Williard E. Stone
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

1794 MIDDLETOWN, DELAWARE — FROM ACCOUNTING RECORDS

Abstract: The economic life, customs and importance of 1794 Middletown, Delaware are interpreted from the accounting ledgers of a general store and a blacksmith shop.
A customers ledger covering the period 1794 to 1801 presents a picture of economic life at the turn of the century in an eastern U.S. village. The ledger, now in the possession of Mr. H. F. Green, proprietor of St. Augustine’s Oldest Store Museum, was found by his mother 75 years ago in Smyrna, Delaware. The first two-thirds of this ledger contains the customers’ accounts of 1794 to 1796 for a general store operated by Reynolds and Clark, Merchants. The last third contains the 1799 to 1801 accounts of John Reynolds and Company, a blacksmith shop. John Reynolds, Esq. was an enterprising man; he was an attorney, a partner in the general store, owner of a blacksmith shop, operated a charcoal kiln and was an early banker for many of the local citizens. The ledger contains no direct information locating the two enterprises but Reynolds was on the tax list of Appoquinimink Hundred (township) which included Middletown. This and transaction references such as “to cash per Middletown day book” place the store in Middletown, Delaware. The location of the blacksmith shop could not be determined but probably was in a nearby but different village from the store because only 19 of the 95 customers of the blacksmith shop were among the 125 customers of the store.

Middletown, Delaware

Middletown is located 22 miles south of Wilmington and approxi-mately 50 miles from Philadelphia. (Fig.1) By 1799 a stage coach line, carrying the mail, made daily runs from Dover through Middle-town and Wilmington to Philadelphia.1 The first U.S. census (1781)

Stone: 1794—Middletown, Delaware—From Accounting Records gives only the population of New Castle County but the second U.S. census (1801) indicates the Appoquinimink Hundred had a population of 4,245. Between the first and second census, New Castle County had a population increase of 30% so the 4,245 figure must be reduced for this increase and because the Appoquinimink Hundred was a larger area than Middletown alone. If we estimate the population at 3,000 in 1794, Middletown was still an important village, for in 1781 the entire population of Delaware was 59,094.

The importance of 1794 Middletown in the colonial history of Del-aware is borne out by the prominance of five store customers. Richard Bassett, Esq. of Bohemia Manor was a landowner, lawyer, militia officer, U.S. Senator (1789-1793), Delaware Chief Justice (1796-1799) and Governor (1799-1801).2 Another customer, Dr. Joshua Clayton, was the last president of Delaware (1789-1799).3 His son Dr. James Clayton was surgeon in the U.S. Service.4 Levi Hollingsworth operated a line of “stage boats” between Philadelphia and Christiana and was part owner of wharves on Christiana Creek at “Christiana Bridge.”5 Joseph Rothwell was the owner of Roth-well’s Wharves on Ducks Creek.

Barter transactions in the ledger and other ledger references disclose that Reynolds and Clark’s customers included: 3 attorneys, 4 doctors, a minister; 5 millers, 1 tailor, 2 shoemakers, a store owner, a sawmill operator, a blacksmith, a tanner, a weaver, a barrell maker, and a hatter. Other customers acted as brokers of wheat, corn, tobacco, and cloth. Middletown was a town heavily involved in the commercial activity of the late 18th century colonial period.

Commodities and Prices

The price structure of a period can best be related to an appropriate standard by examining the wage levels of that period. Commodities and services were priced in English currency in the ledger. These have been converted at the exchange rate of 7s6d per $1, the consistent practice of the storekeeper when $10 and $20 bank notes were received. Steven Bonckell, a customer was charged $15 for one year’s services of Jim (the storekeeper’s son or slave?). Colling (chopping) a cord of wood brought $.40 and a man, wagon and team of horses cost $2.22 per day. The store clerk received $22.67 for a year’s clerking. Harrison, the tailor received $1.80 for making a new coat. Dr. John Clayton received $16.87 for one year’s medical care of Alexander Clark’s family. The annual rent of the store building occupied by Reynolds and Clark was $13.33 and Dr.

The Accounting Historians Journal, Spring, 1979

Clayton rented a farm to owner-partner, Alexander Clark for $66.67 per year.

Commodity prices and the nature of commodities in everyday use offer a glimpse into the life style of the common man. Stable prices prevailed over the two year period for there were few commodity price differences that could not be explained by differences in the quality of the goods. A complete list of products sold by the general store are included in Appendix A. The commodities purchased at the general store are for the most part, quite familiar to us today. Those handed by the blacksmith are, of course, those of an earlier technology and quite unfamiliar to todays city dwellers. Most prices appear to be quite in line with the wage level of the time. Coffee and tea were luxury items and their prices ($.25 and $2.22 per pound respectively) reflected the high transportation costs of the period.

Items of particular interest to the men of colonial Middletown were:
Cards, per pack $ .50 Saddle $7.00 to $1 1.33
Buggy whip 3.00 Snuff box .09
Gun flints, each .02 Steel trap .62
Musket 5.00 Tobacco, per Ib. .20

The people of Middletown appear to have been kept in good spirits for there was a steady demand for brandy at $1.20 per gallon, rum at $1.27 per gallon and whiskey at $1.10 per gallon. There was a lesser call for port wine at $.22 per pint and the aristocrat of drinks, gin (probably imported from England), at from $1.00 to $1.20 per quart.

Colonial Financial Institutions

Charges to customers in English currency indicated that the people were accustomed to commodity and service prices being stated in pound sterling. Cash payments, however, were very infrequently in even pounds or shillings, indicating that few English coins were in circulation. Small payments were in fractional amounts which would point to the general use of Spanish, Portuguese and other foreign coins. A surprising number of payments in U.S. $10 and $20 bills indicate wide-spread use of U.S. bank notes. These notes may have been those of the Bank of North America founded in Philadelphia in 1783 or of the Bank of the United States chartered in Philadelphia in 1791.

Barter was still an accepted practice and customers settled their accounts with labor services and commodities such as wheat, corn, herring, hides, muskrat skins and scrap iron. Bookkeeping barter by transfer of credit and credit guarantee was much more prevalent, however. Three attorneys and a wealthy layman used the general stores as a means of granting credit to others in the period 1794 to 1795 as follows:

Richard Bassett, Esq. £ 318 to 19 people
John Carnan £ 270 to 24 people
Edward Oldham, Esq. £ 63 to 13 people
John Reynolds, Esq. £ 148 to 13 people

These four men made loans in the form of store credit to 69 people for over £2,100 in a period of slightly more than one year.
John Carnan was a broker for wheat and the store was a collection agent for him. This was the manner in which some of those who used his credit made repayment to him. Others who acted as bankers were repaid by services or commodities. The account of Edward Oldham, Esq. was given credit for hides turned over to the storekeeper by one of his credit debtors. Wheat collected by John Carnan and corn gathered by Joseph Israel were sold in Philadelphia and payments of fairly large sums (in one case, £415) were periodically made there by those gentlemen to Reynolds and Clark’s grocery suppliers, Joseph North and Haskens. These payments completed the bookkeeping barter cycle7 from the general store; granting credit to customers, charging the brokers’ accounts, accumulating corn and wheat from these customers and giving credit to the brokers and finally receiving settlements in the form of credit transfers from the brokers to pay merchandise bills in Philadelphia.

Colonial Language and Spelling

Colonial spelling made use of double letters to a greater extent even than our curious retention of this vestigial practice. Hatts, bonnetts, powder and shott, and chamber potts are good examples. They also made quite logical substitutions (phonetically speaking) in the words syth, neadles, shoss (shoes), steal (steel), fryan pan, oyl cloth, misrat, sidder, buttins, molasis, and nutmig.

The language, particularly in the blacksmith’s records, made use of many terms that are unfamiliar to us. The Oxford English Dictionary, Green8 and Tull9 clarified some of the strange words and phrases but others remain a mystery. To “lay an axe” was “to weld a new piece of steel in the body of the old axe that had been worn out.” Jethro Tull made clear the meaning of “repairs to land side on shear” when he described a plow as having a land side and a furrow side. Another type of repair made to a plow had a beautiful sound, “laying shear on wing and bar.”

Shoeing a horse was “to shewing grey mare, 1 s., 10d.” or “to platting your horse, 3 s., 9 d.”10 A single new shoe cost 25 and a remove11 (resetting old shoes?) was 140. “Frosting” a horse was a strange term until it was found that the blacksmith also sold frost nails. The Oxford Dictionary explained that frost nails were special nails placed in horses’ hooves to prevent slipping on icy roads. “Sharpening mill pick” was sharpening a tool used to cut channels in millstones. Other terms such as “ironing well bucket” were self explanatory but the meaning of “upsetting two grubbing hoes” remains unclear. Frequent charges were made to the blacksmith’s customers for clouts (patchplates of iron) and for a clevis which was a cuff at the end of the plogh-beam to which the single-tree was fastened. Frequently sold items in the blacksmith shop were points at $.20 each and sharps at $.10 each. The nature of these items has not been indicated in the sources quoted.

In the store ledger a sales allowance was phrased “to abatement for hatt.” An assignment of credit was “to your assination for your man Jacob.” “Fustian” was a course cloth made of cotton and flax, and “nankeen” a cotton cloth usually yellow in color and “cotton full’d cloth”12 was a best seller. An item popular with men customers was “black ball” which frequently was sold along with smoking tobacco suggesting that it may be chewing tobacco or snuff. Three charges to customers for “tickets” at $5 each were a puzzle until it was discovered that lotteries were legal for certain “good causes.” One in Delaware in 1791 was authorized by the legislature to raise £1,000 for “setting up chambers in the new court house in the town of Dover.”

Conclusions

Middletown, Delaware, in 1794 appears to have been a busy, thriving village, with an economy closely tied to that of Philadelphia. Merchandise available to the people of Middletown included many of the basic commodities which are used in the United States today. Most of these were local and regional products but some, such as window glass, linens, chalk, silk, coffee, tea, gunflints and gin were imported. Except for the omission of television and automobiles and some other readily dispensable items, the people were as well supplied with the necessities and comforts of life as we are today.

Appendix A
Rogers & Clark
General Store, Middletown, Delaware—1794 to 1796 Price List of Products and Services

Bark, per oz. 462/30
Barrells, flower (flour), each 262/30
Bed cord 400
Bed ticker (bed tick) $4.50, $5.3373
Beef, per Ib. 4.40,5.30
Black ball (?) 13730, 300
Blankets $4.44
Board (quantity not specified) $2.00
Bonnett $4.00
Book 500, 962/30
—muster 662/30
—spelling 162/30
—testament 362/30
Boatlegs $1.66%
Boots,pair 53730
Brandy, pint 17.80
gallon $1.20
Brush 420,500
—pair 862/30,$1.11
Brush and comb 562/30
Buckels 33 730,53 730
931/30, $1.11
Buckwheat, per bu 600
Butter, per Ib. 110, 13730
14.40
Buttons 22.20, to $1.06%
—Shirt buttons 26.70
Callamanco (probably calomel $2.67
Candles 500
Cards 500
Chalk 3730
Churn 93730
Cigars (segars) $1.00
Cloth
—Baze, per yd. $1.40
—Binding 8V30
—Cotton full’d cloth 700
—Flannell (flannel) $2.00
—Fustin (fustian) a course cloth made of cotton and flax
—Hemp $1.3373
—Lining 250
—Linnen, per yard 53730
—Muslin 62.20

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The Accounting Historians Journal, Spring, 1979

—Nankeen, a cotton cloth usually yellow in color $1.00, $1.53
—Oyl cloth $1.20
—Silk, per scanes (skein) 62/30 400
Coardwood (cordwood) colling per cord

Coat $1.5373
—for making $1.80
Coffee, Ib. 24.40, 250
Coffee cups $2.00
Coffee mill $1.60
Comb
—Cricket comb (?) 162/30
—Fine comb
Corn, per bu. Coverlid (a cover for a bed, quilt) 46.70 500, 51.10 $2.00
Cow, red $12.00
Cow and calf $16.00
Dy (dye) pott (pot) 33730
Earthen dish 7.80
—pott 100, 110
Fan 13730,300
Fishing lines 741/20
Flaxseed, per bu 600
Flints, each 2.20
Flower (flour)—per Ib. 4.90
per bu. $6.0873, $6.13,
Fur, muskrat, per skin $6.40 262/30
Garters 62/30
Gin, per quart $1.00, $1.20
Gloves 44.40, 53730
Handff (handkerchief 800, $1.13V3
Hatt (hat) $1.16%, $3.3373,
$3.66%
fur $4.00
ladies $3.00
fine $4.00, $4.30, $5.00
Herring, each 20
Hide, per Ib. 4.40, 50
Hog, per Ib. 50
Hogshead $1.40, $1.50
Hauling – one day $2.22
corn, per bu. 4.40
flaxseed, per bu. 62/30
load of goods $1.66%
load of goods from landing 862/30
Indigo 13730
Inc (ink) powder 13730
Inc (ink) stand 500
Jar, stone 662/30
Jug 17.80
Lard, per Ib. 11.10
Lead 600

Stone: 1794—Middletown, Delaware—From Accounting Records

47

Lock
Moccins (moccasins)
Molasses, per gal.
Mugs
Musket
Neadles, packet
Padlock
Paper, 1 quire
Pastboard, per piece
Pink root
Pins, per packet
Pitcher
Pipe and tobacco
Plow
Pork, per Ib.
Powder
Raisons, (raisins), per Ib.
Rent of Store, 1 year
Ribben (ribbon)
Rosin, per Ib.—purchased sold
Rum, per qt. per gal.
Ry (rye), per bu.
Saddle
Salt, per bu.
Salt peter
Shaving box
Shawl
Shirts
Shoos (shoes)
heals (heels), pair Shott (shot) Sifter
Sissors (scissors), per pair Sow and pigs Skillet Snuf box Slate Soap
Spectacles
Spirits (whiskey?), per gal. Spoons
teaspoon Spices — chocolate
cinnamon
ginger
mustard
nutmeg
pepper
starter, per dose

$1.74 651/3<2, 7373(2 $4.96, $5.00 25(2 551/2(2, 60(2 24.4JS 7.8(2 1373(2 162/3(2, 20(2 50(2 112/3(2 $1.66% 6(2 2773(2,40(2 4.4(2 $66.662/3 162/3(2,20(2 46?t }50% markup 200, 31.1(2 $1.27 60(2, 80(2 $7.00, $11.3373 9373(2 262/3(2, $1.50 3373(2 9373(2, $1.00, $1.16%, $1.33% 3373(2, 462/3(2 $1.11, $1.13, $1.42 62/3(2 12.2(2,39(2 362/3(2 1373(2,14.4(2,162/3(2 $4.67 362/3(2, 40(2 , 4373(2 9(2 262/3(2 132/3(2 5373(2, $1.07 $1.11 $1.10 22.2(2 22.2(2 10(2, 11(2 19(2 1373(2 1373(2 27.8(2 10(2 48 The Accounting Historians Journal, Spring, 1979 Stockings 62.2(2, $1.00, $2.00 hemp $1.27 Sugar, per Ib. 152/3(2 per loaf $2.02 Tallow (quantity not specified) Tea 262/3(2 hyson, % lb. 551/2(2 Teapot 31(2 Thimbol (thimble) \J i Y 62/3(2 Thread Tickets (lottery) each 4.4(2,62/3(2 $5.00 Tobacco—purchased, per Ib. 20(2 } 64% mark-up sold, per Ib. Tobacco box 162/3(2 Traps Trunk $3.662/3, $5.00 Tukin (?) $6.00 Tumbler 9(2 Twine, skein 27.7(2 Twist 62/s(2 Walebone (whalebone) 9(2 Wheat, per bu. $1.31, $1.33 Window glass, per piece $8.2373 Wine, per bottle 37.8(2 port, per pint 22.2(2 Whip, buggy $3.00 Appendix B John Reynolds, Esq. Blacksmith Business 1799 -1800 David Smyth, Blacksmith Price List of Products and Services* *converted to US dollars @ rate 9 penny = 10 cents 7'6 p = $1 Ax, laying (to lay an axe is to weld a new piece of steel 662P