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Writer's pictureMelissa Davenport Berry

Zenas Crocker Family Barnstable Massachusetts Rare Account Book

Updated: Dec 19, 2023



PDF In the early 1790s, Zenas Crocker family of Barnstable MA began a business ledger that included purchases by local early settlers, Plantation of Mashpee, and transactions with Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. Also some birth and death records. Credit: Cahoon Museum of American Art



Names in Account Book:

Elisha Holmes, Jonah Fish, Rowland T. Crocker, Ezra Crocker, Holmes Allen, Jedediah Jones, Prince Fish, Charles Fish, Isaac Coombs, George Crocker, Alvan Crocker, William Bassett, Dan? Davis, Thomas Brock, John Coombs, Eben Crocker, Eben Nye, Benjamin Crocker, Isaac Wixom, William Richard, Isaac Carsley, Samuel Fish, Samuel Howard, Simeon Fish, Lemuel Howland, Samuel Howland, Thatcher Cooke, Seth Folger, Nathan Jones, Abner Jones, Capt. Toby, C. Smith, Josiah Samson, Abel Seeyers/Sears, Andrew Lovell, Abel ? Shippan/Skipper, John Buffum, Ezra Tobey, James Lunman ? Goordion, Harrison Goodspeed, Job Allen, George Allen, David Parker, David Lewis, Nathan Jones, Benjamin Whipple, Paul Worth, Nathan Long, Thatcher Crocker, Obed ? Aldredy, Capt. Folger, Edward Gifford, Edward Cary, Winslow Crocker, George Hussey, Isaac Carsley, Beniaman/Benjamin Croel, Benjamin Marston, Ebenzer Baker, Joseph Baker, Reuben Bennet, Ebenezer Attiquin, Benjamin Percival, Ansel Barker, Thomas H. Tobey, Jappath Tanner, Barry Ephraim, Josiah Chipman/Chapman, Ellis Houllande/Howland, Simon Keller, Bethiah Kethe, Henry Larnon/Lennon.


NOTE: As volunteers at the Cahoon Museum of American Art, our work interpreting the writing in the Cahoon Business Ledger was merely informational and not intended as a precise word for word translation.  Our interpretation was meant as an aid to find particular subjects within the ledger and although we did our very best, we cannot verify that our work is completely accurate or free of errors. M J Wheatley


Also a connection---Letter sold at auction



1806 Autograph Letter Signed from Gideon Hawley, Stockbridge and Mashpee, Massachusetts Indian Missionary to son-in-law and Kingston, Rhode Island merchant, Crocker Sampson.

Hawley preached on behalf of the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians

ALS from notable Massachusetts Indian missionary, Gideon Hawley (1727–1807) to his son-in-law, Crocker Sampson (1749–1823) of Kingston, Rhode Island.

  

Reverend Gideon Hawley, a Connecticut native and Yale graduate, first preached in 1752 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts among the Housatonic Indians. Under the aegis of Jonathan Edwards, Hawley accepted a position with the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and also preached to Mohawk, Oneida, and Tuscarora Indians. Hawley then taught among the Six Nations in near what is now Windsor, New York.

  

The French and Indian War forced his exit in 1756. He was a pastor to the Indian tribes at Mashpee from 1758 until his death on 1807.

  

Crocker Sampson married Gideon Hawley’s daughter, Rebecca Hawley in 1794. Sampson was a Harvard graduate and a Quarter Master under Colonel Gamaliel Bradford’s Regiment in the Continental Army. A merchant in Kingston, Rhode Island, he was also an underwriter of the Ohio Company in 1786.

  

This letter, one year before Hawley’s death, is primarily concerned with the health and business activities of family, work at Spring Hill, and their comings and goings, e.g. Hawley notes that Sampson’s brother James is terribly ill voiding “…considerable matter, bloody and black” and notes that Gideon [Jr.?] “…labors hard. He drinks sweetened water, but not much rum or brandy…”

Description: Hawley, Gideon (1727–1807). 1806 Autograph Letter Signed from Gideon Hawley, Stockbridge and Mashpee, Massachusetts Indian Missionary to son-in-law and Kingston, Rhode Island merchant, Crocker Sampson.

Mashpee, Massachusetts. July 28, 1806. Quarto. Two pages plus integral address leaf. Wax seal, small hole from seal, former folds, a few splits along fold lines, else very good.

[145280]

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Jan 15
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

ISSAC COOMBS IS MY DECEDENT

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