Dr. Joseph Perkins ledger

Ledger of physician Joseph Perkins and the business of Andrew and Joseph Perkins, of Norwich, Connecticut, dated 1779-1832. Entries dated to approximately 1786 includes charges for medicines and attendance to patients who were sometimes also associates of Andrew and Joseph Perkins in trade and shipping, and the medical and business accounts frequently overlap or are carried over in the ledgers of Andrew and Joseph Perkins, who were Dr. Perkins’ son and grandson. There are accounts with Joseph Howland, Captain William Coit, Ezra Backus, Captain Elisha Lathrop, Captain Hart Leffingwell, Captain Alpheus Davidson, Captain Seth Harding, Guy Brooks, Thomas Coit, John Willett, Native American maritime worker Dennis Mohegan, and Captain Absalom Pride. Dr. Perkins made a number of visits to an African American man named Ovid in 1782, and attended to Polly and Adam Driscoll, Olive Perkins, and other relatives, and Jerusha Baker. Other entries show trade or payment for commodities, labor, services, and store rent from various people to Andrew and Joseph Perkins, including the legal fees of Jonathan Frisbie. There is also an account of Andrew and Joseph Perkins dated 1800-1811 for outgoing payments, bank transactions, and travel expenses to Vermont and New York. The volume contains accounts of the estate of Dr. Joseph Perkins, Jr., and an agreement signed January 1, 1789, by his sons, which gave two-fifths of his property to Joseph Perkins III, and one-fifth each to his other sons, physician Benjamin (born 1763), and twins Elias (1767-1845; Yale AB 1786) and Elijah (1767-1806). Individual accounts of the brothers, also related to the estate, show charges for a legal action against merchant Pember Caulkins, an associate of Andrew and Joseph Perkins. An account of Benjamin Perkins dated 1785-1789 shows charges “respecting negro boy”; “negro boy clothing, passage, money &c”; and to an African American woman and boy "of Ezra Clark," at a cost of 36 pounds. There is also an account of the estate of Elisha Lathrop with Joseph Perkins III, and accounts with Samuel & Robert C. Johnson and John Kinsman related to purchase of land in Ohio known as the Western Reserve in 1795. The remainder of the volume is comprised of accounts of Joseph Perkins III related to his investment in Ohio land and his position as a director at the Norwich Bank, and his involvement with the Erie Canal, Yantic Company, Chelsea Aqueduct Company, and the owners of the cotton factory at Williams Mills, as well as rental and employment agreements. Accounts of laborers he hired for farming, construction, and household service contain details like sick days taken and time off. In 1811, Perkins hired Flora Palmer, an African American woman, for unspecified work. Prince Champlin, Jr., a free black laborer, signed an agreement in 1812 to work for Perkins for one year; his account shows “lost days” when he did not work for reasons like illness, injury, or attendance at a funeral, as well as times he went to Preston and Groton or days spent “training” in Bozrah. There is an agreement with Perdon Burlingame to work for Perkins for four months, but a note is appended that she “absconded in the night” after a few weeks.There are additionally accounts and copies of letters of Charles Perkins, Andrew Perkins’s son, and notes about the Louisiana Purchase.