Thomas Cushing waste book

Waste book maintained by Boston merchant Thomas Cushing from 1739 to 1742, recording business expenses, shipping ventures, and general store sales. Cushing bought furs and skins from merchants and mariners Captain Nathaniel Donnell, Captain William Trefry, Colonel Josiah Willard (1715-1786), of Fairfield, Connecticut, and James Dennie (1702/3-1759), among others, which he sold at retail or shipped to London on commission. He also exported whale fins and elephant teeth, and imported hardware and dry goods from London and rum from the West Indies for his store. Other items Cushing sold at retail included fishing lines, raisins, spices, indigo, clothing, fish, flour, and tobacco. He frequently only recorded the surname of his pelt suppliers, such as Arnault, Bruce, Breton, and Sutton. In June 1741, Cushing shipped an assortment of pelts from animals including bears, grey, red, and Carolina foxes, catts, fishers, minks, and martens, on the ship John Galley, commanded by Andrew Craigie, to London. Other June accounts relate to adventures to Maryland and Barbados; purchase from Jabez Bradbury for pelts from 5 “large bears” as well as 159 martens, otters, and other animals; and payment for sundry items bought in Mary Sanderson’s shop. In July 1741 he and Ezekiel Cushing (1698-1765) of Falmouth, Maine, invested in a whaling voyage in Newfoundland. Additional accounts include London merchant Theodosia Crowley & Co.; Malachy Salter (1715-1781) of Halifax, Nova Scotia; John Malcom of Brunswick, Nova Scotia; Portsmouth, New Hampshire, merchant Stephen Greenleaf; Samuel Cooke of New Haven, Connecticut; Abednego Leathers of Durham, New Hampshire; John Wallace & Company in Maryland; jurist Nicholas Sever (1680-1764; Harvard AB 1701); Jacob Wendell (1691-1761); Dudley Woodbridge of Groton, Connecticut; Boston distillers George and Nathaniel Holmes and Zachariah Johonnot (1701-1783); leather dresser John Beauchamp. Among other names in the volume are is accounts included Boston merchants Nahum Ward (1684-1754) and Peter Fanueil, physicians John Clark (1698-1768) and Silvester Gardiner (1708-1786), future Massachusetts Bay Province Governor Thomas Hutchinson (1711-1780), Comfort Stam, Ann Foot, Elizabeth Jarvis, Edward Bromfield, Thomas Handasyd Peck, Thomas Boylston, Captain Giles Russell, Gerrish & Barrell, William Beach, Abigail Cole, Samuel Sturgis, Ezekiel Mighill, Captain Isaac Dupee, Thomas Hill, Charles Apthorp, Captain Joseph Prout, Epes Sargeant, and John Wheelwright.