The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, DE  19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Rolfe, Joseph.                                                

Title:               Accounts and receipts

Dates:             1752-1807, 1760-1775 (bulk dates)

Call No.:         Doc. 292

Acc. No.:        84x48

Quantity:        31 items

Location:        31 C 2

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Joseph Rolfe was a joiner in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  Not all the items in this collection are associated with him.

 

A man named Joseph Rolfe was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1730, the son of Judith Toppan and Samuel Rolfe.  This Joseph married Esther Rolfe (1743-1773) in Newburyport in 1763, and they had a son named Moses.  At some point, he moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire, where he was a yeoman and died in 1784.  In 1775, Joseph married again, to Ann Stickney, who died in 1826.  In the division of his estate, Ann was mentioned as the widow; other heirs were Moses Rolfe, Esther (wife of David Blair), Jenney Rolfe, and Judith Rolfe.  This Joseph Rolfe may have been the joiner. 

 

In an 1811 probate record, Paul Gerrish was mentioned as being a shipwright.  In an 1802 probate record, William Gerrish was mentioned as being a shipwright.  A joiner named Benjamin Gerrish died in Londonderry, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, around 1814, but apparently he had some connection to Newburyport, Mass.  How these men were related to each other is not known.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Consists of accounts and receipts of several Newbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts, joiners, including William and Paul Gerrish, but most especially Joseph Rolfe, for work done and goods sold to them.  Much of the joinery was done on ships.  Such activities as building and repairing bulkheads, rails, planks, and window frames; framing doors; shingling; planing; finishing rooms; putting up garden fences; and making coffins and a clock case are mentioned.  Often, the joiners were paid for the number of days they and their "boys" worked.  Types of items purchased were cloth, stockings, collars, chalk, food, molasses, and rum.  One of the documents represents Paul Gerrish's credit at the Newburyport market in 1766.  Several of the items list debits and credits accrued by Joseph Rolfe and appear to be pages from an account book he kept.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

In accession number order, which is roughly chronological order.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Purchased from Robert P. Cowell.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Rolfe, Jacob.

            Gerrish, Benjamin.

            Gerrish, Paul.

            Gerrish, William.

            Stickney, Joseph.

 

Topics:

            Business records - Massachusetts - Newbury.

            Business records - Massachusetts - Newburyport.

            Retail trade - History - 18th century.

            Joinery - Massachusetts - Newbury.

            Joinery - Massachusetts - Newburyport.

            Textile fabrics - Prices - 18th century.

            Food prices - 18th century.

            Beverages - Prices.

            Wages - Woodworkers.

            Shipbuilding - Massachusetts - Newbury.

            Shipbuilding - Massachusetts - Newburyport.

            Accounts.

            Receipts.

            Joiners.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 31 C 2

 

 

Note: all accession numbers begin with 84x48

 

 

Folder 1:

 

.1         bill, Jeremiah Pearson, Jr., owes to Joseph Rolfe, Newbury, June 1, 1752.

            Charges for work and ten feet of boards, with an additional charge for sugar dated December 1754.

 

.2         account of Joseph Cottle, debtor, for joiners work done on board the chune [i.e. schooner?] commanded by Capt. Levin, Newbury, December 11, 1760.  The account does not list who did the work.

            Includes charges for cabins, sashes and lights, rails, rudder casing, beef locker, ladder, channel ends, steps, the companion, a binnacle, oak planks and other lumber, etc. 

            [Cottle also spelled Cottel in other documents.]

 

.3         account dated 1761 [month torn off].

            Includes charges for shingle and clapboard nails, oil, rum, cloth, buttons, hanks of mohair, beef, a tea pot, corn, handkerchief, thread, wood, a suit of clothes, paper, coffee, flour.  Mentions an order of Uncle Gerish, and a pair of shoes had of Jacob Hidden, but otherwise no name associated with this item. 

            [Page is much damaged along one edge,  and one corner is missing; page is much stained.]

 

.4         account of Joseph Cottel, debtor, for joiner’s work done on Squire Leas’ brigantine under command of Capt. Hupper Crummond, Newbury, November 24, 1762.  Account does not list who did the work.

            Includes charges for cabin, arched and square sashes, a state room, a companion, a binnacle, beef locker, crotches, pumps, channel ends, rails, ladders, oak and pine planks, beams, knees, a bulkhead, etc.

            [Cottel is also spelled Cottle.]

 

.5         one side: “June ye 10 to order that I gave Stephen Pettengil.”  No year.  Includes an order to William Stickney; clapboard, shingle, and board nails; rum, flour, canvas, sugar, cloth, etc.   [Torn-out section of page disrupts the account.]

           

Other side: “order that Jacob Hidden had.”  No date, but 1764 mentioned in one charge.  Includes beef, velvet, chisel, rum, cotton wool, molasses, sugar, chalk lines, corn, “guds that Juduth Garrish had.”

 

.6         one side: account of Joseph Stickney with unknown person; June 2, 1763 at top of page, includes charges through 1765.

            Charges for labor “of myself and my boys,”  corn, sugar, board and shingle nails, various kinds of fish, salt, mending hog sty, work on house, velvet, bread trough, bedrails, “arack for your cough,” building stairs, shelves, work on yard and little house, top to a stand, mending a sleigh, making a fence.  Jacob Hidden, Mr. Cottel, and Mr. Greenleaf are also mentioned.

 

            Other side: account of Joseph Cottel, March 1763, with charges through 1764.

            Includes joiners work for Capt. Barthol’s and Mr. Leas’ schooners, Mr. Darbes [sic, Darby’s is probably meant] brig, Capt. Morrison, and Capt. Bog’s snow; also charges for making a fence.

 

            Note: part of page is missing, and damaged along the other edge.

 

.7         This is possibly a page removed from an account book. 

The charges are dated 1764-1767. 

Names of customers are John Hale, Joseph Noyes, Efram Hunt, Jeremiah Parson, Jr., and Oliver Moody, Jr.

Charges are for check cloth, handkerchiefs, meal, corn, building a cupboard, a shelf, and a top, barrels of something, labor, salt, milk, “to cloughing a rum [room],” and brads.

 

.8         bill, John Hale, debtor to Jacob Rolfe, Newbury, 1764.

            For “goods at Robert Jenkinses”

 

.9         This is possibly a page removed from an account book. 

The charges are dated 1764-1770.

Customers are Joseph Stickney, Antony Stickney, Jr., Joseph Cottel (who died around Sept. 1764), Woodbridge Cottel.

Charges are for lathes, window frames, sashes, “to wetting your han sough [whetting your handsaw],” altering a frame for a well, coffins, salt, floor boards and laying the floor, sugar, work on a warehouse, work on sailing vessels, work on a fence and yard,.

 

.10       This is possibly a page removed from an account book; accounts were settled with Rolfe [first name not given]. 

The charges are dated 1759-1773.

Customers are Capt. Geams [James] Hutson and Moses Tod.

For Capt. Hutson, joiners work was done on his brigantine and schooner, also shingling, work on a porch, building steps, and labor.

For Moses Tod: labor, clapboard and board nails, sashes, window frame, salt, corn, sugar, molasses, codfish, gouge, bedstead, tables. 

 

.11       Probably a page removed from account book of Joseph Rolfe.

Accounts dated 1764-1777.

Customers are Nathaniel Knap (one side) and William Noyes, John Knap, and Lemuel Noyes (other side).

            Charges are for labor, brads, “caseing the top of a sto,” “making a winder shet,” a casement, shelves, a barn window, sashes, work on a schooner, corn, unloading salt, a coffin, and molasses.

 

.12       account of Jacob Rolfe for work done by Joseph Rolfe, August 1765.

Charges for boarding and shingling, window frames, sashes, labor, finishing rooms, doors, stairs, brads [nails], shoes, stockings, cider, chalk and chalk line, desk, cash, apples, plowing for potato crop, unloading the sloop, etc.

 

.13       Probably a page removed from account book of Joseph Rolfe, Newburyport.

Accounts dated 1765-1776.

Customers are Joseph Coffin (accounts settled with his widow Sarah Coffin), Richard Flanders, and Lemuel Noyes (one side) and Jacob Rolfe (other side).

            Charges are for work on house and fence, codfish, salt, board nails, leather, cotton, labor, laying floors, channels [gutters?], chair rails, a chest, a sink, and a buckshelf [bookshelf?].

 

.14       Probably a page removed from account book of Benjamin Lunt or Joseph Rolfe.

Accounts dated 1766-1773.

Customers are Woodbridge Cottel (who died in 1770 or early 1771), Eleazer Johnson (one side) and William and Paul Gerrish [also spelled Garish] (other side).

            Charges are for making fence, whetting a “hansaugh” [handsaw], labor, having a horse shod, joiner’s work on sailing vessels, window frame, “to building a brest work acrost your rum,” putting a handle on a saw, salt, work on a house, sashes, “to putting bead strips & stops” on windows, etc.

 

 

Folder 2:

 

.15       account of unknown person with Johnson [page torn, first name missing] and Paul Garish, Newburyport, 1766-1768.

            Includes charges for various textiles, thread, rum, board nails, tea pot and tea kettle, plough iron, shoes, warming pan, hammer, pins, handkerchiefs, mohair, molasses, sugar, corn, hats, raisins, flour, chalk line, peas, ribbon, britches, huckleberries, and a glass.

 

.16       Samuel Garish in account with Joseph Rolfe, 1766-1775 (one side) and account of John Newman 3d, 1776-1770, and Thomas Boarman, 1768 (other side).

            For window frames and sashes, work, “strip for your dresser,” textiles, sugar, molasses, setting lights, work on a house, making a garden fence, a table, and a meal chest.

 

.17       accounts of Jacob Hidden, deceased, with Jacob [Rolfe?], settled with attorney Zachariah Beal, Newburyport, 1767-1771.

            Charges for textiles, orders paid to Dr. Micager [sic, i.e. Micajah] Sawyer and to William and Paul Garish, sugar, potatoes, slat, codfish, molasses.

 

.18       accounts of Joseph Rolfe, 1767-1772.

            With Joseph Johnson, John Elsley[?], Samuel Gudden, and Elizabeth Hidden (one side) and Jonathan Chase, Benjamin Rolfe, and Daniel Johnson (other side).

            Charges for door, window frames and sashes, labor, salt, joiners work on sloop built by Capt. Gideon Wooddel, chocolate, work on a kitchen and cellar stairs, laying a floor, dressers, coffin.

 

.19       accounts of Joseph Rolfe, 1768-1779.

            With Thomas Noyes and Samuel Bayley, Jr. (one side) and William Gerrish (other side).

                        Charges for codfish, molasses, sugar, whetting and setting saws, chests, wheelbarrows, labor, whale boat hire, shelves, sashes, fixing clapboards, potatoes, joiners work on sailing vessels, work on house and barn, coffin, etc.

 

.20       bill to William and Paul Gerrish, Newburyport, March 29, 1769.

                        Charges for joiners work on Capt. Stilson’s[?] brig, including a companion, a binnacle, dead lights, quarter pieces, catheads, rails, blocks, cleats, belfry, casing the rudder, lining the stern, ladder, steps, channel ends, timber heads, planks, rabbets, beams, knees, etc.

 

.21a     part of a bill; one side mentions pins, rum, sugar, a penknife, oil, corn, a handkerchief, etc., dated November 30, 1769.  Includes names of William Noyes and Joseph Noyes.

 

            Other side: part of a bill for Joseph Cottel, creditor, for corn, board nails, ribbon, sugar, chalk lines, but because the paper is torn, the kinds of goods are not always present.

 

.21b     part of a bill; one side dated February 18, 176[torn].  Mentions pewter, stockings, sugar, textiles, hauling timber, cotton wool, coffee, chalk, “dobel tens,” etc. 

 

            Other side: part of a bill, mentions beef, sugar.

 

.22       accounts of Joseph Rolfe.

            One side: with William and Paul Gerrish, 1774-1776, for work on house and barn, clapboards, coffins, decking a schooner.

 

            Other side: with Benjamin Lunt, Jr., for joiners work on schooner, chamber, and entryway, a coffin for brother Cottel, work on a sleigh, framing a door, 17701-1771.

            And with Moses Tod [also spelled Todd] for salt, coffee, potatoes, 1772-1773.

 

.23       account of Samuel Parson[?] with Joseph Rolfe, 1771-1775[? date is smeared.]

            For sugar, coffee, cotton, trimmings, salt, molasses, and a clock case.

 

            On reverse side: mentions credit given to an unknown person for joiners work on a schooner and a chamber.

 

.24       accounts of Joseph Rolfe, Newburyport.

            One side: with William Bartlet and Moses Nowell, 1771-1774, with charges for labor, for use of his whale boat, work on a yard, mending shingling, pair of “winder shets.”

 

            Other side: accounts with the widow Parce and Lyman Greenleaf, 1771, for clapboards, labor, making a fence, doors, sash, mending stairs, and work on a brigantine. 

 

.25       accounts of Joseph Rolfe.

            One side: with Joseph Huse and Capt. John Clark[?], 1771-1779, for labor, salt, doors and frames, mending a floor, work on a cart, window frame and sash.

 

            Other side: account with William Greano [sic, i.e. Greenhow?] and Joseph Hidden, 1771-1774, for sashes,  seats, coffins, mending a cellar and putting on a lock, and shingling.

 

.26       bill from Joseph Rolfe and Benjamin Gerrish, Newburyport, to William Gerrish & Paul, 1773, for labor.  On reverse: columns of figures and calculations.

 

.27       accounts of Joseph Rolfe.

            One side: with Ezra Lunt and Simon Greenleaf, 1772-1773, for labor, mending a sleigh, use of whale boat, a meal chest, and mending a sink.

 

            Other side: with Nathaniel Knap and Daniel Dodge, 1773-1777, for labor, clapboards, a spout, a coffin, mending a door, a bedstead, window frames and sashes, and boards.  The account with Knap also mentions an outstanding bill with Simon Greenleaf for an anchor.

 

.28       bill from Joseph Rolfe to John Pearson [also spelled Parson], 1775, for window frames, sashes, labor, and working two crowns.   Pearson settled his bill on April 3, 1779, with Samuel Rolfe and Joseph Rolfe.

 

.29       The top of the page is much damaged.

            One side: surname Rolfe is present, 1781-1782.  Includes charges for shoeing a horse, mending a plow, a barrel, a cask, tobacco, use of cattle for hauling wood, cider, corn.

 

            Other side: accounts for Jeams [James] [surname missing] and Anne Horrenton[?], 1779-1782.  Mentions corn, tobacco, rye, cider, use of cattle, potatoes, etc.

 

.30       bill to Wm. Hoit & Co., bought of Wm. Hoit & Co., Newburyport, Jan. 3, 1807. 

            Purchases include a variety of textiles, shoes, gloves, shawls, veils, vesting, handkerchiefs, pins, oil cloth, scythes.