A cartwright from Cohasset, Massachusetts. Account book includes the types of activities and services Ambrose Nichols performed (working on wagons, wheels, sleds and carts, mending roofs, plowing, raking) and a few entries recording the means by which debts were paid.
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Ambrose Nichols (1760-1833) was the seventh of thirteen children born to Noah and Elizabeth Nichols of Cohasset, Massachusetts. Ambrose, whose father was a farmer, learned the trade of cartwright, following in the footsteps of his older brother Noah, who was both a wheelwright and house carpenter. Ambrose married the former Sarah DeCarteret in 1790, and together they had eight children.
The account book, roughly 75 pages, details the prices paid Ambrose Nichols for various kinds of work. Although he principally worked on wagons, wheels, sleds and carts, he also mended roofs, worked on houses, plowed, raked, and did odd jobs for local farmers. The accounts begin when Nichols was 49 years old and run until he reached 70, just three years before his death. They are arranged in a haphazard manner in the book, with only a few entries giving the means by which the debts were paid.
Many of the names in the accounts overlap with the farmers and mariners for whom the Cohasset farmer Job Cushing (MS 207) also did work.
The collection is open for research.
Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987.
Many of the names in the accounts overlap with the farmers and mariners for whom the Cohasset farmer Job Cushing (MS 207) also did work.
Processed by Ken Fones-Wolf, September 1988.
Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Cite as: Ambrose Nichols Account Book (MS 210). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
