ACCOUNT BOOK OF JOHN & SAMUEL BOWNE, 1649-1703

“In the yeare 1661 upon the 11 day of ye fourth month English account, wee went from our house at Flushing towards Rodiland {Rhode Island} to the general meeting where wee did stay nyne days time...”
— Memorandum from John Bowne's Account Book

The Account Book of John Bowne (1649-1703) contains records of John Bowne's trade activities, including wine sales for his initial employer in Boston, cider from his own estate sold to William Penn, books received from Quaker printer William Bradford, accounts of the Society of Friends, and accounts kept as Treasurer of Queens County, New York. John Bowne's son, Samuel Bowne, inherited the book and continued entering his own transactions following his father's death. The 1661 date of construction for the Bowne House comes from the opening pages of the Account Book, where Bowne references "our house in Flushing" in a memorandum of his visit to the 1661 General Meeting of Friends in Rhode Island (see page below.) There are also records of materials and labor from the building of the Flushing Friends Meeting House, for which John Bowne and his son Samuel acted as construction managers.

Bowne's descendants donated the original Account Book to the New York Public Library before the Bowne House became a museum, where it remains in their Manuscripts and Archives Division. The Bowne House Historical Society later received a photostatic copy (a series of prints made from microfilm.) These prints have been digitized and may be downloaded below. The Bowne House Archivist and researchers are transcribing the contents, and will make transcriptions available on a page-by-page basis as we complete them.

Note that entries do not always appear in chronological order, even within the same page. Accounts are occasionally mingled with memoranda of a personal nature and even a marriage proposal written in verse. While extensive, this book does not contain a complete record of Bowne's commercial activity; for instance, it does not reference most of his land purchases; some accounts were entered in his Journal instead, and possibly in other records that do not survive.

ACCOUNT BOOK DOWNLOADS

FEATURED PAGE:

Unnumbered front page (verso)

The first mention of Bowne House appears on the verso of the unnumbered front page of the Bowne account book.

CITATIONS (Original Manuscript and Bowne House Photostat):

Account Book (1649-1703), Bowne Family Papers, ca. 1649-1921, MssCol 357, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Account Book of John Bowne, 1649-1703 (Photostat), Box 2, Early Bowne & Historic Flushing Reference Collection, AC# 2018.2, Bowne House Archives, Flushing, New York