Stepping into History: The Complicated Process of Studying A Ledger of Shoe Purchases from Cornelia van Cortlandt Schuyler

 By: Sarah Lindecke

Historians and researchers work with a myriad of written and object sources when trying to learn about topics in history. What happens, though, when sources are inaccessible because accessing them requires specialized knowledge, language skills, or transcription that are beyond a researcher’s ability? In this blog post, we will explore a ledger made for Philip Schuyler’s mother, Cornelia van Cortlandt Schuyler, for shoes purchased and repaired between 1754 and 1762. Examining this ledger will allow us to examine the challenges associated with primary sources and how researchers work through these complications.

Schuyler family home at the corner of State St. and South Pearl in the 1880s

            Cornelia van Cortlandt Schuyler was born into the interconnected and wealthy Van Cortlandt family in Manhattan. Her father was Stephanus van Cortlandt (1643-1700) and her mother was Albany native Geetruijd “Gertrude” Schuyler van Cortlandt (1654-1732). Cornelia was the youngest child born to her parents but was still a wealthy heiress expecting to inherit lands in Manhattan, as well as from her family’s manor in present day Westchester County. At twenty-five, Cornelia made an advantageous match when she married Johannes Schuyler Jr. (1697-1741). The couple lived mainly in Albany where Johannes’ family and businesses were. Johannes’ prominence would grow during the early years of their marriage, and he soon became a leader in Albany’s politics and society. Their home was a prominent house on the intersection of State and South Pearl Streets. Though no period images exist showing the house when Schuylers lived there, it remained standing until the end of the 19^th century.

            Cornelia and her husband ten children, with only a few surviving childhood. The children who are known to have survived are: Gertrude Schuyler Cochran (1724-1813); John Schuyler (1725-1746); Philip John Schuyler (1733-1804); Cortlandt Schuyler (1735-1773); and Stephen Schuyler (1737-1820). These children were raised in the multi-generational home on State Street.

            Unfortunately for the family, Johannes Schuyler Jr. passed in 1741 at forty-four years old. He’d been a merchant and civic leader during his lifetime and was serving a term as mayor in the City of Albany at the time of his death. Cornelia was given autonomy over personal property in the household following Johannes’ death. Under English rule, this was somewhat unusual, but in the Hudson River Valley, where continued adherence to Dutch traditions offered women inheritance rights and access to autonomous ownership of property and businesses, and Cornelia was well within her rights to inherit property from her husband. By comparison, women living in more traditionally English communities expected strict legal bars on their ownership of businesses or property under the legal framework of coverture. Cornelia may have experienced her share of hardships following her husband’s death, as she was left with least five children who needed education and care. The job of raising these children fell to Cornelia but also to the enslaved in her household.

           With the setting established, we can look to a document likely created for Cornelia by her son, Philip Schuyler. This ledger was kept between 1754 and 1762, with notes from Cornelia’s estate made after her passing in 1762. The text itself is in Dutch. As Dutch settlers, Cornelia and her family were deeply connected to the language. It was common throughout New Netherland and early New York for many families to continue using Dutch as a primary language, even through the 19^th century. For researchers, this document presents the additional puzzle of considering the deviations between Dutch spoken in New Netherland and modern Dutch. In the 18^th century, the Dutch written and spoken in New York was considered “low Dutch.” Due to the natural evolution of language since the 18^th century, the Dutch used by people like Cornelia van Cortlandt Schuyler is not entirely intelligible, even by a modern native Dutch speaker. It takes time to translate documents, and for the purposes of historical research the translation needs to be done accurately. Cursory use of various translation apps can provide some direction in the process of translation, but without the nuances available only to a native speaker, the translation is not exact.

            When looking at the text of the ledger there are a few words that are repeated on many of the lines. This can help to speed up the translation process by establishing patterns. It is important to remember spelling was not yet consistent in the 18^th century. For Cornelia’s ledger, the text also has several common shorthand notes representing various things repeated in the content. In the text of the ledger, most of these markings are representative of “ditto.” This was an abbreviation meant to express the current line had the same word as the line directly above it. In the case of this ledger, most of these “ditto” marks note that the ledger continues to discuss shoes. The mark before most of the “ditto” symbols are standing in for “pair,” as in pair of shoes or boots.

            Each line generally has the same structure with a date beginning the line, followed by text that typically appears like this sample, (approximately translated to English):

1757 

Feb 8 for 1 pair shoes for Stephen                                                                                           0n 9n 0

ditto for 1 pair for Coff                                                                                                            0n 9n 0

March 14 for 1 pair for Dick                                                                                                     0n 9n 0

ditto for lappe (cobble?) for Cesar                                                                                           0n 0n 9

July 3 for 1 pair shoes for Dick                                                                                                 0n 9n 0

ditto 18 for 1 pair ditto patched for Coff                                                                                 0n 2n 0

Sept 16 for 1 pair adjusted and new heel?                                                                              0n 4n 0

Dec 19 for 1 pair for Coff                                                                                                     0n 10n 0

            This selection of lines from 1757 there are representative of the ledger as a whole document. The line for “Feb 8” lists one pair of shoes for Cornelia’s youngest son Stephen, who was twenty years old, which cost “0n 9n 0.” As this ledger comes from the period where British money was used, the columns along the right side denote value in that currency. From right to left the values are pounds, shillings, and pence, in decreasing order of value. Stephen’s shoes therefore cost 9 shillings. The sum for a new pair of shoes had seemingly risen from earlier years, as at the beginning of the ledger, 1754, a new pair of shoes was 8 shillings and at the end of the ledger, in 1762, the cost was 10 shillings.

            Reading further down in the ledge excerpt, there are two listings for July 3^rd. The first is a new pair of shoes for Dick for 9 shillings, and the second listing is repair of shoes for Coff for 2 shillings. These two people were enslaved men in Cornelia’s household. The price for Dick’s shoes is of note since it is the same as what was paid earlier in 1757 for Cornelia’s son Stephen. Oftentimes fictional accounts or popular assumptions about the clothes of enslaved people suggest that all were clothed in inferior quality items, which was not always the case. However, repairs or better-quality items provided for enslaved people did not imply that their enslavers were kind for these provisions. Dick’s labors may have necessitated Cornelia to hire a cobbler either for new shoes or repairs frequently. The names of various people who were likely enslaved are recorded throughout the ledger for the purchase of new shoes or repairs made. Dick’s name is mentioned 13 times over the period of eight years the ledger covers.

            In comparing the prices from other ledgers at the same time period, Cornelia was paying higher prices for the shoes she purchased for her household. On June 22, 1760, George Washington’s cash accounts show a payment of 6 shillings for a pair of shoes for a man listed as ‘Peter the Smith,’ likely an enslaved man working as a blacksmith. Though this price is lower than Cornelia’s, the shoes Peter may have required for his work may have been treated shoes that would protect from the hazards of blacksmithing, like sparks. A ledger kept by Elisha Blackman in Pennsylvania between 1770 and 1804, shows various purchases and wages paid to members of his family. In 1784 he paid 7 shillings and 6 pence for one pair of shoes. Since Cornelia paid 8 shillings for shoes for an enslaved man in 1756, twenty-eight years earlier, we can see, shoe prices remain somewhat steady, but that costs were higher in Albany than in other locations. The prices Cornelia paid only increased by two shillings over the course of eight years but were still higher than those paid by Washington in Virginia and Blackman in Pennsylvania.

Of course, these numbers are not exactly comparable to each other as there were significant time, place, and possibly labor differences between ledgers. They do indicate, however, that Cornelia was paying a relatively average price (if sometimes higher) for the shoes she bought. Throughout the entire 18^th century there were constant fluctuations in all colonial currencies because each colony used both their own printed money and British currency interchangeably. Prices on ledgers were often listed in these various currencies because exchange rates were indeterminate. Additionally, due to regional fluctuations in material and labor costs during the later 18^th century, it can be difficult to determine how prices compared to each other regionally.

            Cornelia van Cortlandt Schuyler’s shoe ledger concludes with notes after her death in 1762. The notes mention the total price of 22 pounds, 10 shillings, and 8 pence. Cornelia paid this amount to the person who the account was kept with, possibly a cobbler named “Jillis” or “Jellis”. Further down there is a note “Cornelia Schuyler/ My Mother” which further supplies evidence that this account was kept in part by one of Cornelia’s children. The ledger was passed down through Louisa Lee and Georgina Schuyler, two of Philip Schuyler’s descendants. It is likely Philip kept his mother’s accounts and papers after her death. Other notes seem to be added by later curators or owners for the purpose of adding context to Cornelia being “mother of gen. Schuyler.”

            It is also possible to connect this ledger to Philip Schuyler’s own household. Several of the names of the enslaved people mentioned throughout the ledger show up in accounts from Philip Schuyler’s household after Cornelia’s death. In a ledger from Philip Schuyler’s household on December 16^th, 1771, also for the purchase of shoes, several of the enslaved people from Cornelia’s ledger are named as having shoes made or repaired. The names of these people are Bett, Cesar, Dick, and Coff (his name is also written as Cuff in some sources), and it is possible that these are the same people referred to in Cornelia’s ledger. Cornelia’s will does not make provisions for the lives of these enslaved people after her death, but it stands that many of the people from Cornelia’s household were inherited by her son Philip Schuyler. Since Philip Schuyler was Cornelia’s eldest living son, and he and his wife lived with Cornelia at the State and Pearl Street residence, it is likely that he took possession of the household property, which included the people enslaved there.

           Researchers often encounter challenges in their search through primary source materials. These documents are often inaccessible for various reasons: language, handwriting, document condition, etc. Cornelia van Cortlandt Schuyler’s ledger is a complex document to use as a source, not only because of the language, but because of the mundanity of the contents. So much historical research has been conducted on 18^th century topics, but because prices and currencies were in flux, it becomes difficult to grapple with actual prices and compare and contrast costs in Colonial America. Cornelia’s ledger is a useful document because, while it is a micro part of the 18^th century story, it helps better the understanding of the structure of an upper-class household in Colonial Dutch Albany.

 

Sources:

“Cash Accounts, June 1760,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-06-02-0238. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 6, 4 September 1758 – 26 December 1760, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 429–431.]

Report of the Statistician: Farm Prices in Two Centuries; Extracts from the account of Elisha Blackman, 1770-1804. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035798035&seq=4

Shoe ledger of Cornelia Van Cortlandt Schuyler kept between 1754-1763, in SM collection.

Shoe ledger of Philip Schuyler from December 16^th, 1771.