Samuel and Bethel Morris Account Book, 1819-1835

Access and use

Location of collection:
College of William and Mary
Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive
PO 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (757) 221-3090
Fax: (757) 221-5440
Restrictions:

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred citation:

Samuel and Bethel Morris Account Book, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
0.2 Linear Feet 1 box
Creator:
Bethel, Samuel and Bethel, Morris
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

Samuel and Bethel Morris Account Book, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

Account book, 1819-1835, of Connecticut textile entrepreneurs Samuel and Bethel Morris, possibly of Danbury, Fairfield County. Contains detailed transactions with named male and female textile workers, who worked out of in their own homes, participating in a cottage industry managed by the Morrises. The Morrises oversaw network of textile workers in specified area villages like Haystown, Longridge, Newfield, Oxford, "Redding" and Stonyhill (the Morrises generally appended towns of residence to worker's names). ...The workers executed specified stages of the production, including washing, carding, and oiling wood; spinning and dying yarn; weaving specified yard goods; making specified articles of clothing (like pants and stockings). Typical entries include name of workers, their town, kind of work performed, type and color of textile product made, and rate paid. The services were sometimes paid in cash, but more often in form of barter goods, such as grains, foodstuffs, meat, raw wool, dyestuff, oil, soap, hats, hatboxes, lumber and wood, footwear, clothing.

Some more frequently mentioned surnames of workers are Barnum, Dibble, Benedict, Dunning, and Hoyt.

Physical facet:
1 volume (168 pp.)
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard