, November 4, 1830.

.13 Benj. Leeds, to Mr. Silsby, for comforters, December 1, 1830.

.14 John H. Pray(?), to E. Silsby, for blue habit cloth, December 29, 1830.

.15 Benjamin Jacobs, Jr., to Enoch Silsby, for table cloths, and yards of diaper, cotton, damask, linen sheeting, and German sheeting, paid January 15, 1831.

.16 Gardner Greenleaf, to Enoch Silsby, for mason work, setting stove, whitewashing, etc., November 19, 1830.

.17 Robinson & Young, to Enoch Silsby, for glazing, glass, and house painting, September 14, 1830.

.18 Jonathan Denton, to Enoch Silsby, for carpentry work, taking off and putting on locks, nails, shingles, boards, carting, painting, plastering and house repairs, September 14, 1830

.19 Cornell & Hurlbut to Mr. Silsby, for Lehigh Franklin stove, November 5, 1830

Folder 2: Letterbook

On front fly leaf: “Letter Book, 1799-1800, Phillip Barton Key, John Thompson Mason, Esqs., Counselors at Law, Georgetown, Maryland, attorneys employed in the appeal case S & A Silsby vs. Enoch Silsby and Thomas Young, Supreme Court of the United States.”

In fact, the dates of the letters range from 1799 to 1810. See description of contents in Scope and Content note above. The paper is watermarked: crowned shield with fleur-de-lis, harp, and other emblems.