Skip to main content
Log in

Farm Journal: First person, four voices

  • Article
  • Published:
Historical Archaeology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

I weave together evidence archaeological, documentary, pictorial, and imagined to create first-person stories of the men and women who lived at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts, ca. 1780–1820. These are the stories of two merchants, Nathaniel Tracy, Esquire, and Captain Offin Boardman, and of their wives, Mary Lee Tracy, “the great beauty of her day,” and Sarah Tappan Boardman, ill and confined to her bed for much of the year. The sources uncover a mosaic of business success and business failure, of fortunes lost and social position scrupulously maintained.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, John Quincy 1902 The Diary of John Quincy Adams. Printed edition of 1788 manuscript diary. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, second series, 16.

  • Allen, Gardner Weld 1927 Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution. Published for the Massachusetts Historical Society. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudry, Mary C. 1987 Limited Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Property, Newbury, Massachusetts. Center for Archaeological Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1993 Puzzling Over the Pieces: The 1992 Field Season at Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm. Context: Newsletter of the Center for Archaeological Studies 11(1–2): 5–7, 24. Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1995a Scratching the Surface: Seven Seasons at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts. Northeast Historical Archaeology 24:19–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1995b The Boardmans’ Flower Garden: Archaeological Testing in the Proposed Dry Well Area, Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts. Archaeology of the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Interim Report 4. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1995c “Above Vulgar Economy”: Material Culture and Social Positioning Among Newburyport’s Merchant Elite. Unpublished manuscript on file with the author.

  • Beaudry, Mary C. (editor) 1992 Beneath the Kitchen Floor. Archaeology of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, Interim Report 3. Draft, not paginated. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benes, Peter 1986 Old-Town and the Waterside: Two Hundred Years of Tradition and Change in Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, 1635–1835. Historical Society of Old Newbury, Newburyport, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boardman, Offin 1779–1780 Diary of Offin Boardman, January 4, 1779 to March 18, 1780. Transcript prepared by Mrs. John Bradbury. Typescript on file, Historical Society of Old Newbury, Newburyport, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cotterell, Marta M. 1997 The Laces of Ipswich Massachusetts: An American Industry, 1750–1840. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Deerfield, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Chastellux, François Jean, Marquis 1963 Travels in North America. Two volumes. Printed edition of 1780–1782 manuscript. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dempsey, Claire W. 1993a Nathaniel Tracy and Mary Lee Tracy. Research essay on file, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1993b Offin Boardman and Sarah Tappan Boardman. Research essay on file, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1993c Extracts from Offin Boardman’s Farm Diary, Transcribed and Annotated. Draft version. Research manuscript on file, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Warville, Jacques Pierre Brissot 1964 New Travels in the United States of America 1788. Printed edition of 1788 manuscript. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eastman, Ralph M. 1928 Some Famous Privateers of New England. Privately printed by the State Street Trust Company, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Essex County Registry of Probate 1811 Will of Offin Boardman, March 1, 1808; proved September 5, 1811. Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1819 Warrant of Administration and Inventory of Real and Personal Estate of Mary Tracy of Newburyport. Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1820a Account of Administration of Estate of Mary Tracy of Newburyport, submitted by Nathaniel Tracy, Administrator. Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1820b Will of Sarah Boardman of Newbury, May 27, 1820, proved September 26, 1820. Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1821 Inventory of the Estate of Sarah Boardman late of Newbury. Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1827 Account of Administration of the Estate of Sarah Boardman, late of Newbury. Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, James W. 1991 Beyond Metaphor: The Theory of Tropes in Anthropology. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grady, Anne A. 1992 Spencer-Pierce-Little House Historic Structures Report. Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelso, Gerald K. 1992 Pollen Analysis of Stairwell Fill under the Kitchen. In Beneath the Kitchen Floor, edited by Mary C. Beaudry. Archaeology of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, Interim Report 3. Draft, not paginated. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Labaree, Benjamin W. 1975 Patriots and Partisans: The Merchants of Newburyport, 1764–1815. Norton & Company, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landon, David B. 1992 Pigs’ Feet and Pigeon Pie: Faunal Remains from the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm Kitchen. In Beneath the Kitchen Floor, edited by Mary C. Beaudry. Archaeology of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, Interim Report 3. Draft, not paginated. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1996 Feeding Colonial Boston: A Zooarchaeological Study. (Special Issue.) Historical Archaeology 30(1).

  • Lee, Thomas Amory 1906 The Tracy Family of Newburyport. Essex Institute Historical Collections 52 (April) 1906.

  • 1916 Nathaniel Tracy, Harvard, 1769. Harvard Graduates Magazine 25 (December): 193–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1917 The Lee Family of Marblehead. Reprinted from the Essex Institute Historical Collections. Essex Institute, Salem, MA.

  • Nelson, Susan S. 1995 Hanging by a Thread: The Bobbin’s Tale. Paper prepared for AR770, Seminar in the Archaeology of Colonial America. Copy on file, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nylander, Jane C. 1993 Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760–1860. Knopf, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko 1990 Introduction: The Historicization of Anthropology. In Culture Through Time: Anthropological Approaches, edited by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, pp. 1–25. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, Rozsika 1989 The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. Routledge, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pendleton, Sally 1990 The Plant Remains from the Spencer-Pierce-Little Kitchen: An Historical Ethnobotanical Analysis. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

  • 1992 Plant Remains from the Kitchen Crawlspace. In Beneath the Kitchen Floor, edited by Mary C. Beaudry. Archaeology of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, Interim Report 3. Draft, not paginated. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter, Kenneth Wiggins 1937 The Jacksons and the Lees: Two Generations of Massachusetts Merchants, 1765–1844, Vol. 1. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Daniel G., and David Barrett 1984 Nightsoil Disposal Practices of the 19th Century and the Origin of Artifacts in Plowzone Proveniences. Historical Archaeology 18(1):108–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salem Registry of Probate 1813 Account Sales of Real & Personal Estate on Account of the Estate of Offin Boardman by John Porter Auctioneer on the 20th 22 & 23 April 1813 at Public Auction. Folios 27–29 of unnumbered bound volume in the collections of the Historical Society of Old Newbury, Newburyport, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarlett, Timothy J. 1992 Through the Cracks: Artifacts from Three and One-Half Centuries under a Kitchen Floor. In Beneath the Kitchen Floor, edited by Mary C. Beaudry. Archaeology of the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, Interim Report 3. Draft, not paginated. Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shipton, Clifford Kenyon 1975 Nathaniel Tracy. Sibley’s Harvard Graduates (1768–1771) 17:247–251. Massachusetts Historical Commission, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smyth, Maureen M. 1994 The Plant Remains from the Spencer-Pierce-Little Privy: A Historical Archaeobotanical Analysis. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston, MA.

  • Swan, Susan Burrows 1977 Plain & Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1650–1850. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, Tamara Plakins 1989 Cultivating Gentlemen: The Meaning of Country Life among the Boston Elite, 1785–1860. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Titcomb, Paul 1812 Plan of the “Homestead” of Boardman’s Farm. Surveyed October 1812, by Paul Titcomb. Archives of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tracy, Nathaniel 1793 “Letter from Nathaniel Tracy, Esq. respecting the Posterity of Daniel Gookin.” Extract of a Letter from N. Tracy, Esq. Jan 21, 1793, to a Member of the Historical Society. Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society for the Year 1793, first series, 2:25.

  • Tucker, Alice 1789–1790 Journal. Manuscript on file, Historical Society of Old Newbury, Newburyport, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher 1991 A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785–1812. Vintage, New York.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Beaudry, M.C. Farm Journal: First person, four voices. Hist Arch 32, 20–33 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03373610

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03373610

Navigation