Elias Pelletreau Jr. store account books, 1795-1802.

0.42 linear feet (1 box)

English

In English.

Purchased from Dan Casavant Rare Books on the Chandler White and Philena Pennell Smith Acquisitions Fund, 2011.

This material is open for research.

Elias Pelletreau was born on August 24, 1757, in Southampton, New York, the son of silversmith Elias Pelletreau (1726-1810) and Sarah Gelston Pelletreau. In 1782 he married Hannah Smith; after her death in 1804 he married Milicent Post. Pelletreau had three sons, Francis (born 1784), Elias Smith (1789-1821), and Maltby (born 1791). He lived most of his life in Southampton and died on October 10, 1831.

The collection consists of two account books for a general store owned by Elias Pelletreau Jr. in Southampton, New York. The first volume has 330 pages and covers the years 1795-1798 while the second has 152 pages and covers 1798-1802; only the second volume is indexed. Pelletreau's store dealt in a wide variety of merchandise such as molasses, sugar, spices, tea, produce, meat, brandy and other spirits, tobacco, textiles, hardware, ironware, glass, horse bridles, almanacs, and books; also appearing are silver items that may have been made by Elias Pelletreau Sr. The store's patrons included Revolutionary War veterans, Native Americans, African Americans, and other local craftsmen and prominent Southampton citizens. Among them were the Reverend Paul Cuffee (1757-1812) of the Shinnecock tribe, and members of the Reeves, Culver, Rogers, Topping, Sayre, Halsey, Rose, Howell, Smith, and Cooper families. Many of the customers paid for their purchases partly by barter, and their goods or services in trade are recorded on each facing page.

June 14, 2025

Elias Pelletreau Jr. Store Account Books. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Elias Pelletreau Jr. Store Account Books. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.