NATHANIEL GILMAN – INTERNATIONAL WATERVILLE, MAINE MERCHANT. 1799-1805 LEDGER

(Gilman, Nathaniel.) Account Book of a Maine Merchant. "Ledger B". (Waterville). 1799-1805.

Nathaniel Gilman was born in Exeter, N.H., February 15, 1779. In 1802 he settled in and began an international business in Waterville, Maine reaching all the way to the West Indies and Africa. Locally Gilman’s business was mostly barter, but his international trade would eventually allow him to become a millionaire at the time of his death in 1859. He was the first president of the first bank established in Waterville.  Twice married, Gilman had sixteen children.

This ledger, arranged chronological under name of customer, shows the sale of tea, tobacco, rum, brandy, seed, indigo, India cotton, raisins, cider, bacon, snuff, chocolate, herring, and other food items and household goods. Gilman did a brisk business, and this ledger is clearly one in a series, as this one is titled on the spine, with the letter “B”. The contra side shows expenses such as sundries, brimstone, cash, verdigris, and so on. Numerous local residents are found as customers as well as occasionally their signatures when accounts were settled.  Most prominent are the names Bela Burrill, Elisha Nye, Elizabeth Toby, Wilson Colchard, John Shannon, Barton Pollard, Asa Crosby, Moody Sanders. Elizabeth Gilman, and Elisha Hallet.

Folio. 12 ½ x 7 ½ inches. Manuscript in ink. 263 ff. Contemporary reverse sheep; wear, tear at top of spine, but a tight and sound copy. Handwriting very legible. Although no company name or ownership name is found in the ledger, Nathaniel Gilman’s signature appears when an account is paid in full; see examples on folios 151 and 264.

 See New York Times article in the April 16, 1860 edition, citing a legal case initiated by his second wife contesting the jurisdiction of Gilman’s will (p.2).