The Huyck Bain Crandell Collection - Document BH031
< Next Earlier Document — Next Later Document >
1796-06 Account, Potatoes & Pork to Jacobus McNeil
McNeal buying potatoes by the bushel, including 13 bushel of seed potatoes.
Image: BH031 pg 3.jpg
(Page 3 of 8 - others blank)
Transcription
1796 Jacobes McNeal Dr May To six Bushel of Potatoes @ 3/ £0:18:0 To 13 Bushel of Potatoes to Plant that for you to pay for — @ 3/ 0:19:6 To 2 Bushel Potatoes — — @ 3/ — 0:6:0 To 6 lb Pork @ 1/ — — — — — — — 0:6:0
Commentary
Notes:
- Jacobus McNeal — an Irish surname with a Dutch first name, consistent with the mixed community of 1790s Columbia County. A new name in the archive.
- Potatoes — a significant crop, sold in bushel quantities at 3 shillings per bushel. We first saw potatoes appearing in the first account book in 1769 in small quantities — by 1796 they are being sold in substantial amounts including seed potatoes for planting, suggesting the crop had become much more important in the intervening quarter century.
- “13 bushels potatoes to plant, that for you to pay for” — seed potatoes sold on credit, with the understanding McNeal would pay after the harvest. A sensible arrangement for a subsistence farmer.
- 6 pounds pork at 1/ per pound — consistent with pork prices throughout the archive, the farm’s pig operation continuing.
- The account keeper — this is almost certainly Christina Huyck or possibly Burger J. Huyck managing the Pomponick farm’s commercial activity after Arent’s death, the farm’s retail function continuing into the next generation.
- May 1796 — spring planting season, the timing of the seed potato sale making perfect sense.
— Notes by Claude.ai 4.6 2026-05-09 - jhc
Metadata
Persons Mentioned
Jacobus McNeal
type:
- Account persons:
- Jacobus McNeal
Document: BH031
Date: 1796-06
Language: English
Type: Account
Subject: Commerce, Agriculture
Principals: Jacobus McNeal, Christina Huyck(?)
Places Mentioned: None
— page revised 2026-06-14 - jhc
< Next Earlier Document — Next Later Document >
Huyck Bain Crandell Collection © 2026 by John H. Coxon is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
