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Agreement between Jewett & Groves. Jan[uar][y 12 1795].

Pittston, Maine, 1795. 4to (13.5” x 8.25”). 1 p. of manuscript. Ms.inscription on verso.

A rare eighteenth century Maine shipbuilding-related contract. This memorandum records an agreement made on 12 January 1795 by and between Freeborn Groves and Stephen Jewett (ca. 1727–1803) in Pittston, Maine. Detailing the specifications of the vessel to be built, the agreement reads as follows:

The said Stephen Jewett doth covenant and agree, to procure & furnish for said Groves—and to deliver into the ship yard near to Mr. Carpenter Winslow’s dwelling house in said Pittston by the fifteenth day of next September, all the timber, planks, and trestles[?]—and bow sprit for a vessel of the following dimensions, viz—a fifty nine feet keel, twenty two ft. beam, and to be nine feet and an half in the hold—the waist to be planked three feet deep with long, hands awed red oak planks—all the top timber to be white oak—four thousand of the planks to be long, hands awed—and two and an half inches thick under the wail—two streaks on the floor timber heads, and one streak under the wail, to be three inches thick—and also the said Jewett doth further agree & engage to furnish for said Groves, all the ribbands & shores necessary for said vessel and in due time, so as not to occasion any delay to said Groves in building the aforesaid vessel by the time above mentioned.

The second half of the agreement spells out the terms of payment Groves and Jewett have hereby agreed to and how Jewett will be paid. “Two thirds of the payment to be in goods—twenty two pounds of which sums to be paid at Wiscasset, in West India goods on demand, at cash price—also, the remainder of the goods payment to be in English goods at the same place & price as the West India goods—& the balance to be in cash.” Both Groves and Jewett’s signatures appear below; the agreement was made in the presence of one Barrilla Gannet[?].

CONDITION: Short separations along old vertical folds, a few old tape repairs on verso.

Item #5846

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