Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
James Cammel, Shoemaker
250 years ago today thirteen different people made purchases at the Colden store on fifteen accounts. How is this so? Johannes Youngblood made purchases for himself and for his father, Han. Robert Gillespie made purchases for himself and for his cousin, John.
This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
Of special interest to me are the "Campbells" who appear on this page. "Joel Campble" is my 5th GGF and Jonathan is my 6th Great Uncle. Joel was just three days short of his 33rd birthday.
"Jeames Cammel, Shuemaker" is more of a mystery. He is not a brother of Joel or Jonathan. They did have an uncle named James, but there is no evidence that he moved with them from New Jersey to this part of New York. If they are related it seems strange that the clerk would spell his name differently than that of Jonathan, just one entry below on the same page in the DayBook! On the other hand, Joel, Jonathan, and James all appear several times in the Daybook with "Cammel", "Campble", "Cambel", and "Camble" used interchangeably.
Below are the items puchased by James:
James purchased fabric and the ubiquitous rum, tea, and sugar. The knives and handsaw that he purchased were perhaps used in his trade. His entry ends with two sales to the store...3 pairs of shoes and a fox skin.
My guess is that the shoes were for Colden's personal use. No other sale of shoe or boot is recorded in the store up to this date. It appears the shoemaker made shoes only to custom order.
The store did sell other items to construct shoes. It bought and sold "sole leather" and "upper leather." It sold "Everlasting" which was a woolen jean used for the tops of boots. It sold pairs of heels, including one pair described as "wood." Alder was the wood of choice. Cork was also a heel material. The store sold shoe laces, shoe buckles, shoe knives and hammers.
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The wealthiest person on this page is Peter DuBois. He was represented by "his Miller." More on him later, but if you can't wait you can read this article I wrote about DuBois in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
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Search the DayBook
I noticed shoppers were all male. How often did women come? I'm wondering if the Colden records tell you anything about the home economy and what was produced at home? Did women trade homemade items for store-bought goods, as the shoemaker did? -- Sue Campbell Clark
ReplyDeleteThere were accounts in women's names. Search the database for "widow" and you will see some. The male account holders were often represented by women in the store. You can see that in the column called "Person at Store." I encourage you to click on the "Search the DayBook" link above and play with it. For example search the Purchased Items for "Homespun." No is no evidence that women were not involved every aspect of the economy from harvesting flaxseed and cabbage to chopping wood.
DeleteJay,
ReplyDeleteI am descended from Sarah Campbell(1680-1713) who married James Bowdoin in Boston. I believe her father was the John Campbell(1653 - 1728) who was born in Scotland and published the Boston NewsLetter. Your blog seems to indicate that this is not Robert's brother, but I was wondering if you had run into any information about that family of Campbells.
That is great that you can trace your line back a woman in that period. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Campbells in Boston. As you have probably found out, John Campbell was a common name. You might check the Campbell DNA project and see if any one on that list claims to be from that John Campbell.
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