A DETAILED LEDGER, 1847-1854, FROM THE DELANO FAMILY, PROMINENT MASSACHUSETTS SHIPPING MERCHANTS

16.25" x 6.5," approximately 450 pages, all leaves with manuscript entries. Several documents laid in. Primarily relating to Benjamin Delano, with others of Joshua Delano. Leather binding intact though worn and scuffed, contents clean overall with occasional light foxing and/or similar blemishes. The date 1846 is written on the front cover.

This detailed shipping ledger chronicles the business of the Delanos, a prominent Massachusetts family of merchants and ship owners, during the eight years 1847-1854 inclusive. Delano's Wharf, built by Benjamin Delano in 1803 in Plymouth Bay, functions to this day. The Delanos' shipping business was based in Kingston, a coastal town in Plymouth County. The Ledger discloses the Delanos' costs of doing business, the goods bought and sold, the variety of transactions, the many merchants with whom the firm traded, and some odd minutiae, such as an easement for "driving cows down the lane," which cost $1 per year.
A sampling of the goods which comprised the daily business of the firm can be gleaned from this example, page 273:
Nathan Thomas of Plymouth
To 27 1/2# Fish @ 3 83
To 4# Sugar @ 9 36
To 1# Tee @ 35. 35
To 2 feet [illegible] wood. 25
To 1 side beef. 1050
To 1 Do[zen?] bread. 415
To 4 3/4# Pork @ 10. 47
To 1 cord wood 5. 5
To 1/2 B[ushel] potato. 37
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2248 [corrected to] 2278

Other goods include adult beverages, cast iron, nails, pins, pencils, quills, agricultural products, and an array of other material.