Search

Jacob A. Kip, a Dutch-descended New Yorker, kept this account book between 1742 and 1780, recording his customers' purchases. Kip operated a tavern and ran a ferry across the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The accounts include debtors' names, goods or services, and prices. Tavern accounts contain ongoing purchases of mugs, drams, and other relatively small amounts of alcoholic beverages (such as beer, cider, rum, wine, gin, grog, sling, toddies, and punch), tobacco, occasional breakfasts, and dinners. Ferry-related charges include the number of people (e.g., transport of a man, a wife, and a servant) and horses, and/or the goods being transported. Kip wrote phonetically in English and Dutch, and a number of his clients had Dutch surnames. Rarely, Kip noted the professions of his customers (such as a schoolteacher and a clerk).

Jacob A. Kip, a Dutch-descended New Yorker, kept this account book between 1742 and 1780, recording his customers' purchases. Kip operated a tavern and ran a ferry across the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The accounts include debtors' names, goods or services, and prices. Tavern accounts contain ongoing purchases of mugs, drams, and other relatively small amounts of alcoholic beverages (such as beer, cider, rum, wine, gin, grog, sling, toddies, and punch), tobacco, occasional breakfasts, and dinners. Ferry-related charges include the number of people (e.g., transport of a man, a wife, and a servant) and horses, and/or the goods being transported.

Kip wrote phonetically in English and Dutch, and a number of his clients had Dutch surnames. Rarely, Kip noted the professions of his customers (such as a schoolteacher and a clerk).