Comfort Hoag Collins Woman Minister for Society of Friends in Seabrook New Hampshire

Comfort Collins (1711-1816) daughter of James Stanyan and Anne Hussey was among the many women to preach the Quaker faith in the colonies. She was described by many as a lively and vibrant messenger of God. She lived to be 105 years old. (The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine, Volume 12)

Comfort's mother, Anne Hussey was the daughter of Reverend John Hussey and Rebecca Perkins (d. of Isaac Perkins and Susannah Wise) One of her siblings was also noted for her vibrancy and her devotion to the Quaker faith--Lydia Perkins Wardwell, wife of Eliakim Wardell. 

Comfort Stanyan married 1st Jonathan Hoag and 2nd Tristram Collins (Vital Records Hoag, Comfort, wid. Jonathan, of Hampton, N. H., and Tristram Collins of Seabrook, N. H., May 29, 1771) 

The Hoags were Newbury, Massachusetts settlers. Johnathan Hoag, born 10 Dec 1708 in Amesbury to Benjamin Hoag and Lydia Jones. There is a genealogy done Hoag Family  

According to Daughters of the Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies, by Rebecca Larson, Comfort set sail for England to preach, however the ship sprang a leak and she returned. Her first marriage in 1733 was to Jonathan Hoag, son of John Hoag and Martha Goodwin. The family struggled financially and a wealthy Quaker provided for the family while Comfort was preaching. 

In Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours Stephen Grellet, Volume 1
At Amesbury we were refreshed and instructed in the company of that ancient and valuable servant of the Lord, Comfort Collins, then upwards of ninety years of age, but green in the Divine 'life, and a bright example of humility. She appeared to have her indwelling in Christ. Her mental faculties were bright, and she had lately traveled as a Gospel Minister. About forty years ago, Comfort Collins, then a Hoag, having surrendered herself and her all to the Divine will, under a sense of duty to go to England on religious service, with the unity of her friends, embarked for Europe, accompanied by Sarah Barney. After they had been out at sea about a week, as they were sitting together in the cabin, in solemn silence before the Lord, Comfort said to Sarah, ‘The Lord has accepted my free-will offering to his Divine will, to go to Europe, and now he releases me from this service; and, as a proof of it, he will bring us back again to the American shores.’ Sarah Barney told me that the communication was attended with so much solemnity, that she could not doubt that it was of the Lord. Without exchanging a word with one another, they continued a considerable time in silence, when they heard the captain of the ship speaking with his trumpet to another ship, stating that he was under the necessity of returning to port, as his vessel had sprung a leak, which the Friends knew not before. Thus were these women brought back, and from that time they felt themselves entirely released from the service of traveling in Europe. '
After a visit to Comfort in 1812 Matthew Franklin, wrote in a letter that he "was deeply impressed by his interview with her--All her faculties have in a manner fled but to save religious sensibility."

From the journal of John Comly who visited Comfort in Seabrook before her death in 1815 he remarks on her 
"To me, this interview and parting with these aged women was exceedingly interesting and instructive, and some deep and lasting impressions were made on my mind."
"They were a text and sermon that have left a precious and lasting lesson of comfort and instruction to my soul.

In Memoirs of the Life of David Ferris: An Approved Minister in the Society of Friends, Late of Wilmington, in the State of Delaware (1825) Ferris refers to Comfort:

In the year 1755, being in company with Comfort Hoag and her companion, from New-England, then on a religious visit to Friends in this part of the country, I attended a meeting with them, in which I felt a concern to speak to the assembly; but, as usual, evaded it. After meeting, Comfort said to me: “David, why didst thou not preach to day 2" I smiled at the query, seeming to wonder that she should ask such a question and endeavored to appear innocent and ignorant of any concern of that kind. 
As she (Comfort) knew nothing of me but what she had felt,‘v (having never before seen or heard of me,) she said no more. On the following day a similar concern came upon me, and I evaded it as before. After meeting, Comfort again said to me: “David, why didst thou not preach to-day 2” 
I endeavored to pass it by as before, but she said it was not worth while to evade it, for she was assured that I ought to have preached that day ;- and that I had almost spoiled her meeting by refraining, which had hindered her service. When I found I could not conceal my faults, I confessed the whole, and told her I had been for more than twenty years in that practice; and then gave her a history of my life from the beginning down to that day. She admired that Divine kindness was yet manifested toward me in such a manner, seeing I had so long rebelled against it. And then gave me suitable caution and advice.
The following day, being at meeting, I again felt a concern to speak to the people, but endeavored to evade it. A man of some note was sitting before me, and increased my reluctance to speak. I supposed he would not be present at the next meeting, and then I would obey the call of the Lord to that service. Thus I spent the greater part of an hour. 
At length my Divine Master, the great Master Builder, thus addressed me: “Why dost thou still delay, desiring to be excused until a more convenient season? There never will be a better time than this; I have waited on thee above twenty years ; I have clearly made known to thee my will, so that all occasion of doubt has been removed, yet thou hast refused to submit, until thy day is far spent, and if thou dost not speedily comply with my commands, it will be too late; thy opportunity will be lost.” 
I then clearly saw that if I were forsaken, and left to myself, the consequence would be death and darkness for ever! At the sight of the horrible pit that yawned for me, if I continued in disobedience, my body trembled like an aspen leaf, and my soul was humbled within me! Then I said, “Lord! here am I; make of me what Thou wouldst have me to be; leave me not in displeasure, I beseech Thee.” All my power to resist was then suspended, I forgot the great man that had been in my way and was raised on my feet I scarcely knew how, and expressed, in a clear and distinct manner, what was on my mind. 
When I had taken my seat, Comfort Hoag rose, and had an open, favorable opportunity to speak to the assembly. After meeting she told me that, during the time we had sat in silence, her whole concern was on my account; that her anxiety for my deliverance from that bondage was such, that she was willing to ofl'er up her natural life to the Lord, if it might be a means to bring me forth in the ministry ; and that, on her making the offering, I rose to speak. On which her anxiety for me was removed, and her mind filled with comcern for the people present.

George Peabody roots of success started in Newburyport

George Peabody was an American-British entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Peabody Trust in Britain and the Peabody Institute and George Peabody Library in Baltimore, and was responsible for many other charitable initiatives.  
History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Volume 2 George Peabody, of London began his business career in Newburyport. He was born February 18, 1795, in that part of Danvers which in 1855 was incorporated as South Danvers and in 1868 named Peabody. He there received his early education, and in 1811, at the age of sixteen, left school and entered as clerk the store of his uncle, David Peabody, in Newburyport. His companions there in social life were Charles Storey, Abner Caldwell and Francis B. Somerby, and it was on the evening of the last of May, 1811, that these young men started for home from Hart’s tavern, where they had been bowling, and young Peabody, leaving Storey and Caldwell near the foot of Kent Street and Somerby at Market Street, proceeded on alone. On reaching Inn Street he saw flames bursting out from Lawrence’s stable and gave the alarm. This was the beginning of the great fire, as it is always called, which swept over sixteen and a. half acres of the most compactly built and the busiest part of the town. More than two hundred buildings were consumed between half-past nine o’clock in the evening and sunrise the next morning. Nearly all the shops for the sale of dry-goods, four printing-ofiices, the custom-house, the post-oilice, two insurance ofiices, four book-stores, one meeting-house and a hundred dwellings were consumed, and suffering and privation ensued which the warm-hearted liberality of Boston and other towns only partially alleviated.
From Mr. Peabody at the Essex County Fair
Date: Saturday, October 4, 1856
Paper: Daily Atlas (Boston, MA) Volume: XXV Issue: 81 Page: 2

Mr. Peabody remained with his uncle until some time after the fire, when he made arrangements to go into business in Baltimore. So well had he performed his duties as clerk, that he obtained from his uncle and Prescott Spalding and others a joint letter to James Reed, a large wholesale dry-goods dealer in Boston, offering to be security for Peabody in the aggregate sum of $2500 for goods which Mr. Reed might furnish to establish his store. The signers of the letter were all customers of Mr. Reed, who believing that he could trust the person in whom they put their faith, told him that $2500 would be rather a small amount to start a dry-goods store in Baltimore, and offered him goods to the amount of $2500 more to sell on commission for him, so that not only did Mr. Peabody learn his first business lessons in Newburyport, but to the merchants of that town he owed also that timely aid without which that career of prosperity and wealth upon which he afterwards entered may never have been begun.

Not long after he became a partner of Elisha Riggs in the dry-goods trade in New York, and afterwards ‘ again in Baltimore. During all this period he made occasional visits to Newburyport, and always remembered with pleasure his old friends in that town. A writer in the Newburyport Herald remembers hearing Frank Somerby on a morning in the summer of 1826 shout to Spalding, “ Here comes George Peabody.” “I looked,” says the writer, “and saw coming down the street a tall, fresh-looking, well-dressed man of about thirty years of age. He was swinging his right arm and shouting, ‘Hello! Frank.’ In a few moments there were a. dozen old friends gathered about him, and the warmth of the greeting gave ample evidence of the estimation in which he was held." This was his first visit to Newburyport since he left it twelve or thirteen years before.

In 1843, Riggs and Peabody separated, and their business, which had expanded and largely changed its character, was divided. Riggs took the Baltimore business, Peabody the London and Mr. Corcoran, who had been some time also a partner, took the Washington. His career in London is too well known to be restated. Out of his abundant wealth, without waiting for that separation from his riches which death must eventually cause, he preferred the bestowment of benefactions during his life. In 1852 he gave to his native town $20,000 for the foundation of an institute, and afterwards increased the amount to $200,000. He contributed $10,000 to the first Grinnell Arctic Expedition, and in 1857 gave $300,000 to found an institute of science, literature and the fine arts in Baltimore, afterwards increasing it to $1,400,000. For the benefit of the poor of London he gave in 1862 £500,000, in recognition of which the Queen presented him with her portrait, and the city of London presented him with the freedom of the city in a gold box, and after his death the citizens erected a statue to his memory. In 1866 he gave to Harvard College $150,000 to establish a museum and professorship of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and afterwards $150,000 to found a geological professorship in Yale College, and $2,000,000 to the Southern Educational Fund.

On the 20th of February, 1867, two years before his death, he gave to “ Edward Mosely, Caleb Cushing, Henry C. Perkins, Eben F. Stone and Joshua Hale, and their successors, the sum of $15,000 to be held by them in trust and kept permanently invested, and the income thereof used and applied in their discretion to the enlargement of the public library of the city of Newburyport."

Ebenezer Moseley From Clipper Heritage Trail

Moses Davenport

During the mayoralty of Moses Davenport he again visited Newburyport and-was introduced by him to the people. Among the crowd was a gray-haired veteran who, on taking him by the hand, said : “You do not remember me, Mr. Peabody." He at once replied : “You are Prescott Spaulding, and were a clerk in the store next to ours at the time of the fire in 1811, which drove me away from this good old town.” An old lady said: “Let me shake hands with you, Mr. Peabody ; you do not certainly remember me.” “Yes, I do,” said be, after a moment; “ I think you are Rebecca Tracy, and I am glad to see you. We will not tell these gentlemen about our playing whist forty years ago.”

Mr. Peabody was said to have had a love-affair in Newburyport, and it was further said that the father of the lady said: “ George is a very good young man, but he has no money and can never support you in the style you must live in." He died in London, November 4, l869.

Read a great tidbit about Peabody paying his tab at a tavern in Concord NH 

From  Monday, July 28, 1851 Paper: Salem Register (Salem, MA) Page: 2

 Dedication of the Danvers Archival Center at Memorial Hall, Spring of 1973.

From  Wednesday, January 7, 1857 Paper: Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA)

Orchards in Colonial America & the Early Republic

A Share from Barbara Wells Sarudy and her blog American Garden History Blog

Most colonists planted at least a few fruit trees or a larger orchard as soon as possible, when they settled on their land. An orchard is an enclosed garden used to grow fruit trees which provided both food and drink to the colonial family.

Cider was one of the most important drinks of the colonial period. Growing barley for beer, or any other traditional European grains that the settlers might have been accustomed to raising, required the use of a plow. Because the colonists' lands were freshly cleared; stumps remained dotting the landscape, and the use of a plow was nearly impossible.

In 1655, Adrian Van der Donck observed, "The Netherlands settlers, who are lovers of fruit, on observing that the climate was suitable to the production of fruit trees, have brought over and planted various kinds of apples and pear trees which thrive well...The English have brought over the first quinces, and we have also brought over stocks and seed which thrive well and produce large orchards."


In Jamestown, Virginia, it was reported that by 1656, "Orchards innumerable were planted and preserved." Jamestown, more than many other settlements, needed to grow domestic fruit to convert into a safe liquid to drink. Illness was a serious problem in early Jamestown due, in part, to the settlers' drinking water from shallow wells often polluted by the risky high water table. The colonists did not seem to mind the mellowing alcohol content of the quickly fermented apple juice either.

A 1 to 6 acre apple orchard became a rather common feature on farmsteads & plantations in the British American colonies. Apples were grown primarily for their juice, which was the most common colonial beverage of choice, because well-water generally was regarded as unsafe. Everyone in the family drank the hard cider year-round, and most families produced 20 to 50 barrels of cider each autumn for their own consumption & to use as barter for other goods & services.

Peach Blossoms

Some settlers also converted distilled cider into "applejack," which was even stronger than hard cider. The first hand-cranked cider mills appeared in the colonies around 1745. Prior to this cider was made by pounding apples in a trough & draining the pomace.

Gabriel Thomas wrote of Pennsylvania in 1698, "There are many Fair and Great Brick Houses on the outside of the Town which the Gentry have built for their Countrey Houses... having a very fine and delightful Garden and Orchard adjoining it, wherein is variety of Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers."

On a visit to Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1722, Hugh Jones noted that, "the Palace or Governor's House, a magnificent structure built at the publick Expense, finished and beautified with Gates, fine Gardens...Orchards."

A house-for-sale adverisement in the South Carolina Gazette in June of 1736, in Charleston, touted the orchard as a strong selling enticement, "To be Sold A Plantation containing 200 Acres...An orchard well planted with peach, apple, cherry, fig and plumb trees: a vineyard of about two years grownth planted with 1200 vines: a nursery of 5 or 600 mulberry trees about two years old, fit to plant out."

Pear Blossoms

In April of 1742, Eliza Lucas Pinckney wrote in South Carolina, "I have planted a large figg orchard with desighn to dry and export them. I have reckoned my expense and the prophets to arise from these figgs."

Peter Kalm noted on his travels through North America on September 18, 1748, "Every countryman, even a common peasant, has commonly an orchard near his house, in which all sorts of fruit, such a peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and others are in plenty."

By the middle of the 18th century, a wide variety of orchard trees was available to the general public. William Smith advertised trees he was growing in his nursery in Surry County, Virginia, in the 1755 Williamsburg newspaper, as did Thomas Sorsby of Surry County in 1763.


In 1755, orchardist William Smith offered, "Hughs’s Crab, Bray’s White Apple, Newton Pippin, Golden Pippin, French Pippin, Dutch Pippin, Clark’s Pearmain, Royal Pearmain, Baker’s Pearmain, Lone’s Pearmain, Father Abraham, Harrison’s Red, Ruffin’s large Cheese Apple, Baker’s Nonsuch, Ludwell’s Seedling, Golden Russet, Nonpareil, May Apple, Summer Codling, Winter Codling, Gillefe’s Cyder Apple, Green Gage Plumb, Bonum Magnum Plumb, Orleans Plumb, Imperial Plumb, Damascene Plumb, May Pear, Holt’s Sugar Pear, Autumn Bergamot Pear, Summer Pear, Winter Bergamot, Orange Bergamot, Mount Sir John, Pound Pear, Burr de Roy, Black Heart Cherry, May Duke Cherry, John Edmond’s Nonsuch Cherry, White Heart Cherry, Carnation Cherry, Kentish Cherry, Marrello Cherry, Double Blossom Cherry, Double Blossom Peaches, Filberts Red & White."

Nurseryman Thomas Sorsby had available in 1763, "Best cheese apple, long stems, Pamunkey, Eppes, Newtown pippins, Bray’s white apples, Clark’s pearmains, Lightfoot’s Father Abrahams, Sorsby’s Father Abrahams, Lightfoot’s Hughes, Sorsby’s Hughes, Ellis’s Hughes, New-York Yellow apples, Golden russeteens, Westbrook’s Sammons’s, horse apples, royal pearmains, a choice red apple, best May apples, Sally Gray’s apple, Old .England apple, green apple, Harvey’s apple, peach trees [Prunus persica], and cherry trees."

In 1756, from Annapolis, Maryland, Elizabeth Brook wrote to her son Charles Carroll, who was attending school in England and France, "This place... is greatly improved, a fine, flourishing orchard with a variety of choice fruit." Charles Carroll of Annapolis and his son annually put away vast quantities of cider for their family and servants. In 1775, the elder Carroll put away 190 casks of "cyder" (he estimated 22,800 gallons) for the coming year.

Apple Blossoms

Peter Hatch, who managed Monticello's grounds, reports that, "between 1769 & 1814 Thomas Jefferson planted as many as 1,031 fruit trees in his South Orchard. This orchard formed a horseshoe-shape around the two vineyards & berry squares. It was organized into a grid pattern, in which he planted 18 varieties of apple, 38 of peach, 14 cherry, 12 pear, 27 plum, 4 nectarine, 7 almond, 6 apricot, and a quince.

"The earliest plantings, before 1780, reflect the experimental orchard of a young man eager to import Mediterranean culture to Virginia, and included olives, almonds, pomegranates, & figs. However, the mature plantings after 1810, included mostly species & varieties that either thrived through the hot, humid summers & cold, rainy winters of central Virginia, such as seedling late-season peaches or Virginia cider apples."

In 1782, Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur (1735–1813) described drying apple slices on wooden platforms erected on poles. The fruit was spread out on wooden boards, where it was soon covered with "all the bees and wasps and sucking insects of the neighborhood," which he felt accelerated the drying process. The dried apples were used in preparing a variety of dishes throughout the year. Peaches & plums were also dried but were considered more of a delicacy & were saved for special occasions. Many families stored their dried apples in bags hung high in building rafters to keep them dry & away from mice.

J. F. D. Smyth described Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1784, "Plantations are generally from one to four or five miles distant from each other, having a dwelling house in the middle... at some little distance there are always large peach and apple orchards."


In 1796, New Englander Amelia Simmons published the first truly American cookbook, American Cookery. Her view of the raising of apples had more to do with morality than with functionality.

"Apples are still more various, yet rigidly retain their own species, and are highly useful in families, and ought to be more universally cultivated, excepting in the compactest cities. There is not a single family but might set a tree in some otherwise useless spot, which might serve the two fold use of shade and fruit; on which 12 or 14 kinds of fruit trees might easily be engrafted, and essentially preserve the orchard from the intrusions of boys, &c. which is too common in America.

If the boy who thus planted a tree, and guarded and protected it in a useless corner, and carefully engrafted different fruits, was to be indulged free access into orchards, whilst the neglectful boy was prohibited--how many millions of fruit trees would spring into growth--and what a saving to the union. The net saving would in time extinguish the public debt, and enrich our cookery."

English agriculturalist Richard Parkinson noted in 1798, Baltimore, Maryland, "My orchard contained about six acres, three of which were planted with apples, the other three with peaches of various sorts."

In the 1790s, Captain John ODonnell (1749-1805) settled in Baltimore, Maryland, naming his country seat after his favorite port of call, Canton. And account of Canton given by a visitor noted that O"Donnell had planted orchards of red peaches on his 2500 acre estate in hopes of manufacturing brandy for trade but had met with limited financial success.

"For although Mr. O'Donnell's orchard had come to bear in great perfection and he had stills and the other necessary apparatus, the profit proved so small that he suffered the whole to go to waste and his pigs to consume the product."



A house-for-sale advertisement in the 1800 Federal Gazette in Baltimore, Maryland, described, "That beautiful, healthy and highly improved seat, within one mile of the city of Baltimore, called Willow Brook, containing about 26 acres of land, the whole of which is under a good post and rail fence, divided and laid off into grass lots, orchards, garden...The garden and orchard abounds with the greatest variety of the choicest fruit trees, shrubs, flowers...collected from the best nurseries in America and from Europe, all in perfection and full bearing."

Rosalie Stier Calvert devoted a great deal of attention to establishing an orchard at her home Riversdale in Prince George County, Maryland. In 1804, she “planted a large number of all the varieties of young fruit trees I could find, and I am going to fill the orchard with young apple trees everywhere there is room.”

She worried that “it is impossible to buy any good pear trees from the nurseries. They sell bad pears under good names.” She first asked her father to send her peaches & pears from Europe, but soon realized it would not be practical. Instead, her father suggested that she buy pear trees in Alexandria, Virginia, for her garden “which had real soil for pears,” and water them with buckets of cow urine. She had already transplanted “a Seigneur pear tree,” which her father had grafted in Annapolis.

By 1805, she wrote, “We are getting much better at the art of gardening, especially with fruit trees which we planted a large collection of this year. You would scarcely recognize the orchard. The manure which was applied there in 1803 improved it greatly, and young trees have been planted where needed.” In addition to fruit trees, she planted currants & raspberries in her orchard.

Keeping apples overwinter in America during the 18th & 19th centuries was important and theories abounded about the proper method.

New Yorker John Nicholson wrote in The Farmer's Assistant in 1820, "In gathering apples, for Winter-use, they should be picked from the tree, and laid carefully in a heap, under cover, without being bruised. After they have sweated, let them be exposed to the air and well dried, by wiping them with dry cloths; then lay them away in a dry place where they will hot freeze. The time requisite for sweating will be six, ten, or fifteen days, according to the warmth of the weather.  

The fruit should not be gathered till fully ripe, which is known by the stem parting easily from the twig. It should also be gathered in dry weather and when the dew is off...

"It is confidently asserted by many, that apples may be safely kept in casks through Winter, in a cold chamber, or garret, by being merely covered with Linen cloths."
John Beale Bordley had written An Epitome of Mr. Forsyth's Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees in 1804, noting that William Forsyth wrote "the most complete method of saving them, so as to preserve them the greatest length of time, is to wrap them in paper and pack them away in stone jars between layers of bran; having the mouths of the jars covered so close as to preclude the admission of air, and then keep them in a dry place where they will not be frozen."

In the 1790s, Samuel Deane wrote in his New England Farmer of his method of preserving Winter apples, "I gather them about noon on the day of the full of the moon which happens in the latter part of September, or beginning of October. Then spread them in a chamber, or garret, where they lie till about the last of November. Then, at a time when the weather is dry, remove them into casks, or boxes, in the cellar, out of the way of the frosts; but I prefer a cool part of the cellar. With this management, I find I can keep them till the last of May, so well that not one in fifty will rot...

"In the Autumn of 1793, I packed apples in the shavings of pine, so that they scarcely touched one another. They kept well till some time in May following; though they were a sort which are mellow for eating in December. Dry sawdust might perhaps answer the end as well. Some barrel them up, and keep them through the Winter in upper rooms, covering them with blankets or mats, to prevent freezing. Dry places are best for them."




New Yorker John Nicholson suggested some amazing cures--including chalk, bloody meat, raw eggs, & milk--for American cider in The Farmer's Assistant in 1820, "Cider may be kept for years in casks, without fermenting, by burying them deeply under ground, or immersing them in spring water; and when taken up the cider will be very fine.

"A drink, called cider-royal, is made of the best runing of the cheese, well clarified, with six or eight gallons of French brandy, or good cider brandy, added to a barrel: Let the vessel be filled full, bunged tight, and set in a cool cellar, and in the course of a twelvemonth it will be a fine drink. If good rectified whiskey be used, instead of brandy, it will answer very well.

"A quart of honey, or molasses, and a quart of brandy, or other spirits, added to a barrel of cider, will improve the liquor very much, and will restore that which has become too flat and insipid. To prevent its becoming pricked, or to cure it when it is so, put a little pearl-ashes, or other mild alkali, into the cask. A lump of chalk broken in pieces, and thrown in, is also good. Salt of tartar, when the cider is about to be used, is also recommended.

"To refine cider, and give it a fine amber-color, the following method is much approved of. Take the whites of 6 eggs, with a handful of fine beach sand, washed clean; stir them well together; then boil a quart of molasses down to a candy, and cool it by pouring in cider, and put this, together with the eggs and sand, into a barrel of cider, and mix the whole well together. When thus managed, it will keep for many years. Molasses alone will also refine cider, and give it a higher color; but, to prevent the molasses making it prick, let an equal quantity of brandy be added to it. Skim-milk, with some lime slacked in it, and mixed with it, or with the white of eggs with the shells broken in, is also good for clarifying all liquors, when well mixed with them. A piece of fresh bloody meat, put into the cask, will also refine the liquor and serve tor it to feed on.

"To prevent the fermentation of cider, let the cask be first strongly fumigated with burnt sulphur; then put in some of the cider, burn more sulphur in the cask, stop it tight and shake the whole up together; fill the cask, bung it tight, and put it away in a cool cellar.

"To bring on a fermentation, take 3 pints of yeast for a hogshead, add as much jalup as will lie on a sixpence, mix them with some of the cider, beat the mass up till it is frothy, then pour it into the cask, and stir it up well. Keep the vessel full, and the bung open, for the froth and foul stuff to work out. In about 15 days, the froth will be clean and white; then, to stop the fermentation, rack the cider off into a clean vessel, add two gallons ot brandy, or well-rectified whiskey, to it, and bung it up. Let the cask be full, and keep the venthole open for a day or two. By this process, cider that is poor, and ill-tasted, may be wonderfully improved...

"To cure oily cider, take one ounce of salt of tartar, and two and a half of sweet spirit of nitre, in a gallon of milk, for a hogshead. To cure ropy cider, take six pounds of powdered allum, and stir it into a hogshead; then rack it off and clarify it.

"To color cider, take a quarter of a pound of sugar, burnt black, and dissolved in half a pint of hot water, for a hogshead; add a quarter of an ounce of allum, to set the color.

"Cider-brandy mixed with an equal quantity of honey, or clarified sugar, is much recommended by some lor improving common cider; so that, when refined, it may be made as strong, and as pleasant, as the most of wines."

Portraits of Americans with Fruit Grown on Trees

Throughout the 18th century, artists painted portraits of British colonials & early Americans holding fruits that the viewer might reasonably suppose came from the trees in their orchards. Some scholars look to period emblem books and attribute complicated symbolism to each type & quantity of fruit depicted in these portraits. Some do not. Here are a few of my favorite portraits containing tree fruit as props.

1679 painting to Thomas Smith (1650-1691 Mrs. Richard Patteshall (Martha Woody) and Child
 
                        1732 Detail. John Smibert (1688-1751). Jane Clark (Mrs. Ezekiel Lewis)

                        1750 Detail. Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Mrs Augustine Moore.

             1750 Detail. Joseph Badger. Portrait of Elizabeth Greenleaf of Charlestown.

1755 Detail. Joseph Blackburn (flu in the colonies 1753-1763). Isaac Winslow and His Family.

                   1757 Detail. John Wollaston (1710-1775). Probably Elizabeth Dandridge.

     1767 Detail. James Claypoole (1743-1814). Ann Galloway (Mrs Joseph Pemberton).

      1769 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) Martha Swett (Mrs Jeremiah Lee).

1769 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Murray (Mrs. James Smith).

                      1771-73 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). The Peale Family.

1771   John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Lewis (Mrs. Ezekiel Goldthwait).

1772 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). General John Cadwalader, his First Wife, Elizabeth.

1773 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Hannah Fayerweather (Mrs. John Winthrop).

             1774 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Isabella and John Stewart.

1774 painting attributed to Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Elizabeth Perscott (Mrs. Henry Daggett)

1785 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Ann Marsh (Mrs David Forman) & Child.

1787 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Deborah McClenahan (Mrs. Walter Stewart).

       1788 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) Benjamin & Eleanor Ridgley Laming.

            1788 Detail. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). William Smith & Grandson.

                               1795 Detail. James Peale (1749-1831). Artist & His Family.

                            1720 Detail. Nehemiah Partridge. Wyntje Lavinia Van Vechten.

                                         1729 Detail. John Smibert. The Bermuda Group.

    1747-1749 Detail. Robert Feke (1707-1751). Mary Channing (Mrs. John Channing).

                          1760-65 Detail. Joseph Badger (1708-1765). Sarah Badger Noyes.

   1769 Detail. John Singleton Copley (1738-1815). Elizabeth Storer (Mrs. Isaac Smith).

            1772 Detail. Winthrop Chandler (1747-1785). Eunice Huntington Devotion

                       1775 Detail. Henry Benbridge (1743-1812). Archibald Bullock Family.

                            1785 Detail. Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Callahan Children.

1785-90 Beardsley Limner Sarah Bushnell Perkins Elizabeth Davis (Mrs. Hezekiah Beardsley).

                                    1798 Detail. Ralph Earl. Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children.

                                         1800 Detail. Anonymous Artist. Emma Van Name.