Apr 14, 2015 - Sale 2380

Sale 2380 - Lot 210

Price Realized: $ 1,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(PENNSYLVANIA.) Sharpless, Daniel. Pair of memorandum books from a Quaker sawmill operator and justice of the peace. [47], [14] manuscript pages. 2 volumes. 12mo and tall 12mo, original vellum, moderate wear; a few leaves excised, one gathering detached. Pennsylvania, 1734-76
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Additional Details

Daniel Sharpless (1710-1775) lived in Nether Providence, Delaware County, in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania. His memorandum books include a wide variety of information, but mostly notes on his financial dealings. He owned a sawmill, and frequently sawed timber or boards for his neighbors. As justice of the peace, he also served warrants and summonses, recording his fees for each, along with the parties involved. He collected rent on a parcel of land in nearby Chester, PA. He also notes the 1768 birth of two calves and his plans for them: "Shortlegs caved . . . and wee intend to rease the caf for a working ox. . . . Cherry cow caved . . . and wee intend to reas hir caf for to be a fallow for the other ox." He also records in a full-page diary-like entry the Great Chesapeake Bay Hurricane of September 1769: "A most tarable fresh, the mildams braking all most evry wher and the trees blowd up by the ruts." Another page lists three books he has loaned from his personal library: "Hannah Howard has one part of Gorg Foxis jornil, Ester Ashton has the New Ingland Judges, Susanah Dortha has a little book of ancens voiag." A few 1776 farm entries are in a different hand. Sharpless was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). The taller volume contains a few pages of Quaker matter, including the meeting schedule for 1752, and notes on a text preached at the Quarterly Meeting in Chester and at a funeral in 1764.