Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Final Page of Colden Day Book
The Day Book of Cadwallader Colden Jr. contains the transactions of his Coldengham store from August 11, 1767 to November 2, 1768. The book resides in the collections of the New-York Historical Society in New York City.
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| First page in Colden Store Day Book. Collections of New-York Historical Society. |
I first became aware of this artifact in 2008 when reading the biography of Colden Jr. (Survivor) written by Fingerhut. That same year I perused the microfilmed pages of the Day Book and found many references to my Campbell relatives.
When I decided to write a journal article on the Colden Store I returned to the Society and was allowed to create digital images from the microfilm. The transcription (found on-line here) was made from that batch of digital images (read below). I was given permission to share any transcription of the digital images with the public. The journal article appeared in 2017 and the first on-line Day Book database appeared in 2018.
Despite my intense interest in the Day Book, I have never seen the real thing. I have not counted the physical pages nor have I confirmed that every physical page has a corresponding microfilm image.
The pages in the Day Book are not numbered. I assigned numbers to the pages numbers to assist in organization of the database.
Page one is the first image of the book on microfilm. It contains no transactions. It simply states: 'Cadwallader Colden Junr, His Day Book, Began Augst 11th 1767.'
Page two appears to be the reverse side of page one but, because I had no access to the book, I could not confirm that.
I made digital images of all 451 microfilmed pages in a single sitting. I was rushed and undoubtedly made errors. I confess that I did not double-check to make sure all microfilmed pages were digitally imaged. There could be pages missing.
As long as I am confessing my sins, I apologize for the many errors in transcription. Not only were there challenges in reading 18th century handwriting, but there were multiple clerks, with multiple styles, with multiple spellings for the same word. There were words and abbreviations that are no longer used today. And of course there was human error by the transcribers.
If you search the database, let me know if you see what you think is an error. I can go back and compare with the digital image. But let me be so bold as to say that my transcribers have made a lot fewer errors than Colden and his clerks. I will give Colden a break on spelling, but there were numerous math and dating errors in the Day Book.
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Search the DayBook
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 last microfilmed image was numbered 451 by me. Was it the last page in the book? I think it probably was. Colden's pages were not numbered. The prior microfilm image, page 450, appeared to be the obverse side of a page still bound in the ledger, while page 451 appeared to be a loose sheet (not the reverse of 450). Page 440 (a reverse page) can be seen sitting behind page 451 in the microfilm image, hence my assumption that the page is loose (see image below).
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| Last page in Colden Store Day Book. Collections of New-York Historical Society. |
The second was a listing of the nails (taken from store stock?) used to shingle his old house.
The third item appeared to be a normal DayBook entry of a customer transaction. However, it had been crossed out. Perhaps it was added to the new Day Book?
The fourth memorandum was a listing of provisions delivered to Peter Harris' boys. These were large amounts of Pork, loaves of bread, and bushels of Wheat and Rye. The use of the word 'provisions' hints of a journey or military exercise. Harris was never named using a militia officer's title in the twenty-one times he was mentioned in the Day Book. Unlike other entries in the DayBook which were tied to a specific date, these deliveries occurred on about fifteen different dates over the course of 1768. More research is needed to understand why these deliveries were captured in a memorandum and not as regular store sales.
This page also contains some sketches. They look a bit like floor plans and appear to have been written at a later date than the memorandums. They may not even be attributable to Colden.
With the DayBook filled, it probably sat on a shelf at the store, then on a shelf in Colden's home. The home stayed in the family for a few generations, but some point the historical contents were disbursed. (For example the parlor was reconstructed in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art.) Luckily the DayBook found its way to the New-York Historical Society, and now, it has been transcribed and is searchable by historians and genealogists.
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Search the DayBook
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