Port Hope Archives
  • Home
  • Research
  • About Us
    • Membership & Volunteering
    • Services & Funding
    • FAQs
    • Newsletter Archives
    • What's New?
    • Job Postings
  • Contact Us
  • Exhibits & Projects
    • United in Our Work: Port Hope's Red Cross in WWII
    • As I Will It Exhibit
    • Nathaniel Haskill Whiskey Ledger
    • Covid-19 Community Memory Project
    • Confederation Day in Port Hope
    • A Tour Through Old Port Hope Exhibit
    • Discovering Yesterday Podcasts
    • History Video Series
    • Our Memories: Downtown Port Hope
    • Publications
    • Port Hope Photography Exhibit
    • Wilbur Baulch WWI Exhibit
    • Remembrance Day
  • Related Links
  • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • Photo Identification

Nathaniel Haskill Whiskey Ledger, 1801-1823


One of the Oldest Business Ledgers Known to Exist in Canada

The Haskills are considered one of Port Hope’s founding families. Nathaniel and Abigail (Sawyer) Haskill made their way with seven children from Lancaster, Massachusetts-it is thought that the eldest sons may have driven a herd of cattle through Niagara and around the north shore of Lake Ontario to the newly opened Township. The Haskills eventually settled on Lot 16, Broken Front and Lot 16, Concession 1.
 
The Haskill Whiskey ledger is an invaluable source of information on an important early industry of Port Hope and Hope Township, which was distilling. The ledger’s earliest entries date the family’s whiskey distilling business to 1801. Another distillery is believed to have been built by Elias Smith in 1802, in the area of Robertson and Queen Streets. The first tavern in the Port Hope area was built by blacksmith James Hawkins, who had arrived in Port Hope in 1801, and was in operation by 1803. Hawkins was a customer of the Haskill’s- in July 1807 the Haskill ledger shows that Hawkins purchased a total of 41 gallons of whiskey at 5 shillings per gallon.
 
The ledger provides the names of over one-hundred of the business’s customers, as well as their purchases and items they sold for credit. The following are some of the items that were traded to Haskill for whiskey:
 
Pairs of shoes (11 shillings)
Leather (2 shillings/foot)
Bushel of Rye, Wheat, Barley (5 shillings/bushel)
Plough Irons
Cow/Steer (1 pound 10 shillings-4 pounds)
Day of Work (5 shillings)
Apple Trees (9 pence each)
Vinegar (7 pence/quart)
Barrel of salt (1 pound 15 shillings- 2 pounds)
Horse Bridle (8 shillings 6 pence)
 
Haskill was selling more than whiskey to his customers- he also notes selling guns, bushels of grains, apples, leather, sheepskins, and shingle nails.  In this time period, and in a new settlement, it was more common to be trading and bartering for goods than paying with cash money. Haskill would have been a good position to be a trader due to his large client base- in a time period when there were only around 300 people in total living throughout the whole township, there were approximately 100 customers listed in the whiskey ledger. Some of those customers were likely even purchasing whiskey to do their own trading for other goods.
 
​Alphabetical List of Names Found in the Ledger:

Abbe,Nathaniel 
Abbe,Isaac 
Baldwin,Robert 
Bates,Roger 
Bates,James 
Beal,Nehemiah 
Bedford Sr.,Jonathan 
Bedford,Jonathan 
Beebe ,Elihu 
Beebe,William 
Bennett,Festus 
Bens,Isaac 
Blancher,Aliyah 
Borland,William 
Bowen,Isaac 
Britton,Jeremiah 
Brown,John 
Brown,Doctor 
Burn,John 
Burnham,John 
C. Low,John 
Caldwell,Joseph 
Callendar,Asa 
Carpenter,William 
Carr,David 
Carr,Norris 
Cazens ,Joshua 
Clerk,Robert 
Cole,Thoda 
Conel,Eliphalet 
Crippen,Samuel 
Culver Boswell,Joel 
Cunningham,James 
Daily,Cornelius 
Davis,George 
DeBoes,James 
DeGroat,Cornelius 
Denilegar,Nathan 
Farley,John 
Fenton,Erastus 
Flanagan,James 
Fletcher,Alexander 
Franklin,Elisha 
Freeze,Abraham 
Gage,Robert 
Gifford,Ephraim 
Gifford,Samuel 
Gifford,Gardiner 
Gifford,Humphrey 
Gillett,James 
Goodfellow,Moses 
Goodman,Miles 
Goodyear,Edward 
Grant,Reuben 
Hagerman,John 
Harris,Myndert 
Harris,Joseph 
Hartwell ,John 
Hartwell ,Thomas 
Hartwell ,Ebenezer 
Haullenbeck,Nathaniel 
Hawkins,James 
Hayward,Paul 
Herren,Joseph 
Higley,Elijah 
Hills,David 
Hills,Moses 
Hills,Aaron 
Hills,Calvin 
Huntington,William 
Hurlburt,Jonathan 
Kimball,Jared 
Lee,William 
Lee,William 
Lightheart,Francis 
Loist,Andrew 
Lovekin,Richard 
Lovell,John 
Marsh ,William 
Martin,John 
McKelvy,Edward 
McKyes,Daniel 
Mols,Stephen 
Odel,Jacob 
Odell,John 
Olmstead,Charles 
Parsons,Chatwell 
Payne,John 
Richards,Simon 
Rofs,Wait 
Rousou,Charlow 
Smades,Joel 
Smades,Luke 
Smith Jr.,Elias 
Smith,Ebenezer 
Soper ,Leonard 
Soper,Pelatiah 
Stephens,James 
Stephens,Adam 
Stoner,Peter 
Vincent,Tiebart 
Vincent,Tiebart 
Walton,Joseph 
Ward,Thomas 
Willer,Asa 
Willet,Samuel 
Wilson,John 
Wilson,Benjamin
Wood,John
Young,James 
Young,Abraham 
The Port Hope Archives acknowledges that we are located on the traditional territory of the Mississauga Nations.                         © COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Picture