At Work - John Closson, a Cordwainer

"At work" is the suggested topic for this week.  I have written about at least one interesting occupation, that of "Vendue Crier" in this post,
https://regnirpsstories.blogspot.com/2018/09/what-is-vendue-crier-anyway.html.  There is also information in that article about the Closson/Clawson family.  And one of these, John Closson, "of Warwick", (believed to be my 7th great grandfather) had an interesting occupation.  And that is "Cordwainer"!

According to Wikipedia, a cordwainer was a shoemaker who made shoes from new leather, as opposed to a cobbler, who repaired shoes or made "new" shoes from the old leather of used shoes.  Here is another very interesting article about Cordwainers,
https://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/cordwainer/.
There is a really cool statue in London celebrating the Guild of Cordwainers on the Wikipedia site, and many more.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cordwainer_statue,_Watling_Street,_London.JPG

Here is the inscription on the statue:

The Cordwainer 

You are in the Ward of Cordwainer which in medieval times was the centre of shoe-making in the City of London. The finest leather from Cordoba in Spain was used which gave rise to the name of the craftsmen and the Ward.

The Cordwainer statue was erected in 2002 to celebrate the centenary of the Ward of Cordwainer Club.

In the book, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Editor: John W. Jordan, LL. D., Volume 2, Published 1911 by the Lewis Publishing Company, page 1205-1219, there is an extensive article about the Closson/Clawson Family back to their roots in the Netherlands, through the founding of Pennsylvania and into the 1800's.

Our John Closson's story begins on page 1206 as it describes John:

This narrative has to do with the descendants of one John Closson, who at his death, December 6, 1756, was a tenant on land belonging to Thomas Watson, of Buckingham, lying just over the line of  Buckingham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the township of Warwick. Letters of administration were granted on his estate to his widow, Sarah, January 14, 1757, with John Wilkinson and Joseph Sackett, of Wrightstown, as sureties. In her account of the estate, died March 15, 1758, she is allowed a credit, "for victualling, cloathing and schooling two children, from December 6, 1756. to the date of her settlement; and for payment of a bond and interest to 'Richard Furman,' amounting to thirty-seven pounds, nineteen shillings, one pence." This Richard Furman was father of Sarah Closson, the widow and accountant, and resided from 1710 to his death in 1757, in "the township of Trenton," New Jersey. He was a great-grandson of John Furman, who is said to have come from Wales to Massachusetts, where he was a freeholder as early as 1631. He was one of the fifty-five original purchasers of Middlebury (later Newtown), Long Island, from the Indians in 1656, and died there about 1665, leaving two sons and three daughters. 

As you can see, it is an in depth and fascinating story of early Pennsylvania.  Here is a link to the book, if you are interested in reading more:
https://archive.org/details/colonialfamilies02jord/page/n10.

In this section, the author shares that John Closson's occupation was that of cordwainer:

John Closson, June 27, 1746, "aged thirty-two," joined Captain Trent's company for the campaign against Canada, and with that company went into winter quarters at Albany, New York, winter of 1746-7, and was discharged October 31, 1747, "the intended expedition against Canada having been abandoned." He was already a resident of Pennsylvania at the date of his enlistment, and his occupation is given as "cordwainer," the known occupation of John Closson, of Warwick. The theory that Thomas Closson was the father of John, of Warwick, is further corroborated by the fact that both the latter's sons named a son, Thomas, by no means a common name in the Closson family, here or elsewhere.

This source of the information in this article is a military record indicating that John Closson participated in King George's War, one of the French and Indian Wars. 

So, knowing what an ancestor did "At Work" can sometimes lead you to a plethora of information about that ancestor and many more!

'Til Next Time!
#52Ancestors