Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2019.08.04 |
Object Name |
Chair |
Date |
c1780 |
Year Range to |
1800 |
Features |
Chair, ladder back, woven set, hand turned, painted grey. Set of 6 chairs in original paint. |
Object Story |
This group of chairs belongs to a story about a group of friends who lived in County Limerick, New York City, the Camden Valley of Washington County in the Province of New York and then the Bay of Quinte. The later boundary between New York State and Vermont cut through their homesteads on the Battenkill. In the Camden Valley, Elias Hoffman's farm was next to Edward Carscallen's on the turnpike. Elias and Elizabeth Hoffman had four children, a daughter Mary and two sons, Jacob and Elias Jr. In 1779, a few years after the Revolutionary War began, Hoffman's daughter, Mary, married Michael McCabe who had moved to the Camden Valley from the nearby Embury-Wilson Patent. When the Carscallens moved to Canada, Edward remarried the widow Hoffman. Mary's father, Elias, had died in the Camden Valley. Michael and Mary and their six children lived for a few years on the Carscallen farm before coming to join friends and relations in Canada. In the Camden Valley, Michael paid rent, but in the Bay of Quinte settlement, he would have an opportunity to own his own farm. When Michael, Mary and their family moved to the Bay of Quinte, they brought a plough (on display in the museum) and some household furnishings - that included these chairs. Knowing that they would be living close to the Carscallens and Hoffmans made moving from an established farm in the Camden Valley to the Bay of Quinte wilderness, a little easier for Michael McCabe and his family. Edward Carscallen and his four sons, and Jacob Hoffman, an uncle of Mary's, were settled on river lots near Napanee. Michael purchased a lot in Fredericksburgh on the north shore of Hay Bay owned by Cyrenius Park. Waterfront lots were greatly desired since the rivers and bays were the principal means of transportation. Easy access to the bay also meant water for livestock and fish for food in the early years of settlement. The plough was used to farm the land once enough land was cleared and these chairs furnished the early house built when the moved to Canada. (Notes for this accession are courtesy of the research conducted by Jane Foster) |
People |
McCabe, Donald McCabe (family) Hoffman Family Hoffman, Mary |
Subjects |
1700's Early Settlement American Revolution Loyalist |
Search Terms |
Hay Bay Fredericksburgh Additional Fredericksburgh |