Wing, Paul, 1792-1822

Paul Wing was a seaman born in Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in 1792. His accounts reflect, principally, the provisioning of schooners and sloops on which Wing was a sailor (and possibly captain) between 1812 and 1820. The accounts are randomly scattered in the book, but provide information on work done, cargo and passengers carried, provisions bought, wages, ship expenses, and port charges.

Among the ships for which there are accounts are the Sally, which sailed to Bermuda in 1812-1813; the Good Hope, which docked in Riceborough, Savannah, Boston, Nantucket, and Rochester; and the sloop Harmony for which there are the most complete accounts in 1817 and 1818. There are what appear to be accounts for crew members’ expenses on the Harmony from September 1817 to May 1818, cash received by the ship for boarding passengers from Providence to Savannah and back, a freight list, detailed provisions lists, and settlements between Paul Wing and the sloop’s owners — John Carswell, Judah Hathaway, and Ezra Sturtevant — suggesting that Wing may have been the captain on that voyage. (He was also listed as a captain when he married in 1817.) In the rear of the volume, there are notes of wages for two seamen — Denis Clifton and Jacob Briggs — and a cook aboard the schooner Sally in 1816.

Toward the front of the book are scattered accounts of Philip Wing (born 1788), Paul’s older brother, for agricultural, butchering, and carpentry work between 1805 and 1810, including some ship carpentry on the sloop Sophia, for the Liberty, and for the Jefferson.

Paul Wing died on a voyage to the West Indies in 1822 at age 29. There is a loose sheet inside the front cover of the volume concerning probate court proceedings in 1823 and 1824 that probably relate to settling Wing’s estate on his widow, the former Sally Sturtevant, and his two daughters, Louisa (born 1818) and Ophelia (born 1820).