Autograph ledger leaf by Cornelius Waldo. Boston, [Massachusetts], 31 March 1726. 2 pages, folio, 7 3/4 x 12 in. Excised from a ledger, pages numbered 201 & 202.

Cornelius Waldo (1684-1735) was a prominent Boston merchant, land owner, and rum distiller. This finely penned colonial ledger leaf records various payments, mostly for molasses casks and rum sales, including with Samuel Waldo, his cousin, with whom he would form a brief partnership in 1734 to sell Madeira wine.

Most notably, however, are entries of wages for "his negros". He records paying wages "for my Negro Man Sauca from Oct. 1st 1722 to March 31st 1726"; "my Negro Man Cuffy from 18 Aug. 1723 to Aug 1724"; and "for my Negro Sambo + Mingo's Service".

Other leaves from Cornelius Waldo's ledgers have circulated in the trade, though few include details of his enslaved workers, especially in such detail. At the time of his death, the inventory of his estate listed "one Negro woman" valued at 200 pounds (Inventory of the Estate of Cornelius Waldo, April 26, 1754. Suffolk County Registry of Probate, Boston, docket 10482). His cousin and business partner Samuel was also a slave trader who owned the ship Africa, however, there is no evidence that Cornelius engaged in this side of the business. Detailed biographies of Waldo and the known details of his slave-owning are included in "Brief History of the Hooper-Lee-Nichols House and Enslaved People" published by History Cambridge and a biography accompanying the 1750 portrait of Waldo by Joseph Badger at the Worcester Art Museum. 

This is the best example we have seen of Waldo's meticulous records.

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