Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Abigail Booth Goldsmith
Abigail Booth Goldsmith, 75 years-of-age, purchased tea, indigo, a plate, a fine comb, and a linen handkerchief at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago. She would live another 25 years, just a few months shy of the century mark.
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| Headstone of Abigail Booth Goldsmith (1693-1793). Image courtesy of Shirley Goldsmith. |
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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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The surname 'Goldsmith' appeared thirty times in the DayBook. Abigail Goldsmith appeared to be a widow as she had her own account and her grandson is mentioned on her account (as is her son and James Crawford). Her account had transactions on seven occasions. Today's purchase was the last time she was mentioned in the DayBook.
Thomas Goldsmith was mentioned twenty-one times in the DayBook. His son (name not revealed) appeared at the store several times to take delivery of his father's purchases. John Miller also took delivery for Thomas as did Jacob Lawrance who was described as a tenant on Goldsmith's land. On one occasion a 'Mr. Goldsmith' took delivery of items purchased by Dr. Hill.
In summary, the DayBook gives us some clues to this family even though it is not a genealogical record. Here is a working hypothesis: Abigail was the widowed mother of Thomas (and perhaps a daughter married to James Crawford). Thomas had a son born before 1755 and land in Wallkill Precinct.
In the 1779 tax assessment of Hanover (created in 1772 from Wallkill Precinct where the store was) Thomas Goldsmith had a large 640-acre farm and £200 of personal property. Judging from its position on the assessment, the property was close to the Goodwill Church, just south of the property owned by Joel Campbell's (this blog's eponym) father. By 1790 the farm had been sold to others as no Goldsmith appears in the 1790 census for Montgomery, Ulster County, New York (as this area was known at the time).
Much of the genealogy on ancestry.com is questionable, but it appears the husband of Abigail died in 1743 leaving her with a large estate including 1000 acres along the Paltz River (Wallkill River) that he called Homefield. This may have been the same property mentioned in the 1779 tax assessment. His will. Is it possible that Thomas, her son, was a Loyalist and left the area during the Revolutionary War?
Abigail's headstone stands in the Tuthill Family Cemetery in Hamptonburgh, Orange County, New York, still within 15 miles of the Colden estate where the Store was located.
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Thank you for posting all of these items. Love the added touch of her life!
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