Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Hogsheads
250 years ago today, was a fairly busy day at the Colden Store. Fourteen persons made 68 transactions. Six of the transactions were purchases of goods and services by the store. Four transactions were payments of Cash, which were essentially loans to the shoppers. The remaining 58 transactions were purchases of items, including five Handkerchiefs! More on Handkerchiefs in a future blog.
Search the DayBook
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.
One of the purchases by Samuel Hains was a "Hogs^d," which I presume to be a large barrel referred to as a "Hogshead." In the prior five months, the Daybook mentioned "Hogs" 32 times. It has been assumed these were pigs sold to make salted pork. But could some of these references be to a barrel containing some other item?
On November 20, 1767, in two different, but related, transactions, 61 "Hogs of Lime" were sold to the store at eight Shillings each. Here it appears the term "Hogs" is used as an abbreviation for "Hogshead."
It appears that Hogsheads were sold by their accepted volume and not by their weight. If that is the case, a "Hog" weighing 100# and selling for 3d per pound is probably really a pig and not a barrel full of 100# of something.
Barrel-makers were known as coopers. They made wooden 'barrels' in many standard sizes including the tun (256 gallons), the pipe (128 gallons), the hogshead (64 gallons), the barrel (32 gallons), the kinderkin (16 gallons), and the firkin (8 gallons).
 |
| A Hogshead for dry goods. Courtesy of Natasha at owlcation.com |
The DayBook mentions at least five "Coopers" in the community: James Crawford, John Nicholson, John Gillespie, William Cross, John Rosa, and Hans Rose. The last two persons are probably one and the same.
There will be more on the cooper's trade in a future blog.
===================
Search the DayBook
No comments:
Post a Comment