Stephen Lewis recorded a bill of sale on 27 September 1831 from Elizabeth Pritchett for $1000. She sold 15 feather beds and furniture, linens, dishes, including one pair of fruit baskets, one lot glasses, the bar contents, nine waiters, two wash bowls, a Portrait of Washington, “one electrifying machine,” file of National Intelligencer, one dressing box, one lot of books and maps, one coffee boiler & stove, 11 coffee pots, one lot of tin wares, 3 coffee mills, kitchen furniture of every description, one lot of carpenters tools, set of blacksmith’s tools. Elizabeth Pritchett signed the bill of sale before witnesses Mercer Brown, John M. Williams.[i]
The contents of this bill of sale intrigued the author, which led to the study on who was Elizabeth Pritchard, what was an “electrifying machine” and why would she have one? The majority of bills of sale, deeds and other indentures of records recorded in the county land records are contracts between men. There is a reason for this:
“My enquiry into the property rights of American women revealed above all a picture of their enforced dependence, both before and after the Revolution. Single women functioned on a legal par with men in property rights, but wives exercised only a truncated proprietary capacity. No colony or state allowed married women, or femes coverts, as lawmakers termed them, the legal ability to act independently with regard to property. … Under property law, the male head of household held the power to manage his own property as well as his wife’s.”[ii]
Based on her signature on the bill of sale Elizabeth Pritchard was single, probably either a widow, or an unmarried woman whose parents are deceased, leaving her without living responsible male relatives. Most deeds in which a woman was involved involved family members, raising the natural question as to what was her relationship to Stephen Lewis? This Bill of Sale, unlike many others involving women, did not state a relationship between the parties. However it does imply that either she or Stephen Lewis ran an Ordinary – who else would keep all that kitchen ware, 11 coffee pots, and 15 beds, not to mention files of the National Intelligencer, the Washington, D.C. paper, books, maps, a portrait of Washington, and listed between the latter two items – one electrifying machine.
What is an “Electrifying machine” Like so many questions today, I used google to find an answer. The Fort William Historical Park web site (http://www.fwhp.ca/) in Ontario, Canada gave me some answers. Fort William's electrifying machine used Leyden jars and franklinic electricity to cure a variety of aches and pains including rheumatism. It was also employed for insomnia, hysteria, and the improvement of vision, hearing, taste, and smell. The electrifying machine was housed in the Fort's Hospital. (Circa 1815).
Checking the Montgomery County Maryland license books for marriages and for ordinary/tavern license was the next step:
Marriage Licenses
Benjamin Pritchard to Elizabeth Lewis, 10 Oct 1815
Elizabeth Pritchard to Lucien S. Cummings, 17 Oct 1831
John Waggoner to Sabrina Pritchard, 26 Nov 1832
Ordinary Licenses/Victualling House License
Benjamin Pritchard, May 1830
Elizabeth Pritchard, May 1831 – none later
Benjamin Pritchard had license as early as 1823
Lucien Cumming, May1832, Victualling House license
John Wagner had Ordinary license, May 1834-1837
In 1833 John Waggoner, Clarksburg, Trader’s license
Using wills, admin records (Benjamin Pritchard, Stephen Lewis) it turns out that Stephen Lewis was her father, and he had advertised for his tavern before Elizabeth was married. The electrifying machine is still more of a mystery -- where did it come from? It is interesting that one of the early proponents of this machine, was none other than one of the founders of the Methodist religion. John Wesley. If anyone has additional information on electrifying machines, I'd love to hear form you, but for this blog -- it just goes to show you never know what may turn up in a deed book.
[i] Montgomery County Land Records, Liber BS4:
[ii] Marylynn Salmon, Woman and the Law of Property in Early America, University of North Carolina Press, 1986, p. xv.
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