HOW THEY FURNISHED THEIR HOUSES
It is a lamentable fact that the present generation possesses
little accurate information on the every day life and surroundings
of the early settlers in Massachusetts. Some of the finer pieces
of furniture have been preserved together with a few portraits and
pieces of silver and here and there an article of costume of special
beauty or unusual association. The newly settled country had no
artists to paint pictures of household interiors in the manner of
the Dutch painters and the diarists and letter writers of that time
when they used a quill pen, devoted little thought to the homely
happenings of the household or to the costume and furniture with
which every one was familiar. Judge Samuel Sewall's diary[20] throws
much light on New England life two centuries and more ago, but many
are the questions we would like to ask. In August, 1702, he rode to
Newbury to attend the funeral of his sister Mehitable and returned
home by way of Andover where he found that the keeper of the
ordinary was sick and so went to Mr. Woodman's daughters "and there
din'd on Pork and Beans; afterward had Fowls rosted and dress'd very
well." It would be interesting if we could know more about that
dinner. Did the Judge eat in the same room in which the fowls were
"rosted" and was the table furnished with woodenware or pewter,
or both? Had the Woodmans begun to use two-tined forks or did the
Judge hold the meat in one hand while he cut it up and conveyed it
to his mouth with the knife? Was a roasting jack fastened over the
fireplace? Was the dinner served on a table-board? Did all stand
while "a blessing" was asked? What was served for dessert? Did the
Judge wash his hands at the washbench in the kitchen and if not,
where did he find the washbasin? What pictures were on the parlor
walls and was there a bedstead in the corner and if so, how was it
furnished and how made? A bedstead known to have been used in a
New England house of 1702 is almost unknown today. If the Judge had
only devoted five minutes, while writing up his diary, to a close
description of that bedstead and its furnishings he would have
settled many existing doubts.
[20] _Mass. Historical Society Colls._ (5th ser.), Vols. 5-7.
It seems entirely reasonable that a distinguished guest in the house
would not be required in the morning to go to the washbench in the
kitchen and use the family basin. The dignity of Judge Sewall and
the delicacy of Madam Belcher would rebel at the thought of an
exhibition of disheveled attire before the serving maid and the
numerous children of the family. In the humblest home, on occasion,
it would be a simple matter to place in the chamber of a guest, on a
table or even on a chair, a basin and a jug of water with a towel.
In the journal of the travels of Dr. Alexander Hamilton of
Annapolis, Md., who rode through New England in 1744, may be found
the description of the furnishings of a chamber in an inn. Doctor
Hamilton was accompanied by a negro servant and on a Sunday morning
at Marblehead he asked for his portmanteau. "I was told by my man
Dromo that it was in his room. I had the curiosity to go and see
what kind of a room his room was, and upon a reconnoitre found it a
most spacious one, furnished _a la mode de Cabaret_, with tables,
chairs, a fine feather-bed with quilted counterpane, white calico
canopy, or tester, and curtains, every way adapted for a gentleman
of his degree and complexion."
Of course 1744 is many years after the period when oak furniture was
commonly in use; yet Reid's tavern, "at the sign of the Dragon," in
the fishing village of Marblehead, could not have been the resort of
fashion or wealth and if a negro slave was given so well furnished a
chamber what may have been the furnishings of the chamber occupied
by Doctor Hamilton?
In a farmer's family, in the early days, it was undoubtedly the
habit to wash faces and hands in a small tub or keeler on the
washbench in the kitchen. In suitable weather it is altogether
likely the men of the family may have washed out of doors, beside
the back door, in a bucket of water freshly drawn from the well
or brought from the spring. The farm hands, on coming in from the
fields, for dinner, or at night, always "washed up" at a bench out
of doors and this custom persisted until well into the nineteenth
century. My mother, when young, for a time lived on a farm (about
1850) and several times I have heard her describe the farm hand who
came to the back door one noon, and looking at his hands remarked,
"I guess they are clean enough," and so went into his dinner,
without washing.
Henry W. Erving of Hartford, Conn., writes: "A couple of years ago I
made a pilgrimage to my great-grandfather's former home in Westford,
Conn., in company with a kinsman over eighty years old--the last of
his generation. It was a very comfortable house, with four rooms and
a leanto, with a stone chimney. My great-grandfather lived there as
early as 1750. My cousin called my attention to the old well near
the door where, by the curb, there was a large stone hollowed out
like a trough. He said the 'men folks' as they came from the field,
would fill that trough with a bucket or two of water from which
they would 'souse' themselves thoroughly, thus not disturbing the
goodwife. And of course in the rustic neighborhoods the old customs
existed long after they were abandoned in the larger villages and
towns.
"You will hardly believe, when I say it, but I distinctly remember
as a very small boy, going to a house in this same primitive town of
Westford where we were invited to dinner. The only drinking vessel
on the table was one of the quart Staffordshire mugs (would that I
had that mug in my collection today) which was filled with water,
milk or cider, I have really forgotten which, and passed around the
table at the demand of any thirsty one. The family consisted of
a man and his wife, an ancient grandmother, and several children
with not too clean faces. I couldn't refuse the mug when urged upon
me and selecting a place on the brim at the right of the handle,
I drank, when one of the children exclaimed, 'See, mar! He's got
granny's place.' Of course that practice in this instance was
possibly nearly a century out of period."
One of the standard examples of American humor is the picture of the
_Mayflower_ loaded to the cross-trees with the chairs, chests and
cradles that devout New Englanders now own and claim were brought
over on that memorable voyage. It is so easy to attribute age and
romantic history to a treasured family relic that it has become
possible for a museum in the city of New York to exhibit a punch
bowl of Staffordshire ware, as a veritable relic of the _Mayflower_.
The bowl could not possibly have been made before 1780-1790. There
is another piece of Staffordshire treasured in the china closet
of a New England family, which the owner is certain was formerly
possessed by an ancestress who died years before the Revolution.
Well authenticated family tradition vouches for the fact which
cannot be disputed. Yet, the observer will soon discover a steamboat
pictured on one side of the pitcher and what is more interesting,
the stars and stripes are flying from the masthead and the canton of
the flag contains fifteen stars.
It is undoubtedly true that some pieces of furniture were brought
over from England by the first settlers and the tradition connected
with such pieces can be authenticated by an examination of the
chair or chest showing that it is made of English and not American
oak. While most family possessions, for convenience in shipment,
came over in bales or bundles, covered with canvas in the true
European manner, a custom followed by emigrants of a later day,
yet, many articles of fine clothing and the treasured belongings of
the better-equipped families came over neatly stowed in chests and
cupboards and some of those chests have survived.
It is all a matter of common sense reasoning which can be backed
up by an examination of early records and also the furniture
itself. Why pay a considerable value in money to transport, in an
overcrowded ship, utilitarian pieces of furniture, that could be
made in the newly settled colony, by workmen who were going over in
the same ship? Timber could be had here for the cutting and until
sufficient time had elapsed to permit the making of chairs, beds and
other required furniture, one could sit on rudely made stools and
boxes and sleep on pallet beds made up on the floor just as many of
them would be obliged to sleep while on board ship.
Some estimate of the culture of the New England people during the
seventeenth century and of their appreciation of the refinements of
life may be reached with a degree of accuracy through a study of
the carefully itemized inventories of their estates made at time of
death. During that period the Royal Governor from overseas, with
his little court of officials and followers, had not introduced
London fashions and furnishings to the extent that existed in the
eighteenth century. Moreover, the wealth of the colonies had not
grown to the point where the refinements of life were not only
esteemed but demanded by loving spouses and by those who had taken
ship for England or the Continent and there had observed how other
people lived.
Among the early settlements made in the Colony of the Massachusetts
Bay was one at Agawam, now the town of Ipswich. The news had reached
Boston that the French were pushing their settlements westward along
the coast, bringing with them "divers priests and Jesuits," which
so alarmed the Governor and the Assistants that it was decided to
forestall the French and hasten the planting of new towns north
of Boston. The first move was to send the Governor's son John,
with twelve others, to establish themselves at Agawam. There were
no roads and so they sailed along the coast in a shallop and took
possession of the town site in March, 1633. Their families and other
settlers soon followed and the increase of population was such that
in August, 1634, the Court of Assistants decreed that the place be
called Ipswich, after old Ipswich in England, "in acknowledgment of
the great honor and kindness done to our people, who took shipping
there."
Three months later, in November, 1634, one John Dillingham arrived
in Ipswich and the selectmen granted him six acres of land on which
to build a house. He was from Leicestershire and with his wife and
daughter had come over in the fleet with Winthrop in 1630, and
remained in Boston until he removed to Ipswich. Life in the frontier
settlement was too severe for him and he died during the next
winter. On July 14, 1636, his widow, Sarah, made her "last will and
testament" being in "perfect memory though my body be weake & sick"
and a few days later she too was dead, leaving her orphaned daughter
to be cared for by Richard Saltonstall and John Appleton, under the
direction of the Quarterly Court. And this was not at all difficult
for John Dillingham had left a "goodly estate," for the times. This
Dillingham home has been selected for analysis because it is one
of the earliest estates in the Colony of which we have exact and
detailed information, a number of documents relating to it having
been preserved among the miscellaneous papers in the Massachusetts
State Archives.[21] Moreover, it shows the furnishings and equipment
of a settler living in a town of only two years growth from the
wilderness.
[21] _Mass. Historical Society Colls._ (5th ser.), Vols. 5-7.
The Dillingham homestead consisted of a house of two rooms and
outbuildings with thirty acres of upland, sixty acres of meadow,
i.e., grass land, and six acres of planting ground near the house,
of which four acres were planted with corn. Apple trees and other
fruits were fenced off in the garden. For livestock there was
a mare, three cows, two steers, two heifers, four calves, and
four pigs. There was an indentured servant, Thomas Downs, to
help cultivate the land and care for the stock, and a maid, Ann
Towle, who not only helped with the housework but also worked in
the fields. "She hath been a faithful servant," wrote Richard
Saltonstall, executor of the estate, "and though she was discharged
by her mistress a little before her time was out, yet it may be
borne by the estate, considering her diligence." Ann had come over
in the ship _Susan and Ellen_, which arrived in April, 1635. Her
passage cost £5.
The Dillinghams occupied a good social position in the youthful
settlement but their two-room house did not contain any really
fine furniture. The parlor was also used as a bedroom, a practice
which was common everywhere in the seventeenth century. It had two
bedsteads valued at £1. 6. 8.; a cupboard, 10s.; a sea chest, 10s.;
two "joyned Chaires," 5s.; a round table, 7s.; a deske, 4s.; and
a band box, 2s. There was also a large nest of boxes valued £2.
and a small nest of boxes worth only three shillings. The feather
beds, boulsters, and pillows on each bed were valued at about
twice as much as a bedstead and the coverlets averaged about £1.
a piece. There were flaxen sheets for Mrs. Dillingham's bed and
coarse sheets for the beds of the maid and the indentured servant. A
warming pan bears silent testimony to the cold of the winter season.
Another bedstead valued at only three shillings may have been in
the garret and occupied by Ann Towle, the maid. A chest stood in
the kitchen--more generally spoken of at that time as "the hall,"
in accordance with the English usage--and two boxes, probably used
for storage and also for seats. That was all the furniture listed in
the kitchen that was considered of any value. The tables, stools,
benches, shelving, or other furnishings seemingly necessary to
housekeeping at that time either did not exist or were so crude in
construction as to have little or no value in estimating the estate.
We find five cushions, however, valued at fifteen shillings.
Mrs. Dillingham died possessed of a few really fine
furnishings--possibly treasured ancestral pieces--for she bequeathed
a silver bowl to the wife of Richard Saltonstall, and to the wife
of John Appleton she gave a silver porringer. It would be extremely
interesting today to know what has become of these two pieces of
Colonial silver. No other silver is mentioned but on shelving in the
kitchen rested 40-1/2 pounds of pewter valued at £2. 14. 0. As a pewter
plate of the time weighs nearly two pounds and a platter much more
the supply of pewter for the table was not large. Wooden plates,
trenchers, and bowls are not mentioned, but there were twenty-five
pewter saucers, six porringers, seven spoons, and five shillings
worth of knives. As for table forks, they were practically unknown
in the Colony at that time. Governor Winthrop brought over a fork
in 1630, carefully preserved in a case, which is supposed to be the
first and only table fork in the Colony in the earliest days of the
settlements. Knives, spoons, and fingers, with plenty of napery, met
the demands of table manners in the seventeenth century.
The large fireplace in the kitchen had its usual equipment of
pot-hooks, fire shovel and tongs, gridiron, trivet, and bellows,
and beside it was an old dark lantern valued at only two shillings.
There were iron pots, kettles, skillets and ladles; a brass pot and
a mortar. There was a frying-pan with a hole in it and in a box were
kept "bullets, hinges and other smale things." Two beer vessels were
listed; a case of bottles, two jugs, three pans, a tray, and two
baskets. Such was the simple equipment of the Dillingham kitchen.
There were plenty of table-cloths and napkins but no curtains at
any of the windows. If a broom were used it probably was made of
birch twigs bound together around a long handle. Candlesticks do
not appear in the inventory and the only store of food mentioned
(aside from twenty-one new cheeses valued at £2. 16. 0.) was seven
bushels of rye, two firkins and a half of butter, a half bushel of
malt, six pounds of raisins, and some spice. Our ancestors had a
highly developed appreciation of the value of condiments. In a Salem
inventory at a somewhat later date appear salt, pepper, ginger,
cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmegs, and allspice.
Mrs. Dillingham's wearing apparel unfortunately is not listed item
by item, but given a total value of £5. 8. 4. Her linen amounted
to an almost equal sum. Some of her deceased husband's clothing is
included in the inventory, such as a coat with silver buttons, a
red waistcoat, a suit of serge and a black suit of serge unmade, a
jacket of cloth, and an old suit and cloak. Little Sara Dillingham,
the orphaned child, when sent to school to goodwife Symonds was
supplied with "a stuffe petticoat & waskote" and four "shifts with
shewes"; also a gown that cost £2. 10s. Perhaps after a time she may
have been able to read and fully appreciate the books formerly in
her loving father's chest. They were: "Perkins works in 3 volumes,
Seaven Treatises bound in 2 volumes, the Spowse Royall, the bruised
reade, & a little new testiment."
Six years later, in 1642, there died in the same town, Richard
Lumpkin, who had emigrated from Boxted, in Essex, and became an
influential citizen in the new town in the new county of Essex. He
was elected a representative to the Great and General Court and was
deacon of the Ipswich church at the time of his death. He left an
estate valued at £300. In the hall of his house stood a long table,
with two forms and a stool beside it, having a total value of only
fifteen shillings. The hall also contained three chairs and six
cushions valued at four shillings. That was all the furniture in the
room that was of any value. There were books, however, valued at £2.
10. 0., a musket and a fowling piece and other small furnishings.
In the parlor was a table with six joined stools, three chairs and
eight cushions, a bedstead, and a trundle bed with curtains, and a
chest, the latter valued at only four shillings. In the chamber over
the parlor was a bedstead with its trundle bed, a table valued at
three shillings, four chests and two boxes; not a chair or stool is
named in connection with the room. The kitchen was in the leanto and
while it contained a good supply of brass and iron pots and kettles
and also pewter dishes, the table, bench, stools and wooden plates,
etc., that must have been in the room were of so little value that
they do not appear in the inventory.
It is when we meet with joined and wainscot chests and court,
livery, and standing cupboards that we find pieces that may have
been brought from overseas. When Mr. Thomas Millard of Newbury
(note the title of honor), died in 1653, he possessed a wainscot
cupboard, table, chairs and stools. He also left behind him three
silver spoons, a silver cup, and a silver salt seller, and among the
kitchen utensils were tinned pudding pans, a brazen chaffing dish
and a lanthorn and lamp made of latin ware.
The widow of the Rev. Jose Glover married, in 1641, Henry Dunster,
President of Harvard College. Among the furnishings of her house
were "eleven featherbeds or downe ... one of them haveing philop and
Cheny curtaines in graine with a deep silke fringe on the vallance,
and a smaller on the Curtaines, and a Coverlett sutable to it, made
of Red Kersie, and laced with a greene lace, round the sides and
2 downe the middle, also ... an outlandish quilt, also to another
a blue serdge suite very rich and costly, curtaines and valances
laced, and fringe, and a blue Rug to the bed, also a greene sute in
the same manner, also another red wrought suite, with a sheet and
all things Compleate, also a Canopie bed, with Curtenes, a Chest of
Drawers of part of this Chest was filled with rich lenen a dammeske
suite seuerall diepere suits a fine hollen[d] suit with a stech:
with abundance of flaxen linen for Common use, in another parte of
the chest of drawers tape, tafety for Chaire and Stooles ... also
29 siluer spones a very faire salt with 3 full knops on the top of
it[22] 3 other siluer salts of lesser sorts a great siluer trunke
with 4 knop to stand on the table and with suger: 6 porrengers, one
small one: 3 bere boules 4 wine cups a siluer grate with a Couer on
it: 6 siluer trencher plates: also blankets and Coverletts and Rugs
euery[way] Compleat to furnish so many beds."[23]
[22] This large salt is now owned by Harvard College.
[23] _Old-Time New England_, July, 1934.
By way of contrast let us glance at the inventory of the possessions
of William Googe of Lynn, who died in 1646, ten years after Mrs.
Dillingham had willed that her body be "decently buyried" and her
child "religiously educated if God give it life." Googe left a house
and twelve acres of land and the total value of his possessions
amounted to but £28. 11. 7, with debts of £4. 9. 7. He left a
widow and three small children, and though dying in very lowly
circumstances he may have known better times, for John Mascoll, the
servant of Mr. Googe of Lynn, was fined in 1643, for neglecting the
watch. The title of honor, "Mr.," was used but sparingly in those
early days and usually indicated a degree of social standing in the
community.
Googe had been a soldier, for among his personal belongings at death
were a sword and belt, a musket and bandoleers, and also gunpowder.
One cow and four hogs comprised his entire livestock, and five
bushels of wheat, ten bushels of Indian corn, and flax in the bundle
lay in the garret of his house, which was frugally furnished with
a chest, a chair, an old chair, a stool, and a trunk. The family
probably slept on pallet beds made up on the floor, for bedding
is listed but no bedsteads. They had a frying pan, a gridiron, a
skillet, a posnet, an earthen pot, six spoons, and the following
woodenware, viz.: "3 wood trayes & 3 wood boules & 3 wood dishes,
1s. 9d.; one runlitt, 1s.; paieles & tubs, 3s." Two bags valued at
two shillings bring to a close the list of the earthly possessions
of William Googe of Lynn. When the inventory was brought into court
it very properly gave the goods to the widow "for the bringing up of
her three small children." So reads the record.
Doubtless there were many families in the Colony little better
conditioned, judging from the relatively small number of estates
settled through the courts when compared with the deaths and
estimated population.
Googe's house and twelve acres of land were valued at only £8. This
must have been a very simple, thatch-roofed house of not more than
two rooms, comparable with the outlying farmhouse of Jacob Perkins
that was burned in Ipswich in 1668. And thereby hangs a tale. Master
Perkins and his wife had gone to town one summer afternoon leaving
the house in charge of Mehitable Brabrooke, a sixteen-year-old
serving maid. We will let the ancient document in the court files
relate what happened.
"About 2 or 3 aclocke in the afternoone she was taking tobacco in a
pipe and went out of the house with her pipe and gott upon the oven
on the outside & backside of the house (to looke if there were any
hogs in the corne) and she layed her right hand upon the thatch of
the house (to stay herselfe) and with her left hand knocked out her
pipe over her right arme upon the thatch on the eaves of the house
(not thinking there had been any fire in the pipe) and imediately
went downe into the corne feild to drive out the hogs she saw in it,
and as she was going toward the railes of the feild ... she looked
back, and saw a smoke upon her Mistress' house in the place where
she had knocked out her pipe at which shee was much frighted."[24]
[24] _Essex County Quarterly Court Records_, Vol. IV, pp. 56-57.
The wife of a neighbor came running to the assistance of Mehitable
and afterwards testified that when she reached the house she looked
into both fireplaces and saw no appearance of fire, only a few
brands nearly dead under a great kettle hanging in the chimney. She
also looked up into the chamber through the floor boards that lay
very open on the side where the smoke was.
Could photographs more vividly picture the scene? The thatch-roofed
farmhouse had two rooms on the ground floor and a chimney with
two fireplaces. An oven was built on the backside probably having
an opening inside the kitchen fireplace in the usual manner. The
house was of but one story judging from the low roof that the maid
was able to reach when standing on the oven, and the floor of the
chamber in the loft had wide cracks between the boards so that it
was possible to look through from below and see the under side of
the roof. In similar homes lived many a family in the early days in
comparative comfort.
As for the careless Mehitable, she was brought before the Quarterly
Court on suspicion of wilfully setting the house on fire; a serious
offence, which as late as 1821, was the cause of the execution in
Salem of a sixteen-year-old boy. Among those who deposed at her
trial was a young man who said that as he and she were going into
the meadow, before the fire, to make hay, she told him that her
mistress was angry with her, but she had "fitted her now" for she
had put a great toad into her kettle of milk. As it turned out
the Court ordered Mehitable to be severely whipped and to pay £40
damages to her master Jacob Perkins. It now seems incredible that a
serving maid of 1668 could ever get together so large a sum of money.
The settlers in the New England Colonies, unless persons of wealth
or possessed of large families, during the early years lived
generally in houses having but one room and an entry-way on the
ground floor. Above would be a chamber--sometimes only a garret.
As the family increased in size and became more prosperous another
room would be added to the house on the other side of the entry and
chimney, making the structure a so-called two-room house. Still
later, with the need for more room, a leanto would be built on the
back of the house, thereby supplying three additional rooms on the
ground floor with a kitchen in the middle. The earlier kitchen
would then become a living-room or "sitting room"--in the New
England phrase. This earlier kitchen was usually called "the hall"
during the seventeenth century and in it centered the life of the
family. It was the room where the food was cooked and eaten. There
the family sat and there the indoor work was carried on. A loom
sometimes occupied considerable space near a window and frequently
a bed was made up in a corner, on which the father of the family
slept, and there sometimes also he died.
The principal feature of this common room was its huge fireplace
in which hung pots and kettles suspended by means of pot chains
and trammels from the hardwood trammel-bar or lug-pole that rested
on wooden cross bars and so bisected the wide flue in the chimney.
These large fireplaces in the early days were sometimes called
"chimneys" in the vernacular of the time. They were generally as
wide as eight feet and a ten foot opening is not unknown.
This cavernous opening was spanned by a wooden lintel--a stick of
timber sometimes sixteen inches or more square, and when exposed
to a roaring fire, piled high with logs, this became an element of
danger, the charring wood smoldering all night and setting fire
to the house. The trammel-bar in the flue also caught fire not
infrequently and gave way, allowing the pots and kettles to fall to
the hearth, bringing disaster to the dinner or to the curdling milk
and sometimes to those seated near. A trammel stick in the house of
Captain Denney gave way from this cause and a large kettle filled
with wort[25] fell down and spilt the boiling liquid over four of
his children who were sitting or lying on the hearth, some of them
asleep, "which scalded them in so terrible a manner, that one died
presently after, and another's life is dispaired of" continues the
record.
[25] Beer in the making.
"Here is good living for those who love good fires," wrote Higginson
in his _New-Englands Plantation_, and under the spell of the
glowing flames, the bare, whitewashed walls, the brown timbers and
floor boards of the ceiling, the dress of pewter, and the simple
furnishings of the room, enriched by the shadows, became a place
full of cheer--a place where privation and homesickness might be
forgotten in the glow of the bright firelight. On cold nights the
short bench inside the fireplace was a chosen place and the settle,
a long seat made of boards with a high back to keep off the draft,
was drawn before the fire and here sat the older members of the
family.
The larger kettles hanging in the fireplace, were of brass and
copper and some of them were of prodigious size. Hot water was
always to be had and these kettles also served for the daily
cooking, the cheese-making, soap-boiling, and candle-dipping.
Much of the food of the average New Englander until comparatively
recent times consisted of corn-meal, boiled meats and vegetables and
stews. Every well-equipped household had its spits for roasting and
many had gridirons, but the usual diet of the average family was
"hasty pudding"--cornmeal mush and milk--varied by boiled meat or
fish served in the center of a large pewter platter and surrounded
by boiled vegetables. Baked beans and stewed beans appeared on the
table several times every week in the year. Indian bannock, made
by mixing corn meal with water and spreading it an inch thick on a
small board placed at an incline before the fire and so baked, was a
common form of bread. When mixed with rye meal it became brown bread
and was baked in the brick oven with the beans and peas.
The brick oven was a feature of every chimney. Sometimes in early
days it was built partly outside the house but so far as known
the opening was always in the kitchen fireplace. To reach it the
housewife must stoop below the oaken lintel and stand inside the
fireplace, taking care that her woolen skirts did not come near the
flames. To heat it for a baking, a fire was built inside, usually
with specially prepared pine or birch wood that had been split and
seasoned out of doors for a short time and then housed. The fire
and ashes were then taken out by means of a peel--a long-handled,
flat-bladed shovel made for the purpose--and when dusted out with a
broom made of hemlock twigs it was ready for the brown bread, beans,
peas, Indian pudding, pies, and rye drop cakes which were made with
rye meal, eggs and milk and baked directly on the bricks in the
bottom of the oven.
Between the years of 1635 and 1655, court records and inventories
of estates in the Massachusetts Bay Colony mention the following
articles of food:
Bacon, beef, butter, cheese, eggs, fowls, lamb, milk, mutton, pork,
suet, veal, wild game, and cod, herring, mackerel, salmon and
sturgeon.
Barley, beans, Indian beans, bran, cabbages, carrots, chaff, corn,
English corn, Indian corn, hops, Indian meal, rye meal, oatmeal,
oats, parsnips, peas, pumpions, rye, squashes, turnips and wheat.
Apples, berries, fruit, honey, raisins, sugar and vinegar.
Biscuit, blewlman, bread, cake, malt, salad oil, porridge, rye malt,
yeast, salt and many kinds of spices.
Much of this food was raised on the farm and nearly every family
had its garden. Such articles of food as were imported were usually
obtained at the shops in the larger towns by barter, as money was
scarce. In 1651, a farmer came through the woods to Salem in his
cart bringing twelve bushels of rye. He stopped at a shop owned
by George Corwin and from the daybook kept at the time and still
carefully preserved, we learn that among other necessaries he
carried home sugar for the goodwife, and for the children a doll and
a bird whistle.
In the early years domestic animals were too valuable to be killed
for meat but game was plentiful and was roasted by being trussed on
iron spits resting on curved brackets on the backs of the andirons.
This, of course, required constant turning to expose the roast on
all sides in order to cook it evenly--a task frequently delegated to
a child. A skillet would be placed beneath to catch the drippings.
Sometimes a bird was suspended before the fire by a twisted cord
that would slowly unwind and partly wind again, requiring some
one in frequent attendance to twist the cord. Families of wealth
possessed a "jack" to turn the spit. This was a mechanism fastened
over the fireplace and connected with the spit by means of a pulley
and cord. A heavy weight suspended by a cord which slowly unwound,
supplied the power that turned the spit.
In "the hall," usually upon open shelves, but sometimes upon a
dresser, was displayed the pride of the housewife--the dress of
pewter and latten ware. "China dishes," imported by the East India
Company or made in Holland, were used sparingly during the early
years of the colonies. There was much earthenware and stoneware
bottles and jugs, but it was wooden ware and pewter that were
commonly used. When Lionel Chute died in 1645 he bequeathed his
silver spoon to his son James.[26] It was the only piece of silver
in the house. Of pewter he died possessed of fourteen dishes "small
and great," eleven pewter salts, saucers and porringers, two pewter
candlesticks and a pewter bottle. The widow Rebecca Bacon who died
in Salem in 1655, left an estate of £195. 8. 6., which included a
well-furnished house. She had brass pots, skillets, candlesticks,
skimmers, a little brass pan, and an excellent supply of pewter
including "3 large pewter platters, 3 a size lesse, 3 more a size
lesse, 3 more a size lesse," having a total value of £1.16. She
also had a pewter basin, six large pewter plates, and six lesser,
nineteen pewter saucers, two fruit dishes, an old basin and a
great plate, two candlesticks, one large salt and a small one, two
porringers, a great flagon, one lesser, one quart, two pints and a
half pint; and an old porringer. She also left "1 silver duble salt,
6 silver spoones, wine cup & a dram cup of silver."
[26] _Probate Records of Essex County, Mass._, Vol. I, p. 47.
Giles Badger of Newbury left to his young widow, a glass bowl,
beaker, and jug valued at three shillings; three silver spoons
valued at £1, and a good assortment of pewter, including "a salt
seller, a tunell and a great dowruff." The household was also
furnished with six wooden dishes and two wooden platters. In other
inventories appear unusual items such as a pewter brim basin,
pewter cullenders, pewter beer cups, pans, and mustard pots. Pewter
tankards were common. There were new and old fashioned candlesticks.
Pewter salts came in three sizes and the saucers were both small
and large. In 1693, best London pewter plates cost the Boston
shopkeepers 9-1/2 pence per pound in quantity.
The seventeenth century "hall" must have had little spare room for
its daily occupants, for in addition to its table and chairs, its
settle, stools and washbench, the long ago inventories disclose
such chattels as powdering tubs in which the salted meats were
kept, the churn, barrels containing a great variety of things,
keelers and buckets, bucking tubs for washing, and the various
implements used in spinning and weaving, washing and ironing,
cooking and brewing, and the making of butter and cheese. In the
chimney hung hams and bacon and suspended from the ceiling were
strings of dried apples and hands of seed corn.
It is claimed by some that the floors were sanded. That certainly
was true at a later period but there are strong elements of doubt
as to the prevalence of this custom during the seventeenth century.
Sand, however, was used freely with home-made soft soap, to scrub
the floors which were always kept white and clean, and whenever
an early house is restored or taken down sand is always found,
sometimes in considerable quantity, where it has sifted down through
the cracks between the floor boards. The downstairs rooms had
double floors but the chamber floors were made of one thickness of
boards with here and there a knothole and frequently with cracks
between the boards through which the dust and dirt from above
must have sifted down upon the heads of those seated at dinner or
engaged in their daily tasks in the rooms below. Not only does the
structural evidence show this to be true but a number of instances
occur among the papers in Court files, where witnesses have deposed
as to what they had seen and heard through the cracks in chamber
floors. A grandson of Governor Endecott once fell a victim of two
gossiping sixteen-year-old girls who had spent some time on their
knees peeping through the cracks in a chamber floor. Capt. Richard
More, the last survivor of the company on the _Mayflower_, late in
life kept a tavern in Salem. He was spied upon in this manner and
eventually brought before the justices of the Quarterly Court to
answer for his evasion of the law set forth and maintained at that
time.
The parlor, called "the foreroom" at a later time, was the room
where guests of station were received. The best bed hung with
curtains and valance and covered with a rug, stood in a corner. In
those days rugs were not used on floors but as bed furnishings.
Even the baby's cradle had its rug. Carpets, likewise, were too fine
for wooden floors and were used as table covers. Of bedsteads there
were many kinds--high and low, canopy, close, corded, half-headed,
joined, side, standing, inlaid, and wainscot, and slipped under
the higher bedsteads during the daytime, were trundle or "truckle"
beds in which the children slept at night. Lionel Chute, the
schoolmaster, had an "old darnkell coverlet" on his bed while some
of his neighbors possessed branched and embroidered coverlets and
several had coverlets made of tapestry.
Among the better families the parlor and chamber windows had
curtains hung from rods or cords. In the parlor stood chests in
which were stored the family clothing and bedding, for closets did
not exist in the seventeenth century house. There were great chests
and small chests, long boarded and great boarded chests, chests
with a drawer, carved chests, wainscot chests, trunks, and boxes. A
few stools and chairs, a looking-glass, a small table, and perhaps
a cupboard completed the furnishings of the well-supplied parlor.
In Capt. George Corwin's best room there were chairs with leather
bottoms and straw bottoms, a clock valued at £2, a screen having
five leaves, a napkin press, and a "Scriture or Spice box." White
calico curtains hung at his chamber windows and the maid had a
"Calico Cuberd cloth" in her room. Parlor walls were whitewashed and
bare of ornament. The first families owned a portrait or two in oils
and here and there a map in unglazed frame decorated a wall. The
Puritan character did not warm to the fine arts and austere living
was the aim if not always the achievement of the time.
The chambers in the second story must have been curiously furnished
rooms, containing a huddle of stores of all descriptions. Henry
Short, the town clerk of Newbury, died in 1673 leaving a goodly
estate valued at nearly £2,000.[27] He owned a negro slave and his
house was large and well furnished. There was an old parlor and a
new parlor containing beds, chests, chairs, trunks, and boxes. In
the chamber over the new parlor there was a good feather-bed and
bed clothing but no bedstead. Wool and yarn were stored in this
room together with boxes, tubs, some feathers, and miscellaneous
"lumber"--the phrase of the period for odds and ends. The chamber
over the kitchen, a comfortable room of course, in winter, had its
bed and bedding, also "5 hogsheds, 6 barrels, 5 Iron hoopes, a
pair of stockcards, meale trough & other lumber, a parcell of old
Iron, a pike, a bed cord & other cordage." Small wonder in such a
clutter that the rooms frequently had other tenantry than the human
occupants.
[27] _Probate Records of Essex County, Mass._, Vol. II, p. 348.
When Jasper Dankers arrived in Boston in 1680, the captain of the
packet took him to his sister's house where he lodged. "We were
taken to a fine large chamber," he writes, "but we were hardly in
bed before we were shockingly bitten. I did not know the cause,
but was not able to sleep.... My comrade who was very sleepy, fell
asleep at first. He tumbled about very much; but I did not sleep
any the whole night. In the morning we saw how it was, and were
astonished we should find such a room with such a lady."[28]
[28] Dankers, _Journal of a Voyage to New York_, Brooklyn, 1867.
Early in the eighteenth century the walls of rooms in some
Massachusetts houses began to be covered with "painted paper"
hangings imported from England. These _papier paints_ were first
introduced into England, from France, about 1634, and probably were
brought into New England by Governor Andros and his followers.
Michael Perry, a Boston bookseller, who died in 1700, had in his
stock "7 quires of painted paper and three reams of painted paper."
His successor, Daniel Henchman, dealt in painted papers as appears
from his account books commencing in 1712. In 1713 two quires of
painted paper cost four shillings, and two quires of blue paper,
three shillings. In 1714, Isaac Thomas of Pembroke paid £2. 10. 0
for "6 Rowls Paint'd Pap'r & 2 Q'r Paper."
When Peter Sergeant of Boston died in 1714, the inventory of his
estate disclosed "one large gilt looking glass, in the cedar room,
£5. One suit of Imagery Tapestry hanging, £20. One suit of red china
£5." Two years later the house was purchased by the Provincial
Government for a governor's residence and in 1741 we find the
Provincial Treasurer paying Daniel Henchman £5. 8. 0. for four
rolls of painted paper and shortly another bill was presented for
"New Tacking the paper hanging above in the chamber & new papering
one roome below stairs."
In 1734, John Maverick, shopkeeper, bought of Henchman, four quires
and five sheets of painted paper for £1. 3. 9. In 1736, Colonel
Estes Hatch bought 10 rolls painted paper for £16. 5. 0. which
was probably used in his mansion in Dorchester, bought after the
Revolution by Colonel James Swan.
The painted paper of the eighteenth century was sold at first in
sheets, 22 by 32 inches, called elephant size. Later these were
pasted together to make 12 yard lengths. In the earlier stages of
manufacture the designs were colored by hand. Stencils of pasteboard
were used, and in the last half of the eighteenth century blocks
of pear and sycamore wood were used, as in calico printing. One
who painted coats of arms and other things pertaining to heraldry,
as well as one who painted or stained linen cloth, was known as a
"painter stainer." So, also, those who stained colored or stamped
paper for hangings were known as "paper stainers."
When Thomas Hancock built his house on Beacon Hill he desired
painted paper for some of his rooms. Extracts from his letter to
John Rowe, stationer, London, explain his wants:
"Sir: Inclosed you have the Dimensions of a Room for a shaded
Hanging to be Done after the same Pattern I have sent per Capt.
Tanner. The pattern is all that was left of a Room lately come
over here, and it takes much in ye Town and will be the only
paper-hanging for sale here which am of opinion may Answer well....
If they can make it more beautiful by adding more Birds flying here
and there, with some Landskips at the Bottom, Should like it well.
Let the Ground be the same colour of the Pattern. At the top and
bottom was a narrow Border of about 2 inches wide which would have
to mine....
"A hanging done much handsomer sent over three or four years
previous was made by Dunbar in Aldermanbury....
"In other of these Hangings are great variety of different Sorts
of Birds, Peacocks, Macoys, Squirrill, Monkys, Fruit and Flowers,
etc.... I think they are handsomer and better than Painted hangings
done in Oyle so I beg your particular Care in procuring this for
me and that the patterns may be taken care off and Return'd with
my Goods."--_Letter of Thomas Hancock to John Rowe, Stationer, in
London_, Jan. 23, 1737/8.
In the eighteenth-century Boston newspapers may be found numerous
items showing the use of wall paper and the fact that it frequently
was imported from England. But while it is true that it could be
purchased in the shops in Boston it does not follow that rooms in
every house were papered. Nor is it likely that the rooms of houses
in the country had papered walls save when the owner was a wealthy
man. London fashions would first be found transplanted into the
seaport towns and later would be adopted by the country. Undoubtedly
the home of the Governor, or of some well-to-do sea captain, was
the first house to be so decorated. On September 22, 1762, died
Daniel Starr of Boston, "who has been for many years employed in
Papering Rooms." This item appears in the news items of the _Boston
News-Letter_. Eight years later the same newspaper prints the
following advertisement:
"George Killcup, jun. Informs the Gentlemen and Ladies in Town and
Country That he Paints Carpets & other Articles, and Paper Rooms in
the neatest manner. He will take English or West India Goods as Pay.
"Said Killcup is ready to pay those he is indebted to, in Painting
or Papering Rooms."--_Boston News-Letter_, March 17, 1768.
"Roll Paper for Rooms," with "most sorts of Stationary Ware" were
advertised for sale by John Parker, over against the shop of Mr.
Dolbeare, Brazier, at the Head of the Town Dock, Boston.--_Boston
News-Letter_, June 3-10, 1736.
J. Boydell, the printer of the _Boston Gazette_, advertised in
November, 1736, a house in Boston, to be sold, in which two chambers
in the first story were "hung with Scotch Tapestry, the other Green
Cheny."
John Phillips, bookseller, advertised "Stampt Paper in Rolls for to
Paper Rooms," in the October 26, 1730, issue of the _New England
Journal_.
"Sundry sorts of Painted Paper for Rooms" were to be sold at
public vendue at the Exchange Tavern in King Street, with other
importations.--_New-England Journal_, August 29, 1738.
"Flowered Paper, or Paper Hangings for Rooms, to be Sold; Inquire of
the Printer."--_Boston Gazette_, February 2, 1742.
"Beautiful Arras-Hangings for a Room" to be sold at
vendue.[29]--_Boston News-Letter_, August 22, 1745.
[29] Watkins, "Early Use of Paper Hangings in Boston" (_Old-Time New
England_, Jan., 1922).
Against the earlier background of whitewashed walls hung few
decorations. Between 1635 and 1681 there were 960 estates probated
in Essex County, Massachusetts. The county had several seaport towns
and its inhabitants were more prosperous than many other parts of
the Colony. In the inventories of these 960 estates, pictures are
listed but eight times and maps were found in but three homes.
William Hollingsworth, the shipbuilder and merchant of Salem,
possessed seven framed pictures. They are the only _framed_ pictures
mentioned. Hilliard Veren of Salem, who died in 1668, had three
pictures in his hall chamber and Robert Gray of the same town had
in his parlor a large looking-glass with some earthen dishes and
a picture, the whole valued at £2. The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of
Ipswich, had two pictures in his parlor and Thomas Wells of Ipswich,
bequeathed to his son Thomas, the new pictures of the King and Queen
and the one of the "five sencces." He also possessed maps and paper
pictures.
Fifty years later John Smibert, the portrait painter, had his shop
"at his House in Queen Street, between the Town House and the Orange
Tree, Boston," where he sold "all sorts of Colours, dry or ground
with Oyls and Brushes, Fans of several sorts, the best Mezotints,
Italian, French, Dutch and English Prints, in Frames and Glasses or
without, by Wholesale or Retail, at Reasonable Rates." About the
same time the "Royal Waxwork" was to be seen at the House of Mr.
Thomas Brooks, shopkeeper, near the Draw Bridge, and Thomas White,
the engraver, was living in a house not far away.
Here are a few advertisements from early newspapers bearing on
furnishing the house:
BED HANGINGS. To be sold by Mrs. Susanna Condy, near the Old North
Meeting House, a fine Fustian Suit of Curtains, with a Cornish and
Base Mouldings of a beautiful Figure, drawn in London, on Frame full
already worked; as also enough of the same for half a dozen Chairs.
N.B. The Bed may be had by itself.--_Boston Gazette_, May 24-31,
1736.
BED-SCREWS. Mr. _John Barnard_ of Boston, having some time since
Lent a Pair of large Bed-screws. These are desiring the Borrower
to return them again to the owner, as he desires to Borrow again,
to avoid the Curse due to the Wicked, that Borrow but never
Pay.--_Boston News-Letter_, Oct. 22-29, 1716.
BEDSTEAD. A Coach-head Bed and Bedstead with its Curtains and
Vallents, &c, as it stands, being a blew China. To be disposed off.
Inquire of the Printer.--_Boston Gazette_, June 16-23, 1735.
CANOPIE BEDS. A Couple of very good Cannopie Beds lately come from
England to be Sold on reasonable terms, by Rupert Lord Upholsterer
and to be seen at Mr. Ramies House in Corn-Hill the next door to the
Post-office, Boston.--_Boston News-Letter_, Jan. 4-11, 1713-14.
MOHAIR BED. To be Sold reasonably for ready money, or on good
Security, a yellow Mohair Bed lined with a Persian of the same
Colour, and six Chairs of the same Mohair, little the worse for
wear. Inquire of J. Boydell.--_Boston Gazette_, Oct. 17-24, 1737.
PRESS BED. A Very good Press-Case for a Bed, to be Sold. Enquire of
the Printer.--_Boston News-Letter_, Oct. 28-Nov. 4, 1736.
CARPETS. Just imported from London, in the last ships and to be
sold at Mr. Blanchard's in New Boston West End; a large assortment
of fine Carpets for Rooms, very cheap for ready Cash.--_Boston
Gazette_, Jan. 22, 1759.
PUBLICK VENDUE. At 5'o'Clock in the Afternoon will be sold by T.
Fleet, at the Heart and Crown, in Cornhill,--Bedding, Several Suits
of Curtains and Bedsteads, a fine new Silk Damask Quilt and Quilted
Cushions of the same, Black Walnut Chest of Drawers and Desk,
Brass Candlesticks, Iron Dogs, sundry Suits of wearing apparel for
men, new Castor Hats, China Ware, Rummolds, Druggets....--_Boston
News-Letter_, May 18-25, 1732.
HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS. This Afternoon at 3 o'clock will be Sold
by Publick Vendue, by Daniel Goffe, at the Dwelling House of Mr.
Jonathan Barnard, over against the Town-House in Cornhill, sundry
sorts of Household Goods, consisting of Beds, Bedding, a Couch,
Chairs, handsome Japan'd Tea Tables, Walnut and Mahogany Tables,
Chest of Drawers, Peer Glasses, Sconces, Glass Arms, China Ware,
Metzotinto and other Prints, several valuable large Pieces of
Paintings, one handsome large Carpet 9 Foot 6 Inches by 6 Foot
6 Inches, a fashionable yellow Camblet Bed lin'd with Satten, a
great easy Chair and Window Curtains, suitable for a Room, a Field
Bedstead and Bed, the covering a Blew Harrateen, Kitchen Furniture,
as Pewter of the best sort, Copper, Brass and Iron, a parcel of
Books and some Shop Goods.--_Boston News-Letter_, May 8-15, 1735.
FURNITURE AT AUCTION. To be sold by Auction, Household Furniture of
the late Mr. Pyam Blowers, including: Fine Sconce Glasses, large
Looking Glasses, Leather Bottom Chairs, sundry Mehogany and other
Tables, a good Couch Squab and Pillow, a very handsome Yellow Damask
Bed, an Easy Chair, a neat case of Drawers, ... two Silver watches,
sundry sorts of good China Ware, etc.--_Boston News-Letter_, May
17-24, 1739.
FURNITURE AT AUCTION. To be Sold by Publick Vendue on Monday next
at 3 o'Clock, Afternoon, at the House of Charles Paxton, Esq., the
following Goods, viz.: A fashionable crimson Damask Furniture with
Counterpain and two Sets of Window Curtains, and Vallans of the
same Damask. Eight Walnut Tree Chairs, stuft Back and Seats covered
with the same Damask, Eight crimson China Cases for ditto, one easy
Chair and Cushion, same Damask, and Case for ditto. Twelve Walnut
Tree chairs, India Backs, finest Cane, and sundry other valuable
Household Furniture.--_Boston News-Letter_, Jan. 9, 1746.
FURNITURE. To be Sold, a crimson Harrateen Coach-Bed, Bedstead, and
Feather-bed, six small chairs, and one two-arm Chair, with crimson
Harrateen Seats, a Table, and two small Pictures, Enquire of the
Printer.--_Boston News-Letter_, June 25, 1747.
HAND BOARDS. Lately arrived from London, & are to be Sold by
Giles Dulake Tidmarsh at his Warehouse No. 4 on the Long Wharfe,
Five Dutch Tea Tables, as Hand Boards and Looking Glasses, new
Fashion.--_Boston Gazette_, Nov. 19-26, 1722.
[Illustration: LEONARD HOUSE, RAYNHAM, MASS.
This shows typical front-gabled roof and two-story porch
Tradition relates that King Philip's head was deposited in this
house in 1676
Printed from the original wood block engraved in 1838]