a publick Thanksgiving in this Colony

a publick Thanksgiving in this Colony

Posted on by stevemanuel

 

[November 1756] Thursd 18 “fair. a publick Thanksgiving in this Colony.  I Set out in the morning with Joshua in order to go to Stonington purpusing to meeting att Groton but the ferry boat was gone over & Stayed there a great while and a small wind & Right against us that wee were Late & the ferrymans cellar being broke open ye last night & Sundrys Stole out I stopt to write a Warrant to Serch & by that means was too late for the meeting and wee went the Lower way to Stonington & Dined att Joshuas between 3 & 4. oe Clock & went to son miners & Lodged there.”

Thanks

This Thanksgiving Day in Joshua’s 79th year gives a new meaning to “over the river and through the woods” to a holiday meal with family.  It also points up a difference between Thanksgiving then and now.  The Connecticut colony, according to Joshua’s Diary, as well as the colonies of New York and Massachusetts, usually held a day of Thanksgiving in early November.  These days were “publishd” at the local meetinghouse a week or so in advance and most of Joshua’s entries regarding these special days simply read something similar to this: “Wedensd 16 fair. A Thanksgiving day Throughout ye Collony. Mr. ad. Pr. al d.”  (November 1715).

Thanksgiving was a day of prayer, not of feasting and football, although it is clear from the longer entry above, and others in the Diary that it was also a day to meet with family and/or friends and to dine together.  In fact, as Pat Schaefer notes in A Useful Friend, this gathering together of family to celebrate Thanksgiving may very well have been the expected custom. She points out a sad little entry by Joshua in 1732: “Thursd 9 Cloudy.  a publick Thanksgiving & ye most Malancholy that ever I had.  no Brother Sister or Child with me.”

May you all have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving and may you celebrate it with friends and family.

See an index all the Joshua Hempstead Blog postings.

Helpt mend ye highway

Helpt mend ye highway

Posted on by stevemanuel

[October 1743] Saturd 8 fair & warm. I was at home all day. I finished Trimming Cask 5. hhds 1 Pipe 1 Terse 1. bb & wee gathred the Last Ld of apples in the orchard behind ye House. I helpt mend ye highway in Stephens Room in the foren. Brother Hartshorn gone to …. Ben went to Mohegan, to bring back the Horse. Sund 9h fair. Mr adams pr all Day. Mond 10. fair. a Trayning Day 1st & 2d Companys. I was at home. I mended ye Highway & adam Towards Mr Chapmans. we worked for Stephen 2 days.

roads

Joshua writes quite frequently in his diary about the highways — there are more references to the highways then there are references to hay! Besides traveling on highways, amongst his jottings he describes laying out highways, measuring highways, the condition of highways, work at the highways and mending highways.  Of the 13 references to mending the highways more than half of them take place in October, so this too was a seasonal labor, an effort to fill in the ruts before the snows of winter began.

Those of us who live in New London today have been seeing a lot of work on the roads as well. The paving blocks shown here were exposed recently in front of the steps to where the Winthrop Mansion used to be (which is also where Winthrop School used to be). Though probably not dating back to Joshua’s time — he most frequently refers to using stones plowed up in his fields and sand for his repair work — these could have been ballast from a ship or cut locally.

Hempstead most frequently writes of mending the highway between his house and the bridge by Chapman’s. In this instance he is not speaking of working on a highway through Stephen’s room; he is using the word “Room” to mean “in place of” or “instead of.” All men were required to work on the roads. Like a tax, one had to work off a certain number of days on an annual basis. Here Hempstead and Adam fill in for Stephen working off a two-day assignment. But this requires some further study — in October of 1754 (when Hempstead would have been 77 years old) he writes, work at Mending the highway a while in adams Room while he went to Mill. One has to assume that Adam, Hempstead’s slave, would have been working on the highway in the first place to fulfill Hempstead’s obligation. [From the Oxford English Dictionary: “b. in one’s room, in one’s place, denoting substitution of one person or thing for another. (In early use with reference to offices or appointments.)”]

Add cooper to the list of jobs that Joshua took on during his life. The casks he’s finishing up at the beginning of this entry adds up to a considerable amount of labor. 1 bb signifies one barrel, a particular sized cask holding 31.5 gallons of liquid, the 5 hhds would be five hogsheads, the size of cask equal to two barrels, 1 Terse,or a tierce holds three barrels, and 1 Pipe, (you guessed it) holds 4 barrels (or two hogsheads). It takes a pretty large container to hold 126 gallons — multiply it out at approximately 8 pounds per gallon and we’re up to a half ton of liquid.

See an index all the Joshua Hempstead Blog postings.

Murder at Darling Hill ~ November 2nd Sunday

Murder at Darling Hill ~ November 2nd Sunday

Posted on by stevemanuel

Was Justice Served? You decide.

Sunday 8 November, please join us at 2pm at the Stoneridge Retirement Community auditorium in Mystic for a special Second Sunday program.

Murder_sm

Judith duPont has written an historical account that reads like murder-mystery fiction. But the facts are these: in the evening hours of 19 April, 1874, 17 year-old Irvin Langworthy was murdered in his home on Darling Hill in Stonington (near where present Route 1 ascends what is now know as Lord’s Hill). An attempt was also made to kill his older brother Courtland who was found in his bed in a pool of blood. Suspicion almost immediately fell upon hired farm-hand Bill Libby, but there were some who suspected the Langworthy family.

The brutal murder led to sensational newspaper coverage in the New London Evening Telegram, the Mystic Press and the New York Times. The case was tried in New London County Courthouse and Libby was given a life sentence. But was he guilty? Join us as we look more deeply into this case and we learn more about the community as we see how they reacted to the ongoing saga.

Please read Murder at Darling Hill before duPont’s presentation. She will review the evidence, newspaper accounts, and trial transcripts, but she doesn’t tell us in her book if she believed that Libby was rightfully convicted. We are sure you’ll have an opinion too.

Stoneridge Retirement Community is located at 186 Jerry Brown Road in Mystic; there is ample parking. Refreshments will be served after the presentation.

Event is free for NLCHS Members and Stoneridge residents and their guests. There is a $5 fee for all others.

Please read the book before the presentation. Murder at Darling Hill is available for sale at the Shaw Mansion, at the Stonington Historical Society, and at Bank Square Books in Mystic. Stoneridge residents can obtain copies of the book from Jack Kurrus, apt. 4508.

October 2nd Sunday ~ Whaling Office Debut

Posted on by stevemanuel

Sunday 11 October ~ Second Sunday Program

Come to the Shaw Mansion on Sunday 11 October for the unveiling of the new Whaling Office exhibit on the second floor. Furniture from the Williams & Haven Company office and the Perkins & Smith firm, combined with ships portraits, signal flags, scrimshaw, shells and curios from distant lands and seas, give life to a recreated office from New London’s history as the second largest whaling port in the world.

Ships traveled to all of the seven seas in search of whales and elephant seals. Managing the distant vessels was the work of whaling agents and firms such as Benjamin Brown, Stoddard & Learned, Williams & Barns, Frink Chew & Co., and Lyman Allyn, as well as the Perkins & Smith and Williams & Haven firms. Working from their wharf-side offices along Bank Street they outfitted the vessels, purchased supplies, sold the oil and paid the crews and the owners their share of the profits. These are the men who started the banks and the ships’ biscuit companies. Their wives and daughters are the ones who started the reformed-minded Seamen’s Friend Society, the children’s aid society and the hospital.

President Obama at the RESOLUTE desk

One of the Perkins & Smith firm’s ships, the GEORGE HENRY, returned from a cruise to Davis Straits north of Newfoundland not with whale oil but with an abandoned British Navy ship, the RESOLUTE; a vessel that had been frozen in the Arctic ice for three years. Through an unusual set of circumstances involving politics and diplomacy, that ship was transformed into the desk used in the Oval Office by the President of the United States. Many other artifacts from the RESOLUTE now decorate the Whaling Office exhibit in the Shaw Mansion. Come to hear Edward Baker, executive director of the historical society, share the rest of the story, and you’ll learn how New London and the New London County Historical Society share a seat of power with the President.

Sunday 11 October, beginning at 2 pm

At the Shaw Mansion, 11 Blinman Street, near the intersection of Bank and Tilley Streets, New London.

Free for members, $5 for others

Refreshments will be served after the presentation

Call to make reservations 860.443.1209

resolute-plaque

Harvest Time

Harvest Time

Posted on by NLCHS

 [Sept. 1724] Mond .7.  fair. I fetched a turn of aples fro Holmes’s Lot Ab & Moley. . .Saturd 12 fair. I was picking apples. wee Carted 1 Load to ye mill. . . .Tuesd 15 fair. I was at home all day. I finisht Riming my wheell. Jo Bent[Bennett] & Jno Mowed Rowin & Stackt Stalks. fryd 18 fair. I was about home. I mended highways for the Cart to go to fetch hay to the medows in the forn. aftern Raking hay at Mamacock 20 Cocks in R. Cs medow. Jo Bent & Jno Carted 1 Load from ye Medows & 1 from Mamacock. I help ye Latter my Steers & Horse.  apples

September meant preparations for winter were in full swing in New London. In 1724 Hempstead still had several of his children at home to help. Abigail was 12, Molly 8, and John 14. There were several other days that month of picking apples and taking them to the mill to be made into cider to store for the winter. Lacking modern refrigeration, the cider would go hard fairly quickly, and then eventually turn to vinegar. (There’s a reason besides efficacy for all those old household tips using vinegar.)

Animals were also provided for. Hay was once again being mowed and stacked. “Rowen” was the second, thinner growth of hay. (See blog titled “Tuesd the 4th”) Hempstead had hired Joseph Bennett the previous month to work for 40s p month, using him for agricultural labor like haying and setting up fence at ye old orchard &c at the farm in Stonington. That must have been a large orchard, since fencing, with at least three men working, took Monday through Saturday, and was not quite finished even then. Hempstead had also hired of Richard Christoprs his Salt Medow on August 24. Salt hay was not as nutritious as “English” hay, but there was a lot of it around New London.

The whole month wasn’t spent in agricultural pursuits. The selectmen (of which Hempstead was one) took possession of the ferryhouse and rented it out to new operators. The governor, the Honorable Gurdon Saltonstall Esq. Died Suddenly with a fitt of the Appoplex on Sept. 20th, and was buried with full military honors the 22nd. And Hempstead ended the month on a satisfactory note. After several days at the Superior Court on various cases, he could say Wednsd 30 fair. I was at Court al day about geting Sister Mary Divorced & obtained it. Since Mary Plumb’s husband had deserted her at least fourteen years before, it was high time.

See an index all the Joshua Hempstead Blog postings.

A Hurrycane

A Hurrycane

Posted on by stevemanuel

[August 1713] Wedensd 19 Rainy. I workt on bord Capt Hutton all day. itt Rained a Little in ye day & att night a violent Storm of Rain & wind. Robt Millers wife died Last night. was buried to day. Thursd 20. A Storm or Hurrycane. I was about home & in town all day. A Hurrycane which blew down Several Building and fruit trees Such as hath not been known. It blasted or withered ye leaves & Like a frost though warm weather.

Hurricane is a word that originated in the Caribbean in the 16th century as Spaniard and Portuguese explorers adopted the Taino word for a violent storm. It came to English directly from the Spanish. With the many connections between New London and the Caribbean it should not be surprising to see Joshua Hempstead using it to describe a violent storm with rain and wind. But he uses it here almost tentatively, perhaps just learning it himself. A couple of years later he actually uses the word hurricane incorrectly, on 12 March 1714/15, describing a storm with high winds and snow. With our modern weather forecasting those of us who live near the east coast are well aware of huricane season from June through November.

storm at sea

I have witnessed the withering of the leaves of trees Hempstead described. Sailing into Nantucket after a hurricane several years ago, I noticed that the leaves on all the trees had turned brown, looked like fall even though it was late August. I learned that it was the salt in the spray blown off the ocean by the wind that had caused this premature autumn.

Hempstead, who was trained as a boat builder, spent more than a month cutting timber and then working on board Capt. Hutton’s boat. On 11 September he writes, “finished almost.”  Then on the 12th, “wnt into Town to make up with Capt Hutton.” And again on the 14th, “I was in Town making up wth Capt Hutton.” On the 16th he writes, “I sold 4 lb hay to Capt Hutton and he hath not paid for itt.” (I suspect “lb” should rightfully be “ld,” shorthand for load.) On the 17th he records, “I was in Town in ye foren. Capt. Hutton Sayled for Barbados in ye aftern.” I expect Hempstead probably got paid for his hay first.

See an index all the Joshua Hempstead Blog postings.