The planemaker Benjamin
Waterman was born April 12, 1719 in Providence,
RI. He is the son of Nathaniel Waterman III
(1695-1790) and Elizabeth (Carpenter). Benjamin
died in Providence on Sept. 4, 1799, age 80.
(note
1)
I have searched for information on other Benjamin
Waterman possibilities for the planemaker; I have
looked at Captain Benjamin Waterman (b1672,
d1762), his son Benjamin (b1707, d1760), his
grandson, Benjamin (b1740, d1832), and another
Benjamin who is the son of Job Waterman (b1711,
d1791), another of Captain Benjamin’s sons.
For these four possibilities, I did a thorough
search in Providence, Johnston, Cranston, and
Scituate for land deeds and probate records.
I found very little, certainly nothing to
suggest any of the four were involved in any way
in woodworking.
(note 2) Contrast
this with the substantial evidence of woodworking
activity by Benjamin Waterman (b1719). I
have seen eight deeds in which he is called either
a carpenter or house-wright, all of these deeds
dating to after 1750 when he had settled at
Tripptown, a Providence hamlet.
(note 3)
And his probate file at Providence City Hall
has two Account papers showing money Waterman owed
at the time of his death to men hired to cut and
dress lumber harvested on his property.
Credited against the money owed are services he
provided: stocking a gun and building a
coffin. Another probate Account paper lists
a large quantity of finished lumber he purchased
in 1793-94 from the Providence merchant Joseph
Hoyle. And his Probate Inventory has entries
for "
saw, squares & other tools"
/ "
a hand vise, some old tools"
/ "
some cherry tree wood overhead"
/ "
chest with old tools and sundry things
in it.”
(note 4) Also, the
plane researcher William (Will) Steere owns an
original undated account paper in Waterman's
handwriting with an entry for wages owed his
son-in-law Stephen Thornton for 25 days work at a
local sawmill. And Waterman uses the blank
space on the back of this account paper to list
details of casement window work.
(note 5)
To date, three wooden planes made by Benjamin
Waterman have been found. They are stamped
“BENJAMEN WATERMAN.” All three have the
maker’s name stamped on the front end of the plane
using two separate stamps, his full first name and
his last name, the stamps positioned one above the
other. One of the three planes is also
marked with a date stamp, 1741, forming a third
line under the name stamp. Benjamin made the
plane dated 1741 when he was 22 years old; and it
is reasonable to think he also made the other two
planes when he was in his twenties. Michael
Humphrey in his quarterly publication,
The
Catalog of American Wooden Planes,
(Issue No. 11. June 1994) was the first to write
about the three “BENJAMEN WATERMAN” stamped
planes. Having carefully studied the three
planes, Mike described Waterman’s planemaking
style and anyone interested in chamfer stops,
wedge finials and other stylistic details should
consult Mike’s article. Also two of the
three known Waterman planes are pictured on the
Early
RI Toolmakers & Tradesmen
website.
Benjamin Waterman was raised on his father’s farm
in the southern part of the Town of Providence,
about 9 miles from the town center. The farm
was in a sparsely populated, rural, part of
Providence. Today, year 2015, the farm’s
location is the Reservoir Avenue / Mashapaug Pond
area of the City of Cranston.
(note 6)
At some point before reaching maturity, Benjamin
received training as either a house-wright or shop
joiner. It is not known if he served a
formal apprenticeship or if the instruction was
less formal. What can be stated is that by
the time he was 22 years old, Benjamin had learned
his trade well and he was able to make the molding
plane dated 1741. A Waterman family
genealogy book says that after reaching adulthood
Benjamin had a farm in the same neighborhood as
his father’s farm.
(note 7) So both
farming and carpentry work were part of Waterman’s
early adult years, and most of his carpentry work
would have been in the area around his farm in the
southern part of Providence.
Benjamin Waterman married in 1745 and moved around
this time to a hamlet called Tripptown in the
western part of the Town of Providence, about
three miles from Providence harbor and the town
center. His wife’s father, John Manton, was
a large landowner in and around the hamlet, and he
helped Benjamin get settled in the area.
Benjamin Waterman spent the next 54 years living
at Tripptown (later called Manton Village), where
he continued his work as a carpenter, while over
time becoming a substantial land owner.
(note
8)
Benjamin Waterman’s planemaking skills evolved
from his training and work as a house-wright.
By 1740 in the Rhode Island colony,
population growth and an increase in overall
wealth resulted in more and better housing being
built, and the molding plane became a useful tool
for adding decorative elements to interior
woodwork. That Waterman was able to make his
own molding planes suggests a young man gifted at
woodworking, knowledgeable about architectural
details, and someone who had the confidence to try
his hand at planemaking. The three planes he
made are not simple planes: one is a reeding
plane, another an ogee plane, and the third a
complex molder. To make these planes,
Waterman had to immerse himself in the
possibilities of the molding plane by considering
both the type of work demanded of the house-wright
and what was then being used for tools by the
woodworkers around him. He had probably seen
English planes being used, planes either
commercially imported or brought to this country
by emigrating craftsmen.
(note 9)
This may account for his name stamp having both a
full first and last name, a stamping practice used
by some early English makers, such as Thomas
Granford and Robert Wooding. Also, he would
have seen planes made by either Francis Nicholson
or by others who copied Nicholson’s style.
Nicholson was working as a toolmaker in Wrentham
in 1728, and by 1740 his planes were being used by
craftsmen throughout Southeastern New England.
(note
10) And perhaps most important,
Waterman’s planemaking was shaped by the material
culture of the Providence, RI area where he lived
and worked, shaped by local factors such as craft
traditions, tool preferences and practices, the
local economy and the ethnic mix of the
people. The influences on Waterman’s
planemaking are many, but the singular achievement
for which he is celebrated today is the skill he
brought to his work, resulting in three planes
that are both functional and pleasing to
behold. Benjamin Waterman deserves the title
of Rhode Island’s earliest planemaker. Other
Rhode Islanders preceded him in making planes for
their own use, but he was the first to boldly
stamp his name on the front end of his planes.
It appears that Waterman made the three surviving
molding planes for his own use. If he was
marketing his planes to other craftsmen, his
output would be far greater than what is suggested
by today’s survival rate of three planes.
Also, planes made for sale would likely have owner
stamps on them, yet two of the three Waterman
planes do not, and the third plane, the complex
molder, has owner stamps from the 19th Century,
long after Waterman died.
(note 11)
In addition to the three surviving planes,
Waterman would have made other molding planes, and
also some bench planes, to use in his work as a
house wright. When he was starting out as a
young man in the 1740’s, his skill as a planemaker
would have been evident to anyone who looked at
his toolkit, and the planes he made in his
youth probably served him well for the almost 60
years he worked as a house-wright. Except
for an occasional special plane that might be
needed, he probably did very little planemaking
after he married in 1745 and settled at
Tripptown. Here, he continued his work as a
house-wright, but as the years passed, farming and
property acquisition became more central to his
life. When he died in 1799, Waterman was a
wealthy man, living in a substantial house and
possessing extensive land holdings that included
farm land, pasture land, and wood lots. His
probate inventory tell us that his “chest with old
tools” had long since been put away in the
garret of his house.
NOTES
1. Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgar
Francis Waterman,
The Waterman Family. Vol.
III. Descendants of Richard Waterman of
Providence, RI. New Haven.
Conn.: E. F. Waterman, 1939, pages 32-3,
107-109.
In researching the Waterman family, I also used
the online genealogy site Family Search, hosted by
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
Benjamin Waterman and his second wife, Catherine
Latham (b1740, d1817), are buried in the “Rhode
Island Historical Cemetery-Cranston - #584,” known
as the “Benjamin Waterman Lot.” The
cemetery, on what was Benjamin Waterman’s farm, is
on Pontiac Ave in Cranston, a short distance south
of the junction of Pontiac and Reservoir Avenues.
2.
My effort to sort out the different
Benjamin Watermans was complicated by the 10
deeds and slips of paper I looked at in which
the planemaker either signs, or is referred to,
as Benjamin Waterman Jun., yet his father’s name
is Nathaniel Waterman. Eight of them date
to before 1760, the two exceptions being a 1761
and a 1767 deed. I also looked at 10 other
deeds and slips of paper for Waterman in which
he either signs, or is referred to, as Benjamin
Waterman, without the “Jun.,” and all these
deeds date to after 1767. My conclusion is
that the planemaker used “Jun.” to differentiate
himself from another Benjamin Waterman (b1707,
d1760), a distant relative who was 12 years his
senior and was living in the same towns,
Providence and then Johnston, when the
planemaker was living there. After the
older Benjamin Waterman died in 1760, the
planemaker stopped using “Jun.,” with the two
exceptions noted above.
3. [eight deeds]
“houfe carpenter” / May 31, 1750 land deed /
Providence Land Deeds: Book 12. Page 367.
Providence City Hall Archives.
“houfe carpenter” / June 28, 1750 mortgage deed /
this deed was sold at a RI public auction in 2011
and is now in William (Will) Steere’s private
collection.
“House Carpenter” / (2) Feb. 24, 1752 obligation
bonds / both deeds were sold at a RI public
auction in 2011. One of the deeds (the one
involving Thomas Fenner) is now in William (Will)
Steere’s private collection.
“houfe carpenter” / Dec. 31, 1753 land deed /
Providence Land Deeds: Book 13. Page 327.
Providence City Hall Archives.
“house right” / June 2, 1759 land deed / Johnston
Land Deeds: Book 1. Pages 12, 13. Johnston
Town Hall.
“house Right” / June 2, 1759 land deed / Cranston
Land Deeds: Book 1. Pages 219. Cranston City
Hall.
“Houfewright” / March 6, 1792 arrest warrant
issued by the sheriff of Providence County / this
warrant was sold at a RI public auction in 2011
and is now in William (Will) Steere’s private
collection.
4. The Account papers are in the
Benjamin Waterman Probate Folder #A1887, at
Providence City Hall Archives. The original
Probate Inventory (taken Nov. 23, 1799) is not on
file, but a copy is in Johnston Probate Book No.
4, page 21. Johnston Probate Book No. 4 is
also at Providence City Hall Archives.
Benjamin Waterman’s probate file is in Providence
because the eastern part of the Town of Johnston
where he lived for many years was given back to
Providence in 1798. Thirty nine years
earlier, in 1759, when the Town of Johnston was
incorporated with land taken from Providence,
Waterman, who was living at the time in the
Providence hamlet called Tripptown, now found
himself a resident of the Town of Johnston.
5. This undated account paper is one
of many Benjamin Waterman (b. 1719) original deeds
and papers that descended in the Waterman family
and were sold at a public auction in Rhode Island
in 2011. The paper is now in William (Will)
Steere’s private collection.
6. The Town of Cranston was created in
1754 from that part of Providence that lay just
north of the Pawtuxet River.
7. Jacobus and Waterman, p.
107.
8. Tripptown (later called
Manton Village) was located on the “Killingly
Road,” one of three principal roads before 1800
that led out from the center of Providence
west to Connecticut. The hamlet bordered on
the west bank of the Woonasquatucket River, which
formed the new boundary line when the Town of
Johnston was carved out of Providence in
1759. In the 1750s, the hamlet supported a
cordwainer, a cooper, two blacksmiths, and at
least one house carpenter, Benjamin
Waterman. I figured this out
by researching many Providence land deeds,
including the deeds for Edward Tripp, a
blacksmith, who gave the hamlet its name.
Tripptown was one mile upriver from the site of
the “Rising Sun Paper Mill,” which Jonathan
Ballou, working as a millwright, helped to build
in 1765. The two men, Ballou (b1723) and
Waterman (b1719), worked in the woodworking trades
in Providence for many of the same years, and they
must have known each other. Both men were
also practitioners of the planemaker’s art, but I
believe each pursued this interest independent of
the other.
9. It is instructive to look at the
Probate Inventory of Henry Brown, a Providence
carpenter who died in 1703. It lists many
carpenter tools, including a “
Hand Plaine, a
fore plaine, a joynter, a paire of bord
Ploughes, 4 moulding planes, a creaseing plane,
& a halfeing Plough.” Not many
probate inventories list tools with this
specificity, and not all carpenters and joiners
working in the Providence area before 1740 would
have this number and variety of planes, but some
did, and most of the molding planes would have
come from England, the mother country. [The
Henry Brown Probate Inventory is reproduced on
pages 221-27 in Vol. VI of the
Early Records
of the Town of Providence. 23 vols.,
Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1892-1915.]
10. Several F. Nicholson planes
have been found in Rhode Island over the past 40
years, and it is reasonable to think that at least
some of these planes had Rhode Islanders as their
first owners. I also know of two finds just
over the Rhode Island line in the Attleboro area
where F. Nicholson planes were coupled with later
Rhode Island made planes. One such find was
three F. Nicholson planes and eight Jo. Fuller
planes and a second find was an F. Nicholson plane
and two Olney planes. Such couplings suggest
to me that the Nicholson planes were in early use
in Rhode Island and then passed on to succeeding
generations who added Jo. Fuller and Olney
planes. The F. Nicholson found with the two
Olneys has the early variation of the name
stamp, with a “dot” between the initial F and the
last name Nicholson, dating this plane to just
after Nicholson moved to Wrentham in 1728, or
perhaps even to his time in Rehoboth. Its
first owner / user may have been a Rhode
Islander.
11. The complex molder has an
incuse C. W. stamp on the toe of the plane and an
incuse G. E. WHITFORD stamp on the heel. The
plane researcher William (Will) Steere suggested
that C. W. might be the owner stamp of Christopher
Wilkinson (b1768, d1854), the grandson-in-law of
Benjamin Waterman. It might be.
Wilkinson is listed in the 1850 Federal Census,
age 68, working as a cabinet maker. He was
also at one time the owner of a spool and bobbin
factory in Smithfield, RI. More likely
candidates are the father and son, Caleb Whitford
(b1807, d1867) and George E. Whitford (b1832,
d1857). Both men appear in the same entry in
the 1850 Federal Census for Seekonk, MA:
Caleb
Whitford, age 43, carpenter / George E.
Whitford, age 18, carpenter. Both men
were born in RI and died in RI.
Surprisingly, George E. Whitford is listed in
Providence Directories for 1853-1858 as a “clerk.”