William G. Beesley (1797-1842): Windsor chairmaker, colourman, and decorative painter of Salem, New Jersey
Date
2003
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
To date, the only aspect of southern New Jersey furniture studied in depth has been the Ware chairmakers of Cumberland, Salem, and Cape May Counties. While the twenty-three members of the Ware family who made chairs and furniture between the 1790s and 1940s are important to our knowledge of craft practices within a specific region across several generations of time, they do not tell the whole story of furniture production for all of southern New Jersey from its settlement to the present. Did only the Wares make chairs? If not, who else did? ☐ One chairmaker working in Salem, New Jersey, during the first half of the nineteenth century who has inexplicably been overlooked is William G. Beesley (1797- 1842). His daybook (1828-1842) provides detailed account information about chair types and costs that, while in the past have been used to illuminate the Ware chairmakers, have never been examined on their own. The transcription and analysis of the first three years (1828-1830) and the last years (1837-1842) of Beesley’s daybook (owned by the Salem County Historical Society) uncovers a rare survival of the records of a craftsman who not only made and decorated Windsor chairs but also prepared and sold paint and paint supplies. ☐ The study of Beesley’s daybook reveals important information about the types o f chairs manufactured and sold in Salem, New Jersey, about the production and sale o f decorative and house paint, and about the artisan network present there in the 1820s and 1830s. Beesley’s account records also signify a craftsman’s desire to attain a higher social standing by becoming so successful at his trade that he could abandon it to pursue other interests. Work on southern New Jersey furniture is far from complete, but the examination of craftsmen like William G. Beesley expands our knowledge of furniture made and used in the greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, region that was not made within the city limits of Philadelphia.