Introduction
IN the collections of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts, are seven volumes of the John Pynchon Account Books. Interest in them derives from the fact that they are one of the few surviving sets of business records for seventeenth-century inland trade. For many years their existence was known to only a few nineteenth-century historians. Sylvester Judd and George Sheldon incorporated material from them in their histories of Hadley and Deerfield; the late Harry A. Wright used some entries in his Story of Western Massachusetts (New York, 1949) but in a haphazard manner. Otherwise, knowledge of their contents has been limited to a few research students, and until now a complete knowledge of what they contained has not been readily available to the public.
When and how they became a part of the collections of the Springfield Library and Museums Association is conjecture. They probably were given to the City Library toward the end of the nineteenth century, but no specific information about the donor or the date of gift is found in the Association’s records. In 1927 they were part of the Local History Collection that was transferred to the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum when it opened. There they remained, though the Local History Collection was returned to the Main Library in the 1950’s.
Early in this century the Account Books were bound into seven folio volumes for the years 1654 to 1702. Because of its length Volume V was divided into two sections. Volume IV is more of a Day Book, and thus selections from it are not included in these excerpts. Indeed it may well have been part of another set of records. The hand-written numerals in the upper corner of each page had been added prior to binding. A new set of page numbers was introduced after the binding had been completed, and these are the ones that are used to identify the excerpts used in this volume.
Some of the Account Books have their own indexes at the start of the volume. They vary in form. The index for Volume V, for example, is alphabetical, beginning with the letter A and ending with T, while that for Volume VI is arranged by numbers that were added at the bottom of each page in brackets later. In these indexes are some settlers’ accounts that are included in the selections. It should be noted that some of the dates in all the volumes are not consecutive, while the years on the volume’s spine are not always accurate. For example, Volume III, according to its spine, covers the years 1664–1667, yet includes a document dated as early as 1638 and one as late as 1697. Another confusing characteristic of the Account Books is the fact that often part of one man’s account will be found under another man’s entry. Finally, there are two other Account Books which are separate from the original seven. One was kept by John Pynchon, Jr., when he acted as his father’s agent in Boston between 1669 and 1675 and is a part of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum collection. The other was kept by William and John Pynchon for the years 1645 to 1650. Mostly in William Pynchon’s handwriting, it is part of the Judd Manuscript Collection at the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts.
The Pynchons, for several generations, were the most important family in the upper Connecticut Valley. William Pynchon (1590–1662) founded Springfield in 1636, and though he stayed in New England less than sixteen years, he was able, during that time, to lay the foundation of a profitable business. Toward the end of his career he became involved in a religious controversy, and in 1652 he returned to England, where he died ten years later. His son John Pynchon (1626–1702) remained to take charge of and to expand his father’s mercantile holdings. John Pynchon, Jr., played a minor role in colonial affairs and never attained his father’s status as a merchant. Both men made advantageous marriages: John Pynchon to Amy Willys, a member of a prominent Connecticut family; and John Pynchon, Jr., to Margaret Hubbard, the daughter of William Hubbard the historian.
In the 1950’s officials of the American Meat Institute of Chicago learned of the existence of the Account Books. Because they contained evidence of seventeenth-century meat-packing activities, a study was undertaken to determine if a complete transcription of their contents would be feasible. When the study revealed that the cost of this undertaking would be much greater than anticipated, the project was abandoned. The only thing to come out of it was a typed transcription of Volume III, amounting to over six hundred pages. Prepared by Ruth McIntyre and Juliette Tomlinson, this transcript was microfilmed and distributed to libraries and interested scholars. Since funds from other sources were not forthcoming to continue a complete transcription of all seven Account Books, it was decided that the best method by which to make the material available was to abstract a series of excerpts from the volumes and publish them with an introduction. In this way users would be able to have an idea of the variety of the material in the manuscripts. This volume, with some editorial modifications, incorporates the selections that were chosen.
The excerpts were taken from six of the seven books. Only Volume IV was omitted, because its entries were short and because it did not really belong with the other six. The largest number of selections deal with the trade in furs and with the West Indies, the latter being a unique example for the inland trade. In these excerpts are found Pynchon’s trading agreements with his agents and the amount of peltry he shipped to England. His West Indian contacts include the shipping of goods to Barbados and Jamaica, as well as his ill-fated attempt to establish a plantation on the island of Antigua. There are a number of land transactions comprising accounts of the settlement of the towns of Hadley, Northampton, Deerfield, and other valley areas, as well as rentals to individuals. The building of the Meeting House, the House of Correction, Pynchon’s own house, and various warehouses and barns gives an idea of the different types of construction in the settlements. They also spell out the dimensions and kinds of material used. Lists of goods, furnishings, and household items sold in the valley suggest that the settlers had a wider choice of things to buy than had been previously realized. The section devoted to Pynchon’s industrial ventures covers his different saw and grain mills and the lead mines at Tantiusque (Sturbridge). The Account Books contain little about Pynchon’s role as a colonial official beyond indicating how he was reimbursed for his expenses in this capacity.
The original ledgers are set up on a conventional credit and debit basis. In order to follow the balancing of individual accounts, it is usually necessary to examine credit and debit items that appear on opposite sides of pages in the original manuscript. The additions in the accounts are left as Pynchon added them, even when his totals appear to be incorrect. Throughout, every effort has been made to render transcriptions that reflect the original manuscripts exactly. We have, however, adopted a standard form for all dates and for all monetary transactions, the latter being expressed in pounds (li), shillings (s), and pence (d). When material was written and then crossed out in the original, it has been included in the printed text in brackets with an asterisk. The index at the end of the volume is of names only; when different versions of the spelling of an individual’s name occur, these variations are included after the main entry in parentheses.
To help the reader understand the text more easily, three glossaries have been prepared by Carl Bridenbaugh: (I) a list of abbreviations found in the Account Books; (2) a list of the different kinds of furs traded in by Pynchon; and (3) a list of the different kinds of fabrics traded in by Pynchon. The reader is urged to study these glossaries before starting on the text itself. The chronologies found in Volume I of The Pynchon Papers (xv–xxvi) should also be helpful in many ways. Brief introductions precede sections II to XIII of the selections; for section I on the fur trade, Ruth McIntyre’s important essay on that subject has been used as the introduction.
The editors’ intent in adding footnotes has been to identify as many as possible of the individuals whom John Pynchon dealt with. Some of the footnotes are explanations of obscure terms, puzzling parts of the text, and similar matters. The endpaper map has been drawn to show New England and New York in their geographical relation to Springfield, which is placed in the center. The frontispiece reproduces in facsimile a page from one of the Account Books so as to give some idea of the difficulty of reading the original manuscript.
It does not seem possible that this work started thirty years ago. During this time many people, too numerous to mention individually, have been interested in its progress. However, two of them should be acknowledged. The late Dr. William B. Kirkham, for many years President of the Springfield Library and Museums Association, never failed to show interest and consideration for the project that were most encouraging. Dr. Ruth McIntyre was involved in the enterprise from the beginning, and only illness prevented her from playing a more prominent role.
The editors’ purpose has been to make available to a wider audience a substantial portion of this seldom used historical source. It is hoped that these excerpts will serve as a challenge to students who wish to tackle the manuscripts themselves. The contents of the Account Books are of vast importance to anyone interested in the history of the English colonies during the last half of the seventeenth century, for sources for that period are unusually scarce. While Volume I of The Pynchon Papers contains a number of the letters of John Pynchon, that correspondence is mainly political and military in character and focuses on his career as a colonial administrator. As a complement to the first volume, Volume II provides an insight into Pynchon’s mercantile ventures, and is a mine of information about early New England, especially about the role John Pynchon played as the most prominent entrepreneur in the Connecticut Valley during the seventeenth century.
CARL BRIDENBAUGH
JULIETTE TOMLINSON
Providence, Rhode Island
Northampton, Massachusetts
June 1985
1 It was the intention of Miss McIntyre to make a full-dress study of John Pynchon’s business and civic activities before a serious illness ended her project. She did, however, show what can be deduced from sources such as these accounts by resourceful and imaginative research in the first draft of her investigation of the fur trade. Roberta and Carl Bridenbaugh have edited this fragment for clarity and style, but have carefully refrained from altering the meaning of anything the author wrote or intended to include in a revision. They have made only such slight changes as any editor would make in a second draft. Although Miss McIntyre wrote her piece several decades ago, the editor firmly believes that it is destined to become the standard treatment of the fur trade of western Massachusetts.
The author cited the original manuscripts at Springfield in her footnotes, and the editor has sought to avoid confusion by leaving the references as she wrote them, rather than cite the extracts given in the present volume.
The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and especially those of us associated with The Pynchon Papers, applaud the superb scholarship of Miss McIntyre and her graciousness in offering her notes and writings for use in this volume.
2 Sylvester Judd, “The Fur Trade on Connecticut River in the Seventeenth Century,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xi (1857), 217–219; Samuel E. Morison, “William Pynchon, Founder of Springfield,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, lxiv (1930–1932), 67–107; Francis X. Moloney, The Fur Trade in New England, 1620–1676 (Cambridge, 1931), 29–63; Bernard Bailyn, The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1955), 53–55, are the principal early accounts of William Pynchon’s trading activities. An important, work (still unpublished) is William I. Roberts, “The Fur Trade of New England in the Seventeenth Century,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1958; and the most authoritative study [Ed.] is Ruth A. McIntyre, William Pynchon: Merchant and Trader (Springfield, 1962).
3Records of the Court of Assistants of Massachusetts Bay, ed. John Noble (Boston, 1901–1928), 11, 23, 27; Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff (Boston, 1853–1854), 1, 100, 136, 140, 179; Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, series 2, viii, 231; Morison, “William Pynchon,” 74n., notes that £120 would pay for 400 pounds of beaver, but a typographical error makes 12s. the rate per pound.
4Records of Massachusetts Bay, 1, 179. About this time, Connecticut offered Pynchon a monopoly of the fur trade around Springfield but, as an English gentleman, he replied: “I cannot see how it will stand with the public good and the liberty of freemen to make a monopoly of trade. . . . I hope the Lord in his mercy will keep me from coveting any unlawful gain: or [consenting to] any man’s hindrance where God does not hinder them.” Public Records of Colony of Connecticut, ed. J. Hammond Trumbull and Charles J. Hoadly (Hartford, 1850), 1, 20; Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, lviii (1924–1925), 388, Pynchon to Robert Ludlow, 19 January 1637/8; Morison, “William Pynchon,” 83. Before Pynchon quarreled with Connecticut, he may have agreed to pay a tax of one shilling per pound of beaver. Winthrop Papers (Boston, 1947), v, 143.
5 Mason A. Green, Springfield, History of Town and City, 1636–1886 (Springfield, 1888), vi; Records of Massachusetts Bay, 1, 118. For examples of the sale of prohibited items to the Indians, see Records of the Court of Assistants, 11, 27, 106. For Springfield’s ordinance, see Henry M. Burt, The First Century of Springfield. The Official Record from 1636 to 1736 (Springfield, 1898), 1, 165.
6Records of Massachusetts Bay, 1, 322–323; 11, 31, 44.
7 Moloney, Fur Trade in New England, 97–98. Hawthorne was among those selected by Massachusetts to consider the company scheme. After it failed, he was one of a group which petitioned for a monopoly of the fur trade in new parts of Massachusetts, 50 miles from any existing plantation. Moloney, 99; Records of Massachusetts Bay, 11, 117.
8 William Pynchon Accounts, kept in both his own hand and that of John, form part of the Judd Manuscript, Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass. They begin about 1645 and run through 1650. Although almost no beaver skins are mentioned, inasmuch as they list chiefly goods supplied to settlers along the river, extensive Indian traffic may be inferred from the large amounts of wampum strung during those years. For example, William Pynchon Accounts (Ms. unpaged; brackets indicate author’s paging), [1], [3], [5], [6], [11], [88], [158]. Morison did not seem to know of these accounts, and Bailyn, New England Merchants, 55, 231, makes little use of them.
9 Simeon E. Baldwin, “The Secession of Springfield from Connecticut,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xii, 79–81; Records of Massachusetts Bay, 1, 323–324; 11, 44, 124; Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, ed. David Pulsifer (Boston, 1855–1859), ix, 21, 150f. For Hopkins, see Winthrop Papers, iii, 204, 213, 389/438.
10Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, ed. William H. Whitmore (Boston, 1889), 161; Records of Massachusetts Bay, iii, 208; Records of Plymouth, ix, 171–173, 176, 177, 178, 179. For other grievances of the Dutch against Pynchon, see section on the Albany trade below.
11 The fragment of the Treasurer’s accounts for 1650–1654 shows no receipt of fees for the beaver trade. Massachusetts Archives, C, 52. Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence, ed. J. Franklin Jameson, Original Narratives of Early American History (New York, 1910), 237. For Johnson’s credibility, see Jameson, 6, 9.
12 New Hampshire Historical Society, Collections, iii, 96; Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 1, 354. The effective date of the agreement with the fur traders was to be July 1657, but the General Court did not approve it and did not order it to be recorded until late in 1658. For the Indian situation, see George Sheldon, “The Pocumtuck Confederacy,” in The Connecticut Valley Indian[s]: An Introduction to Their Archaeology and History, ed. William P. Young (Springfield, 1969), Appendix iii, 112–121.
13 Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 1, 291–292. The stopping of the liquor traffic seems to be the chief objective in this measure. See ibid., iii, 425–426.
14 Massachusetts Archives, G, 66–75. In 1659 the amount for the beaver trade in the Treasurer’s accounts was not recorded.
15 Accounts rendered 28 May 1664 in Massachusetts Archives, C, 93–103; also in Massachusetts Historical Society, Photostats. Pynchon’s absence on a trip to England from the fall of 1663 to the summer of 1664 may explain these lowered payments.
16 Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 2, 364–365, 366, 398–399. Way was to pay annually £600 for the farm. Richard Way was a merchant who owned a ware-house and part of a wharf in Boston. Records of the Suffolk County Court, 1671–1680, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications xxix–xxx (1933), I, 244; Suffolk Deeds, ed. W. B. Trask (Boston, 1880–1906), v, 211; Suffolk County Court Files (Supreme Judicial Court, Boston), 909. He also retailed liquor and served as attorney in several cases involving property settlements. Records of the Suffolk County Court, passim.
17 Massachusetts Archives, C, passim.
18 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 307, 308–309, 225–226. The Parsons agreement is on page 330, and is reproduced in Burt, First Century of Springfield, 11, 618, and Burt, Cornet Joseph Parsons (Garden City, N.Y., 1898), 16. The Webb agreement probably did not go into effect, for it is marked “Void” at the foot of it. Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 331; Burt, Parsons, 16–17.
19 John Pynchon, Account Book, iii, 5, 7. The wording of the passage permitting flexibility is obscure. It seems to mean that Pynchon and Parsons would share proportionately in the payment of the license fee to the colony, according to the trade of each.
20 John Pynchon, Account Book, ii, 6, 340–342; iii, 214; ii, 84, 266, 300. Field paid, for example, £1 for trading 80 skins, which amounted to 3d. per pelt.
21 John Pynchon, Account Book, ii, 15–17, 18 (August 1662, at the rate of 3d. per skin). His liberty for three years prior to 1668 cost him £4.
22 John Pynchon, Account Book, iii, 246. For Waite’s lack of compliance, see above, 17.
23 The item for Deacon Daniel Hovey reads as follows: “I allowing him to trade with the Indians, he paying for it as I do, 6d. per skin.” Hovey received small quantities of trading goods and paid with the beaver he collected. William Pritchard paid a total of £3 5s. in license fees from 1670 to 1674. John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part 1, 322 (4 November 1670), 323, 328.
24 John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part 1, 268. A similar arrangement probably gave rise to David Wilton’s payment of £6 10s. in 1664. In this case, however, Wilton must have paid the amount to John Pynchon, Jr., who handled his father’s business in Boston at this time; he repaid it to his father. John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, 1669–1674 (Connecticut Valley Historical Museum), [89], [134].
25 Joseph H. Smith, in Colonial Justice in Western Massachusetts (1639–1702): The Pynchon Court Record (Cambridge, 1961), deals brilliantly with John Pynchon’s judicial career and with the legal aspects of the following lawsuits.
26 Smith, Colonial Justice, 41–42, 44, 63.
27 Hampshire County Probate Court Record, 1, 8, 11, cited by Smith, Colonial Justice, 122. Where Sackett obtained his trading goods is a mystery, for his account with Pynchon shows no significant quantity. Account Book, 11, 44, 45.
28 Whitmore, Colonial Laws of Massachusetts, 75.
29 Hampshire County Waste Book (Connecticut Valley Historical Museum), [51], [61].
30 Hampshire County Probate Court Record, 1, 119.
31 This appeal seems to have been without result. Hampshire County Waste Book, [75].
32 Hampshire County Waste Book, [129]. Proceedings against Westcarr are summarized in Sylvester Judd, History of Hadley (Springfield, 1905), 64–65.
33 Judd Manuscript, 1, 40.
34 Smith, Colonial Justice, 122, 145–146n.
35 The fullest account of this topic is in Ronald O. MacFarlane, “Indian Relations in New England, 1620–1760: A Study of a Regulated Frontier,” Ph.D thesis, Harvard University, 1933, Chapter ii. This author relied mainly on the colony records and official sources for Essex County; he produced an interesting, but different, interpretation of certain points of detail.
36 Morison, “William Pynchon,” 90.
37 Winthrop Papers, iii, 286, 4 July 1636.
38 Green, Springfield, 25–26, 55; Harry A. Wright, The Story of Western Massachusetts (New York, 1949), 1, 145–146; Indian Deeds of Hampden County, Harry A. Wright, ed. (Springfield, 1905), 12; Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, xlviii (1914), 42–43. For example, he described the best season for trading skins as being when the snow fell at the beginning of winter. Green, Springfield, 32.
39 Green, Springfield, 26; Winthrop Papers, iv, 296 (1640); v, 271. While he was helping to keep his father’s accounts, young John made notes on the Indian system of naming months. William Pynchon Accounts, [4]. These have been transcribed by Wright, Story of Western Massachusetts, 1, 253.
40 Green, Springfield, 10, 11, 45, et passim; William Pynchon Accounts, [8].
41 William Pynchon Accounts, [21]; John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 78; Moloney, Fur Trade in New England, 52.
42 William Pynchon Accounts, [198], [215].
43 Map, reproduced in Narratives of New Netherlands 1609–1664., ed. J. Franklin Jameson, Original Narratives of Early American History (New York, 1910), facing 294, and in Henry A. Wright and Charles DeForest, Early Maps of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts (Springfield, 1911) as Van der Donck’s Map of the Connecticut Valley, 1650. In 1648 the General Court referred to the warehouse as near the Springfield boundary. Records of Massachusetts Bay, 11, 227.
44 William Pynchon Accounts, [147]. [James] Johnson, another Boston merchant, paid debts for Pynchon. Winthrop Papers, iv, 331.
45 William Pynchon Accounts, [47], [55], [66], [68], [92], [134], [147], [178]; Winthrop Papers, v, 163, 311.
46 Fragment of account of William Pynchon, 9 June 1646, numbered 112 (in possession of Mr. Harrison B. Clapp of Springfield, by whose kind permission it has been used).
47 See Constance M. Green, “New England Confederation,” in Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, ed. Albert B. Hart (New York, 1927–1928), 1, 237–240.
48 Moloney, Fur Trade in New England, 60, seems to base it upon Edward Johnson’s statement of 1650, quoted on above, 10.
49 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 79, 152, 306.
50 William Pynchon Accounts, [19], [154], [174], [216].
51 Burt, Cornet Joseph Parsons, 15; John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 26, 306.
52 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 152.
53 William I. Roberts, “The Fur Trade of New England,” 52.
54 Roger Williams, Key to the Indian Language, Rhode Island Historical Society, Collections, 1, (1827), 106, 107. This tract and other sources make clear that Indians already used a variety of European goods.
55 Cooper’s accounts, in John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 79–82, 220–223, 308, 325–327. It is much more difficult to establish which goods William Pynchon dealt in with the natives. A random examination of his daybook shows an enormous variety of English goods, but the biggest purchasers, among them the Reverend Mr. Moxon, obviously bought for their own consumption such items as shoes, stockings, ribbons, gloves, fine Holland cloth, and paper. Also the many varieties of cloth, such as kersey, tammy, red Manchesters, bays, and red cotton were usually sold in small quantities as if for the use of the settler who bought them. William Pynchon Accounts, [1] et seq.
56 Williams, Key, 107; John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 218–219; also in Wright, Story of Western Massachusetts, 1, 254–256. Probably a sachem was more likely to buy ready-made clothing, whereas the mantle of cloth mentioned by Williams was more commonly used. In 1646 William Pynchon had a tailor make 53 Indian coats. William Pynchon Accounts, [111], [112]. Thomas Stebbins made large quantities of waistcoats, caps, and stockings from material supplied by John Pynchon. John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 91. One “Broad Essex Shag Coat, of 1 yard and 3 quarters and more” was given to an Agawam Indian in payment for a parcel of meadowland; 10 coats were part payment for Pynchon’s purchase of land later deeded to Northampton. Indian Deeds of Hampden County, 24, 27.
57 In these days shoes wore out very quickly, if they were worn regularly. John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 324.
58 Williams, Key, 51, 130.
59 Douglas E. Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk (New York, 1958), 2, 20.
60 Curiously, the Jew’s harp was a prime trading item sought by the Indians throughout American history until 1900, at least. [Ed.]
61 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 78, 79, 326. Cooper was skilled at stringing wampum, for Pynchon reimbursed him for this service. William Pynchon Accounts, [3], [5], [6], [11], [21], [88], [157], [158], [159], [193], [201], [206], for examples of wampum transactions. For the Stephen Day instance, see Winthrop Papers, iv, 495. Perhaps it should be mentioned that Robert Linscott in “The Money-maker,” American Heritage (February 1960), wrote about Pynchon’s wampum dealings. He made several misleading statements, the most serious being that William Pynchon “made” shell money, whereas his accounts show merely the stringing of wampum. This act certainly did not make it “mass-produced, if somewhat bogus wampum. . . .”
62 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 80; 11, 218.
63 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 49.
64 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 48, 49.
65 The woolen cloth alone included northern, Devonshire, and Hampshire kerseys in such colors as red, green, olive, and steel gray; peniston; duffel; and best Taunton serge. Satin ribbons, silk and crewel lace, and breast and coat buttons and even buttons of gold could hardly have been part of his Indian stock. John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 15, 16.
66 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 18, 19. Wilton paid for a seat in the Windsor meetinghouse in January 1660/1. During the summer his payments to Pynchon were mostly in agricultural products, presumably raised in Windsor, or secured there in exchange for English goods. On 7 November he bought an “Ensign or pair of colours, staff, tassel and top,” which must have been for the new trainband of Northampton, even though Wilton was not formally chosen ensign until 26 March 1661. Henry R. Stiles, History of Windsor (New York, 1959), 150; James R. Trumbull, History of Northampton (Northampton, 1898), 1, 79, 99, 109. Trumbull has Wilton settling at Northampton in both 1659 and 1660.
67 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 18, 366; 111, 200.
68 Burt, Cornet Joseph Parsons, 15, 23, 18–42 (where the accounts are transcribed with reasonable accuracy); John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 306; 11, 3–7. The same trader, like Wilton, stocked the following goods for English customers: a parcel of waistcoats, petticoats, and “gounds,” children’s hats, several sizes of women’s stockings, purl lace and tammy, bays, and calicoes of different shades.
69 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 340, 346.
70 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 6.
71 Williams, Key, 128.
72 Winthrop Papers, 111, 82. There is a good discussion of the types of furs and their uses in Roberts, “Fur Trade of New England,” 68; see also Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada (New Haven, 1950), 10–11, 132.
73 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 78, 221.
74 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 318–323; 11, 367ff.
75 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 225, 244.
76 William Pynchon Accounts, Judd Manuscript, [57/41]; William B. Weeden, Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization (Baltimore, 1882), 22; Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England (Boston, 1891), 11, 877–879. Careful price research, taking account of the quality of skins, place traded, and dates, will avoid such statements as that made by Judd, History of Hadley, 347, about Pynchon’s beaver: “Most of these skins may have been worth about 8 shillings sterling in England.”
77 The calculations are based on the accounts of these traders in the first three volumes of the John Pynchon Account Book. As elsewhere in the totals, fractions of ½ or above are counted as a whole number.
78 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 318–323; 11, 367–371; 111, 320–321; v, part 2, 550. This record was summarized in part by Sylvester Judd in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xi (1857), 217–219.
79 Davis had received the furs sent down from New Haven on William Pynchon’s account. Fragment of an account of William Pynchon, 9 June 1646. John Pynchon subsequently shared ownership of a warehouse with Davis. Suffolk Deeds, x, 202.
80 John Pynchon, Account Book, III, 87; 11, 325, 124.
81 A single instance in the first ledger book, when the beaver trade was flourishing, is conspicuous: Rowland Thomas was given credit for carrying “corn, meal, and beaver” to John Gallup, a New London coaster who took some of Pynchon’s grain to Boston. John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 10, 73.
82 This information is obtained from the John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, 1669–1674 (Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Springfield; photostat in Connecticut State Library).
83 This information is obtained from the John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, 1669–1674 (Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Springfield; photostat in Connecticut State Library).
84 This information is obtained from the John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, 1669–1674 (Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Springfield; photostat in Connecticut State Library).
85 This information is in John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part 2, 550.
86 William Davis and Henry Shrimpton were agents for Carwithen, and in 1653 were appointed by the General Court to recover after his death. Records of Massachusetts Bay, 111, 322.
87 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 320; “Diaries of John Hull,” American Antiquarian Society, Transactions, 111 (1857), 146, 147, 149, 174, 184. Garret’s ship was believed lost at sea in 1657, and at first Hull thought himself deprived of another £120 worth of goods until “the Lord made up my last goods . . . by his own secret blessing.” Theodore Atkinson’s shipment by Garret apparently did arrive. Records of the Suffolk County Court, part 1, 55, 56.
88 Twice he jotted down items “Sent by the States’ ships” in 1654. John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 321.
89 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 3. John Hull noted that Garret, Jonas Clarke, and Robert Lock, a captain Pynchon used again in 1658, sailed 24 October 1656. Their vessels, carrying most of the “returns of the country” for the year, reached England safely after a voyage lasting about a month. “Diaries of John Hull,” 179.
90 Woodgreen’s ship carried a letter from John Winthrop, Jr., and probably brought his son back to New England in 1661. Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, series 5, viii, 72, 267. The risk of frequent capture is shown by Winthrop’s loss of the sugar in Gillam’s ship to Dutch privateers in 1665. John Winthrop, Letters Relating to Connecticut (Connecticut State Library), [138], [146].
91 John Pynchon, Account Book, III, 284.
92 John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, [72], [148 reversed]; John Hull, Letter Book, Typescript, American Antiquarian Society, 28, 32, 38, 40; John Hull, Account Book, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 17, 31, 48. References to Greenough are scattered through these sources, for his ship was one of those most frequently used to convey Hull’s own returns, he being one of the owners. Records of the Suffolk County Court, part 1, 422, 461–462. The other links between the shipping of Hull and the Pynchons had to do with the West Indies trade.
93 Harry A. Wright, The Genesis of Springfield (Springfield, 1936), 28
94 On family, religious, and group trading arrangements in general, see Carl Bridenbaugh, Fat Mutton and Liberty of Conscience: Society in Rhode Island, 1636–1690 (Providence, 1974), 70–72 [Ed.].
95 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 312, 320, 322, 323; 11, 367, 369.
96 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlviii (1894), 255
97 Mr. Bridge of London and his partners refused to release any of John Pynchon’s money in their hands without a special order to replace the one formerly belonging to William Pynchon. Ms. letter, Henry Smith to John Pynchon, 20 February 1662/3 (City Library Association, Springfield). “Brother Smith” who had followed William to England, may also have kept as investment in New England; twice he received returns in furs. John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 322, 323.
98 Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, series 5, vm, 67, 19 September 1660.
99 Joseph Pynchon’s teacher in Cambridge, Thomas Beale, for example, was to receive credit for 23 pounds of beaver in 1656. Joseph, John Pynchon’s second son, had been sent to board with Beale two years before. John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 3, 323.
100 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 368. It is puzzling that even when the shipment of 1661 was sent to a new set of English partners, the designation on the hogshead, “T M,” was still used.
101 T. G. Barker, The Girdlers Company (London, 1957), 167, 168; New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlviii (1894), 255. Wickins was also charged with concluding the business of a bill of exchange of a Virginia planter which Pynchon must have held. Henry Smith to John Pynchon, 20 February 1662/3.
102 Before leaving England after completing his mission to secure the Connecticut charter in 1663, Winthrop bought two trunks of haberdashery worth nearly £50, which he evidently planned to sell in New England. Winthrop Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, xx, 31, 32. Wickins wrote from the “Meremayd in Milk-streete,” where he must have conducted Pynchon’s business.
103 John Winthrop, Letters Relating to Connecticut, [396], 20 October 1664; Winthrop Papers, xx, 32, 28 May 1667. Pynchon’s account with Wickins could serve to pay local debts owed to him, as when Samuel Wyllys of Hartford received credit on his account because his brother in England had paid £20 to Wickins. John Pynchon, Account Book, III, 293.
104 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 371; John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book,[148].
105 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 322; 11, 367. Henry Ashurst, a woolen draper of London, was well known as sympathetic to the Puritan colonists. He eventually became Treasurer of the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel, an alderman, and a knight. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial (America and West Indies), 1661–1668, nos. 33, 88, 223. John Winthrop, Jr., corresponded with Ashurst about goods sent over to him and John Paine for some scheme that proved disappointing. John Winthrop, Letters Relating to Connecticut, [399], [411], [412], [313]. He also traded with Hull. John Hull, Letter Book, 159, 179.
106 Mr. Bekingham was one of the Bridges partners. John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 370. Neither he nor Bridges has been satisfactorily identified.
107 During John Pynchon’s absence, too, others may have conducted trading for him and kept the records. John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 370; m, 320; John Winthrop, Letters Relating to Connecticut, [396], 20 October 1664.
108 John Pynchon, Account Book, III, 284, 285. It is curious that Collier’s is the sole account of these London merchants which is entered in this set of ledgers. Other books, now lost, must have contained the details of dealings with the other merchants.
109 John Pynchon, Account Book, III, 320; John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book,
110 John Pynchon, Account Book, in, 321; Suffolk Deeds, vi, [124], [238–239].
111 John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, [88], [89]. Meriwether, a haberdasher, was a Puritan sympathizer whose losses delayed payment. Calendar of State Papers, 1661–1668, no. 440. He sold some hats to John Winthrop, Jr., John Winthrop, Letters Relating to Connecticut, [138], [398].
112 John Pynchon, Jr., Account Book, [88], [89], [147]; John Pynchon, Account Book, in, 320. Captain William Mead, a wealthy linen draper and famed as a Quaker who ultimately stood trial with William Penn, marketed cloth and other goods in New England. John Hull bought various kinds of goods from him, for which he paid in moose skins. Records of the Suffolk County Court, part 1, 36–43; part II, John Hull, Account Book, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 82; John Hull, Letter Book, 40.
113 Records of the Suffolk County Court, part 1, 55–56; John Hull, Letter Book, 83, 89, 114.
114 See above, 35, note 4. An independent review of totals reveals that Judd’s calculations contain some inaccuracies.
115 John Winthrop, Letters Relating to Connecticut, [315], [396]. Commotion among the Indians was given as a reason for Pynchon’s paying a reduced license fee in 1657. Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 1, 354. For other possible factors, see the section on trade with Albany. For an interpretation of the figures in the broader context of the seventeenth-century fur trade in various colonies, see the unpublished work of William I. Roberts, cited previously, above, 4–5, note 1.
116 Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, ed. E. B. O’Callaghan (Albany, 1881), xiii, 27.
117 George T. Hunt, The Wars of the Iroquois (Madison, 1940), 33–34, 53, 63, 74; Harold A. Innis, “Interrelations between the Fur Trade of Canada and the United States,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, xx (1933), 322.
118 Hunt, Wars of the Iroquois, 170–171; New York Colonial Documents, xiii, 35–36.
119 Van Rensselaer-Bouwier Manuscripts, ed. A. F. J. Van Laer (Albany, 1908), 483–484. A memorial of 1649 to the States General stated the prior Dutch discovery and claim to the Fresh River. Narratives of New Netherland, 309.
120 Just where this post stood cannot be precisely determined. It has been claimed that it referred to one built near Redhook, Dutchess County, which New Haven traders denied they had approached. New York Colonial Documents, xiii, 21; xiv, 77. The editor’s note that it was Springfield seems unlikely by 1646. Jameson evidently identified the location with Hopkins’ post at Woronoco (Westfield). Narratives of New Netherland, 305m, but by 1647, at least, Woronoco was under Springfield, and thus not under Hopkins. John H. Lockwood, Westfield and Its Historic Influences (Springfield, 1922), 1, 56.
121 Records of Plymouth, ix, 171–173, 23 September 1650.
122 New York Colonial Documents, xiii, 35.
123 Narratives of New Netherlands facing 294. It is shown on the map of Jasper Danckaerts (1650), reproduced in I. N. Phelps Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island (New York, 1915), 1, 143. Nicholas Visscher copied Danckaerts’ map for use in the 2nd edition of Adriaen Van der Donck’s Beschryvinge van Nieu-Nederlant (Amsterdam, 1656). Jameson reproduced this map in Narratives of New Netherlands facing 294. Van der Donck remarked upon the English occupation of lands on the river, but reasserted the Dutch claim to the interior lands.
124 John Pynchon, Account Book, 1, 221, 321.
125 Pynchon and one of his subtraders, Joseph Parsons, were in touch with the Dutch in 1658; whether it was on a matter of business or politics is not known. A leading sachem of Nolwotogg, Chickwallop, made a “journey to the Dutch,” for which he was paid sometime before 12 January 1658/9. John Pynchon, Account Book, ii, 7.
126 In 1645 Hawthorne had a part in the company seeking a charter to discover the “great lakes.” Bailyn, New England Merchants, 53.
127 Arthur H. Buffinton, “New England and the Western Fur Trade,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xviii (1915–1916), 1763–178; Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, 1657–1660 (Albany, 1923), 208. Hawthorne had defended Pynchon’s father in 1651 when he was accused of heretical doctrine. Bailyn, New England Merchants, 108.
128 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 47, 95, 113, 137.
129 Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 2, 395.
130 Winthrop Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi, 137.
131 New York Colonial Documents, xiii, 107, 126, 129, 150. A letter reported that Stuyvesant had said that the Dutch traders would cut off his head if he granted it. John Davenport to John Winthrop, Jr., 20 April 1660, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, series 4, vii, 512.
132 Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 1, 438, 439; extended for two years in 1662; Buffinton, “New England and the Western Fur Trade,” 178–181.
133 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 259, 325, 355. If Lake would not agree to reimburse Pynchon for his own goods sent to Dodge, the latter would have to pay to Pynchon direct. For the location of Ausatinnoag, see Wright, Western Massachusetts, 1, 309. In 1661 Hawthorne received a grant of land to compensate him because official duties as a magistrate for Salem and Marblehead had led to “the dimunition of his estate.” Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 2, 15.
134 Shipped 19 August 1661. John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 136, 367, 370.
135 See Sheldon, “Pocumtuck Confederacy,” 112–121; Calendar of Historical Manuscripts, Dutch (Albany, 1855), part 1, 307.
136 New York Colonial Documents, ii, 253; Peter Wraxall, An Abridgement of Indian Affairs, ed. Charles H. Mcllwain (Cambridge, 1915), xv, xxxix, xlii.
137 Even after the Governor changed the form of Albany’s government in 1686, the control of the fur trade remained in local hands. McIlwain, Wraxalls Abridgement, liv, lvii. See also Arthur H. Buffinton, “The Policy of Albany and English Westward Expansion,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, viii (1922), 328–329, 331, 334, for the Albany restricting of the fur trade.
138 New Tork Colonial Documents, xiii, 458, 22 October 1670.
139 For Thomas Cooper as one of Pynchon’s subagents in the fur trade, see above, 24–28.
140 John Pynchon, Account Book, m, 51, 8 October 1666. As an intermediary, Cooper also paid Pynchon £1 for Captain William Parker of Albany.
141 Minutes of the Court of Albany, Rensselaerswyck, and Schenectady, 1675–1680, ed. A. J. F. Van Laer (Albany, 1928), 11, 411, 421. The bond, dated 16 June 1666, was under suit in 1675 and 1679.
142 John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 51, 151, 331; 111, 13. Parker visited Springfield in 1666. Winthrop Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi, 51, 141. During this summer there was negotiation with nearby Indians about making peace with the Mohawks. Pynchon credited a beaver from Parker on the same day as Thomas Cooper had a reckoning with the merchant, 8 October 1666. Cooper paid Pynchon £1 in Parker’s behalf. Perhaps Cooper and Marshall had just returned from a trip to Albany. John Bissell received credit for £12 9s. for Captain Parker the same day. Parker is also referred to as a sergeant. Minutes Court of Albany, i, 69 and elsewhere.
143 Pynchon sued successfully to recover this debt in 1675, using Timothy Cooper as plaintiff in his behalf; but no payment had been made by 1679. John Pynchon, Account Book, II, 20, 387–388.
144 John Pynchon, Account Book, III, 16, 17. My reading from this cramped item from the microfilmed transcript, 36, was not correct, Parker there appearing as “Porke.” John Pynchon, Jr., had probably just come from Albany when the reckoning was made on 18 April 1668. Account Book, in, 199.
145 Minutes Court of Albany, 11, 170. Baker had used Parker as surety for £14. Baker denied owing Pynchon anything and produced a receipt dated 7 October 1667. Further action on this case (Parker v. Baker) is in Early Records of the City and County of Albany and Rensselaerswyck, ed. Jonathan Pearson (Albany, 1869), 1, 145. Pynchon referred to corresponding with Baker in 1666. Winthrop Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, xvi, 142, 144. For Baker’s duties, see Minutes Court of Albany, 1, 45m; Minutes of the Executive Council of the Province of New Tork (Albany, 1910), 11, 387–390
146 John Pynchon, Account Book, iii, 61, 226, 227, 321; v, part i, 252. Joachim Wesselsen or Wessels, a baker, signed himself on one occasion as “Jochem, baker.” This may be Pynchon’s Yacom Baker. Early Records of Albany, iii, 78.
147 For Holtman, see John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part i, and Index; Livingston-Redmond Mss. (Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park), John Pynchon to Gerrit Van Slichtenhorst, 12 December 1673 (courtesy of Dr. Lawrence Leder). For Pynchon’s payment to Timothy Cooper for his journey to Northampton about this matter, see John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part i, 85.
148 John to Joseph Pynchon, 4 November 1671, The Pynchon Papers, i, “Letters of John Pynchon,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, lx, 99–101.
149 The wording of the grant of trading privileges—“the privilege of the trade with the natives in these western parts of this colony, without prohibition of any sort of goods, things, or whatever is necessary and allowed to be traded at Albany . . .”—suggests that Massachusetts would permit the trade in firearms and liquor to be regulated according to the rules prevailing in New York. Bufhnton, “New England and the Western Fur Trade,” 183–187, 192; Records of Massachusetts Bay, iv, part 2, 558.
150 John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part i, 85, 193, 305; v, part 2, 410, 411; Buffinton, “New England and the Western Fur Trade,” 187, did not know of these entries.
151 Paine was plagued by debts occasioned in part by his interest in the ironworks at Saugus. At his death, his son had to settle an insolvent estate. See E. N. Hartley, Ironworks on the Saugus (Norman, Okla., 1957), 258, 260–261; Records of the Suffolk County Court, 11, 755, 798–799.
152 John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part 2, 476–477. This agreement was first described by Lawrence H. Leder and Vincent P. Garosso, “Robert Livingston (1654–1728): Business Man of Colonial New York,” Business History Review, xxx (1956), 22n.
153 Pynchon did not give the first names of Usher and Sargent, but it is safe to assume that they were the prominent Boston merchants of those names. Pynchon did not secure these goods direct from England, but through the Boston middlemen. He noted that he kept track of some of them in a separate pocket-book. John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part 2, 476.
154 John Pynchon, Account Book, part 2, 431; Minutes Court of Albany, 11, 12.
155 Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk, 86, 88; Minutes Court of Albany, n, 26.
156 Pynchon’s retirement lasted only two years; he was back again with additional military responsibilities. Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk, 96.
157 John Pynchon, Account Book, v, part 2, 431, 476.
158 See “Letters of John Pynchon,” 1, 178–311; Leder, “Robert Livingston,” 22–24; and notes citing Livingston-Redmond Mss., letters of Timothy Cooper to Livingston, 2 October 1678; Elizur Holyoke to Livingston, 3 October 1678, 8 May 1679, 20 October 1680. Copies supplied by Professor Leder in Connecticut Valley Historical Museum. Smith, Colonial Justice, 43–59, 99–102, treats Pynchon’s civil and diplomatic tasks in some detail.
159 Goodman Thomas Cooper of Springfield: trainband officer, local official, later deputy to the General Court, customer and business associate of John Pynchon. Lieutenant Cooper was killed by the Agawam Indians during their attack on Springfield, 5 October 1675. His son Timothy was Pynchon’s partner in a fur-trading venture at Albany. See Pynchon Papers, I, index, and Ruth McIntyre’s introduction in the present section. Cooper was by occupation a fur trader, carpenter, and farmer, according to Stephen Innes, A Patriarchal Society: Economic Dependency and Social Order in Springfield, Massachusetts, 1636–1702 (Ann Arbor, 1977), 208–209. In appendices this author supplies useful biographical details about more than two hundred male inhabitants of seventeenth-century Springfield. Unless otherwise noted, all identifications in this volume are taken from the Innes book.
160 Reice (Reyce) Bedertha (Bedortha): freeman and inhabitant of Springfield, served John Pynchon as a riverman on many occasions; he was also a carter. In 1653 the Pynchon Court fined him for smoking on his haycock.
161 Miles Morgan: Welshman, farmer and carter for Pynchon.
162 Henry Smith, the brother-in-law of John Pynchon, followed William back to England in 1653. Elizur Holyoke: a substantial resident of Springfield and a participant in and witness of John Pynchon’s will of 1663. See Pynchon Papers, I, 49, 118, note 3.
163 John Mathews of Springfield was occasionally employed by John Pynchon as a messenger.
164 David Chapin: possibly a son of Deacon Samuel Chapin of Springfield; apparently a carpenter or other craftsman.
165 Suckling pigs: milk-fed and suitable for roasting whole.
166 Wampam, wampum, wampumpeag, peag, peagu: shell money, consisting of cylindrical beads fashioned by the Indians of Long Island, coastal Connecticut, and the Narragansett Bay region. The shells of quahaugs (hardshell clams), whelk, and periwinkle were used to make the white variety, and for the black or “blew” kind the violet area of the quahaugs. Goodman Cooper had the beads strung in fathoms—roughly the length of outstretched arms, hence six feet. John Pynchon employed many of the inhabitants of Springfield to polish and string wampum, and he sold awls or drills for piercing the shells by the gross to Cooper and other traders. Stringing wampum became an essential part of the fur trade, and there is no record of as extensive a development of this industry by the whites anywhere else in New England. It must be emphasized that the unpierced beads continued to be made by the Indians. When William B. Weeden published his standard work on Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization (Baltimore, 1884) he apparently did not know of the Account Books or of Pynchon’s role.
167 Points: shoelace tips.
168 Allem: alum.
169 Coppers: copperas, copper, iron, or zinc sulphate used in dyeing, tanning, and making ink.
170 Good wife Cooper: the spouse of Thomas Cooper; she often assisted Mistress Pynchon.
171 Scots cloth: remains vague; it could have been either woolen or linen.
172 Thrid col: colored thread?
173 Bb Thrid: probably black. Wted bro: brown worsted.
174 Ff thrd: may indicate fine thread.
175 Awl blades: for piercing wampum beads.
176 Tin glasses: tinsel, embellished with gold or silver leaf; also tinsel thread of twisted gold and silver.
177 Throughout this volume material enclosed in brackets with an asterisk was crossed out in the original.
178 Fore claspes: for belts or ribbons fastened in front.
179 Large Pap booke: probably for use as a ledger or account book.
180 Cotton rib: a gross-and-a-half of cotton ribbons may seem excessive, but gentlewomen wore as many as ten short lengths of ribbon on each sleeve of a best dress, as in the celebrated portrait of Mrs. Freake and Baby Mary (1674) at the Worcester Art Museum.
181 Brother Glover: probably Samuel, son of the Reverend Peletiah Glover, the minister of Springfield.
182 Trading coats: ready-made garments that were traded to the Indians for beaver and other furs.
183 Samuel Marshall: probably a slip for Samuel Marshfield, an Indian trader of Springfield, whom John Pynchon considered “the fittest man among us . . . being the best interpreter in these parts.” Pynchon Papers, I, 26.
184 Resting: remaining.
185 William Peeck, Peck: a small merchant of New Haven.
186 Goodman Bradley may have come from New Haven. John Lumbard, Lombard, freeman; John Dorchester, constable; and John Benham, a relative of Pynchon, all lived in Springfield.
187 Black wampum had twice the value of the white in the Indian trade.
188 Firkin: a small cask, originally ¼ of a barrel, used for butter, fish, and liquids; half a kilderkin.
189 John Winthrop, Jr.
190 Goodman Thomas Beale of Cambridge.
191 Worsted garters.
192 Mistress Peck of New Haven appears to have kept a small shop in her house. She was the wife of William Peck.
193 Brasill: Brazil wood, a hard red wood often used by dyers. It was a staple in the West Indian trade.
194 That such a long list of luxury items should have been dispensed from a shop in the small inland town of Wethersfield as early as 1653 suggests the need for some revision of frontier history.
195 Pewter Buts: pewter buttons; and on the line below: silk buttons.
196 Mr William Goodwin: originally from New Haven, where he had been a ruling elder, 1633–1640. He moved to Hadley, where he lived for many years and was intimate with John Pynchon. He died at Farmington, Connecticut, in 1673.
197 Bro Davis: William Davis of Boston, who married John Pynchon’s sister.
198 John Stebbins: fur trader, farmer, laborer, and constable of Springfield who, in 1679, was accused of witchcraft. He was living at Northampton by 1660. Deamons collars: possibly a reference to Simon Beaman, a servant of the Pynchons, carter, and laborer.
199 22s pce of Gold: gold valued by weight rather than by the denomination of the coin to allow for clipping or sweating.
200 Told: measured and valued.
201 Sist Smith was the wife of Henry Smith and John Pynchon’s sister.
202 ½ ql: an unidentified measure, unless it means ½ of ¼, or ⅛ of a yard.
203 Wormseed: for expelling or destroying intestinal worms.
204 Goodman Wilton: later Lieutenant David Wilton of Hadley. One of the three principal fur traders licensed by John Pynchon.
205 Goodman Lewis: unidentified.
206 Q1 pint bottle: a quarter-pint bottle.
207 English hayseed was planted extensively in Rhode Island and, after 1645, was sold by the bushel, some of it to Connecticut planters. That John Pynchon sold Flanders seed at his wilderness post shows how rapidly the practice spread.
208 Copperas.
209 Lidia hudt: Lydia Hunt.
210 Throughout early American history the Indians seem to have been fascinated by Jews’ harps; as a result they were useful in trading with the natives.
211 Hasoky: hassocky, or abounding in clumps and tufts.
212 Coops: Cooper’s.
213 Sumr: summer.
214 Course: coarse.
215 Bever Cods: sacks of castor. See Pynchon Papers, I, 6, note 3.
216 Goodman Chapin: David Chapin of Springfield. See above, 73, note 6.
217 The dutchman: this wheat was being shipped off from Hartford in a Dutch vessel bound for New Amsterdam.
218 New England meetinghouses often served as granaries, being spacious and dry.
219 Gilbert’s warehouse: at Hartford. Pynchon usually stored most of his goods here, both imported and for export.
220 Rate 1657: meetinghouse tax.
221 Ag: again
222 Once more, it is surprising to find that spectacles were for sale in remote Springfield.
223 John Pynchon was in England during 1656–1657.
224 Besides its use for storing furs, Pynchon’s trading house was used also as a shop where items were sold to the English settlers generally.
225 Sieths: scythes.
226 Scosues: possibly snowshoes.
227 Joseph Pynchon probably prepared for entrance to Harvard College at the private grammar school conducted by Elijah Corlet in Cambridge, where he roomed and boarded with Goodman Beale.
228 The Account Books give evidence of more money transactions in the upper Connecticut Valley than one might expect in a frontier society.
229 Ship captains, such as Jonas Clark, were always addressed as master (Mr.) or captain.
230 Cartwither: Captain Digory Carwithen.
231 James Garret, whose ship was captured by the Dutch in 1653. John Pynchon lost six hogsheads of beaver and some moose skins; John Hull of Boston estimated his loss at £130 in furs at the same time.
232 My Father: William Pynchon of Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire.
233 Nottamak: in Western Abenaki nodamdkw means mink.
234 Pynchon usually recorded the master’s rather than his ship’s name.
235 At Hartford John Pynchon had numerous important family connections with whom, as elsewhere, he preferred to deal. Willys was his brother-in-law.
236 The father of Captain William Davis, Pynchon’s brother-in-law, resided in London.
237 State ship: a vessel of the Dutch West India Company, sailing from New Amsterdam.
238 Nicholas Grigson and William Ashurst, merchants of London, were prominent in the New England trade.
239 Joseph Parsons of Northampton, in addition to being one of John Pynchon’s principal licensed fur traders, was involved in numerous cases that came before the Pynchon Court. After 1661 he was clerk of the trainband and keeper of the ordinary (tavern) at Northampton.
240 Possibly Samuel Wolcott of Wethersfield.
241 Goodman Robert Ashley, a constable and town official at Springfield. He worked as a farmer, sawyer, carter, and horse trader, and was often employed by Pynchon. He was listed as a freeman in 1663.
242 Richard Fellows: a fur trader of Hadley.
243 Stage Bever: stag or prime male beaver.
244 Walsis: remains unidentified; here it seems to denote small skins, however.
245 Buttons and breast buttons
246 Probably Edward or William, of the well-known Massachusetts family.
247 Mr Goodyear: probably Stephen Goodyear, sometime governor of the New Haven Colony and one of its richest merchants. He owned a wharf and a warehouse, and in 1647 was the town brewer. Later, he was much involved in the ironworks.
248 Here “ql” means quarter of the ox.
249 Slesy cloth: thin in texture.
250 Michalstide: Michaelmas, 29 September, a quarter day.
251 1 yd nayl gr Say: one yard-and-a-quarter of gray say.
252 Traise: traces, etc., harness.
253 Fraunces Pepper: Francis Pepper, a laborer for Pynchon in the 1650’s. Later he rented one of John Pynchon’s farms.
254 John Allyn of Hartford
255 Keny: Captain Kenny was master of a coaster.
256 Back ag: returned.
257 Wintshamins: an Indian customer.
258 The Dutch: at Fort Orange.
259 At this time, hop-growing was still attracting the attention of such English observers as Carew Reynel, who singled out Farnham in Kent as the center of the culture in 1674. That hops were being traded at Springfield in New England in 1661 is remarkable.
260 Howse frame: see Section vii of these selections, below, 317–350.
261 Poundedge: the charges for the redemption of stray horses at the local pound.
262 Zachariah Feild of Northampton: a minor fur trader.
263 Qts: quantities.
264 James Rogers: the leading merchant of New London. He traded with John Pynchon and owned land jointly with him. See Pynchon Papers, I, 110, note 2.
265 The dutchman: a trader of Mohawk Beaver from Fort Orange. See above, 59, 19 August 1661.
266 Richard Trist: a “cousin” of Pynchon living in England.
267 Mr Bekingham: Henry Beckingham was a partner of Daniel Bridge; they had their countinghouse at the Blue Bec in Fenchurch Street, London. See Pynchon Papers, I, 43–44.
268 Foster Mr: the master or captain of a vessel.
269 A Truss: a bundle or pack of furs.
270 Am: amount.
271 Wild cat: a Canada lynx.
272 Papoose Sk: baby beaver pelts.
273 Chockapeasnet: an Indian who traded directly with Pynchon.
274 Mr Wickins: John Wickins, a merchant of London, supplied John Pynchon with trading goods. He was a special executor of William Pynchon’s will. See Miss Mclntyre’s introduction to this section, above, 43.
275 Cotes: fur coats with the hair inside which were worn by the natives so that in over a year or more the long, coarse hair would be worn off, leaving only the short soft fur used in making felt. Such garments brought the highest prices ordinarily.
276 Mistress Mead’s token: it was customary for merchants in constant correspondence to send gifts to their correspondents’ wives—it was a part of the prevalent family-business practice.
277 Fort Albany: that is, Mohawk Beaver.
278 Qut: quantity.
279 Fitchers: fishers were among the rarest of the fur-bearing animals of North America. They were kin to weasels.
280 Corporall Coy: Richard Coy, the chief inhabitant of Quabaug (Brookfield). See Pynchon Papers, I, 68, 138, 142.
281 Mr John Russell Sen: the minister of Hadley and a personal friend of John Pynchon. See Pynchon Papers, I, 160, 163.
282 Timothy Cooper: the principal fur trader for Pynchon at this time.
283 This wording suggests that John Pynchon already owned a house at Albany.
284 Tin shows: possibly thin plates or sheets, or spangles, or strips of copper or brass for gaudy, showy ornamentation of the Indians. On the other hand, because the shows are listed with mackerel and cod hooks, it is barely possible that fishing spoons are meant—spoons on swivels attached to fishing lines as lures.
285 Hezekiah Usher and Peter Sargent were among the richest and most influential merchants of Boston.
286 Mr Sergence: Peter Sargent.
287 Evidently fashion was not spinach in frontier Springfield.
288 John Westcarr of Hadley rated the “Mr” because he was a physician and enjoyed a license from John Pynchon to trade in furs. On two occasions he faced charges of selling liquor to the Indians. See also Miss Mclntyre’s introduction to this section, above, 16–17.
289 Fort Aurania: Fort Orange.
290 Chik: Chicopee.
291 Ferriage: for conveying the horses across the Hudson River to Fort Orange.
292 John Stewart: the blacksmith of Springfield. See Pynchon Papers, I, 21, note 2.
293 Anthony Dorchester was a laborer of Springfield who performed many services for John Pynchon. He was a freeman of the Bay Colony.
294 Ausatin voyage: a journey to Ausatinnoag.
295 Mr Palms: Edward Palmes. See Pynchon Papers, I, 76–77.
296 Shippey and Pearly: two journeyman craftsmen who did not live in Springfield.
297 Block Island became the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, in 1672; it was an important center for raising sheep and cattle.
298 Mr Lake: Thomas Lake, a brother-in-law of John Winthrop, Jr., and a merchant of Boston who dealt with Coddington of Rhode Island and several men at New London.
299 Rum: this is a very early instance of the use in New England of such a large quantity of rum.
300 Rundlet: a rundlet was a cask of varying capacity; a large one contained from 12 to 18½ gallons and a small one from a pint or quart to 3–4 gallons.
301 Ql: one quarter.
302 Carpenter: Samuel Pearly.
303 Smith: John Stewart of Springfield.
304 John Griffen: a contentious and litigious inhabitant of Hartford.
305 Codnam: or Codman, master of a coaster from Boston.
306 Bread: ship’s biscuit or hardtack; also fed to slaves in the West Indies. Large quantities were baked in the towns of the Connecticut Valley.
307 Mr Martins man: probably an indentured servant.
308 Pynchon is sending cargo in the ship Welcome. This marks the beginning of his ventures in the West Indies trade.
309 Primadge & Averidge: primage was a customary allowance made by the shipper to the master and crew for the loading and care of the cargo. Average was any charge over and above the freight incurred in a shipment and payable by the owners to the master.
310 Giles Hamlin was a sea captain and part-owner of ships, with whom John Pynchon had many dealings. He married the daughter of Samuel Crow, Sr., of Hadley. This voyage appears to have been a Hadley enterprise. See Pynchon Papers, I, 41–44, 104, 105, note 2.
311 Mr Wyllys: Sam Willys was a wealthy merchant of Hartford, a Major General of the Connecticut forces, and a relative of John Pynchon by marriage. Along with Richard Lord (see below, 183) he was involved with Pynchon in a sugar plantation called Cabbage Tree in Antigua. He used the younger John Crow (see below, 152, note 6) as his agent in the Leeward Islands.
312 Pequot: New London, Connecticut.
313 Catch desire: the ketch Desire, of which Adam Westgate was the master.
314 S C: Samuel Chapin of Springfield.
315 Mattabeset: later Middletown, beyond which large ships could not sail on the Connecticut River.
316 Captain Silvester: Nathaniel Sylvester of Shelter Island, the principal master of the ships carrying horses to Barbados from New London. Pynchon supplied him with cargoes and provisions for his crew.
317 Pinnacemen: the crew of a pinnace, a small two-masted vessel used in the coasting trade between Mattabeset and Boston.
318 Rowling goods: labor for rolling barrels and other casks.
319 Coop: cooper
320 Mr. John Crow was associated with John Pynchon in the ketch Desire in voyages to Barbados. This entry indicates a triangular trade from Connecticut to Barbados to London and back. See also the important letter of Pynchon to Crow, 8 May 1663, in Pynchon Papers, I, 41–44.
321 Pce coto bey: a piece of coarse, long-napped cotton stuff called bay. The verb to cotton means to raise the nap of any kind of cloth.
322 Your Father Crow: must be Samuel Crow, Giles Hamlin’s father-in-law.
323 Curtis: Goodman Curtis of Wethersfield.
324 Gerys Banbury, the cook of the Desire.
325 Sanford: Peleg Sanford of Newport, for five years the agent of William Brenton of Newport and Taunton in Barbados. See Pynchon Papers, I, 43.
326 Mr Chester: John Chester of Wethersfield, Connecticut, a part-owner of Desire, who was in Barbados in December 1665.
327 Mr Treate Sen: the Treate family owned a large tract of land at Wethersfield and was one of the richest and most influential in the colony of Connecticut.
328 Goodm Harris: William Harris of Wethersfield, a husbandman.
329 Middle Town: formerly Mattabeset, Connecticut.
330 Red dutch Trading Cloth: this must have becn acquired from New Amsterdam in New Netherland.
331 By land & by water: evidently by this time (1663) a cart road existed for some of the distance on the route from Springfield, through Enfield, to Hartford.
332 My Cousin Allyn: Colonel John Allyn of Hartford, Secretary of Connecticut Colony. See Pynchon Papers, I, 24, 187, 202, 255, 263, 265, 270, 288, 298.
333 Captain Cullick: master and part-owner of the ketch Desire before Pynchon, Giles Hamlin, and associates acquired the vessel in 1659 or 1660.
334 Mr Young: John Young was the principal owner of Desire when it was sold to John Pynchon’s group.
335 The horses: Pynchon bought hay from William Harris to feed the horses he was shipping to Barbados. The equine traffic to the sugar colonies was only beginning at this time; the first shipment from Connecticut seems to have becn undertaken by Constant Sylvester in 1650. Pynchon’s horses were part of a shipment out of New London.
336 This amount is referred to in Pynchon’s letter to John Grow, 8 May 1663, Pynchon Papers, I, 41–44.
337 James Rogers: Rogers and Pynchon jointly owned land at New London and frequently had trading relations. Here the transaction of 1658 was Pynchon wheat exchanged for Rogers beaver pelts. See Pynchon Papers, I, 40, 76, 77, no, note 2.
338 Goodman Edward Stallion of New London (Pequot) was a coaster and river boatman much used by Pynchon for shipments of goods to and from New London.
339 Capt Lord: Captain Richard Lord of Hartford was a partner with Samuel Wyllys in Cabbage Tree Plantation of Antigua. John Pynchon rented the plantation from them in 1665. Pynchon Papers, I, 183.
340 Goodman Robert Lattimore was the master of a riverboat.
341 John Smith: master of another riverboat.
342 Possibly Richard Smith of Cocumscussoc (Wickford), on Narragansett Bay, one of the leading Rhode Islanders.
343 It is noteworthy that John Pynchon should be shipping wine and raisins, probably from Hartford to Rogers in New London.
344 Bay: had by, or on hand.
345 Fr: freight.
346 This land, held by Rogers and Pynchon, was ordinarily said to be in New London. See below, Section VI: Land as Wealth.
347 Sheathing Nayls: sheathing nails were used to fasten on a ship’s sides.
348 Bread from Windsor: it is noteworthy that such a tiny village as this should have a bakery for ship’s biscuits.
349 Desire apparently cost about £300.
350 Went in the ship: laded as cargo.
351 Henry Wolcott: an inhabitant of Windsor, Connecticut.
352 Bill: a bill of exchange.
353 Dayman: (Damon): a trader or merchant at Boston.
354 Mr Bartholomew: evidently in Barbados.
355 A rest: a remainder.
356 Samuel Grow.
357 Mr Watson: Caleb Watson, one of Pynchon’s associates in the West Indies ventures. This sum may be a contribution to the support of the school at Hadley rather than a business transaction. Watson was schoolmaster from 1666 to 1673.
358 Bro blew linen: brownish-blue linen?
359 Nath Ely: Nathaniel Ely was one of twenty-six freemen of Springfield in May 1663. John Pynchon often employed him as a messenger.
360 Sattinsco: a fabric resembling satin?
361 Cottone woole: the seventeenth-century term for raw cotton.
362 Beset: Mattabeset or Middletown, Connecticut.
363 Son Johns: John Pynchon, Jr., was now in the business and located in Boston. Miss Mclntyre comments on the son’s activities in her essay on the fur trade, above, 39–49.
364 G Moores: Goodman James Moore of Springfield evidently was a baker of ship’s bread.
365 Under Cundys: the captain of a vessel trading to the West Indies. It could be a Condy of Boston.
366 Roswell & Partridge: merchants in Barbados.
367 Mr Bur: Samuel Burr was a Connecticut man who purchased Desire from Pynchon and his partners on 7 March 1667/68. This ends the accounts pertaining to this ketch.
368 Son Whiting: Joseph Whiting of Hartford, Treasurer of Connecticut Colony and part-owner with Pynchon of Desire. He had married Pynchon’s daughter Mary.
369 Samuel Whiting of Hartford: possibly Joseph’s brother.
370 Steevens: the carpenter Stevens, who was purchased as a servant to work on the ship John and James
371 Ind C: Indian corn or maize.
372 Ship at Hartford: John and James, Giles Hamlin, master.
373 ½ P: one half of a peck.
374 Or Reckning: our reckoning.
375 Tho Dickenson was fined by John Pynchon in March 1676 for leading a “riotous Assembly” at Hadley. This was probably Goodman John Dickenson, Sr., of Hadley.
376 G Dumbleton: Goodman John Dumbleton was a freeman and corporal of Springfield.
377 Mr Pitkin: probably William Pitkin of Hartford.
378 Caleb Standlys: the warehouse owned by Caleb Stanley used occasionally by John Pynchon.
379 Symon wolcuts: Simon Wolcott, a householder at Windsor, Connecticut.
380 Mr Nath foote: in 1679 Nathaniel Foote was an inhabitant of Springfield who was involved in a lawsuit with Joseph Parsons.
381 N England Money: £50 in Pine-Tree shillings was a substantial amount of hard cash for a villager of Hadley to have saved!
382 Sam Partrigg: Samuel Partridge, then of Hadley, served John Pynchon on several occasions. They did not always see eye to eye as the two most powerful leaders of the upper Connecticut Valley.
383 Leiut Philip Smith: a freeman of Hadley.
384 Peter Tilton: a magistrate of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, and for several years an assistant in the General Court.
385 Aron Cooke Jun: a trainband officer living at Hadley, where his father, Aaron Cooke, Sr., was one of the leading inhabitants.
386 Plantation and Sugar worke there: that is, at Cabbage Tree Plantation in Antigua, in which Pynchon was investing the £100 in silver along with funds raised by his Hartford connections.
387 Span Mony: Spanish piece of eight (eight reales), peso, or dollar.
388 Mr Samll Wadsworth: the son of William, who arrived in the Lion in 1632. When Samuel died in 1682, his will gave his estate as £1100; he never married. His home was in Hartford.
389 James Richards: of Hartford, who served as the Connecticut Commissioner with John Pynchon to treat with the Mohawks.
390 Samll Stebbing: Samuel Stebbins was a member of a large family of Springfield, and in 1696 served as a constable. Here he apparently had made a voyage for Pynchon.
391 John Sackett was a deputy constable of Springfield in 1696.
392 Thomas Duee: Thomas Dewey, a farmer of Springfield, was a cornet in the Hampshire Troop of Horse.
393 Sam Roote: the constable of Westfield in 1671–1672.
394 Inn Page: On the page styled Barbados in the Account Book.
395 Freshwater River: in May 1683 a new town was founded at Freshwater River and named Enfield, Connecticut.
396 Thomas Miller sent this raft down from Chicopee over the falls and on to Six Mile Island (now Nott Island), so called because it was six miles from the mouth of the Connecticut River. The timber may have been intended for the West Indies. It is the earliest rafting of timber that the editor has come across.
397 Nick Rust: an inhabitant of Springfield.
398 Disonne: an unidentified and probably misspelled word. The context suggests a dividend or commission for Samuel Partridge.
399 Blocks: blocks or pulleys used in the rigging of ships. Special wood was needed in the fabrication of blocks.
400 Samuel Ely went to Antego, the contemporary English spelling for Antigua, in 1684 to close out John Pynchon’s accounts for Cabbage Tree Plantation.
401 Mr Sam Glover: the son of the Reverend Peletiah Glover, minister at Springfield. Samuel was commissioned captain of the Springfield trainband in 1684. He was associated with John Pynchon in the ketch Northern Venture.
402 Nathaniel Lomes: Nathaniel Loomis probably lived in Westfield.
403 Benja Waite: an Indian trader of Hatfield licensed by John Pynchon.
404 Mr Marshall: a householder of Windsor who cannot be identified as other than owner of part of the ketch.
405 Ocum: oakum. Loose fibers from old hemp rope used in caulking the seams of vessels.
406 Mr Glover & Capt Glover: the Reverend Peletiah Glover and his son Cattain Samuel Glover of Springfield.
407 Mr Whitig: Samuel Whiting of Hartford.
408 Molse: molasses.
409 Aqua: aqua vitae, usually aqua vite for the English; also usquebaugh. Any form of ardent spirits taken as a drink, such as brandy or usquebaugh (eaue de vie) or whisky.
410 Sam Porter Sen: a husbandman of Hadley who in 1661 had one indentured servant. Farmers consumed large quantities of salt for preserving meats.
411 The minister at Springfield was one of a number of New England clergymen who saved money from their salaries and the produce of their farms and ventured it in cargoes for the West Indies.
412 As a ketch, Northern Venture must have been large enough to have had to be built somewhere below Enfield Falls.
413 Wt wood: boards of white pine.
414 Bro Davis: Captain William Davis, apothecary and substantial merchant, was John Pynchon’s brother-in-law and for many years handled the Boston end of the Pynchon trade.
415 Job Hilliard: one of the several Boston-based skippers in the coasting and Connecticut river traffic. So too were Caleb Carwithen, Richard Parker, and John Gallup of New London. Several of the masters of coasters mentioned below are no longer identifiable.
416 G. Lewis: Goodman William Lewis was a husbandman of Hadley who sold wheat to John Pynchon.
417 James Olliver: one of the richest and most influential men of Boston. He took off wheat from the minister of Springfield, Reverend George Moxon.
418 Tar: that barrels of tar could be numbered by the hundreds at this time is significant.
419 Tho Mirick: Thomas Mirick, born in Wales, husbandman and one of a large and litigious family of Springfield. He served as a carter and riverboatman for Pynchon.
420 Cannoe: the canoes mentioned in these accounts were large dugouts, not the birchbark craft of popular belief. They could carry barrels and hogshead down to Enfield Falls and bring back imported English goods.
421 Bringing up goods: from Enfield Falls (Warehouse Point) on the Connecticut River to Springfield.
422 Thomas Bancroft was a miller and sometimes a canoeman or boatman for John Pynchon. He took the oath of fidelity at Springfield in 1656, and in 1665 he leased Pynchon’s mill for seven years.
423 My Sea Coales: coal mined in England and shipped from Newcastle or Bristol across the Atlantic to New England for use in the forges of smiths and braziers. The 120 bushels mentioned above were probably charcoal, the usual forge fuel.
424 Fraunces Pepper: Francis Pepper, who took the oath of fidelity at Springfield in 1649, seems to have made a trip back to England in September 1652.
425 Reice Bedortha: Reice (Reyce) Bedortha, freeman, served Pynchon as a riverman on many occasions. He was also a carter.
426 Chick, Chikkup: Chicopee, Massachusetts.
427 John Bissall Jun: John Bissell, probably of Windsor, Connecticut.
428 Laurence Bliss took the oath of fidelity at Springfield on 26 February 1661/2; his family was both important and numerous.
429 Sam Marshfeild: prominent in town affairs at Springfield, Marshfield also kept an ordinary there in 1660.
430 These cattle were sent to New London by ship; they would have had to be driven overland from Springfield to Hartford.
431 Gods: goods.
432 Marshfeilds Teame: evidently there was a passable cart road between Springfield and Hartford by 1666, thus making it possible to transport grain in bulk.
433 Serjant Stebbins: Thomas Stebbins, born in England in 1645, was a farmer, tailor, and laborer for Pynchon; he was also a constable at Springfield.
434 Wm Warrinar: a freeman and a constable of Springfield.
435 Sam Terry: a former indentured servant of Pynchon’s at Springfield. Later a carter and laborer for Pynchon, from whom he leased a farm.
436 Fresh water River: also called Freshwater Brook, in Enfield, Connecticut.
437 Goodm Strong: John Strong of Northampton
438 Increase Sikes: a freeman living in Springfield; a carpenter, logger, and laborer, regularly in Pynchon’s employ.
439 James Bridgman: formerly of Springfield, but lived after 1654 in Northampton.
440 John Earle of Springfield frequently worked for John Pynchon. Though “this was not pformed” (see below), it was a considerable undertaking that was planned as early as 1669, and demonstrated the ingenuity of the Springfield merchant in extending his area and kinds of trade.
441 The Bay to Hartford: Massachusetts Bay (Boston).
442 Servts Passadge: some of the more affluent New Englanders sent home for indentured servants, especially for ones with certain skills.
443 G Dorchester: Goodman Anthony Dorchester (see below, 217, note 9).
444 Mulch: a mixture of soil with rotted straw.
445 John . . . mattocks: probably John Stewart of Springfield, blacksmith, who repaired the mattocks, which were agricultural tools for loosening hard ground and grubbing up trees.
446 3 d worke: three days’ work.
447 Smith was a well-known carter in Springfield.
448 Bro Holyoke: Elizur Holyoke married John Pynchon’s sister Mary. He was the second most prominent inhabitant of Springfield and an associate with Pynchon on the Hampshire Court. This mill was clearly a family enterprise.
449 Brother Smith: John Pynchon’s brother-in-law, Henry Smith, who returned to England about a month after this entry of 1652.
450 Tole: toll, charges for use of the mill.
451 Goodman Dorchester was now the miller of Springfield, but for one year only.
452 Indian: Indian corn or maize.
453 Wheat ground into flour for Barbados: this is the first record of Pynchon’s trading to the West Indies.
454 Father: William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, now in England.
455 Richard Sikes: Goodman Sykes, the new miller, at various times served Springfield as a selectman or other local official.
456 Cogs & Rounds and buckets: cogwheels; rounds were probably rollers, or, according to the OED, part of a lantern-wheel cylinder “in which the top and bottom are formed by circular plates or boards, connected by staves [rounds?] inserted at equal distances . . . [and] serving as teeth” (1659). The buckets were not water-wheel buckets, which had not yet been devised.
457 Breeches: breaches or breaks in the sluice or watercourse which required frequent clearing or cleaning.
458 Trundle: a small wheel, roller, or caster; a lantern-wheel.
459 Gudgeons: in this case journals for bearing the shaft of a waterwheel.
460 Sledge & Peck: either a pecker, which was a kind of hoe, or a pick.
461 Croe: a crowbar.
462 Quabaug: the Algonkian name for Brookfield, where the mill was being erected.
463 Long pve bu: long prove but.
464 2 March 1668: could be either 1668 or 1669.
465 Joseph Leonard: an inhabitant of Hatfield, who in 1671 faced his employer at the Hampshire County Court for contemptuous carriage and illegal trading with the Indians.
466 Recd of the dutchman: not infrequently a Dutchman from Albany came to trade with Pynchon, who was always happy to have “Mohawk Bever.”
467 This is an early use of shingles on New England mill or farm buildings. Laths were thin, narrow strips of wood used to form a groundwork for laying shingles.
468 Thomas Bancroft: apparently satisfactory millers were scarce, for Pynchon is now contracting with his fourth one.
469 John Webb was making the millstones at Northampton. In 1658 he was licensed to keep an ordinary or tavern there.
470 The millstones were sent down to Springfield by boat or great dugout canoe.
471 Mr Andrews owned half of this mill.
472 Bolting mill: in which the bran was sifted from the flour.
473 Cornelius Williams: he and Mr. Andrews were experienced millwrights whom Pynchon brought in from out-of-town.
474 Tho Copley: Goodman Copley was a husbandman of Springfield.
475 Jonath Burt: a deacon and constable at Springfield who was a member of a numerous family.
476 Coronellus: Cornelius Williams.
477 Stickens wostead: possibly a pair of worsted stockings, although 12 shillings seems a high price for them.
478 Fleame: flume.
479 House of Corection: see below, Section VII.
480 Jermy Horton: Jeremy Horton and Warriner (Warner?) each belonged to a large family of Springfield.
481 Corporall Coys: Richard Coy.
482 G Aires: John Aires or Ayres, Senior, of Quabaug, was involved in building and operating the mill there.
483 Pritchard: William Pritchard, selectman of Brookfield, helped to build Pynchon’s mill.
484 Deacon Hovey: Daniel Hovey, Aires, and Pritchard were all of the town of Brookfield, and all joined with Pynchon in erecting the mill.
485 Leantoe fashion: the lean-to roof had a different pitch from the roof of the millhouse. The lean-to was usually added later, but in this instance it was planned as part of the original building. An excellent example of an added lean-to is the Richard Jackson House at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as shown in Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture (New York, 1952), 18.
486 Home lot and meadow: the town of Quabaug could pay Pynchon for his outlay for the mill only by a grant of 60 acres of land. This is a prime illustration of the way he received much of the land he owned.
487 Woodshaw: a fisher, a fur-bearing animal of the weasel family.
488 Pine Hall: this sawmill was located in Springfield.
489 My Roco: on 1 December 1687 Pynchon noted in his Court Record: “Roco and Sue my Negroes, Joined in Marriage.”
490 John Buck: an Indian laborer who ran away (so he stated in court) from his master, Thomas Milton of New York. Justice John Pynchon ordered him returned to Manhattan.
491 Slitwork 3C: 300 pieces of sawn or rived timber used in building the sawmill.
492 Eight owners: these men were all residents of Springfield.
493 John Harris: a specialist in the making of rosin.
494 Mile of: off, or away from Springfield.
495 Benja Wright: another worker in resin who did not come from Springfield.
496 Gharls Ferry Sen: a freeman of Springfield and a weaver by trade.
497 Capt Germon: John German (Germain, Jerman), probably a Huguenot who brought at least three “Frenchmen” to work on the “Rossin designe.”
498 Sam Lamb: this resin worker became a freeman at Springfield in 1691.
499 You: that is, Charles Ferry, Senior.
500 Peter Swinck: a black inhabitant of Springfield since 1661 at least.
501 John Weller: a cooper of Springfield.
502 Leiut Meachem: Goodman Isaac Meachem of Springfield.
503 Mr Stoughton: probably William Stoughton, the Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
504 Joseph Williston: a prominent Springfield settler who undertook in November 1694 to “carry” the runaway Indian apprentice, John Buck, from Springfield to New York and deliver him to his master, Thomas Milton. This was a costly judgment for the little town.
505 Luke Hitchcock: Luke Hitchcock, Senior, a cordwainer at Springfield.
506 Eben Graves: Ebenezer Graves was working as a carter at Springfield in September 1692.
507 Bons: bones.
508 Ridder or Seiver: a sieve.
509 Tere Cloth: terry cloth is a fabric with loops of pile left uncut.
510 Mid Hall: “Rosin Hall,” where the resin work was carried on.
511 These accounts about provisions show that New England laborers were far better fed than English workmen, who rarely saw meat on their plates.
512 Jo Pynchon: Joseph Pynchon, John’s son, who had returned to Springfield after an unsuccessful career as a physician in England. In 1660 he had been chosen the Springfield deputy to the General Court.
513 Wm caryed out prvisson: William Cheney, baker, delivered loaves of bread.
514 Horse cut: that is, castrated.
515 Charls the Baker: the context suggests that Charles was the baker at Mid Hall.
516 Burning about our Pine Trees: there seems to have been a costly fire among the pines that kept eight men busy for five days.
517 I ack: I acknowledge.
518 The dutchmen: probably some of Captain German’s workmen from Manhattan. What with Englishmen, Dutchmen, French Huguenots, and Indians, frontier Springfield was beginning to acquire a cosmopolitan population. In seventeenth-century New England, this was a rare occurrence.
519 Doctor Auralt was probably the Doctor Nicholas Ayrault who was a resident of Springfield in 1696. At the same time another Huguenot physician, Doctor Peter Ayrault, was practicing in Newport. They may have been brothers.
520 Winthrop Papers (Boston, 1944), iv, 355, 495–496, 497.
521 See the endpapers for the location of Tantiusque. From 1644 to the close of the First World War graphite was mined intermittently there.
522 John, the son of William Payne (Paine), and Captain Thomas Clarke were among the outstanding merchants of Boston. They were also deeply involved in fur-trading and industrial ventures, such as the ironworks at Saugus and in Connecticut. See Miss Mclntyre’s account of the Hawthorne Venture, above, 55–60.
523 Henry Chapin, Thomas Sewell, and William Allyn lived in Springfield. In later years, Allyn kept the ordinary or tavern in the village.
524 William Deines (Deane, or Dennis?) was very much concerned with the graphite mine, particularly with provisioning and supplying the workmen there. In March 1659 he sued John Bagg of Springfield for saying that Deines had stolen an axe from the mine, had converted “a great deal of lead from the right owner,” and had stolen ten pounds of lead in Bagg’s custody. The Selectmen appointed an arbitrator who directed John Bagg to “make publicke acknowledge of his offences.”
525 John Bagg, an inhabitant of Springfield, was employed by Pynchon on several occasions to work at the mine.
526 John Mathews: a contentious resident of Springfield, who in 1669 was bound over by Pynchon to answer for “exceedinge contemptuous behavior” toward the Reverend Peletiah Glover. It appeared that his conduct had been “very odious and Shamefull” and “much after the custome of Quakers.” He was sentenced to fifteen stripes and bound in. £10 for good behavior. See above, 73, note 5 for his services for Pynchon.
527 John Pettybone: a freeman of Windsor.
528 Goodman William Warinar (Warrener, Warriner): On 2 December 1661, Richard Fellows complained to the local court that Warinar was “withholding pay for his man Harman Rowley’s victualls at Chikkuppy as he passed to and from the Lead mines.” Warinar was ordered to pay Fellows 28s 6d.
529 John Ginny: an important figure at the mines, about whom we have little information. He may have been an employee of John Winthrop, Jr., and was not an inhabitant of Springfield. He appears to have been Deines’ chief assistant in handling supples at Tantiusque.
530 Joseph Crowfoote was made a freeman at Springfield in 1672.
531 Jonas Westover: of Windsor in 1649; lived at Killingworth from 1658 to 1669.
532 Thomas Noble, originally at Springfield, moved to Westfield in 1669; in 1660 he married Hannah Warinar. He was a tailor for Pynchon.
533 This is the earliest item about the mines in the Account Books.
534 William Brooks of Springfield had eight sons and eight daughters, 1665–1679; two of his sons were killed by the Indians at Westfield in 1675. Later he moved to Deerfield. He was probably a tailor.
535 Edward Messenger resided in Windsor, Connecticut.
536 John Sackutt (Sackett) was presented at court in Springfield for allegedly selling strong waters to the Indians. See above, 16.
537 Edward Foster lived in Springfield, where he married Hester Bliss, who lived in John Pynchon’s family. A Scot who served the Pynchon family and later rented a farm from John Pynchon, he frequently worked as a farm laborer for him.
538 Elias Parkman lived in Windsor until he moved to Boston in 1648. He was a mariner and traded between Boston and the Connecticut River towns. He was lost at sea, probably in 1662, leaving a son, also named Elias.
539 Goodman Harmon was probably John Harmon, farmer, laborer, carter, and canoeman for Pynchon.
540 Goodman Barnard probably lived at Springfield.
541 William Branch: a freeman of Springfield who often served as a juror. A farmer, he also worked as a ditcher and carter for Pynchon, and in the late sixties was paid for “barbing [barbering] my folks” for one year by the merchant.
542 Charles ferrys: at the house of Charles Ferry of Springfield, weaver.
543 John Wood: one of several employed by John Pynchon, who should not be confused with Jonas Wood of Springfield.
544 Henry Burt: Clerk of the Writs at Springfield; he died in 1662. Four of his daughters married as follows: Hannah to John Bagg, Abigail to Thomas Stebbins, Mary to William Brookes, and Patience to John Bliss. This is an excellent example of rural intermarriage among leading families.
545 Simon Beamon, an inhabitant of Springfield, often served as a canoeman and messenger for John Pynchon.
546 In silver: this is one of the very few transactions in hard money to be found in the Account Books.
547 Daniel Cone came from Haddam, Connecticut, and worked for John Winthrop, Jr.
548 Hashoy meddow: a spoiled soil mixture or a hassocky meadow.
549 Alexander Edwards: a freeman and constable of Springfield.
550 Long meddow: the southern part of Springfield, later set aside as the town of Longmeadow.
551 Chickwallop was the principal chief of the Pocumtucks.
552 George Colton: a prosperous farmer and leading inhabitant of Springfield, captain of the trainband, quartermaster, deputy to the General Court in 1669 and thereafter.
553 William Lewis, Nathaniel Dickinson, and Nathaniel Ward were the town committee designated by Hadley to deal with John Pynchon.
554 Law bookes: these probably contained the laws of the colony of Massachusetts Bay and were for use by the town of Hadley.
555 The colors, staff, and tassels were for the Hadley trainband.
556 Umpancheal (Umpanchela): an Indian sachem dwelling adjacent to Hadley in the native village of Norwotuck (Norwattocke). He had an interesting account with John Pynchon that appears on pages 283–288.
557 The neck of Wequagon: that is, a neck of land belonging to Wequagon, chief of the Indians in the Hadley area, which the whites called Hockanum after the Connecticut town.
558 Most of the many persons named below were residents of Hadley; only the important ones are identified in these notes.
559 Thomas Coleman of Hadley was a freeman and on 26 March 1661 was chosen constable of “the New Towne.”
560 Mr. Terry may have been the Samuel Terry of Springfield, weaver, who was first apprenticed to William Pynchon, then to Benjamin Cooley of that town in 1650. John Pynchon paid his passage of £7 in the mid-sixties when Terry made a brief visit to England. He also worked as a carter and farm laborer for Pynchon.
561 These two men were John Russell, Jr., the son of the minister at Hadley, and Samuel Smith, who was a commissioner of the town in 1661.
562 Into Pinnace: a small vessel bound for Boston.
563 Thomas Hubbard joiner: probably a journeyman carpenter.
564 Mr Westwood: William Westwood, one of the commissioners of Hadley in 1661.
565 Wid Hawks: Widow Hawks of Hadley.
566 Mr. Russal: the Reverend John Russell, minister of Hadley.
567 Cornet Allys: later Lieutenant John Allis of the Hatfield trainband. He was an ancestor of the present Editor of Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
568 John Hubbard lived in Hadley.
569 Norwotog: Hadley.
570 Pmises: promises. This is the most detailed account with an Indian that the editor has found.
571 5 h: hand, a linear measure of three inches, hence this was a fifteen-inch strip of goods.
572 Parsons howse: this house was in Northampton.
573 Mr. Goodwin: of Hadley and often mentioned in the Account Books.
574 Being drunk: Pynchon must have been curious about the source of Unpanchela’s liquor.
575 Wequittay: could be in Hadley at Hockanum, on land owned or formerly belonging to Wequagon. See above, 278, note 1.
576 Scocue & knife: possibly a sheath and a knife.
577 Mr. Henry Clarke was apparently involved for the town of Hadley in land transactions with Pynchon.
578 Mr Sam Smith: a commissioner of Hadley.
579 Mr John Russell Junior: there is apparently some confusion here, for the “Pastor of Hadley,” and formerly of Wethersfield, was Mr. John Russell, Sr. Perhaps John Pynchon, who knew them both, made a slip in recording.
580 Mr Lewis of Hadley: William Lewis, a husbandman, who in 1661 had one servant.
581 Joseph Crowfoote: a farmer and laborer of Springfield who later on rented land from John Pynchon.
582 Chick R Mor: Chicopee River moorland.
583 Goodm Ely: Nathaniel Ely was a surveyor, carpenter, and ultimately a tavernkeeper at Springfield.
584 Ensigne Cooper: fur trader, farmer, and carpenter; selectman of Springfield for twenty terms. Killed in the Indian attack of 1676.
585 John Ponder: apparently a husbandman of “Woronoak” or Westfield.
586 Mr Whiting: Josiah Whiting of Westfield, Pynchon’s son-in-law.
587 Reice Bedortha: a farmer and often a messenger for John Pynchon. No date for this agreement is given, but the context suggests 1667.
588 To hold or Leand the Pasture: liened, the right to maintain possession of the property until the person detaining it is satisfied.
589 James Osborne: probably residing at Northampton.
590 Commons at Pacumtuck: Deerfield.
591 Intervale: a tract of land along the banks of a stream, ordinarily alluvial land.
592 From falling to finishing: that is, from the cutting down of the nearby trees to the making of needed lumber.
593 Joseph Lenerd: Leonard appears to have been a carpenter of Deerfield.
594 Mr Samll Mather: the minister at Deerfield.
595 Frary, Dickinson, and Stockwell were all residents of Deerfield.
596 Phillipe Mattoun: Matoone was an illiterate and contentious resident of Springfield. In 1679 he was bound by the court to keep the peace.
597 Pacomtuck meddow: Deerfield meadow. Cattle and sheep had to be grazed in separate fields because the sheep nibbled the grass so close to the ground that cattle could get none to chew.
598 Joshua Holcomb: of Deerfield.
599 Tho Wells: in 1686 commissioned lieutenant of the trainband at Deerfield.
600 Major Leverett: at this time John Leverett was Major General of the Massachusetts forces; later he was governor of the Bay Colony.
601 James Rogers of New London shared with John Pynchon in the ownership of land in that and adjacent towns. See Pynchon Papers, I, 40, 76, 77, 110 note 2.
602 Six Penny Island is off the mouth of the Mystic River, Connecticut, and is not to be confused with Six Mile Island near the mouth of the Connecticut River.
603 Amos Richardson lived in New London.
604 Stony River alias Suffield: Suffield, Connecticut, immediately south of the Connecticut-Massachusetts line on the west bank of the Connecticut River.
605 Goodman Marshfield of Springfield laid out Feather and High Streets at the center of the town.
606 Symon Lobdells: the following people came from nearby river towns in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. Whether they were settlers or merely acquiring land for resale is not clear.
607 Leiut Fyler: Walter Fyler was prominent at Springfield.
608 The record of the remaining purchases appears under each person’s individual account.
609 Isaac Morgan was a farmer who rented land in Springfield from John Pynchon. This agreement not only reveals how Pynchon rented his land, but is full of information for the historian of agriculture in early New England.
610 Sixty load of dung: this is a very large quantity. Manuring the soil with cow dung was not widely practiced this early on either small holdings or large ones.
611 To Bogg: an unrecorded usage, meaning to drain a bog or marsh with a view to raising hay on it.
612 Candlewood: a resinous wood, often pine, split fine for burning as a candle.
613 For cutting 2 Calfes: castrating or gelding calves destined to become oxen.
614 Triming: Trimming is no longer used in this way. Here it may possibly mean clipped.
615 Sam Marshfield served thirteen terms at Springfield as a selectman, and three times as deputy to the General Court.
616 Schonunganock: in the town of Enfield.
617 Nearly every man in Springfield who possessed a suitable skill worked on the Meetinghouse and House of Correction. Marshfield’s work as a joiner who made seats and tables is a case in point.
618 John Clarke was a farmer and carter of Springfield.
619 Sam Bewell: Goodman Samuel Buell received diet money and probably came from out of town.
620 John Lumbard was a farmer and laborer of Springfield.
621 John Allys: Lieutenant John Allis of Hatfield in all probability.
622 Mr John Gilbert: a glazier, but not of Springfield.
623 Joseph Bedortha was owner of one-fifth of a Springfield sawmill.
624 Jeremy Horton: a glazier of Springfield.
625 1 M of Bords: one thousand feet of boards.
626 Timothy Trawle: evidently an outsider who came to work on the meeting-house at Springfield. He was allowed diet, like Buell.
627 James Wright: probably Deacon Wright, and not to be confused with Lieutenant Abell Wright, also of Springfield.
628 John Stebbins: farmer and laborer of Springfield. In 1667 he shingled Mr. Joseph Whiting’s house at Westfield.
629 Rowld Thomas: Roland Thomas was a carter, a laborer, and three times a selectman of Springfield.
630 Miles Morgan: of Welsh birth, a farmer, a carter, and five times a selectman of Springfield.
631 Nathanell Ely: Nathaniel Ely was much used by John Pynchon as a carter and general laborer. Here he is providing diet for a sawyer from out of town.
632 1 d: one day.
633 It is not clear whether bricks were being burned in Springfield at this time. Simon Lobdell probably procured his bricks from Northampton.
634 Sam Ball may have lived at Northampton at this time. In any event, he supplied 3300 bricks for the House of Correction chimney. Round Hill was in Northampton.
635 These carpenters had been brought in from other communities under some form of contract.
636 This is the largest number of bricks reported to date in New England. The clay of Northampton was apparently the most suitable for burning bricks, which must have been carried down to Springfield in long dugout canoes.
637 Pavements: flat bricks or tiles.
638 2811: £28 11s.
639 Thirteene hundred & halfe: 1350 shingles.
640 The marke of: throughout these accounts it is remarkable how few men had to make their marks.
641 He had to hard a bargain: too hard a bargain.
642 To joint them: this usage is not clear. Joint would not mean to hang shingles. Possibly jointing meant to fit them or put them together for hanging or shingling.
643 G fyler: Goodman Walter Fyler was later a lieutenant in the trainband of Springfield. The context here suggests that a cowle was a tub with two ears for carrying water.
644 Sam Grant probably came from some other town inasmuch as he was paid for diet “bef winter” (before winter [see below, 338]).
645 Shi: shingle. Wise: an error for wide.
646 old ho: old house.
647 Rich Sikes: a farmer of Springfield who also worked as a carpenter.
648 Rearing the house: Pynchon’s new brick house was being joined to his old frame structure. Rearing suggests a frame for the brick building, which is not at all clear.
649 By underpinning, Pynchon means foundation, and it is interesting to learn that the stone foundation was daubed to keep out the cold.
650 Goodm Griswold was Edward Griswold, who was brought in from Windsor, Connecticut, for the stone and brick work.
651 See also the agreement between Sam Buell and Timothy Trawle to hew timber for New House and House of Correction further down the page in the original manuscript. This is excerpted in material for the House of Correction.
652 Goodman Bascomb: Thomas Bascomb of Northampton, where he took the oath of fidelity in 1661.
653 John Lamb: a farmer and laborer of Springfield.
654 The pump: at this time there were very few pumps in New England. This one may have been an inside pump, an even greater rarity.
655 Ground selling: groundsills.
656 Thomas Miller does not appear to have been a resident of Springfield. First and last a considerable number of outside artisans were employed by Pynchon.
657 Thomas Gilbert: freeman and selectman of Springfield and apparently a competent glazier. “Mr John Gilbert,” above, may have been a relative from another town. Certainly he was not the indigent John Gilbert listed by Innes, Springfield, 234.
658 Thomas Barber, a carpenter or housewright and sergeant in the Springfield trainband, later lived in Suffield, where he died about 1690. Many an English barn had a lean-to, either in the rear or at one end. See plate 1 in Carl Bridenbaugh, Fat Mutton and Liberty of Conscience (Providence, 1974), facing p. 40.
659 Eves: eaves.
660 Pitch fork steels: the prongs of the fork.
661 2 oven Ids: oven lids.
662 Possibly a wooden mallet for beating linen.
663 David Morgan: a carpenter of Springfield.
664 Ptition: partition.
665 John Hodge: probably lived in Suffield, as he did in 1684. In 1679 he had land in Westfield.
666 Samson Frary: Frary probably lived in Hatfield and served as a go-between in the following contract.
667 The fact that John Pynchon was building a new warehouse at the falls of the Connecticut in 1685 indicates that his trade was still important. The small dimensions of the new warehouse, the cellar with an entrance from outside, and the lean-to are noteworthy features of the proposed structure.
668 Mr. Sam Gaines may have lived in Suffield; he was not an inhabitant of Springfield. On the other hand, he may have been an itinerant millwright, one who understood “the Rules of art” and the “effecting of good mils.”
669 John Baker was not from Springfield, as far as is known. Because of his many ventures in building, John Pynchon acquired a very good knowledge of who were the best and most reliable workmen.
670 Joseph Leanord: a carpenter and laborer of Springfield whom Pynchon employed frequently.
671 Saw mill failing: during dry spells many mills had to shut down.
672 Mr Glover: The Reverend Peletiah Glover was the minister at Springfield; he had a son of the same name. Mr. Glover was one of John Pynchon’s best customers, as the accounts show.
673 Skillet: a cooking utensil having three or four feet and a long handle.
674 My Rate: this rate was set by the town for the support of the minister and, as indicated here, was almost always paid in kind, money being scarce at Springfield.
675 1 pr Bodys: a pair of bodices, e.g., corsets or stays.
676 Sack of old: probably “old” means a long time since.
677 Leift Bull: Lieutenant Bull.
678 Michelstide: September 29 (Michaelmas) old style. In England it was a quarter day, as it apparently was at Springfield.
679 Cradle: here cradle is child’s furniture.
680 Coll fustian silke: colored fustian silk. The use of “fustion” and “silke” together is confusing. See glossary of cloth terms.
681 Duff tayls: dovetails or fitted joints.
682 Glasering: glazier’s work, usually windows at this time.
683 Diascord: a preparation made of the dried leaves of scordium and many other herbs.
684 Annisees: aniseed was much used for its carminative and aromatic properties.
685 Clapses: clasps.
686 Gimbit: at Springfield gimlets were used to bore holes in wampum beads.
687 Home Booke gilt: a leaf of paper containing the alphabet and other elementary matter protected by a thin plate of translucent horn and mounted on a tablet of wood with a handle. In this case the letters must have been gilded. The hornbook was a New England child’s first schoolbook.
688 Leiut Wilton: Lieutenant David Wilton of Northampton. See Pynchon Papers, I, 51 note 2.
689 John Pondo: Pondo or Ponder of Westfield.
690 Clearge: clearage or the action of clearing.
691 2 chatechises: probably the Westminster catechism.
692 Gimp lace: gimp is the coarser thread in lace.
693 Lopeing: looping.
694 25 slabs: slabs covered with bark, the refuse from sawing boards, which, it is important to note here, were used and not merely burnt as trash.
695 Currence: currants.
696 Jos Griswold: Joseph Griswold lived in Windsor.
697 Peckled callico: may mean speckled calico, that is, the printed cotton cloth from the East.
698 Knife to Pel: to the minister’s son Peletiah (Jr.).
699 My Estate . . . 573 li: this was the assessed value for the tax rate of Springfield; the actual value was undoubtedly greater.
700 Wid Parsons: Widow Parsons, probably the relict of Joseph Parsons of Northampton, one of Pynchon’s principal traders.
701 Other accounts for Mr. Peletiah Glover may be found in the Account Books, 11, 2; v, part 1, 6–9; and v, part 2, 358 and 359.
702 Jhon Mathew’s wife conducted a Dame school in springfiled. The editor knows of no other records of this kind
703 Mris Warham: probably a widow conducting a Dame School
704 Mary Pynchons Tabling: may have been an early instance of school lunches. At this time Mary was about thirteen years old.
705 Mr John Richards: here again, the schoolmaster is paid in kind for the greater part of his salary.
706 Vomit: an emetic.
707 Mr Cunningham: Mr. Patrick Cunningham died in 1687. He had been a merchant and competitor of John Pynchon.
708 Doctor Daniel Denton. These accounts add considerably to the little that is known about this prominent New Yorker who, in 1670, wrote and published at London a Brief Description of New-York—the first work in English relating to this province. Denton (1644–1686) spent much of his life at Jamaica, Long Island. While he was in England on business in 1672, back at Jamaica his wife proved unfaithful to him. This led to a divorce in 1672 when she confessed to adultery. For a number of years Denton’s life was disrupted. He left Long Island and in 1673 was a magistrate of Piscataway in West New Jersey. By August 1675 or earlier, he had gone to Springfield, where on 24 April 1676 he married Hannah, the daughter of John Leonard, a substantial farmer of that place.
709 What follows indicates that about August 1675 Dr. Denton went to Springfield under contract with the colony of Massachusetts Bay to care for the sick and wounded of King Philip’s War. He rented land and a cow from John Pynchon. Staying on at Springfield after the end of hostilities, he may have served as a schoolmaster as well as a physician. In 1678 he took the oath of allegiance as ordered by the General Court, and in September 1680 John Pynchon swore him as a freeman and he was admitted. In 1684 he called himself as of Westfield, but by 1686 he had been readmitted an inhabitant of Jamaica. The rest is silence.
710 Med behind the Hill: meadow behind the hill.
711 The Connecticut River and its tributaries contained an abundance of shad, salmon, bass, and other fish long used as food by the Indians. Curiously, for over a century after the first settlement shad was looked upon as the food for poor men who did not have any salt pork.
712 The remaining accounts of Dr. Denton may be found in the Account Books, v, part 2, 472–473, and vi, 56 and 57.
713 John Stewart: the Springfield blacksmith. See Pynchon Papers, I, 21 note 2.
714 G. lankton: Goodman Langton.
715 Beck Iron: a smoothing iron with a cavity to contain coals; scrue plate: a screw plate was a hardened steel plate for cutting the threads of small screws by means of drilled and tapped holes of various diameters.
716 Unseasonable night meetings: John Stewart was fined for card playing at his house in 1662. On several other occasions he was hauled into court, as in 1660, when he was fined for striking William Morgan and breaking his nose!
717 My Mill: Pynchon’s mill at Quabaug (Brookfield), Massachusetts.
718 Thrid Butts: thread buttons? The remainder of John Stewart’s accounts through 1689 may be found in the Account Books, 11, 46–47 and 282–283; v, part I, 90–91; and v, part 2, 406–407.
719 John Artsell: a Dutch carpenter whom Pynchon hired to construct a mill.
720 Toles from Albany: tools from Albany. There was evidently much more intercourse between the English of the Connecticut Valley and the Dutch at Albany than formerly thought, as this and other evidence attest.
721 Adam vroman: Adam Vroman, a Dutch workman.
722 Squakeake: Northfield, Massachusetts.
723 Snick: a kind of hammer.
724 Ribet: a plane to make grooves.
725 Stony River or Stony Brook (as above) in 1660; in 1664, Suffield, Connecticut.
726 Somt: sometimes.
727 cariage: a carriage converying a log into the saw at a sawmill.
728 Thomas Noble: a tailor used by the Pynchons as both an artisan and a laborer.
729 Pen knives: small knives kept in the pocket for making and sharpening pen quills. At this time the knife was provided with a sheath instead of a jointed blade or blades.
730 It is surprising that shoemakers’ lasts are found on the frontier. They probably were imported from England and probably there was but one last to a size.
731 Ppnt: may mean pint, the pp indicating a capital P.
732 Stucking silk: stocking silk, which suggests silk stockings in the wilderness!
733 Make into Coates: at 18s. a dozen, these must have been simple and hastily made coats of Indian cloth sewn by Thomas Noble at Springfield.
734 Swead: swede.
735 Tramells: trammel, an adjustable pot hook used with a crane.
736 Being a Trop: being a trooper. Evidently Noble owned a horse and belonged to the Springfield cavalry commanded in person by John Pynchon.
737 Light hog: lightweight hog.
738 The “friendship and bounty of New England” in providing £1200 sterling worth of provisions for the fleet before Nevis in 1667 was a striking example of intercolonial cooperation. Noble’s small contribution of three bushels of corn suggests that a great many people shared modestly in the relief effort.
739 Serjant Stebbins: Thomas Stebbins was a tailor who worked in both cloth and leather for the Pynchons. He was also a farmer and later on a lieutenant of the trainband of Springfield.
740 John Barber: a sackmaker who made twenty-five bags for John Pynchon in 1669 and, as noted here, made leather breeches. This is the only instance of oiled breeches that the editor has come across: oiling probably made the breeches warmer, as well as more pliable.
741 John Web the brasier: Webb lived first in Springfield, then at Hadley. He was a somewhat litigious person.
742 Forbearance was a charge made for refraining from collecting a debt when it was due.
743 Usually braziers mended pots and pans for colonial housekeepers, in this case for Madam Pynchon.
744 Current Bever: the present price in New England money probably, not in sterling.
745 Gad Steele: a bar or ingot of steel.
746 The Cort: the Hampshire County Court was not established until 1662, so this must have been the local Springfield Court.
747 John Norton of Boston went to Springfield as a soldier during King Philip’s War and remained there permanently. He married Lydia Bliss in 1678. By trade he was a tanner and shoemaker. A habitual drunkard, he was frequently fined for drunken behavior and lasciviousness.
748 It is clear that the shoes, particularly for women, of the seventeenth century were much less sturdy than those made today.
749 Most people were smaller in the seventeenth century than their descendants, and it is curious that shoe sizes for men were commonly 10–12 and for women 6–8. Either the New Englanders had larger feet or the scale of measurement was different from ours. This entry and the following seem to indicate that men, as well as their wives, wore French heels in frontier Springfield!
750 His wifes debts: John Norton was legally responsible for Lydia’s debts because all she possessed passed to him when they married.
751 Up leather: for making shoe uppers.
752 John Pynchon, Jr., acted as his father’s agent in Boston for some years, before returning to Springfield. See Section xiii of this work for selections from his Account Book; also Pynchon Papers, I, 36 note.
753 The Branch may mean the division or subdivision of the company located in Boston and presided over by John Pynchon, Jr.
754 Bena Parsons: Benjamin Parsons was a freeman and selectman of Springfield.
755 Jonathans warehouse: the Gilbert warehouse in Hartford.
756 My chamb: the colonists frequently kept wheat and other grains in upstairs bed chambers, where rodents were less likely to get at them.
757 Abord the vessel: probably a West Indies venture in which the elder Pynchon had an interest.
758 The Colledge: a gift of forty shillings John Pynchon, Jr., was making to Harvard College.
759 Goodman Dumbleton rented land in Chicopee from Pynchon and frequently worked for him.
760 Hugh Dudly: Dudley and probably his wife came from Barnet, near London, and on 29 April 1650 he covenanted with William Pynchon to serve him for five years. Pynchon turned him over to Henry Smith.
761 Whether King Philip’s War interfered with the building of this warehouse or not, these accounts provide no evidence of the structure having been completed.
762 Mr Winthrop of Pequet: John Winthrop, Jr., of Pequot or New London. See Pynchon Papers, I, passim.
763 G Calkin: probably David Caulkins of New London, who settled at Norwich in 1660, where he died in 1690 at the age of ninety.
764 For more about this horse, see Pynchon Papers, I, 17, 19, 20.
765 Oxen by Symon: Simon Beaman was first a servant of the Pynchons, then a boatman, courier, and carter; in 1655 he made at least seven voyages down the Connecticut to the falls for John Pynchon.
766 Mr Whiting: Josiah Whiting of Westfield married John Pynchon’s daughter Mary.
767 “Got linnen” may have been a fabric half of cotton and half of linen thread.
768 For stubbing: Jared Eliot stated in his Essays on Field Husbandry that Rhode Islanders, unlike Connecticut farmers, did not consider it necessary to “stubb all Staddle” (grub out small trees) when they cleared land. Evidently the Connecticut practice prevailed at Westfield.
769 Rubstons: a kind of whetstone for sharpening scythes and sickles.
770 Trading Goods: this account indicates that Whiting was trading for furs at Westfield with goods advanced by his father-in-law.
771 Edmund Pringridays: could be a brave attempt to spell Prendergast.
772 Rowld Thomas: Rowland Thomas, a carter and selectman of Springfield.
773 “Stonning the cellar” suggests a dry wall rather than masonry. Many old New England farmhouses had cellar walls of large stones fitted without any mortar.
774 Goodman Moseley of Windsor, Connecticut.
775 The little house: a back house or privy.
776 Several of the inhabitants of Springfield strung wampum for John Pynchon.
777 This item reveals John Pynchon’s essential fair dealing.
778 Goodm Billing: Samuel Billing lived at Hatfield in 1671.
779 John Scot was a farmer of Springfield who rented land from John Pynchon, and not the notorious John Scott of Long Island.
780 “my Daughter”: Mary, the crippled daughter. £500–600 was a very large dowry for New England at this time. See Pynchon Papers, I, 12, 48.
781 Hartford . . . Taylers: although there were tailors at Springfield, those of the Connecticut metropolis apparently better suited John Pynchon’s taste.
782 Qter Mr Woodward: a quarterly statement for Henry Woodward of Northampton, treasurer of Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
783 Court at N: Northampton.
784 Spr: Springfield
785 2 fad match: 2 fathoms of match, slow-burning tow used in firing matchlock guns.
786 My Sevts: my servants.
787 Da Burt: David Burt of Northampton.
788 Hadly schole: this was the town school of Hadley, which was conducted by Caleb Watson (Harvard College, 1661), and not the Hopkins Bequest school.
789 Drum . . . Cords: cords for holding and tightening the drum head.
790 Red wine: sacramental wine for Holy Communion; John Pynchon imported it from overseas.
791 To 2 doz Points: laces to attach hose to a doublet.
792 This attack should be added to the Chronology in Pynchon Papers, I, xxiv; see also I, 184–197.
793 John Pynchon was still the major military figure in the Connecticut Valley, as this prompt action in sending out posts indicates.
794 3 of Cones: three of Connecticut’s soldiers, who had been stationed at Northfield.
795 Munn went to Hadley to bring back the horses that Biggie’s soldiers rode there and submits charges for himself and horse.
796 John Henryson was a stocking-knitter of Springfield.
797 Henry Curtis died in Northampton in 1661.
798 John Paine was a Boston merchant. See Miss Mclntyre’s essay in this volume, above, page 64–66.
799 Marking Iron: branding iron.
800 The line: the boundary between Connecticut and Massachusetts was being determined by Pynchon and others.
801 For Morgan and Dunnage, see Miss Mclntyre’s essay, above, 65.
802 Stele Bills: a military weapon consisting of a long staff, terminating in a hookshaped blade usually with a pike. These bills were obviously for use by the trainbands in the current King Philip’s War, during which they were found to be useless and were discarded.
803 Sam Marshfield was the best interpreter of Indian dialects in the Valley, and of great aid to Pynchon in everything pertaining to Indians. He was a selectman of Springfield thirteen times and three times a deputy to the General Court.
804 This sentence should read: “one wolf from the Indian Squaw [to] Goodman Marshfield, or our number 13” (on which Springfield paid bounties).
805 Here once more is a good illustration of how news traveled and also of Pynchon’s prompt attention to military matters. See Pynchon Papers, I, 26 note, 114–116.
806 G G Letters: letters of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay.
807 Ensigne onstad: Samuel Olmstead of Springfield.
808 Mr Sanders: Robert Sanders of Albany, with whom John Pynchon dealt during the present trip.
809 A bit was the equivalent of a Spanish real or 12½ cents (two bits=25 cents=1 shilling). In Springfield a bit passed as 8 pence. Captain Andrew Belcher of Boston, who had been in Albany with John Pynchon, would accept Sanders’ bits at only 6 pence, which Pynchon reluctantly agreed to, as indicated below.
810 There being no satisfactory English school at Albany, Pynchon agreed to board the son and send him to school at Springfield.
811 Mr Moxon: the Reverend George Moxon, first minister at Springfield.
812 Robert Ashly: Robert Ashley was a selectman of Springfield ten times; by occupation he was a farmer, sawyer, and glazier.
813 Quarrys of old glass: square or oblong panes of glass.
814 Burning glasses: lenses.
815 Thomas Wats: Goodman Watts lived in Springfield.
816 David Wilton: a fur trader at Northampton, also an ensign and then lieutenant in the trainband.
817 Casemts: casements were window frames hung on hinges so as to swing vertically.
818 Rich waite: Richard Waite, a servant whom John Pynchon transferred to Benjamin Parsons.
819 Pm: promised.
820 Druget: drogget was stuff either all wool, half-wool, half-silk, or half-linen used for wearing apparel.
821 James Taylor, a servant to John Pynchon, became a freeman in 1664. He was landless and worked as a wage laborer.
822 G Joans: Goodman Griffith Jones probably.
823 Hacklitton: Francis Hacklinton, brickmaker, of Northampton.
824 Fris: Francis Pepper.
825 He fanned: wheat was spread on the barn floor and fanned to get rid of the chaff.
826 John Earle took the oath of fidelity at Springfield in 1656. He worked for John Pynchon in 1661 as a wage laborer.
827 Bl sow: black sow.
828 When he went down the fales: that is, down the falls to Enfield, Connecticut.
829 Fresh water River: Enfield.
830 Elizabeth Waite: probably the daughter of Richard Waite of Springfield.
831 The fact that her “consent” to serve Ely had been required indicates that Elizabeth was a wage servant of John Pynchon’s just as were many other New England girls who went into service to learn managing households.
832 Richard Waite, having been a servant for a long time, may have been an orphan bound out to service until he came of age.
833 Tho Day: a cobbler and shoemaker who worked for the entire Pynchon family.
834 Scabberd: sword scabbards were generally made of leather stretched over a metal frame.
835 Jacob the Dutch lad came from Albany. For some unknown reason John Pynchon allowed him to attend the election at Hartford. His last name does not appear in the Pynchon Accounts.
836 A ride to Albany from Springfield would have been mostly along a path, as there was no cart road. The distance was about ninety-two miles.
837 Mindwell Old may have been the daughter of Robert Old of Westfield. She was a wage servant and testified to the very early appearance of the servant problem in New England.
838 Told he shee: told her [that] she.
839 West out: went out.
840 His & his wifes freedome: in the Records of the County Court of Hampshire, 313, for 1 December 1687, in John Pynchon’s handwriting is: “Roco and Sue my Negroes, Joined in Marriage.” The payments mentioned below are large and may indicate that they were buying freedom from slavery, although indentured servitude for a set period cannot be ruled out.
841 The mke of Richard Blackleech the Negro Dick: Dick seems to have been Blackleach’s illiterate servant or slave. The Blackleaches were prominent in Hartford, John being a ship’s captain in the West Indies trade in 1671.
842 For the Boy: an orphan to be apprenticed until of age.
843 Aquilla Barber would have been fortunate in being apprenticed to John Pynchon, for there was an opportunity to be given elementary schooling as well as instruction in some kind of trade or craft; but his mother took him back shortly.
844 Because an indenture of apprenticeship usually called for the master to give the apprentice at the completion of his service a new suit of clothes, a careful record was kept of what he was wearing when he left. Unfortunately this entry is undated.
845 Ireland: this voyage is the first transatlantic venture by the Pynchons mentioned in these accounts. New England and Ireland had very few connections throughout the seventeenth century.
846 N fond land: a phonetic spelling of the pronunciation favored in the island today: nu-fun-land.
847 Rumbo: a strong rum punch.
848 Bro Hub: John Pynchon, Jr.’s brother-in-law, John Hubbard.
849 Mr Payn: John Paine of Boston.
850 The Barbados: Portuguese, las barbadas (bearded), referring to the Indian fig tree growing on the island.
851 Mr Hull: John Hull, mintmaster and a leading merchant of Boston.
852 The Briganteen: a small sailing ship.
853 For trimming the Water Caske: stowing the water cask securely and upright in the hold of a vessel.
854 Tear: tare, the weight deducted from the gross weight to ascertain the net weight.
855 Tolling the horses: dropping or lowering horses into a lighter.
856 Butts: casks.
857 Two Bales: bales of cotton.
858 Mr. John Wickins was a merchant of London with whom John Pynchon dealt. See Pynchon Papers, I, index, s.v. John Wickins.
859 Consigned to Mr: consigned to the master.
860 Mr Usher: John Usher, a principal merchant of Boston.
861 Mr Davis: Captain William Davis.
862 To Bondish: Bowditch (?), master of a ship sailing out of Boston.
863 Mr Shrimpton: Samuel Shrimpton, one of the richest merchants at Boston.
864 Mead: William Mead, a Quaker merchant of London, best known for being tried at Old Bailey with William Penn in 1670. See Pynchon Papers, I, 86 note.
865 Sir Wm: Sir William Peake, merchant of London in colonial trade.
866 Freight & Gust: freight and customs. On these London merchants, see Miss McIntyre’s introduction to the fur trade in this volume, above 45–46.
867 Merywoather: Edward Meri wether of London, a merchant who dealt with the Pynchons.
868 Beave from yorke: probably beaver from New York.