BONNETS! May 7, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Saturday May 7, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Bonnets - The Beattys and the Tarpenings

The wives of Samuel Tarpening (Terpening) and Robert Beatty (Beattie) had the same sewing project in mind. Samuel Tarpening and Robert Beatty's wife both purchased identical quantities of Taffety, Persian, Bonnet Paper, and Silk from the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago.

Tarpening and Beatty purchases of May 7, 1768. Identical items are highlighted in blue.

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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.

Neighbors shopped together and often made identical purchases. Perhaps they also collaborated on sewing projects?  Two months prior to this date, March 4th, Thomas Beatty Jr. and Matthew McCollum made identical fabric purchases. On other occasions two sequential shoppers purchased identical hats, scythes, handkerchiefs, cups & saucers, or rum. Perhaps this was because a new shipment of goods had arrived, or perhaps it was because of the peer pressure of the 18th century.

The Beattys and the Tarpenings had farms to the Northeast of the Colden Store, not far from each other. Both families had connections to my Campbell ancestors. The Beattys would eventually purchase the original farm of Samuel Campbell that overlapped St. Andrew's Road just north of the border of the Wileman and Brasier patents. Bondawine Tarpening was the Captain of the militia company in Hasbrouck's Newburgh regiment that included Samuel's son, Joel. It was sometimes referred to as the "Western Newburgh Company - Recruited in Wallkill." In 1778, years after the area around Coldengham had been reorganized into the Hanover Precinct, they were still referring to this area as Wallkill. [Read more on the naming of this area.]

It appears that these ladies were about to sew silk bonnets. The amounts of fabric were too small for a large article. Taffety and Persian were both silk fabrics. The thin Persian silk was used commonly as a liner. The Bonnet Paper was presumably a stiffener. The silk was a skein of silk thread.

The color was probably black. Describing 18th century Philadiphia in Annals of Philadelphia, Watson writes "...no other colour than black was ever made for ladies’ bonnets when formed of silk or satin. Fancy colours were unknown, and white bonnets of silk fabric had never been seen."

A period bonnet is shown below from the Williamburg collection. But there are many other styles of bonnets of the period that can be linked from the '18th Century Notebook' website.

Silk Bonnet from England, c. 1770-1780. Image courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg.

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