John James Frame estate inventory book, 1834

Archive

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Jefferson County Museum

Name/Title

John James Frame estate inventory book, 1834

Entry/Object ID

ARC874

Scope and Content

The soft-cover record book contains finance-related information relevant to the settlement of the estate of John James Frame (see Background below). On the last page is handwritten John James Frame Inventory book. At the beginning, pages are missing and other pages are only partially intact. If there had been a title and date for this section, they are lost among the missing pages. The first 5 partial pages and the following 22 single unnumbered pages contain four columns: 1- a list of non-consecutive numbers, 2-name of an item, 3- unit value or cost, and 4-total value or cost. At the top of each page is Amt Brot Up. Total value or cost is carried over from every page. This may be an inventory of estate items sold with numbers in the first column corresponding to a list of buyers assigned numbers. The next five sections are headed Bonds and notes (1¼ pp), Open acct (4¾ pp), Rest(?) of acct (½ p), Debts due John James Frame (7 pp), Bad debts (1 p). Each section contains names of persons and dollar amounts. No dates are given and pages are not numbered. The next 20 pages are preceded by the title An Inventory of Goods belonging to the estate of J.J. Frame (deced) taken Oct 21, 1834. The final page is Amt of Inventory Stock Brot Up. Background: This ledger, along with eight others and loose papers in the J.P. Burns Family Matthew Frame Ledgers Collection, relates to mercantile businesses operated by Matthew Frame (died 1848, age 81) in Charles Town from the late 18th century to the 1830s. Matthew Frame immigrated to Charles Town from Ireland in the late 18th century, married Massa (Massey) Gibbs (died 1854, age 78), established a mercantile business, and was appointed Charles Town's first postmaster in 1799. Although it's not clear when he opened his business, entries in ARC179 date from 1791. According to the dated entries in the nine Burns Family ledgers and ARC866, Matthew Frame appears to have been the sole operator of his business until about 1815 to 1816 when he appears to have joined with William French Lock (1788-1850) to form Frame & Lock, also a mercantile business in Charles Town.Then about 1820, Frame & Lock split into two mercantile businesses: Matthew Frame & Co and W. F. Lock & Co. Around 1822 to 1824, Frame joined with his son John James Frame (died 1834, age 30) to form Matthew Frame & Son mercantile business, which appears to have operated until 1834 when John James Frame died. See Media in ARC866 for location of M. Frame's store in Charles Town.

Acquisition

Accession

486

Source or Donor

Burns, John P., Jr.

Acquisition Method

Gift

Archive Details

Date(s) of Creation

1834

Archive Size/Extent

One record book: 13¼" x 6 7/8" x 3/8"

Archive Notes

Date(s): 1834