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Nicholas Disbrowe: 500 Years of Woodworking Blood. Season 2, Episode 2.
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On season 2, episode 2 we dive into the story of Nicholas Disbrowe. Nicholas Disbrowe is one of the earliest known American furniture makers and is famous for the Hartford Chest and the Winthrop Great Chair. We reveal a big surprise about Nicholas' connection to Greene Street Joinery.
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Transcript
New Partnership Announcement
00:00:21
Speaker
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Speaker
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Upcoming Content & Promotions
00:01:00
Speaker
For 10% off your order, visit MontanaBrandTools.com and use the coupon code American Craftsman.
00:01:06
Speaker
All right, people, welcome back. Season two, episode two. Yeah, we made it. We made it. We, uh, we haven't moved. Well, we both peed. That's right. Since you saw us last week. Drinking coffee. Yeah, it's early 940, but we're trying to get four episodes done today. Yeah.
00:01:32
Speaker
as well as four Patreon episodes. So, again, it feels like we just talked about it, but we talked about it a week ago. Check out the Patreon.
Teaser: Early American Furniture
00:01:42
Speaker
We're going to be giving you all the source material. You get your bonus show every week, where we talk about something completely different, maybe more akin to last season's podcast will be sort of what we're doing over there. We might touch on the stuff that we talked about, but we're going to take a whole different subject matter, more of a question and answer kind of thing.
00:02:02
Speaker
So check that out if you're interested. Plus we do the live streams and all that other good stuff. You can see the benefits over there on the Patreon page.
00:02:14
Speaker
But yeah, let's not waste any time. We'll get into the next episode, which is a person of interest. So episode one, we covered sort of the who, what, when, where, and why of early American furniture.
Puritans' Journey to New England
00:02:30
Speaker
And now we're going to get into a person.
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, we'll start building a picture. So actually, I had meant to open the podcast with this quote. Oh, okay. But now I'll read it. Yeah. And it's pretty long. And I read it through like maybe a couple of days ago, but if I flub up, don't blame me.
00:02:55
Speaker
Charles I also attempted to establish the Episcopal Church on a firmer basis and to suppress Puritanism in England and Presbyterianism in Scotland with the view of checking the rapid growth of Republican principles among the English people. Republican as in the forming of a republic, not Democrat and Republican. For the purpose of accomplishing this,
00:03:18
Speaker
The king appointed the zealous William Laud, Bishop of London, to the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Laud, who thus became the chief agent in religious tyranny, which almost drove both England and Scotland to revolt, improved every opportunity to preach submission
00:03:39
Speaker
to the lords anointed in the repayment of taxes, and he demanded from English Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians a strict conformity to his own rules for public worship. Archbishop Laud's ecclesiastical tyranny led to a large Puritan emigration to New England.
00:04:02
Speaker
Patents were secured and companies organized for that purpose. The Puritans proceeded reluctantly to the place of embarkation, with their eyes looking longingly toward the distant refuge of the pilgrim fathers across the billowy deep, yet moist with tears as they turned their backs upon their native land and upon scenes that were clear to them.
00:04:21
Speaker
Their hearts swelling with grief as the shores of dear old Mother England faded from their sight, yet rising to lofty purposes and sublime resignation as they abandoned home and country to enjoy the blessings of religious freedom in a strange land. They fully counted the cost of their forced migration, the peril, poverty, and hardships of their new homes in the American wilderness.
00:04:44
Speaker
That's from the book library of world history containing a record of the human race by Israel Smith, crane, Claire, sorry, Israel, Smith, Claire, and Moses, quite Tyler 1897. Man, that was difficult to read. Well, you did a great job. What, so what, what was he saying? Uh, it's basically, you know, it's a,
00:05:09
Speaker
Sort of giving you a little perspective on the, you know, the feelings of these people leaving England, which, you know, we're going to get into, into this person where you have to give the background of the whole period in Great Migration. Sure. So, yeah.
00:05:27
Speaker
There was a clamp down. Right. Yeah. But, you know, what I what I thought this highlighted was, you know, the emotion of these people. Yeah. You know, maybe the first half I could have deleted out. But, you know, like it says, the grief of leaving dear old mother England. Oh, yeah. I mean, no small task just like today. Yeah. Um.
00:05:54
Speaker
So yeah, let's get into it. So the person we're covering, Nicholas Disbrough. D-I-S-B-R-O-W-E. He's actually Junior, but he's known historically just as Nicholas Disbrough.
00:06:13
Speaker
I guess maybe we'll save the surprise for the end. So Nicholas Disbro Jr., he was born June 16th, 1620 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England. And I'll show you a little picture of that on the map. He was the son of Nicholas Disbro Sr., obviously.
00:06:38
Speaker
who mended pew and pulpit at the church. So he comes from a. Hey, that's like us. Yeah. Yeah, we make him. He comes from a line of. Of craft people. His mother was Mary Disborough and his grandfather, William Disborough, was a joiner. So we talked about joiners in episode episode one.
00:07:00
Speaker
Nicholas immigrated to Massachusetts Bay in the early 1630s as part of the Puritan Great Migration.
Puritan Great Migration Details
00:07:06
Speaker
So let's talk a little bit about what that is. We touched on it in episode one. So the Puritan Great Migration was a 17th century migration of Puritans to New England, the Chesapeake, and the West Indies. So we're going to focus on the New England portion.
00:07:22
Speaker
In the early 1600s, England was in a period of religious turmoil. There was a climate of hostility towards religious nonconformists such as the Puritans. So that's, you know, Charles I is a key person in this. So the Puritans felt that the Church of England was too closely associated with Catholicism and it needed to be reformed.
00:07:45
Speaker
So we talked about it before, you had the separatist Puritans and they thought the church was too corrupt and they wanted to just get out and cut ties. And then you had the non-separatist Puritans and they thought that they could stay within the church and try and reform it, you know, from within. At the time in England, church and state were one. So there was no separation of church and state. The Anglican church. Right.
00:08:12
Speaker
So if you wanted to separate from the church, that was considered an act of treason. So this was, you know, it was a hard decision for people whether to separate from the church or remain part of it and try and reform it from within. So the separatists, because they feared this retribution, this punishment for separating from the church, a lot of them, they fled to
00:08:44
Speaker
Was it the Netherlands? Yeah, I thought I had it in here. Maybe not. Yeah, the Holland is where they went. Okay. So they fled to Holland and even some, this is when they started thinking about going to the New World. So this is where the whole idea of escaping Europe basically and heading to the New World came from because they were basically, they were probably gonna be killed.
00:09:12
Speaker
That's the gist of it or locked up in London Tower. It's amazing to think of in those terms, right? Because, you know, today, if we don't want to do something, just don't do it. You know, once once we're old enough to tell mom and dad, we don't feel like going to church on Sunday, we stop going.
00:09:37
Speaker
So in September 1620, the Mayflower set sail for New England and they were financed by the Plymouth Company. So the Plymouth Company financed the trip in exchange for the Pilgrims setting up a colony and they would basically repay it by exporting fur and timber and fish back to England.
Introduction to Nicholas Disbrough
00:10:04
Speaker
And that's the beginning of this Puritan Great Migration. So 1620 is when it starts. There were people who came here before that, but not in a way to set up a permanent.
00:10:19
Speaker
Living situation really this is a business venture right so in 1625 King Charles the first ascends to the throne we talked about King Charles the second in the first episode with the the carolian design So in 1625 King Charles ascends to the throne and his wife is a Catholic so he he favors Catholicism because of his wife and
00:10:46
Speaker
There's increased hostility towards the Puritans because they they're against the Catholic Church. They they think it's you know Corrupt. Yeah, it's a bastardization of you know what they believe in So as we got into it the quote in 1633 King Charles the first appoints William law it is the Archbishop of Canterbury Look at that. I said Archbishop correctly
00:11:15
Speaker
And the goal of appointing this guy is to root out nonconformity in the church so they're trying to basically control everybody and make sure that nobody is creating an uprising or just stirring the pot really.
00:11:29
Speaker
So the crackdowns by this William Law, the Archbishop of Canterbury, so with these increased crackdowns, the Puritans really start fleeing England to the New World and they estimate 13,000 to 21,000 Puritans make the migration over to the New World.
00:11:58
Speaker
The Great Migration ended around 1640 to 1642 with the establishment of the long parliament, so the government in England got changed around and it limited the powers of the King's advisors, William Laud being the guy who was really hating on the Puritans, and the English Civil War broke out in 1642, so people weren't leaving really anymore because things were all effed up in England basically.
00:12:29
Speaker
So, yeah, that's that's a little background on the Great Migration. It was, you know, it was a tough time for these people. It reminds me of things that are going on and have gone on in different parts of the world, you know, with sort of religious extremism and things like that. Yeah. And it kind of gives you an idea why we value religious freedoms here in America so much. Yeah. I mean, it's the basis of the entire
00:13:00
Speaker
you know, the roots of the country. People left where they were from because they were being persecuted for what they believed in. They came here to get away from that.
00:13:11
Speaker
Right. Right. I mean, they basically make your way of life illegal. Yeah. Yeah. Say, you know, well, if you believe what you've been believing this whole time now, that's treason. Right. We're going to lock you up in London tower. It's not like giving somebody a hard time by today's standards. Yeah. Yeah. It makes life more or less impossible. Yeah. And, you know, religion for some people now, it plays a
00:13:39
Speaker
a huge role in their lives, but for the most part now it's, you know, an ancillary part of people's lives. Back then it was everything. It was your whole identity. I mean, you lived, breathed, and ate your religion because it dictated everything that you did. As we saw with the Puritans, you know, talking in episode one, you know, their entire identity was created through the Bible and the studying of the Bible.
00:14:05
Speaker
And art was always one of the big focuses. Religion was always one of the big focuses of art. So those things are tied together.
00:14:18
Speaker
So flash forward to 1636, we're now in the New World, and the Puritan minister, Thomas Hooker, now he was from, I think, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, or no, shit, I should know this, my sister lived there in England.
00:14:36
Speaker
This guy's church was down the street from where she lived. Oh, I can't remember. Anyway, so they're in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Thomas Hooker and 100 other men, women, and children, they go overland to the Connecticut River, and they establish Hartford, Connecticut. It's not Connecticut at the time, but it was the first English shut...
00:15:05
Speaker
You're having a problem with the SH's today. Yeah, I'm having some issues. It's a stamped coffee. Now I got a piece of almond stuck in my teeth. Overland to the Connecticut River, they established Hartford, which is the first English settlement in what would become the colony of Connecticut. So Nicholas Disbrough was part of this group, and he's considered a founding father of Hartford, Connecticut. Yeah, Hartford's a capital, isn't it?
00:15:33
Speaker
I don't know. I think it is. We should know this. We went to school here. What's that other big city in Connecticut? Hartford and... We don't learn enough geography here in American school. I'm gonna type in Hartford. What's that other big... Like, Stanford? Stanford, yeah, that's what I was thinking of. Hartford is the capital of Connecticut. Okay, cool.
00:16:04
Speaker
So Nicholas Disbro, he served as a captain in the Pico War in 1637. I'll give you a little background on the Pico War. So there was all this pillaging going on by the natives on these settlements of people, because obviously, you know, coming in, moving in on their land, which is like, what do you expect? So obviously people are all riled up because you know, they're coming in and
00:16:31
Speaker
pillaging in the most literal sense of the word burning down people's Settlements and killing people and stuff like that. So they assemble 70 men out of the 500 to 600 people that were scattered throughout the you know, the Hartford Valley And they leave under the leadership of Major John Mason and they sail down down the the I guess is a Connecticut River to Saybrook, which is in Massachusetts, I believe and
00:16:58
Speaker
And they're joined by 20 men from Boston and 70 Mohegans with their chief Yunkus. So on Friday, May 26, 1637, they surprised this native stockade like right before dawn. And in two hours, the place is totally burnt to the ground and 700 Pico are dead. Ooh.
00:17:19
Speaker
And here's a quote from this guy Cotton Mather, which... Oh, we know Cotton Mather. Yeah, remember this guy's name. He's a pretty significant figure around the early American period, but he says, "'Twas a fearsome sight to see them, the Indians, thus frying in ye friar, and ye streams of blood quenching ye same. And horrible was ye stinkin' scent thereof, but ye victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise thereof to God.
00:17:51
Speaker
quite a poet. So yeah, he's saying, you know, they lit the place on fire. These people are burning, burning alive and it stunk, but they were praising God because they, you know, took down the enemy. We're still mixed up, aren't we? Yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
So the Pico War ended with the Fairfield Swamp Fight, not to be confused with the Great Swamp Fight of was it King Philip's War or something? It was like a later on. And it ended the violence with the natives for nearly a generation. On May 11, 1671, at the age of 59, Nicholas Disbro received 50 acres of land for his military service, and he was cleared of any further military obligations.
The Hartford Chest and Colonial Furniture
00:18:41
Speaker
So he's starting fresh now, 50 acres. Well, he was 59 at the time. Oh my God. So the, that's my age. The Pico war was a,
00:18:52
Speaker
Buh-bye. Front door. Non-stop emails, Instagram. Can't get away. Yeah, so he fought in the war in 1637. He's only, what, 1612, 2025 at the time? Mm-hmm. Not until he's 59 is he given this land, so. So there's still hope for me.
00:19:14
Speaker
Well, maybe. Did you do any military service? I fought some battles. So, yeah, so he lived at Lot 37 in Hartford. It was on the east side of the road leading to the cow pasture. And now it's a Whole Foods.
00:19:38
Speaker
From what I can see on the map, that's basically where it is, where the Whole Foods is in Hartford, Connecticut. Makes me think of that Pretender song. I went back to Ohio and my city was gone. I don't know that one. So yeah, poor guy. Now his spot is at Whole Foods. I guess better than like a Walmart. Yeah, or Piggly Wiggly. Yeah, oh yeah. I don't know if they have those in Connecticut. So in 1660,
00:20:08
Speaker
He got permission to build a 16 square foot shop near the road on his property, which they called it a highway, which I don't know what the hell the highway was in 1660. And rumor has it, it may be considered like the first roadside stand. Now Nicholas Disbro Jr., he's famous for the Hartford chest.
00:20:30
Speaker
And the Hartford Chest, it's this carved chest and it's really the first piece that, maybe the Hartford Chest isn't the first, but it's an example of this movement towards a chest of drawers like we talked about in the first episode where the really humble chest was moving towards like a dresser, which later turned into the low boys and high boys.
00:20:54
Speaker
So it featured the Jacobian style split balusters that that were applied to the the Hartford chest. Well, one of the chests that we're going to use an example doesn't have that. But these Hartford chests, they featured these split balusters that they applied to the to the chest, you know, in lieu of carvings, because it was, again, turning was easier than carving. So they turned them, split them and applied them.
00:21:20
Speaker
And they painted the split balusters black to sort of emulate using ebony. They had all kinds of other little turnings and small carvings, lozenges, diamonds that they applied and same thing. They painted them black so that they resembled ebony.
00:21:38
Speaker
A lot of carved floral motifs, tulips, which is an influence from Holland. I don't know if that's because the Puritans first fled there and that's where they sort of picked this up. But yeah, lots of tulips, sunflowers, which I think was a more American thing, and lots of leafage and scrollwork.
00:21:58
Speaker
They had drawers at the bottom and plain tops. The tops were typically made from pine and the chest itself was made from oak. Either English oak that was brought here or American oak. They were frame and panel construction.
00:22:15
Speaker
And a similar sort of chest was the Hadley chest, and that was in Massachusetts, but a little later, 1675, I have 1875 written here, 1675 to 1740 was the timeframe for the Hadley chest. And yeah, like I said, it shows the chest becoming more of a chest of drawers.
00:22:39
Speaker
I'm going to read an excerpt here from the Hartford Chest. I don't know why I punish myself like this. Published by the Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut Committee on Historical Publications. So the 300 year commission. This is from 1934.
00:22:58
Speaker
Dr. Luke Vincent Lockwood, an authority on colonial furniture, who has written much on the subject some years ago, made the important discovery of a very beautiful carved chest, now in his possession, which bears the name of the maker written on the back of one of the drawers, probably a unique example. This is a two-drawer chest with the front surface of which is entirely covered with flat carving of excellent workmanship.
00:23:22
Speaker
the design consisting principally of the conventionalized tulip. The inscription in ancient style and archaic spelling reads thus.
00:23:31
Speaker
Mary Allen's chest cut and joined by Nick Disborough. Mary Allen, who was the daughter of Colonel John Allen, Secretary of Connecticut Colony, was born in Hartford in 1657 and married to William Whitney in 1686. Nicholas Disborough was born in Essex, England in 1612.
00:23:52
Speaker
He appears to have been a, quote, citizen of credit and renown, who owned property in Hartford in 1639 and lived on Burr Street, now North Main Street, where in 1660 he obtained permission to erect a small shop on the highway. He was of Captain John Mason's company in the expedition against the Pecos. Dying in 1683, he left an estate of $210. I guess that says pounds, because I guess that's sort of what they used. Yeah, that's what they used back then. 210 pounds.
00:24:21
Speaker
a very considerable sum of the times. The inventory filed with the court included a number of joiners tools. A very careful examination and comparison of the handwriting would indicate that this inscription was by the hand of John Allen. The piece was probably a dour chest, ordered and constructed for an adorned baby girl, a common custom. And because of its beauty and excellence, the father desired that the future owner should be informed as to its origin and share his admiration for the valuable article.
00:24:50
Speaker
Would that more owners might have had a similar inspiration? For at least two centuries there were many joiners and cabinet makers scattered about in towns and villages of Connecticut and Massachusetts. They often worked entirely by themselves and few had more than one helper or apprentice. Their product was excellent but their output was so limited that they never got into history and thus we have no knowledge concerning their identity.
00:25:14
Speaker
Even as late as the middle of the 18th century, the labeled and actually identified articles of furniture, even more important pieces are rarely found. So yeah, they're saying that they have examples that are earlier. They just don't know where they came from. Right. So they guys were not labeling, you know, they weren't signing their work, basically.
00:25:36
Speaker
In this particular field on certain occasions, tradition, usually unrecognized as evidence, may be helpful. For in early times when the only means of transportation was by horses or even oxen, people moved about very little. The personal histories and characteristics of all were known to their fellow townsmen. They knew everybody's business.
00:25:56
Speaker
And the exploits of divers, important or peculiar citizens, or the achievements of remarkable or unusual artisans were transmitted to the oncoming generation, thus their reputations persisted. Also regarding the origin of certain articles of furniture, it is to be ascertained beyond doubt that a special piece has long been in the ownership of a family whose forebears have resided for a hundred years or more in that immediate locality. It is fair and proper supposition to conclude
00:26:26
Speaker
Um...
00:26:44
Speaker
It doesn't say it in here, but in the 20s, you know, when this thing was discovered, I guess by Luke Vincent Lockwood, it was the earliest known piece of American of provable American furniture. Right. So 1680, I think they say it was built and they don't have anything that is, you know, inscribed like that that dates prior.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and all those other pieces are just lost to history as far as, you know, who created them.
Nicholas Disbrough's Legacy
00:27:21
Speaker
But if you watch like the Antiques Roadshow and stuff like that, now you have scholars who can identify the general time and place. Yeah, yeah. Right. That's kind of what this article was saying.
00:27:36
Speaker
And this is a... I don't even know. 50, 100 pages of that. And it's all about the Hartford chest. It'll be interesting. You can find it on Google Books. And it'll be... It's in the source. I mean, that's the thing. You kind of set it in passing, but the Hartford chest is really significant, not just because we know that Nicholas Disbrough made it. I mean, it's sort of a landmark piece of furniture.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah, and it's funny, it's one of those things that I had never heard of before. Me either. But if you talk to people who are, it's funny, I just got an email from the Hartford, our insurance company. If you talk to people who are a little more educated on the history of American furniture, some guys that we know, like, yeah, Hartford, just, yeah, it's huge. It's a big deal. Nicholas Disbrough is a huge name. We had never heard of him.
00:28:29
Speaker
So funny thing is, in 1683, he was charged with witchcraft. But the charges were dropped before his death in the same year. So the year of his death, he was charged as being a witch. And guess who wrote about it? Cotton Mather. And Cotton Mather, he was like a hugely renowned Puritan clergyman.
00:28:56
Speaker
And so he recounts this whole witchcraft situation. In the year 1683, the house of Nicholas Desborough, you see the spelling, multiple different spellings of the last name.
00:29:10
Speaker
In 1683 the house of Nicholas Desboro at Hartford was very strangely molested by stones, by pieces of earth, by cobs of Indian corn and other such things from an invisible hand thrown at him sometimes through the door, sometimes through the window, sometimes down the chimney, and sometimes from the floor of the room though very close over his head.
00:29:31
Speaker
And sometimes he met with the... And sometimes he met with the... What? Sorry. And sometimes he met with the in the shop.
00:29:43
Speaker
I don't know, Cotton. The yard, the barn, and in the field. There was no evidence in the motion of the things thus thrown by the invisible hand, and though others beside the man happened to sometimes be hit, they were never hurt with them. Only the man himself once had pain given to his arm, and once blood fetched from his leg by these annoyances, and a fire in an unknown way kindled consumed no little part of his estate. This trouble began upon a controversy between Desboro and another person about a chest of cloths.
00:30:13
Speaker
which the man apprehended to be unrighteously detained by Desboro, and it endured for divers months, but upon restoring of the cloths, thus detained, the trouble ceased.
00:30:25
Speaker
So you'll see some parallels here with the Salem witch trials, which some of his subsequent family members were charged as witches. This guy thinks that he stole a chest of clothes and now all of a sudden the guy's a witch. Then the clothes get returned and he's not a witch anymore.
00:30:47
Speaker
It's a form of blackball. So yeah, can't escape the persecution of being a Puritan and then now you're a witch. It's almost like the cancel culture we have today. Another thing that he is famous for is the Winter Great Chair. And again, I'm going to be putting up pictures of all these things.
00:31:15
Speaker
It belonged to the Connecticut colony governor, John Witherb Jr., around 1660 to 1675. And he was a really well-known physician in New England, probably the best known. And he was an alchemist, so he studied alchemy, which was a
00:31:33
Speaker
precursor to chemistry, but it sort of blended like magic and science and religion all into one. Not something that you would associate with Puritans per se, but his chemical rather than herbal medicines were thought to have been revealed to man by God. So that's why he really was held very highly.
00:31:55
Speaker
And he had an extensive scientific library. He had books by Galileo. He had a telescope. Again, things that you don't really. I mean, Galileo, which was another persecuted person, you don't associate Puritans with being, you know, maybe that open minded. But I think, you know, we have a little bit of a skewed view of the Puritans.
00:32:18
Speaker
And it's theorized that the motifs in the chair might have astrological influences. So there's all these round, um, you know, these concentric motifs in the back of the chair. And you know, they think that there may be this astrological sort of influence on them. That makes sense. Yeah. Uh, so Nicholas died August 31st, 1683, right after being accused of being a witch. Went out in a blaze of glory. Yeah. So he led a, he led a pretty interesting life. Um,
00:32:49
Speaker
I mean, he's a founding father of Hartford, Connecticut. He created this chest that, you know, has this huge historical significance and pretty cool. And as we got into researching, you know, seeing these different spellings of the last name, I see D-I-S-B-O-R-O-U-G-H. I was thinking, Disbro, that's my grandmother's main name.
00:33:18
Speaker
Turns out, this guy's my ninth great grandfather.
Witchcraft Accusations & Genealogy
00:33:22
Speaker
Amazing. Yeah, so I have a direct lineage to this guy, Nicholas Disborough. That's funny, isn't it? Like a huge, huge coincidence that had we not messed around with the format of the podcast, would have never, never known. It was like, this guy's name keeps popping up. I guess he's somebody
00:33:45
Speaker
of importance. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you see, like the the source material here, I mean, it's just this is just a drop in the well. There's so many. Papers and books and it's crazy. Yeah, he's he's a prominent figure and not just furniture, but in American history. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
00:34:14
Speaker
to be a founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Yeah. You know, an early colonists fights in the wars, goes on and creates something that's foundational to what we do. Yeah. And inspired a lot of, you know, of furniture down the down the line, Hadley chest and then, you know, the evolution of that. So, yeah, I mean, really interesting to find out.
00:34:43
Speaker
So what did it feel like to learn you have it in the blood? It was pretty shocking because I'm not aware of anyone in the family who, you know...
00:34:54
Speaker
makes furniture, let alone, you know, does even carpentry, let alone make furniture. I mean, again, we're talking about 350 years ago. So I'm sure somewhere in there, there's somebody. But yeah, I mean, it's not even like it's like a cousin or I mean, it's a direct line right there. So it's crazy. Yeah, you can trace your roots back to the formation of the country, too.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, go all the way back to William Disborough, his grandfather, which, you know, 1500s. That's amazing. Yeah. It's cool that we have the ability to search this stuff now, too. Yeah. Yeah. I tried to go back further, but the trail stops with William, his grandfather.
00:35:45
Speaker
So you also got some witchcraft in your family history. Yeah, I mean I got you know furniture making and joinery going back almost 500 years. That's right. You know back into the late who know I don't know what year William was born, but I think he died in the
00:36:07
Speaker
the very beginning of the 1600s and all these people lived to be really old, which is bizarre. Yeah. Um, you know, he was, uh, let's see, he was, he died in 18. I keep wanting to say 18 because 1600 seems so long ago, 1683. He was born. He was, so he was 71, 71 in the 1600s. That's fucking old. Yeah. Like that cabinet maker we were talking of, uh, he, he only lived into his thirties. Yeah. I think that the average lifespan was like 40, 45. Um,
00:36:38
Speaker
So yeah, I mean mid 1500s we can trace back. Wow. Yeah. So if you live to be 42 and you were an apprentice till you were 21, that would kind of be like being an apprentice today till you're, you're 40 or 45. Yeah. Holy cow. So yeah, it, uh, it turned my world a little upside down there for a couple of days.
00:37:04
Speaker
Yeah. We kept uncovering more and more facts too. Um, at first it was just the furniture connection. Then we started looking into his personal history. He's like, yeah, founding father of Hartford, Connecticut, like furniture royalty here. Yeah. We've got a, got big shoes to fill now. Oh yeah. Oh, excuse me.
00:37:34
Speaker
So that was quite a bomb to drop there being related to the great Nicholas Disborough. Yeah. That's all I got on Nicholas Disborough. How are we doing on time for this episode? Oh, we're a little light this episode. All right. Well, I mean, you did touch on a few things that we could go back over and
00:38:04
Speaker
One thing that caught my ear was that the Puritan minister's name was Thomas Hooker, which that's kind of unfortunate. Maybe he's the creator of the term. Yeah, so actually I looked a little bit into him.
00:38:22
Speaker
And because I was trying to find out what ship Disbro came over on. Now Thomas Hooker came over on the Griffin, it was called. And what year was it? I think 1634, which kind of lines up with the times because Disbro fought in the Pico War in 1637. He owned land by 1639. So we know he was here prior to 1637.
00:38:50
Speaker
But I couldn't get a full manifest of the Griffin. There's only a partial. He's not on it. And what year are we talking? I think 1634. It's amazing that they have things like that. Yeah. Because I've tried to do a little research into my own family tree and I can trace my grandparents
00:39:16
Speaker
But that's as far as I can get and I even went back to a Place where my mom and my and her parents my grandparents were born Dusty archive, you know, I part of it's a language barrier too, but They didn't keep that the English were great record keepers. Yeah Yeah, I mean, it's crazy Huh?
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:39:42
Speaker
It's it is amazing
00:39:46
Speaker
So what else can we take from the Hartford chest? I mean, why do you think it's such an important and prominent piece?
00:39:57
Speaker
Well, I think mostly it's it's rise to fame is just the fact that it's it's so easily pinpointed as who built it and when. Whereas, like we said, all this other stuff is sort of just a guessing game. You can't definitively say you can, you know, suppose all of these things, but you can't definitively say, OK, this was built by so and so in Ipswich, Massachusetts. No, this is there's hard facts to
00:40:26
Speaker
to prove who built it and when, you know, because we have records of who Mary Allen was. Was it Mary Allen? Yeah. When she lived, who John Allen was. These are all people who there's history on the names.
00:40:46
Speaker
So I think that's why it probably wasn't the nicest chest, you know, because there was other people making, you know, really intricately carved things like this. But it's because it was, you know, provably a very early piece with a name attached to it. I think that's where the real significance is.
00:41:06
Speaker
And he was a pretty prominent guy, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was, you know, fought in the Pico War. He was a captain in the Pico War. You know, the whole witchcraft thing. I mean, being a founding father. So there's a lot of history on the guy aside from that. Whereas some of these other guys might have just been, you know, they've been lost of time, sort of.
00:41:33
Speaker
Right. And there's the, you mentioned as well, the low output of these craftsmen and sort of like the, they didn't feel a need to mark their pieces because everybody knew who they were. Right. People were in the town. It's like, yeah, that's, that's Smith's cabinet shop. And
00:41:55
Speaker
you know, his dad was there before he was. So, of course, that's a Smith chest. They weren't thinking about us 400 years in the future. No. And, you know, there is some controversy about the inscription, if it's a forgery, I've read in a couple of places, but they, you know, I also read that it matches up with John Allen's handwriting. So, yeah, I mean, who's he trying to bullshit?
00:42:22
Speaker
I mean did you figure when this thing comes about in the 30s and 1930s there's really no impetus to create. Yeah. What's the end game there. Right. They just picked this guy. We're going to pick Nicholas Disbrough.
00:42:36
Speaker
Yeah, because it doesn't really create. I mean, it's a it's a museum piece, but at the time, it probably doesn't create instant value. No. And I think it only sold for like four thousand dollars. So meanwhile, no insane, insane. No, you know, Antiques Roadshow, hundred thousand dollar chest. Right. Right. You know, it's still a humble piece.
00:43:03
Speaker
When I was searching through the archives and like the Met museums, there were pieces that they were mostly later pieces, you know, from 1700. Yeah. 17 early 1800s where they start getting into the high dollar antique stuff. Um, but, uh, yeah, I, I've been looking forward to this episode because it was really so enjoyable to take this little trip.
00:43:29
Speaker
It was definitely interesting. And man, laborious research because, you know, you just have to pour through all these
00:43:39
Speaker
Recounts of things that happened and try and figure out you know what's What has been twisted a little bit one has in it's dry and wordy there's a lot of contradictory information in terms of like dates and stuff like Stuff even just years of birth and death and stuff like that. You know some places have You know that he was born on Where is it?
00:44:06
Speaker
June, was it June 16th? Wouldn't it be wild if it was your birthday?
00:44:15
Speaker
Well, the funny thing is he lived on Lot 37. My address is 37. Yeah. June 16th, 1612. Some places had, you know, he was born around 1613 or he was born just in 1612. So it's hard because you have to try and, you know, write this story with all of this information that's like not a hundred percent.
00:44:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. People. I mean, people were born at home. My mom was born at home in Sicily and her birthday is sort of unknown. Yeah. I mean, you kind of know the general time. Right. It was springtime. Yeah. It was sometime in early February. This child came into the world. Yeah. Because, you know, history was for the most part oral. Yeah.
00:45:10
Speaker
You know, we're saying that English kept good records, but...
00:45:15
Speaker
not everything was yeah not everything was from the common common people yeah right he was he was his father well-known or was it did the name kind of become notable with Nicholas yeah no I don't think there were really anyone anyone crazy and he wasn't nobody until yeah I mean he was like he had a decent estate when he died and stuff like that but he wasn't a
00:45:44
Speaker
you know, a highfalutin person. He was a cabinet maker, a furniture maker. So he didn't have any notoriety really until he died. He was known within Hartford as, because everybody knew everybody. I mean, how many people were there? But yeah, no real notoriety until the 1920s.
00:46:04
Speaker
I wonder what kind of esteem you gained for being a quote unquote founding father of a settlement which became a town, which became a city. Yeah. I wonder how big of a deal it was. I don't know how big Hartford even was by 18, you know, 1880. You know, you're talking, what, 40 years later?
00:46:30
Speaker
It probably didn't grow that much, you know? Everybody was a founding father, basically. Out of the thousand people that lived there, a hundred of them. So everybody's grandpa was a founding father. That's sort of my question. I wonder if it sounds bigger to us because, you know, I think it definitely does. Then it was just, yeah, well, yeah, of course I'm a founding father.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah, I brought my mule and my cod here. Everybody then was a founding father of the country because it didn't even exist yet. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. But yeah, it was a crazy, crazy coincidence to say.
00:47:14
Speaker
Like when you first said, ah, that's like my grandma's name, it's spelled a little differently. I didn't have the slightest inkling it would leave here. Yeah. Well, yeah. Until I saw the alternate spelling. That's when I was like, hmm. And my sister did the ancestry.com research. So there you go. Yeah. All right. Well,
00:47:40
Speaker
That's all we got for you this week, guys. Season 2 is Episode 2 in the books. Yeah, so it's 10.30. We checked in last time at...
00:47:49
Speaker
9.30? Yeah. Something like that. We're cruising along. Yeah. It's going to be a marathon of a day. It's going to be several weeks time in your time. We're going to be a little bit hoarse by the end of it. Yeah, that's for sure. So yeah, we hope you liked the episode. Check out the YouTube. Check out the Patreon. Yeah. If you feel so inclined, leave us a review on Apple podcast, Spotify.
00:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, reviews are good. We can learn what we're doing. That way, you know, we can share this information with more people. So yeah, hope you enjoyed and we'll see you next week. All right. Ciao.
00:48:43
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain.