Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay ColonyDow, George Francis
History
Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Dow, George Francis
Massachusetts -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
The West India trade called for lumber, horses, rum, food, and
luxuries; and supplied sugar and molasses. Salt fish and pickled
sturgeon were sent to Spain, Portugal and the Western Islands--Roman
Catholic countries. The important dyewood trade in the Bay of
Campeachy required foodstuffs; and the coasting trade with the
Southern colonies called for manufactured goods of all sorts and
supplied in return tobacco, pitch, turpentine and tar, which were
used in the New England shipyards and also reshipped to England.
The fisheries in Newfoundland called for foodstuffs and London and
Bristol supplied markets for dyewoods, naval stores, furs, whale
oil, sugar, manufactured lumber, and wines brought from Portugal and
the Western Islands.
During the months of April, May and June, in the year 1717, there
were twenty-seven inward entries at the Salem customhouse. All
but three were plantation built. Seventeen were owned in Salem;
two hailed from London; two from Liverpool, and one from Bristol.
There were eight ships, four brigantines, twelve sloops and three
schooners. The first of these schooners to enter was the schooner
_Fisher_, 30 tons, Timothy Orne, master, registered at the Salem
customhouse, Oct. 27, 1715. This is the earliest authentic record
of a schooner I have ever found. Those vessels having the largest
tonnage were the ship _Patience and Judith_, 100 tons, owned in
London, England, and carrying six guns and a crew of fourteen men,
entering from the Isle of May, with a cargo of 140 tons of salt;
and, second, the ship _Friendship_, Capt. Samuel Crow, 100 tons,
owned in Salem, carrying two guns and a crew of ten men, also
entering from the Isle of May with 90 tons of salt. Ten out of the
twenty-seven entries brought in salt for the Salem fisheries.
Rum and lignumvitae wood came from the West Indies, and wheat,
corn, beans, flour, flax, hides, pork and lard came from Maryland,
Virginia and North Carolina. The ships from English ports brought
European goods.
During the last three months of 1754, eighty-seven vessels cleared
outward at the Salem customhouse and sixty-eight were schooners.
The largest tonnage was the snow _Aurora_ of Salem, 130 tons, built
at Newbury that year, sailing for Liverpool with a cargo of 15,000
staves and 40 tons of pine timber. Of the ten European clearances,
seven were for Bilboa, with salted fish; thirty-three cleared for
ports in the West Indies; forty for southern colonies; and two for
Newfoundland. The principal cargoes were salted fish, manufactured
lumber, rum, sugar, molasses, salt, horses, sheep, and salted meats.
Nearly all clearing for Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas carried
cargoes of wooden, earthen and iron wares, probably manufactured in
Salem or its immediate vicinity. Twenty-six thousand bricks were
shipped to the West Indies and 20 bales of hay to South Carolina.
The two schooners clearing for Halifax were loaded with "dead meat,"
probably intended for the garrison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account