IRON POT! April 17, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Sunday April 17, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Iron Pot

Hons Crist Jr. purchased an Iron Pot at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years ago. Iron Pots were sold by the pound.

Iron Pot found on Colden Property at North Drury Lane and Rte. 17K. Courtesy of Colden House Study - 2017, Robert Williams.

In December of 2017, an abandoned home that stood on the what was the original Colden estate, was demolished. It was located on the corner of North Drury Lane and Rte. 17K.

1811 Map of Colden Estate showing location of Drury Lane Home.

Former Town of Montgomery Historian, Robert Williams, inspected the premises before and during the demolition. He speculated that this home may have been the original home of Colden Jr. prior to construction of his Stone Mansion in 1767.

In the process of removing salvageable items, a sealed board and batten door was located under the rear stairway which had been closed off for years. One of the artifacts found in this forgotten spot was an iron pot. This pot could very well be from the colonial period, perhaps much like the ones Colden sold in his store.

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This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

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In the prior eight months, Colden sold about 25 iron pots or iron kettles. They sold for either four or four-and-one-half pence per pound. The largest was 99 1/2 pounds and sold for £1:13:2! The smallest was sixteen pounds and sold for £0:6:0.

Iron Pots sold at the Colden Store.

For some reason the clerk failed to weigh the pot purchased by Crist. The weight in #, pence/#, and total price are not given in the DayBook.

Was this really Sunday, April 17th?

At first I thought that the date of the transactions of this day had been misread. That is not the case. Page 257 of the DayBook clearly states 'Aprill 17, 1768' at the top of the page and twice more on the same page in the headers of individual transactions.

The next page, 258, is a bit more confusing. The header says 'Aprill' but the 16 has been changed to a 17 or vice versa. Because the page before is clearly the 17th it would make sense that this page is not the 16th.

Header on page 258 of the DayBook. April 16 or 17?

However, the 17th of April was a Sunday. This was quite unusual, as the store was normally closed on Sundays.

Both pages contain the handwriting of Colden and two other clerks. It is hard to believe the store was staffed by three people on a Sunday.

It was also odd that there appears to be no sales on Saturday the 16th.

I would bet that the clerks made an error that propagated through these entries and that all seventeen shoppers visited the store on Saturday the 16th with the store being closed on the 17th.

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