Benjamin Clarke Sr. and His Diary of the Early Raritan Valley

Benjamin Clarke Sr. and His Diary of the Early Raritan Valley

Author(s): Robert W. Craig

Source: The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. 66, No.3 (Spring 2005), pp. 393-438

Published by: Princeton University Library

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.25290/prinunivlibrchro.66.3.0393

The Anatomy of an Emerging Farm

“By the time he began keeping the diary, Clarke regarded the farm as his primary residence, even though he retained his properties in Perth Amboy [New Jersey].  He used the word “home” twenty-seven times, always in reference to his farm on the Raritan. From references in the diary to buildings that were already constructed, one can infer what was built during the first “year” of the farm (spring through autumn 1688). A dwelling was the first obvious necessity.  The word “house” or the phrase “my house” appears only four times, but on one of those occasions (January 11, 1688/9) Clarke also made reference to his “kitchen” in a way that implies that the house was built first and the kitchen followed, recently enough that he had still not paid John Fellows the £4 he owed for its construction.  The entry suggests that Fellows was a carpenter [a fact confirmed elsewhere] and that he was paid to dress the timbers and erect the frame.  It is not clear whether the kitchen was a separate building or attached to the house.  The barn was the other principal building in existence before the diary was begun.  It was roofed and enclosed and used to shelter animals and store farm equipment, but it was far from being completed.

“That’s where matters stood after the first year: a bare-bones farmstead built to serve as a beginning, to which much more would be added.  The “second” year—the year of the diary—would be spent in part on improvements to these buildings.  For the barn, that meant a hay loft, stables, and a floor constructed inside the building.  The house would be plastered, and both the chimney and the oven were mended.  The one new building added in the second year was a henhouse raised in May 1689 (something of a surprise, because chickens are neither mentioned in the diary nor listed in the inventory).

“At least one other building stood on the property during the second year, although its construction is not expressly mentioned.  Clarke noted the working of iron on the farm, and on December 24, 1689, [Clarke’s son Ben] wrote  in the diary of going to “lock the forg.” When the farm was sold in late 1695, the sale excepted what the deed called a “coperas furnace,” which may have been the same building.  Copperas is the name given to a group of iron sulfate compounds that were often used iin the production of dyes and inks.  In the diary entry for January 12, 1688/9, Clarke mentioned that he purchased a quantity of “coperis….”

“Controlling his livestock was a serious matter for Clarke, so much so that the first year’s activities included the construction of a “cowpen,” the only enclosure for animals mentioned in the diary.”   

“Most of Clarke’s servants and employees were occupied with farming and other routine “subsistence” activities.  With only their help, however, Clarke’s farmstead on the Raritan would never have gotten built.  These men could split rails and build fences, but they seem from the record not to have been the sort who could independently construct anything as complicated as a chimney, let alone an entire house.  For that Clarke needed men who possessed building trade skills.  In November, he hired Thomas Masters to work by the month.  Even Masters performed a wide variety of common tasks, such as cutting wood and salting venison.  But Masters was handy, and when he was on the scene, things that needed fixing got fixed.  On December 3, 1688, Clarke reported that Masters [and Clarke’s son Ben] mended the cowpen.  The following day Masters repaired the oven.  On December 26th, while others killed a hog, fetched wood, or carried wheat to the mill, Masters mended the chimney.”

[to be continued]