Here I share some of the terms I’ve learned about throughout my years of research.

Adz, adze

Sharp-edged wood-cutting tool with an arching blade set at right angles to the handle and curving inward. Logs and beams were shaped with the adze.

Auger

A tool for boring holes in wood, having a long pointed shank with a cutting edge and a screw point and a handle fixed with right angles to the top of the shank.

Awl

One hand tool/pointed instrument for making small holes in wood or leather.

Basin

Bowl-shaped container that was used to hold pudding, stew, and other semi-liquid foods.

Beehive Oven

Baking in the beehive oven was a once a week all-day affair in colonial America. The cook arose early to start the fire. The earlier it was started, the more chance there was to finish by sunset. A very hot fire is started in the oven, which takes two to three hours to heat, sometimes even four hours in the winter. Then the coals are raked out and the oven floor cleaned with a wet swab. Breads are baked first when the beehive oven is hottest, then cinnamon buns, cakes, and pies. As the oven cools, muffins and “biscuits” may be baked, then puddings and custards. After a day’s baking there is still sufficient heat to dry apples and other fruits and vegetables and herbs. A pot of beans may be placed in the back of the oven to cook slowly overnight.

Bellows

An instrument with an air chamber and flexible sides, for drawing in air and expelling it under strong pressure used for blowing fires.

Bell Metal

A kind of bronze, usually about 1/4 copper and 1/4 tin.

Box Iron

Iron with hollow core in which a hot iron “slug” was placed.

Brindled

Marked with streaks

Caddis

Woolen yarn or fabric made of it in tape form for binding.

Calamanco

A glossy woolen stuff of Flanders, twilled and checkered in the warp, so that the checks are seen on one side only.

Camlet, camblet

A Name originally for a costly Oriental fabric; of fine camel’s hair; subsequently for substitutes.

Card

Implement for raising nap on cloth, essentially an iron instrument with teeth. A similar instrument used to part, comb out and set in order fibers of wool and hemp.

Chafing dish

A vessel to hold burning fuel, for heating anything placed upon it.

Chaff

Grain husks

Chaff Bed

A mattress stuffed with grain husks.

Chaise

One horse luxury vehicle used in America from about 1700 through the Civil War. Any light carriage for pleasure driving. Also known as a “shay.”

Chattels

Any property, movable or immovable, except real estate.

Clothes press

Closet for storage, movable upright closet.

Colly

Black like soot, coal-black

Cordage

Rope

Coulter

The iron blade fixed in front of the share in a plough which cuts the soil vertically.

Counterpane

Coverlet for a bed

Cradle

A frame attached to a scythe to catch the cut grain

Cricket

A low footstool

Crupper

Leather strap fastened to the saddle and passed under the horse’s tail to keep the saddle from moving forward.

Damask

A rich silk fabric woven with elaborate design patterns

Delft

A glazed white paste earthenware

Diaper

A white linen fabric woven of patterns showing up by opposite reflections from its surface and consisting of lines crossing diamond-wise, with the spaces filled up by parallel lines, leaves, dots, etc.

Drawing knife

A knife with a handle at each end used for shaving over a surface with a drawing motion

Drugget

Coarse woven fabric, all of wool or half wool, half silk or linen, formerly used as dress material

Duroy or Duffle

Coarse woolen cloth

Earthenware

Dishes post and the like made of a coarse grade of baked clay, porous clay

Flagon

A vessel with a handle, spout and often hinged lid used to serve liquids

Flail

Universal tool for threshing. Used to separate the grain or seed from the plant stalk (straw)

Flock Bed

A mattress stuffed with refuse of wool or cotton, consisting of coarse tufts

Fowling Piece

A light gun for shooting birds.

Fustian

Coarse cloth made of cotton and flax twilled cotton cloth; corduroy; velveteen

Gimblet

A small auger turned with one hand that makes a round hole in wood

Gridiron

A framework of parallel metal bars used from broiling flesh (meat) or fish over a fire

Hatchel, hackle, heckle

A comb with long metal teeth for cleansing raw flax or hemp. Flax straw pulled through the iron teeth to separate fibers

Harrow

Agricultural implement with teeth drawn over plowed land to break clods of earth

Hogshead

A liquid measure, 63 gallons; a large cask or barrel

Holland

Unbleached linen fabric from Holland

Housewifery

The use of the skills necessary to running an 18th century household

Huckaback

A stout linen fabric with weft threads thrown alternately up so as to form a rough surface; used for towels

Husbandman

a man who cultivated land that he rented

Husbandry

The occupation of business of farming

Inmate

Term found in tax assessment records referring to a person who lived in someone else’s house and was a craftsmen or laborer rather than a farmer. May refer to indentured or apprenticed persons

Ironmongery

A general named for all articles made or iron

Journeyman

a man who hired out his services to an employer by the day

Kersey

A coarse woolen cloth of light weight, either smooth or ribbed

Kneeding Trough (Dough Tray)

A wooden trough or tub in which to knead bread

Lathe

A lathes is a machine which holds a piece of wood or metal between two centers and turns it so the work can be shaped by hand-held “turning chisels.” Foot operated or hand cranked

Linsey-Woolsey

A coarse cloth of woven linen and wool or cotton and wool threads

Maul

A large hammer or mallet

Manumit

To liberate from slavery

Messuage

A home with its adjoining buildings and adjacent land

Metheglin

A spiced mead (a liquor made of honey and water); sometimes medicated

Moiety

A small portion or share.

Nankeen

a kind of cotton cloth, originally made at Naking from a yellow variety of cotton, but now from ordinary cotton died yellow.

Noggin

A small mug or cup

Ordinary

An inn or tavern

Peel

Tool resembling a long-handled spade, used to take loaves out of the oven

Perch

A measure of distance equal to 5 1/2 years

Pewter

Alloy composed of tin and small amounts of other metals – lead, copper, bismuth or zinc. From 1725 to 1825 pewter was the most widely used metal in America

Pincers

Instrument or tool having two handles and a pair of jaws working on a pivot used for holding objects or unfastening.

Pipe

A large cask with its contents, containing the volume of four barrels, or 126 gallons

Pipkin

A small cooking pot or earthenware

Porringer

A small dish for porridge, broth or other similar foods, usually having one handle

Quitrent

A rent payable by a freeholder or copyholder to his lord that released him from liability to perform services

Reamer

A finishing tool with rotating cutting edge for enlarging or tapering a hole

Redemptioner

One who redeems himself or purchases his release from debt or obligation to the master of a ship by his services; or one whose services are sold to pay the expenses of his passage to America

Reversion

That part of the estate which remains after the determination of the particular estate and falls into the possession of the original grantor or representative

Riddle

A coarse sieve used for separating chaff from corn, sand from gravel, ashes from cinders

Ripple

Comb for cleaning flax, broom corn, etc.

Scythe

Implement used for mowing and reaping, consisting of a long curved blade fixed at an angle to a long bent handle

Seedlip

A basket in which seed is carried in the process of sowing by hand

Sickle

An implement with a curved or crescent-shaped blade mounted on a short handle, used for cutting tall grass, grains, etc.

Signet Ring

How did you seal a letter in the 18th century? Envelopes didn’t have glue you could lick. Instead, people used wax to seal their important documents. Merchants sold sticks of sealing wax in two colors—red and black. Colonists usually used red dealing wax. They used black sealing wax only when they were in mourning, or grieving over someone’s death

Stilliards

A balance for weighing that consists of a beam, a weight sliding on a graduated scale, and hooks to hold the thing being weighed.

Tallow

A mixture of animal fat refined for use in candles

Tankard

One-handled covered drinking vessel with either dome-shaped or flat lid

Tearce

Liquid measure; 42 gallons; 1/2 of a pipe

Tow

Coarse fiber of flax, hemp or jute

Trencher

A wooden plate used at the table

Trivet

Three legged stand to hold pots of food over the coals, on the hearth and at the table

Wax Seal

18th century colonists used small thin wafers made of flour mixed with gum or gelatin for sealing their everyday letters. They folded a letter, moistened a wafer, and pressed the wafer onto the letter to send it. A wax seal on a document guaranteed the truth of what it said

Wimble

A boring tool, such as a gimlet or auger

Wool Comb

Toothed instrument used in carding wool by hand

Yeoman

Freedholder, farmer, small land owner, a man who cultivated his own land