Bailey’s Pocket Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1788…

Cicero, London, Proteus, Jonas, Boy Dick, Boy Rile, “Jew Yos,” Mingo

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Unsophisticated copy of a rare 18th century American almanac printed in Philadelphia with contemporary manuscript.

The most interesting manuscript is a page listing in a neat hand two columns captioned at the head: “deld. [delivered]” and “To deliver to”.  Beneath each column is a list of names. These names refer to slaves and perhaps one Jewish individual. Some of the names seen: Cicero, London, Proteus, Jonas, Boy Dick, Boy Rile [Riley?], “Jew Yos,” Mingo, etc.

Other entries, in another hand, note payments for coffee; putting up gown curtains; cutting sugar; hanging up tongues of meat; smoking meat; sweeping chamber chimneys; salting hogs; hams westphalia; quantities of molasses, flour and saltpetre. Clothes brought to wash are also noted in granular detail. Yarn is given to: Nanny, Jenny, Lucy, Moll. Doll, Charles and Moses.

People referenced are the Doctor and Mrs. Logan, Mr. Gray, a Mrs. Ross,  Elizabeth Bordley Gibson (1777-1863), friend of Nelly Custis; and others.

The almanac lists Benjamin Franklin thrice in official capacity, including as vice-president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Stage roads and where various courts sat further comprise a good portion of the almanac’s text.

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