Thomas Evans and Benjamin T. Biggs farm account book

This farm account book was kept by Dr. Thomas Evans and Benjamin T. Biggs of Pencader Hundred, Delaware, between 1792 and 1869.

The account book was first kept by Thomas Evans, a farmer and doctor in Pencader Hundred, starting in 1792. The first several pages of the volume list Evans’s creditors and debtors included in the volume with the corresponding page numbers for their accounts. Individuals listed include William Cooch, Robert Middleton, William Simonton, Black David, Susanna Camblin, and Free Jack. Evans utilized a double-entry system to keep accounts, recording debts and credit payments on facing pages. Many individuals were indebted to Evans for medical treatments administered to themselves, family members, and servants. Evans often treated patients with calomel, jalap, ipecac, opium, and liquid laudanum and appears to have administered a large number of emetics. Evans also provided a number of other goods and services to his neighbors, including farm produce, livestock, boarding, and hauling. Evans’s debtors paid him in cash, notes, and a variety of goods. Many people paid their debts or earned wages from Evans by planting and harvesting crops, spinning thread, and weaving. Following Evans’s death in 1796, his estate continued to settle his accounts in the volume until at least 1800. Several pages near the back of the volume include remaining debts to the Estate of Dr. Thomas Evans “as appears on the face of his books.”

Benjamin T. Biggs began recording his own accounts in the volume around 1847, using both the volume’s blank pages and unused space on pages with Evans’s accounts. Biggs recorded single-entry accounts, most of which related to the exchange of farm produce and labor. Biggs also recorded several memoranda, mostly between himself and those he hired to work on his farm. Amongst the entries by Evans, Biggs recorded several diary entries and even copied out a rough draft of a letter to the president regarding taxation on bonds, mortgages and machinery. Biggs’s brother, Sewell C. Biggs, and Albert J. Whittaker of Trenton, New Jersey, also copied their names on a few pages in the volume. Towards the back of the volume, Biggs recorded recipes for curing hams and making sausages. Several loose items belonging to Biggs have been laid into the volume. These include an order for Benjamin and Sewell Briggs to pay James P. Elias, correspondence regarding the sale of farm produce, and a land agreement. Biggs’s entries and ephemera date from 1847 to 1869.

This volume is bound in brown leather with five raised bands on the spine. A red leather spine label reads “DAY BOOK” in gilt letters. The front and back covers of the volume feature tooled decoration forming rectangular designs. There are several handwritten notations in ink on the front cover, most of which are illegible. One reads “SCB,” which possibly stands for Sewell C. Briggs. Handwritten notations on the back cover read “LEDGER C” and “1796.” A handwritten inscription on the inside of the front cover reads “Thomas Evans 1794.” The volume contains 314 pages of laid paper, many with handwritten notations in black ink.