Manuscript Group 220, Elisha Cooke (1716/17-1799), Farmer Account book, 1745-1799
Archive Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs
Manuscript Group 220, Elisha Cooke (1716/17-1799), Farmer
Account book, 1745-1799, 0.2 linear feet / 1 volume
Call Number: MG 220
Kept by Elisha Cooke, a farmer from Kingstown, Massachussetts and Hardwick Township in Warren (formerly Sussex) County. The volume has been transcribed and indexed by name, date, and place.
Gift of Frank L. Cooke, 1938.
Elisha Cooke was born in Kingston (near Plymouth), Massachusetts, on March 10, 1716 or 1717. Descended from voyagers on the original Mayflower, Cooke worked as a farmer in Kingston, Massachusetts until he moved to Sussex County, New Jersey in 1747. He married Rebecca Edgerton (d. after 1766) in 1741 with whom he had 16 children: William (b. 1742), Hulday (b. 1743), Consider (1745-1819), Rebecah (1746-d. infancy), Levi (1748-1821), Tabitha (b. 1750), Experience (b. 1751), Rebecah (b. 1753), Abner (1755-after 1812), Hannah (b. 1756), Phebe (1758-1801), Miriam (1759-before 1799), Lydia (b. 1760), Simeon (1762-before 1799), Elisha (b. 1764), and Daniel (b. 1766). After the death of his first wife, Elisha Cooke married Sarah Jackson Doty (d. 1784) and with her had two more children: James (1772-1845), and Mary (b. 1774). After Sarah’s death, Cooke married again, this time to a woman named Abigail. Elisha Cooke died in 1799 at the age of 84.
Newburry, Florence Cooke. The Family of Elisha Cooke. Blairstown Press: Blairstown, New Jersey, 1934.
The collection was a gift of Frank L. Cooke in 1938.
The records consist of an account book documenting Elisha Cooke’s business transactions from 1745-1799, a transcription of the books contents, and a three part index completed in 1934 by Florence Cooke Newberry. Each entry in the account book lists customer name, date, goods or services provided, price, and method of payment. The goods and services provided by Mr. Cooke are quite varied and include the sale of grains and meat products; the making of shoes; transportation to other towns; labor; and the use of horses, livestock, and tools. Some entries refer to locations ranging from parts of Plymouth County (Kingston and Hanover), Massachusetts, to Warren and Sussex counties (Hardwick Township and Oxford), New Jersey.
Florence Cooke Newberry’s 1934 transcription of the account book accurately preserves the page contents and pagination of the original document while providing information on each pages condition. While researching her 1934 genealogy of Elisha Cooke (see “Sources” above), Newberry also produced three indexes for the book’s contents (names, places, dates). These indexes were not a part of the original account book.
See other farmers’ records/papers.
Processed by Jeff McMillan, August 2000 as part of the “Farm to City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
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