FLAX! May 6, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Friday May 6, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Flax

Patreas Terwilliger purchased ten and one-half pounds of 'flax' from the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago. This was the first purchase of 'flax' FROM THE STORE recorded in the DayBook. However, over sixty sales of 'flaxseed' by yeomen TO THE STORE were recorded. (See blog on DYES!)

Flaxseed. Image courtesy of Sanjay Acharya - Creative Commons

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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.

Flaxseed was a common export from the colonies to Ireland. Peter Kalm, in his writings of 1750, stated that ships, loaded almost entirely with flaxseed (he called it linseed), sailed from the docks of Philadelphia and New York to Ireland. The demand for softer linens required that the flax in Ireland be harvested before the seeds formed.

Flax Seed Pod. Image courtesy of Rasbak - Creative Commons

The yeomen of the Colden Store were getting four to five shillings per bushel for their flaxseed. In addition, they could still use the flax fibers to make a course linen, yarn, or homespun. The process of converting the flax fibers to linen was a time-consuming one. It was an activity carried during the winter months when field work could not be done. Here is a good video on the process.

Patreas Terwilliger sold Colden two and one-half bushels of flaxseed in the prior October for about fourteen and one-half shillings. A bushel of flaxseed was 56 pounds (see this blog on weights of bushels) so the price per pound was about a pence. October and November were the months for harvesting flaxseed and getting them on the late-year ships.

The purchase Patreas made on this day was too expensive to be 'flaxseed.' It was likely a yarn spun from flax. On four occasions the store purchased 'Stocking Yarn' from the local residents (see blog on Mary McCollum). The store paid between 1 1/4 and 3 shillings per pound for this yarn. Perhaps this is what was bought by Patreas.

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Campbells  Only one of my Campbell relatives living near Coldengham sold harvests to the store (..... so far.  Only about 2/3rds of the DayBook has been transcribed to date).  Daniel, Joel's older brother, sold a small amount of honey and flaxseed to the store for only eleven shillings. Not a whopping harvest.  The Campbells had at least two farms. Were they selling their produce elsewhere? or did they only harvest enough to feed themselves? Or were most of them tradesmen? These questions have not been anwered by the DayBook

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In February, a strange article appeared in the New York City Journal newspaper. It claimed that soaking flax fibers in calf's dung for a few hours made "FLAX as soft as SILK." The colonists made use of dung in many enterprises. See my blog on TANNING!.

February 6, 1768 article in the N-Y Journal newspaper.

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