Sewall Family Memoranda Books, 1843-1881 | Maine Maritime Museum Manuscript Collection Online Catalog

Most of these small volumes are identified as having belonged to either William D. Sewall or Arthur Sewall.  Each routinely labeled a book as "Memo. Book" and included the date.  Some volumes cover just a year, while others include material for more than one year.  Those volumes which did not have the owner's name in the front were attributed to one or the other based on handwriting styles.

            Within each volume are a variety of accounts and notes.  The little text that appears consists of diary entries [s. Diaries in Added Entries/ Partial Index] and a few miscellaneous notes on such diverse topics as sailor intoxification, lists of potential vessel names, and short agreements (or contracts) having to do with the construction of a new vessel.  There are a few sketches of equipment or construction details.

            Most of the material, however, is accounts.  Some are personal, including farm accounts, cash paid out for household expenses, notes and bonds, family estate accounts, and miscellaneous accounts for such things as bridge repairs, household furniture, and damage done to a hay field by the railroad.

            Other accounts relate directly to the shipping and ship management business.  These include construction accounts, lists of supplies for outfitting, repairs, marine insurance, launchings, etc. There are some expense accounts for trips WDS and AS took to New York or Boston, for example, on behalf of a particular vessel.

            Finally there are more general accounts such as those with suppliers in New York or Bath, and there are accounts for ship timber purchased, shipped, and in some cases resold rather than used in their own vessels.

            In all cases notes and accounts are mixed together in any given volume, often with entries for the same vessel or topic occurring in more than one place.  Some of the volumes were written in soft pencil which has smudged badly over the years.  A number of these pages are almost impossible to read.  The researcher is urged to study each volume thoroughly to ensure that all the desired information has been extracted from all the pages.  Notes about the contents of each volume have been written on the front of the folder and have also been included in the Added Entries/ Partial Index.