Guide to the John Hewitt (1777-1857), Cabinet maker Records 1800-1814 MG 84
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 52 Park Place Newark, New Jersey 07102 Contact: NJHS Library Phone: (973) 596-8500 x249 Email: library@jerseyhistory.org URL: https://www.jerseyhistory.org © 2005 All rights reserved. The New Jersey Historical Society, Publisher Inventory prepared by Kim Charlton as part of the “Farm to City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Finding aid encoded by Julia Telonidis. November 2005. Production of the EAD 2002 version of this finding aid was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Finding aid written in English. Biographical NoteJohn Hewitt was born on January 8, 1777 in Penkridge, Staffordshire, England. Although he learned his father’s trade of cabinetmaking, he became a machinist at the nearby Boulton & Watts engine works in Soho. John Hewitt immigrated to the United States in January of 1796 and soon gained employment at Nicholas J. Roosevelt’s foundry along the Passaic River in Belleville, New Jersey. In the early 1800s, he left the foundry and opened a cabinetmaking shop in the same town. By 1802, he had established a branch office with Benjamin Ansley in Savannah, Georgia, and by 1805 had moved from his Belleville shop to one at 191 Water Street in New York. During the next seven years he expanded, employing journeymen and apprentices and shipping his furniture to South Carolina; Savannah and Augusta, Georgia; New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; Havana, Cuba; England; Curaçao; and Madeira. He frequently accepted promissory notes or exchanges for general merchandise, and though successful, was often short on cash. With the embargos and loss of foreign markets during the War of 1812, Hewitt lost not only his foreign markets, but also his southern ones. In addition, in late 1816, his shop and warerooms with furniture, shop equipment, and lumber were lost to a fire. Hewitt recovered and rented a smaller space in New York, using his skills as a machinist to manufacture wheels and cotton gin parts, and to deal in lumber. In 1819, however, after backing a friend who was later convicted of defrauding the government, he was finally financially broken. At this time, the Hewitt Family left New York City for Haverstraw, New York where Ann Hewitt, John’s wife, owned a small farm. The family planted crops and lived in a small log cabin for a number of years before being able to return to New York. Once back in the city, Hewitt worked variously as a baker and shipper of mahogany. In 1827 he patented a “folding bedstead with superior spring and such tight joints as to exclude insects or bedbugs” and opened a manufactory to produce his product. He finally returned to furniture making, going into business with his eldest son, Francis Hewitt (b. 1809). Around 1802, John Hewitt married Phoebe Tiemann, the mother of his first two sons, John and James, both of whom died in infancy. Phoebe Hewitt died soon afterwards and John married a second time on October 31, 1808 to Ann Gurnee. John and Ann Hewitt had seven children: Francis (b. 1809), Sarah (b. 1811), Thomas (b. 1813), John (b. 1817), Abram Stevens (b. 1822), Charles (b. 1824), and Anna (b. 1828). John Hewitt died in Trenton, New Jersey on May 30, 1857. Return to the Table of Contents Scope and Content NoteThe Records consist of one volume containing daily entries of furniture orders, credit accounts for craftsmen, and invoices of shipments from John Hewitt’s cabinetmaking business in Belleville, New Jersey and New York City. Large portions of these transactions are undated, however the volume dates from 1800-1814. The largest section of the record book is the list of daily furniture orders. The entries specify customer, piece of furniture ordered, and occasionally, price, and name of the craftsman. A few entries also include a sketch and measurements for the piece. Most of the orders are crossed out as completed, and some mention shipping orders or locations (such as Savannah, Richmond, etc.). These entries are rarely dated. The invoices, which start at the other side of the volume, date from the earliest time period of Hewitt’s furniture making business, 1800-1803. The invoices are from such men as Caleb Bruen, Matthias Bruen, and Caleb Parkhurst and deal with shipments of furniture, shoes, cider, spirits, and other items to New York and Savannah. The final section of the record book contains credit accounts for the craftsmen working at Hewitt’s shop: Abraham Baker, Elijah Barnes, Nathan Beers, Thomas Constantine, William Crement, James Devow, John Donnagha, Peter Doughty, Abraham Edgerton, Rodney Heeley (or Hely), John Linera, and Henry Wallis. The accounts are marked as “cr by work” and specify the job completed and money earned. These records date from ca. 1808-1814. Return to the Table of Contents Return to the Table of Contents Related MaterialManuscript Group 149, Caleb Parkhurst Merchant Records. Manuscript Group 1508, Stoudinger-Alofsen-Fulton Drawings. Return to the Table of Contents Administrative InformationPreferred CitationThis collection should be cited as: Manuscript Group 84, John Hewitt Cabinetmaker Records, The New Jersey Historical Society. Acquisition InformationThe record book was donated by Mrs. Alex M. Linnett through Dr. William S. Disbrow in January of 1921. At the time the book was accessioned, it was separated from four record books used by Caleb W. Bruen, a Newark distiller and cabinetmaker. Return to the Table of Contents BibliographyNevins, Allan. Abram S. Hewitt, With Some Accounts of Peter Cooper.New York : Harper & Brothers, 1935. Return to the Table of Contents Container List
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