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The Hinkley collection is comprised of an account book and exercise book owned by members of the Hinkley family of Georgetown, Maine, in the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. The materials pertain to John Hinkley's finances, Samuel P. Hinkley's finances and education, and religious poetry.

The Hinkley collection is comprised of an account book and exercise book owned by members of the Hinkley family of Georgetown, Maine, in the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. John Hinkley kept 125 pages of accounts from 1755-1779, Samuel P. Hinkley kept 3 pages of accounts from 1789-1805, and Samuel P. Hinkley recorded 56 pages of information about mathematics and navigational principles. The account book also has 8 pages of religious poetry.

The first 125 pages of John Hinkley's Account Book concern the period between June 1755 and May 1779, though most accounts are dated between 1755 and 1765. His double-entry records pertain to his purchases of chocolate, sugar, corn, meal, rum, molasses, and other foodstuffs, and some reflect his interest in a sawmill. Several aspects of the mill's business are covered, such as providing boards and hauling timber. John Hinkley frequently traded with other members of the Hinkley family, including Josiah Hinkley and Samuel Hinkley. The accounts are followed by 8 pages of religious poetry, with one poem attributed to Betsey Hinkley, and 3 pages of financial accounts that Samuel P. Hinkley sporadically recorded between December 1789 and June 1805.

Samuel P. Hinkley's Exercise Book, dated December 18, 1837, contains 56 pages of nautical navigational problems and exercises. Topics include plane sailing, traverse sailing, parallel sailing, middle latitude sailing, and Mercator sailing, as well as the method of ascertaining latitude by making observations. Hinkley recorded several case studies and accompanying exercises for each sailing method, and the book contains the mathematical calculations used to solve each problem. Some problems, particularly those in the traverse sailing section, are accompanied by tables. The last several pages are copied entries from an unnamed ship's log, originally recorded during a journey between Boston and Madeira in March and April 1824 and during an unspecified voyage in January 1824.

This account book documents the sales of James Knowles and Thomas Horne, who sold farm produce and livestock between 1804 and 1809. The volume also contains information about Thomas Horne's financial affairs until 1833 and genealogical notes about his children. Three illustrations, including two by Elizabeth Heacock, were originally laid into the volume.

This account book (approximately 50 pages) documents the sales of James Knowles and Thomas Horne, who sold farm produce and livestock between 1804 and 1809. The volume also contains information about Thomas Horne's financial affairs until 1833 and genealogical notes about his children. Three illustrations, including two by Elizabeth Heacock, are laid into the volume.

The first section of the book (around 43 pages) primarily documents sales made by Knowles and Horne between 1804 and 1809. The pair, who dealt in farm produce and livestock, received cash from private and market sales. Some accounts from 1809 are attributed to Thomas Horne and a new partner, Benjamin Paschall. Additional financial accounts and notes related to Thomas Horne, dated 1813-1819, are interspersed within the accounts; one page contains accounts between Knowles and Horne, dated 1805. This section concludes with a page of accounts for "Pheby Horne," dated 1833.

Thomas Horne kept 6 pages of personal accounts between 1816 and 1820, including signed receipts from county officials in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, for Horne's tax payments. Two pages contain information about Thomas and Eliza Horne's children; the latest genealogical note records a death in 1885.

Three illustrated items were originally laid into the volume. Two are attributed to Elizabeth Heacock: a decorated version of her name and a pattern of colored shapes interlaced with love poetry. The third item is an artistic rendition of Thomas Horne's name, accompanied by illustrations of buildings and a ship.

This 93-page journal and account book chronicles a year in the life of Nehemiah S. Hayden, a sailor and shipbuilder from Essex, Connecticut, including voyages aboard the John H. Elliott to Antwerp, Belgium, and the clipper ship Frederick Gebhard to Savannah, Georgia. On 80 pages of journal entries, Hayden recounted the weather, shipboard tasks, and movement of other vessels, and offered brief glimpses of his personal life on and off ship. Five scattered pages of accounts entries detail Hayden's expenses for clothing, sundries, and services for 1858. Completing the volume is an anonymous 8-page work of prose (including the date January 15, 1858), telling the story of a young woman's heartbreak over the loss of her sailor love and his return to her after his rescue by an English ship. The front and back pastedowns bear sketches of a three-masted, square rigged ship (apparently the Frederick Gebhard) and a two-masted, gaff rigged vessel.

This 93-page journal and account book chronicles a year in the life of Nehemiah S. Hayden, a sailor and shipbuilder from Essex, Connecticut, including voyages aboard the John H. Elliott to Antwerp, Belgium, and the clipper ship Frederick Gebhard to Savannah, Georgia.

The journal portion (80 pages) dates from January 1 to December 6, 1858, and documents Hayden's life in Essex, Connecticut, onboard the sailing vessel John H. Elliott, and while docked in Antwerp, Belgium. Notations of daily weather, particularly the wind, are prominent throughout. While in Essex, Hayden noted visits with friends and family (including a young woman nicknamed "Chick"), mail sent and received, and church services attended. He went clamming, duck hunting, and sailing near home, and he committed himself to a yearlong temperance pledge. At sea, he chronicled daily tasks, encounters with other ships, and the logistics of sailing operations. While in port, he took walks with crewmembers, sent mail, and completed numerous painting and construction projects (including installation of passenger berths) on the ship. He went sightseeing in Brussels for a day. His ship set sail in July for a return voyage by way of Dover.

The December 1858 entries describe Hayden's time in Savannah, Georgia, while aboard the ship Frederick Gebhard (which he joined in October 1858). Several members of the crew (including several black men) took an excursion into town one day and went oyster gathering another. Before setting sail, the ship took on a number of men including "a large bear," who later got into a fight with "Turk."

Five scattered pages of accounts entries detail Hayden's expenses for clothing, sundries, and services for 1858. Completing the volume is an anonymous 8-page work of prose (including the date January 15, 1858), telling the story of a young woman's heartbreak over the loss of her sailor love and his return to her after his rescue by an English ship. The front and back pastedowns bear sketches of a three-masted, square rigged ship and a two-masted, gaff rigged vessel.

The collection focuses primarily on John Tailyour, a Scottish merchant who traveled to North America and Jamaica in the 1770s and 1780s to conduct business, before finally returning to his home in Scotland in 1792. His correspondence is heavily business related, centering especially on his trading of slaves, foodstuffs, and sundry goods. It also chronicles the current events in both Jamaica and the Empire. Many of Tailyour's correspondents debate the meaning and merit of the cessation of the slave trade in the late 18th century, as well as the military events of the American and Haitian revolutions, and of the Maroon rebellion of 1795. The papers also include letters between John and his family in Scotland regarding John's mixed-race Jamaican children. He sent three of his children to Britain to be educated, which caused much family concern. Tailyour's account books and financial papers relate both to his Jamaican estate and business, and to his Scottish estate, from which he received added income from rents. The accounts for this estate continue for several decades after Tailyour’s death in 1815. A number of disparate and miscellaneous letters, war records, photographs, and realia that belonged to various members of the extended Tailyour family date mainly from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

The collection has three substantial parts. The most comprehensive and cohesive section is the one concerning John Tailyour, until his death in 1815. The second part contains business papers and accounts related to the Tailyour estate. The third part is the least integrated, and consists of a variety of family papers, photographs, military memorabilia, and other miscellanea.

The Tailyour papers date from 1743 to 2003, with the majority of the collection concentrating in the period from 1780 to 1840. Within these bulk dates, are the two largest portions of the collection: the correspondence and accounts of John Tailyour until his death in 1815, and the account records of the Tailyour estate after 1815.

Seven boxes contain John Tailyour's personal and business correspondence of 3757 letters. The letters focus on Tailyour's mercantile activities in the Atlantic market, especially on the slave trade, its profitability, and the threat posed by abolitionists. Tailyour's correspondence also chronicles personal and family matters, including the education and provision for his mixed-race children from Jamaica. In addition, the collection contains four of Tailyour's letter books of 1116 copies of retained letters that cover the period from 1780 to 1810, with the exception of the years 1786-7 and 1793-1803. In these letters, Tailyour's focus is business, particularly as it relates to the slave trade, but he also includes personal messages to his friends and family.

Tailyour's business papers contain 32 loose account records, as well as five account books documenting the years between 1789-90 and 1798-1816. These primarily concern his Kingston and Scottish estates, including the expense accounts and balance sheets for each, as well as the finances of his merchant activities during the period. Finally, 38 documents of probate records for John Tailyour mainly relate to his landed estate.

The latter portion of collection within these bulk years (1815-1840) also contains correspondence and accounts, although the 228 letters are almost entirely concerned with business accounts. These focus on Tailyour's estate after his death, with John's brother Robert as the main correspondent. Additional materials include 1761 business papers that chronicle the finances of the estate, 11 account books, and 6 hunting books. The business letters and account books detail the estate's expense accounts and receipts, as well as the balances for their annual crops, salmon fishing business, and profits derived from the rents collected on their land. The hunting books contain descriptive accounts of the family's hunts and inventories of their hunting dogs.

The third, and final, part of the collection consists of Tailyour family records (bulk post-1815), including 49 letters from various family members in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and five letterbooks, kept by Alexander Renny Tailyour and Thomas Renny Tailyour. 4 account books are also present kept by Alexander Renny Tailyour and others. Some of the records concern the First World War, including a group of prisoner-of-war records sent from Germany, and journals kept at home that detail news of the war, and daily domestic activities.

The family history documents include 64 genealogical records and 58 probate records. Many of the genealogical items are brief notes on family history, and sketches of the family tree, including a large family tree that spans several hundred years to the present day. The probate records contain one will from the late-nineteenth century, but are otherwise entirely concerned with John Tailyour's estate in the years immediately after his death.

Of the printed records, Memoirs of my Ancestors (1884), by Hardy McCall is a genealogy of the McCall family, and Tailyour's Marykirk and Kirktonhill's estates are described in two printed booklets, one of which is an advertisement for Kirktonhill's sale in the early-twentieth century. Other printed material includes 14 various newspaper clippings concerning the family over the years, and 12 miscellaneous items.

The illustrations, artwork, and poetry comprise 14 fashion engravings, 12 sailing illustrations, a picture of a hunting cabin, two silhouettes, and a royal sketch, all of which date from the early- to mid-nineteenth century. Kenneth R. H. Tailyour's sketches are represented in two sketch books created in his younger years (1917 and 1920). Loose records of poetry, as well as a book of poems from George Taylor, are in this section.

The 221 photographs are of the Tailyour family from the late-nineteenth to the twentieth century, with the majority falling in the early decades of the twentieth century. Most are portraits of the Tailyour family from the early twentieth century, particularly Kenneth R. H. Tailyour.

The 138 pieces of ephemera are, for the most part, postcards of foxhunts during the nineteenth century. These announce the almost-weekly family foxhunts during the middle years of the nineteenth century. The 19 items of realia, include Robert Taylor's quill pen from 1826.

The audio-visual portion of the collection contains three items: a compact disc with an audio interview of John Dann, Director of the Clements Library, on National Public Radio's "The Todd Mundt Show;" a compact disc with photos of the West Indies; and a collection of photographs of the Tailyour papers in their uncatalogued state, and of the festivities surrounding the acquisition of the collection.

Finally, miscellaneous material of 18 pieces includes Robert Taylor's commonplace book of short stories, letters, and poems; the catalogue of Robert Taylor's books; James Tailyour's 1771 style and form book; and a communion book.