The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Nichols, Ambrose, 1760-1833

Ambrose Nichols Account Book

1890-1830
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 210 bd

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.

Biographical Note

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.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

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.


Information on Use
Terms of Access and Use
Restrictions on access:

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Ambrose Nichols Account Book (MS 210). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

History of the Collection

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987.

Processing Information

Processed by Ken Fones-Wolf, September 1988.


Additional Information

Sponsor
Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Language
English.


Subjects

Agricultural wages--Massachusetts--Cohasset--19th centuryCarriage and wagon making--Massachusetts--Cohasset--19th centuryCarriage industry--Massachusetts--Cohasset--Employees--19th centuryCohasset (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryCohasset (Mass.)--History--19th centuryWheelwrights--Massachusetts--Cohasset--19th century

Contributors

Nichols, Ambrose, 1760-1833

Types of material

Account books