The Years of the Life of Samuel Lane, 1718-1806: A New Hampshire Man and His World

by Brown, Jerald E.; Garvin, Donna-Belle; Garvin, Donna-Belle

• ISBN13: 9781584650522
• ISBN10: 1584650524
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England

Summary

Samuel Lane, whose life in and around the town of Stratham, New Hampshire, spanned much of the 18th century, was truly a "Renaissance man." Civic, business, and personal concerns fill the pages of the diary he kept for over 60 years. The worries, dilemmas, and day-to-day work Lane detailed provide a compelling view of life in colonial New Hampshire. Together with his business records and family papers, Lane's diaries form an important part of the New Hampshire Historical Society's collections. Basing his narrative on careful study of this rich documentary legacy, historian Jerald E. Brown explores the life, career, and motivations of one man and his family. In a preliminary essay, editor Donna-Belle Garvin introduces Lane's world to the reader. The many illustrations of leatherworking, farming, surveying, buildings, bridges, crops, animals, and gravestones draw readers into the complex world and work that shaped Lane and his family. This fascinating tale is the most complete account now available of the life of a colonial New England artisan and tradesman.

Author Biography

JERALD E. BROWN served as editor of the New Hampshire Historical Society's Samuel Lane Papers while earning his Doctor of Philosophy in History from University of New Hampshire. He now heads the history department at Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore.

DONNA-BELLE GARVIN, director of research and publications at the New Hampshire Historical Society, has written articles and co-authored books and exhibition catalogs on New Hampshire history. She edits the Society's journal, Historical New Hampshire.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Priscilla Lane Moore Tapley
Author's Acknowledgments	xi
Editor's Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: A New Hampshire Man and His Place in the World	xv
Donna-Belle Garvin
Samuel Lane as an Individual	xvii
His Family and Household	xviii
His Neighborhood and Town	xx
His Business Community	xxiv
His Province and State	xxxii
His Nation	xxxiii
His Physical World	xxxiv
His Intellectual and Cultural World	xxxvi
Mastering a Trade	1	(44)
Childhood and Youth are Vanity	2	(3)
I began to Learn to Make Shoes	5	(3)
My Service with my Father	8	(5)
I... Learn my Self to Tan	13	(6)
I was out of my Time	19	(12)
I Remov'd my Self...to Stratham	31	(5)
The Most that ever I Tan[n]ed	36	(9)
Shaping Community	45	(60)
I...Learn to Cypher and Survey	46	(10)
Made Hoags & Bordmans writing	56	(8)
I Was Chose Tythingman	64	(8)
Service about the Meeting House	72	(9)
With Exeter People into the woods	81	(6)
Set out to Perambulate Bow Line	87	(11)
Chose Proprietors Clerk for Bow	98	(7)
Exchanging Commodities	105	(34)
I went to the Bank	106	(8)
Sister Elizabeth Come to Weave	114	(9)
The things I give to my Daughter	123	(8)
Due to me by Bond & Note	131	(8)
Building Continuity	139	(58)
Laying my Money out in Land	140	(11)
Drove my Calves to Leavits Pasture	151	(13)
Indian Corn is exceeding forward	164	(11)
Son Joshua's Teem Plow'd for me	175	(7)
Make my lame leg as long	182	(11)
Father Died 7 oClock evening	193	(4)
Afterword Settling in the World	197	(2)
Notes	199	(26)
Index	225