On September 17, 2015 Swann Galleries of New York sold a rare manuscript notebook kept by John Widdifield, an English furniture maker who immigrated to Philadelphia by 1705. The collector who acquired the book has generously allowed the Chipstone Foundation to publish it in this volume of American Furniture and make it, along with a keyword searchable transcription, available on the foundation’s website, www.chipstone.org, and that of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Widdifield’s notebook will also be designated as an ongoing research project on Chipstone’s website, thus allowing scholars, students, and others to publish work related to that manuscript. This introduction to the book is intended to begin that dialogue.
John Widdifield was born on September 13, 1673, or “ye 13 dy of ye 7 mo,” as recorded in the Julian calendar in his notebook. The notebook also states that his father was Peter, which, with the aforementioned inscription, contradicts several online sources giving his father’s name as John and the joiner’s birth date as 1676. The joiner’s father may have been Peter Widdifield of Bishop Auckland, a market town in County Durham in northeastern England. Bishop Auckland is about thirty miles south of Newcastle upon Tyne, where John lived at some point before immigrating to Philadelphia (fig. 2). His will indicates that he kept his “messauge” (dwelling house with outbuildings) in Newcastle upon Tyne, and that it was located “between Pilgrim Street and Upper Draw Bridge.” John’s mother may have been Elizabeth Marlys of Sadberge, a town about fifteen miles southeast of Bishop Auckland. She and Peter married on May 12, 1663.[1]
John Widdifield may have moved to Newcastle upon Tyne by early adulthood. His residence appears to have been on the western side of present-day Pilgrim Street near its intersection with Highbridge Street. According to R. J. Charleton’s A History of Newcastle-on-Tyne (1887), that location was near the meetinghouse of the Society of Friends, which was built in 1698. Earlier meetings were held at Gateshead, just outside the city limits. Assuming that Widdifield began his apprenticeship at the customary age of fourteen he would have completed his training about four years before the meetinghouse was erected.[2]
Throughout the seventeenth century, Newcastle upon Tyne had a guild for joiners (as well as separate guilds for several other woodworking trades), but a 1656 order denied membership to Quakers, Scots, Dutch, and Catholics: “No popish recusant, quaker or any who shall not attend duly on his maister at the public ordinances . . . be taken into apprentice on pain of being fined two marks.” If John converted to Quakerism after completing his apprenticeship, he could have served his term with a member of the joiners’ guild and possibly been a member himself. Widdifield was described as having been a Quaker for a “few years” in 1705.[3]
It is unclear when joiner John Widdifield immigrated to the colonies. On “4 mo. 29, 1705” (June 29, 1705), “John Widowfield” was received by the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, where he was described as a young man “who has been Conversant amongst a few also Since he came Among friends” and presented a letter of removal from “Mo. Mtg. at Thirsk” (Yorkshire) dated “7 mo. 14, 1703” (September 14, 1703) and a letter dated “4 mo. 12, 1705” (June 12, 1705) certifying that he “was unmarried when he left England”.[4]
Widdifield wrote that he “began to contribute to ye writings” of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in 1706. The following year, he served as constable in Philadelphia and married Mary Lawrence (1687–1737), whose father, William, was a tailor. Together the couple had seven children: John (1712), Hannah (1716), Sarah (1718/1719), Ann (1714), Elizabeth (1708), Mary (1710/1711), and Peter (1720). John Jr. inherited the notebook, which has numerous genealogical inscriptions made by later generations of his family.[5]
Aside from the information in his notebook, details regarding the elder John’s career are scarce. He attained freeman status in 1717 along with joiners Robert Hubbard and Thomas Stappleford and carver Robert Mullard. The following year he witnessed the will of mariner Jacob Warren in which hatter Jacob Warder and brewer Anthony Morris were listed as trustees. Widdifield must have attained a measure of financial success by 1718. On September 10 he took John and Mary Usher as indentured servants, and on September 11 he and Mary paid joiner William Branson £51.10 for two parcels of land on High Street and Strawberry Alley. The deed for that property mentioned a “House & Office now intended to be built . . . by the said Widifield and . . . Branson,” which suggests that the joiners may have intended to form a partnership. The following day, Widdifield secured two adjacent lots and sold a lot on which he had built a brick dwelling house.[6]
A few references to Widdifield making furniture survive in addition to those in his notebook. James Logan’s account book has an August 7, 1717, debit to “John Widdowfield” for an “Oval Table” valued at £2.5 and a “Walnut Screen &c” at £10. Furniture historian William McPherson Hornor reported that in 1720 Widdifield made a “black Pine Screwtore,” had half ownership of two parcels of walnut logs (one “Lying near the Draw Bridge in Philadelphia valued at £25” and one “Lying at Perkiomen valued at £3”), and owned a “Cedar Chest of Drawers” and a “Small red Cedar Table”. Although Hornor neglected to provide citations, his source for all those references was Widdifield’s inventory. Taken on February 2, 1720, the inventory lists all of the “Goods &. chattles” in his shop and house as well as livestock and materials elsewhere:
|
his Wearing apparel |
13.10.0 |
|
Cash |
20.0.0 |
|
Goods in his Shop Amounting in the whole to |
209.10.0 |
|
One Clock & Case |
10.0.0 |
|
One black Pine Screwtore |
4.0.0 |
|
One Chest of Drawers |
5.0.0 |
|
Two Ovel black Walnut Tables |
3.0.0 |
|
One Large Looking Glass |
3.0.0 |
|
One Small Do. & other Glass on the Mantle piece |
2.10.0 |
|
Seven Rush bottom Chairs & other odd things in the Middle room below |
2.10.0 |
|
One Bed & bedste[a]d with the furniture |
20.0.0 |
|
One black Walnut Chest of Drawers |
6.0.0 |
|
One Small Walnut Table |
2.0.0 |
|
Two more Looking Glas[s]es |
2.10.0 |
|
Seven black Chairs & other furniture in the front Chamber |
4.10.0 |
|
Two other beds & bedste[a]ds with the furniture |
20.0.0 |
|
One Cedar Chestof Drawers a Small red Cedar Table |
6.0.0 |
|
One other Chest of Frawers looking Glass Chairs & other furniture in the upper front Chamber |
4.0.0 |
|
Two black walnut Chest of Drawers |
10.0.0 |
|
One Large black walnut table & Two Small Do. and a Mahogany Spice Box |
6.0.0 |
|
One Trunk & 4 old Chairs |
0.10.0 |
|
Two beds & bedste[a]ds with furniture & Other things in ye Garret |
5.0.0 |
|
One pair of Mahognay Drawers unfinished |
2.0.0 |
|
Sundry Joyner’s Tools Amounting to |
16.0.0 |
|
Two work benches |
1.0.1 |
|
Carrys Over |
£393.0.0 |
|
Brought Over |
£393.0.0 |
|
one other black walnut Chest of Drawers |
4.0.0 |
|
one hogshead of Mallasses & part of Another |
9.0.0 |
|
Two hogsheads of Tobacco |
4.0.0 |
|
One barrel of rosin |
1.10.0 |
|
Sundrey other Lumber in the Cellar |
3.10.0 |
|
Iron Pots brass Kettle & pewter in The kitchen |
8.10.0 |
|
One Large Ovel Walnut Table & A Small Do. in the Kitchen |
2.0.0 |
|
One Couch four Old Chairs |
1.0.0 |
|
Two Casks of Salt |
1.4.1 |
|
one Cask of Pipes |
2.0.0 |
|
a parcel of walnut boards Scantling & Plank in the yard |
6.0.0 |
|
Four Grind stones |
2.0.0 |
|
one Cow and Calf |
2.10.0 |
|
his half part of a parcel of Walnut Loggs Unsawn Lying near the Draw Bridge In Philadelphia |
25.0.0 |
|
his half of a parcel of Walnut Do. Lying at Perkasmey |
3.0.0 |
|
|
£470.4.0 |
Presumably Widdifield made much of the furniture listed above, and all of the forms are included in his notebook.[7]
The intent of Widdifield’s notebook is unclear, but its descent in his family indicates that he created it for his personal use as well as that of his heirs. A page devoted to sharpening shows that the purpose of the book was instructional, since Widdifield undoubtedly knew how to maintain his tools. His son John inherited the book, but he was born in 1712 and was only eight years old when his father died. It is possible that the elder Widdifield had planned to train his son and pass along the book when young John reached his majority. John Jr. is described as a “joyner” in two 1737 deeds, but his master’s identity and the precise nature of his trade remain unknown. Some craftsmen referred to as “joiners” limited their work to architecture. Later generations of the Widdifield family clearly treasured the notebook, as evidenced by their entries of births and other genealogical information more commonly inscribed in Bibles.[8]
The notebook contains entries that appear to have been made before Widdifield immigrated along with annotations and additions made after his arrival. The earliest date in his hand is “ye 26 th d 1 mo: 1704” (March 26, 1704), and it occurs on the first page, which states that “this book contains three parts”: “the measure of Tables drawers Chaires &c of household furniture maid by joners”; “staining Coloring & Varnishing with several other experienced Recp.s very useful”; and “Recepts in Physicke . . . for ye good of others.” The presence of several blank pages at the end of the adjacent “table of pages” and in the notebook itself reveals that Widdifield intended to add information as his career and experiences developed.
The furniture forms measured, described, and, occasionally, sketched in the notebook provide a glimpse of the range of English vernacular designs émigré joiners brought to the colonies during the early eighteenth century. Among those listed are a variety of seating forms (cane and leather chairs, armchairs, chair tables, child’s chairs, easy chairs, and stools), bedsteads (conventional as well as closatts [a bed made like a chest with an optional canopy]), tables (pine, oval, dressing, and chair), chests (single, double, on frame, and table), coat cases, presses, writing desks, clock cases, spice boxes, screens, hanging shelves, coffins, and clothes baskets. Most of the entries are not very descriptive, an exception being “A Writing table standing upon one pillar like a stand having two drawers.” The notebook also contains sketches of a spice box, a scrutoire, a chest-on-frame, and a “coffin mojaure” (which resembles a cradle) as well as prices Widdifield charged for certain types of objects.
Some of the entries in the notebook were clearly made after Widdifield arrived in Philadelphia. A page with the heading “spice boxes” has a sketch with the notation, “A little Scruetore for Thomas Lyfords” (fig. 3). His patron was probably the same Thomas Lyford who was received by the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting a few days before “John Widowfield” and produced a certificate of removal from the Meeting at Bull and Mouth in London dated “11 mo. 22, 1704” (January 22, 1704). Similarly, David Britnall Jr., for whom Widdifield made a bedstead, became a member of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting on “12 mo. 27, 1707/8” (February 27, 1707/1708). Other patrons mentioned in the notebook included Mary Lard (oval table), Jonathan Lucan (press), Edward Garmon (press), and William Rob (clock case).[9]
Widdifield’s sketch of Lyford’s scrutoire resembles two Philadelphia spice boxes (figs. 4, 5), one of which reputedly descended in the Morris family (fig. 4). Although the original owners of the boxes are unknown, brewer Anthony Morris, like Lyford, was a member of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. The cases and frames of both boxes are constructed as a single unit, which is the impression given by Widdifield’s design. Their legs differ from the one shown in Widdifield’s sketch, but joiners often purchased lathe-generated components from different turners. The dimensions and drawer arrangement of Lyford’s scrutoire suggest that it was a tabletop form—possibly having a fall front—patterned after a spice box.[10]
The sections on coloring, staining, and varnishing and “Recepts in Physicke” were probably completed before Widdifield immigrated and contain few, if any, subsequent entries. His recipes and instructions for “Coloring Staining & Varnishing According to [his] . . . own Experience” are among the most comprehensive manuscript compendiums surviving from the early-eighteenth century. The closest published equivalent is John Stalker and George Parker’s Treatise on Japaning and Varnishing (1688) (fig. 6). Widdifield’s notebook is much more than a collection of recipes, measurements, and prices; it is a deeply personal creation that was a guide and an heirloom for his family and will be a resource for scholars in the years to come.[11]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For their assistance with this introduction, the Chipstone Foundation thanks Gavin Ashworth, David Haugard, Alan Miller, Rick Stattler, Jay Stiefel, and Martha Willoughby. The Foundation is particularly grateful to Joseph P. Gromacki for his support of this publication and the digital initiatives associated with it.
