Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Common Prayer Book
For reasons unknown, this first week of May, was a quiet one in the Colden Store, 250 years-ago. It started with a bang on Monday with 76 items sold to 21 customers. But, it quickly petered out to only twenty-two items sold to eleven people today. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the store was closed - the reason is unknown. Was there a Day of Prayer which often fell on Wednesdays? Did Colden have out-of-town business, perhaps a Court of Common Pleas in Kingston for which he was a judge? Was there illness sweeping the community or a funeral?
The true activity in the store will never be known as demonstrated by the last transaction of this day in the DayBook. Robert Denlap's boy picked up a gallon of rum and one-half bushel of salt. Colden entered the items in the DayBook thinking that it would be debited to Denlap's account. However, the boy produced cash to complete the transaction. Colden crossed out the transaction and marked it as "Paid." Colden carried no numbers to the right hand column. The right hand column was reserved for debits and credits to be carried to that person's account in a separate ledger.
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| Robert Denlap purchase of May 3, 1768 received by his Boy. |
How many transactions for cash occurred and were never entered into the DayBook? The presumption is that it was a minority of transactions in this cash-poor economy, but the real number of unrecorded cash sales remains unknown.
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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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Yesterday, Monday, May 2, Andrew Graham Jr. purchased one Common Prayer Book for four and one-half shillings.
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| 1768 Book of Common Prayer according to the Church of England. |
Those of the Episcopal faith worshiped at what was called the "Log Church" at the location of what would become "St. Andrew's." Sometime in this year, 1768, the Rev. John Sayre came to the area of Wallkill as an Episcopal missionary. A charter was granted for the church at St. Andrew's in 1770 and a structure was built about 1773 (more on this church in a future blog, but you can see its location on this map in a prior blog on Graham).
Andrew Graham Jr. was devoted to his religion and to this church. When the new St. Andrew's went up in 1773, he was the builder. He was also a vestryman of the church. [Bodine, A History of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church]
The connections between the Episcopal Church and the King of England are obvious on a brief perusal of the Prayer Book. There is a prayer for the "Putting an End to the Great Rebellion," [referring to the commonwealth period of 1649-1660 in which the royal family was in exile]. There are "Solemn Days" commemorated on January 30th and October 25th, the day King Charles I was beheaded for treason in 1649 and the day of the beginning of the reign of King George III in 1760 respectively.
It is no wonder that many from this congregation sided with the British royalty in the conflict that would explode eight years from now in 1776, including Colden, Graham, and DuBois.
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