What material conditions and social milieu did Jane Elizabeth Manning James experience in her hometown of Wilton, Connecticut, during the early years of her youth, and during those times when she must have visited home after her working life began? New research into locally preserved archives reveals previously unknown aspects of Jane's early life and the circumstances of her family, both during the lifetime of her father, Isaac Manning, and after her mother's remarriage to Cato Treadwell sometime after 1830.The circumstances of Jane's family in Wilton prior to their conversion to Mormonism have been under studied due to an assumed paucity of primary source material. In some ways this is not surprising. Even in her autobiography, Jane omits discussion of her life in Wilton, beginning her narrative with her departure from home: “When a child only six years old, I left my home and went to live with a family of white people.”1 Yet, there are many indications that she maintained close ties and frequent contact with her natal family and hometown, not least of which is the fact that the Mannings converted en masse and travelled together from Wilton to Nauvoo in 1843. Quincy D. Newell has made the most sustained and successful attempt to reconstruct Jane's family life and early experiences. In doing so, Newell focused primarily on Jane's maternal grandmother's African origin, on national and state statistics and trends relating to Black experiences in the early 1800s, and on Jane's life in New Canaan. Without seeking to discount any of Newell's extremely valuable contributions, this article shifts the focus to the underexplored hometown context.This shift is accomplished by referencing previously unused archival materials preserved in the Wilton History Room, at the Weston Historical Society, and at the Connecticut State Archives. These sources include an accounting ledger containing records of Isaac Manning's purchases at the Betts and Raymond store in Wilton, and another ledger kept by Samuel F. Lambert containing information on Morris Brown, a close associate of the Mannings. Both ledgers were collected in the early 1900s by the Wilton Historical Society. A third accounting ledger from a Weston general store located near the border with Wilton (judging by its customers), and containing previously unidentified records of Cato Treadwell's purchases, was discovered in the collections of the Weston Historical Society.2 Newly found judicial records relating to an in-law of Jane's named Jacob Brush came from the Connecticut State Archives. In addition, probate and land records relating to John C. Wally, Jane's first cousin, are referenced here for the first time. Finally, sources that have been consulted before—like the writings of late nineteenth-century local historian David Hermon Van Hoosear—are revisited here and additional anecdotes about the Manning family are extracted from them and analyzed. Other sources that rewarded renewed examination were the land records of Isaac Manning's purchase of property in Wilton in 1822; it proved possible to trace the plot up through the present day, allowing for the first time the identification of the precise location of Jane's home in Wilton. Together, these new and revisited sources shed light on the Mannings’ strong family ties, varied economic and social relationships, and evident desire of living respectably both in their own estimation and in the eyes of the local community.Wilton in the early 1800s was a newly minted town, separating from nearby Norwalk in 1802. In 1810, Wilton's population was 1,728. Of this number just 37 or 2.1 percent were Black, nearly half enslaved. In 1840, the population was 2,053, of which 35 or 1.7 percent were Black, all free. The economy in these decades was primarily agricultural, with the typical supporting trades well-represented: grist and saw mills, coopers, blacksmiths, carpenters and joiners, tanners, and quarrymen. Like much of southern Fairfield County, the area additionally specialized in the production of shoes, hats, shirts, carriages, and carriage furnishings.3 By the 1830s, the town also boasted a wire mill and comb and satinet factories. White owners in these years did not hire Blacks for factory and mill jobs, however.4There were no Black churches in Wilton or the neighboring communities at this time. The oldest church in town was Congregational, dating to 1726. Methodists began meeting in North Wilton in 1790, and by 1857 that denomination had four churches in town. Wilton's Episcopalian Church, later known as St. Matthew's, was founded in 1802 and split from its Norwalk predecessor in 1815. Judging by the records of burials and other rites, Wilton's Black residents seem to have favored St. Matthew's. It is difficult to say whether this was for theological or other reasons. Perhaps it was because the congregation included a pair of rich and influential whites who seem to have made a point of patronizing local Blacks, namely Capt. Daniel Betts IV and Samuel F. Lambert.Gradual emancipation was enacted in Connecticut in 1784, with all enslaved children born after March 1, 1784, to be freed by the age of twenty-five. In 1797, the age of emancipation was lowered to twenty-one. Slavery in Connecticut was finally abolished in 1848. Because such a high proportion of Wilton's Black residents were still enslaved in 1810—and in the following decades were so recently emancipated—many likely remained in contact with their former enslavers. When emancipated persons stayed in their hometowns, where they often had family and other useful connections, an ongoing relationship with their past masters was probably unavoidable. Many, in fact, had little interest in avoidance. Their masters had taken the best and most productive years of their lives. As a result, free Blacks believed (and many whites agreed) that their former owners owed them continuing patronage, ranging from advice and character references, to employment opportunities or even, in some cases, subsidized housing and financial support.5The Manning family was typical of Wilton's Black residents in some ways, and exceptional in others. The Mannings made their home in Wilton between 1786 (when Jane's mother Philes was born) and 1843.6 As a married couple, Philes and Isaac Manning first lived together at or near Hurlbutt's Hole and later in Great Woods. Both locations are on Sharp Hill, directly east of and above Wilton center and the Norwalk River valley.7 Hurlbutt's Hole is near the summit of Sharp Hill (between Buckingham and Sturgis ridges) and Great Woods is on the hill's western slope. Hurlbutt's Hole encompassed the entire neighborhood around Hurlbutt Street. The Manning family lived in this area in 1816.8Hurlbutt's Hole was centered on the intersection between Sharp Hill Road and Hurlbutt Street, which at various times enjoyed one or more blacksmith's shops, the district school (the one still standing was built in 1834), and a general store. Ebenezer Abbott II—who had enslaved Jane's mother, Philes Manning, as well as her maternal grandmother, Philes, a.k.a. Gin—owned two houses just south and west of this intersection. The proximity of the Mannings’ residence perhaps suggests that they may have maintained some sort of relationship with the Abbotts. The Abbott family home is still on its original site at 51 Shadow Lane. A smaller Abbott house, now demolished, was at 186 Sharp Hill Road about six hundred feet away and across the road from the main house.The exact location of the Manning residence in or near Hurlbutt's Hole in 1816, however, is not known. Nevertheless, something can be said about the house itself and the material comforts of its residents based on Isaac's purchases between 1815 and 1817 at the Betts and Raymond general store.9 The home, which was presumably rented, had glass windows with 7 x 9-inch panes.10 Its interior may have been whitewashed as a cheap alternative to paint. The Mannings had outfitted their home with a looking glass, suggesting—as Quincy D. Newell has asserted of Jane—that they cared for their appearance. Keeping up appearances helped Jane “project a sense of herself as a respectable, serious woman,” and likely did the same for other members of her family in Wilton.11 The Mannings drank out of wine glasses, a luxury possession that may suggest the family finances were secure enough to allow for such purchases and (reinforcing the message of the looking glass) that they aspired to a fairly cultured and respectable existence. So far as the archival record can show, the mirror and wine glasses were unique purchases among Black Wiltonians in the early 1800s. The Mannings seem to have been better off—or more invested in keeping up appearances—than other Black families in Wilton.Worrying less about reputation and more about social bonds, there was also music in the Manning household. In March of 1817, Isaac bought a jaw harp. This simple instrument would have accompanied singing and, perhaps, dancing. It may hint at social gatherings of neighbors and friends, likely including other local Blacks. Due to its small size, Isaac may have carried it in his pocket, using it both at home and abroad. Perhaps he would entertain his friends after a hard day's work, gathering together at the local store to share a drink of rum or a smoke.Certainly two of Isaac's most common purchases (and he was hardly unique in this regard in Wilton or anywhere else, among Blacks or whites) were rum and tobacco. At least in part, he likely consumed these socially at or near the store where he purchased them. Other Black Wiltonians who patronized the Betts and Raymond store in the early to mid-1800s certainly drank their liquor socially, probably at or near the store. They bought individual glasses of beer for themselves, rum for one another, and sometimes made their purchases of alcohol at the same time as their fellow tipplers.12 It seems likely that Isaac did the same, though it is uncertain who his drinking partners might have been.Besides rum and tobacco, Isaac once bought snuff. Another time he purchased twenty-three peppermint candies. Most of Isaac's purchases, however, were staples like molasses, flour, cotton cloth, codfish, and sugar. In addition, he regularly bought gunpowder and shot, suggesting that he hunted for the table. At least two of Isaac's Black contemporaries in town, Caesar Pompey and Drake Cuff, also made purchases of gunpowder and shot in the early 1800s.13 It is not known where Isaac (or his fellows) might have hunted, but wherever he went, he likely would have required a white landowner's permission to shoot. This he evidentially got, as between December 1815 and May 1817 he replenished his stock of shot or powder six times.Isaac's purchases also reveal that he may have worked in Wilton's prolific shoemaking industry: in April 1816 he bought a shoe knife, used to cut out leather uppers and soles. A month later, however, he also bought a new, finished pair of shoes. Perhaps he lacked the knowledge, tools, or materials to make the particular size or style of shoes he required, or perhaps his involvement in the industry was limited to cutting out uppers or some other specialized task.A known associate of the Manning family, Morris Brown, was also a shoemaker. Brown appears in the personal ledger of wealthy Wiltonian Samuel F. Lambert in the 1840s, making “coarse” and “fine” boots for Charles D. and Jane Ann Bedient King, Black employees of the Lambert family.14 It is not known whether Brown was making shoes back in 1815, but it is likely he was already acquainted with Isaac as both men were customers at the Betts and Raymond store. If Brown was a shoemaker by 1815, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the men collaborated. Judging by the census returns, however, Brown was likely living in South Wilton near Lambert Corner or above it on either Grumman or Chestnut hills.15 Living in these areas would not have precluded Brown from partnering with Isaac, but it certainly would have made it less convenient.Indeed, Brown's connection with the Mannings may have deepened only by the 1830s or early 1840s, by which time Isaac had already passed away. In 1830, the census returns suggest Brown was living in or near Wilton center, likely between Lambert Corner and St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.16 After 1840, his residence was most likely adjacent to that of Jane's cousin John C. Wally, who owned a small house near St. Matthew's (the house is still standing at 232 Danbury Road).17 Intriguingly, Wally was earlier known as Lazarus.18 As Lazarus, Wally had been enslaved by Ebenezer Abbott II—the same man who owned Jane's grandmother Philes, a.k.a. Gin—and later by Ebenezer's son Nathan Abbott. Moreover, Wally was a close relative of Jane's. He, too, was a grandchild of Philes, a.k.a. Gin. Of her three known daughters, Philes Manning, Dorcas Brush, and Clois, the latter was potentially Wally's mother. We know Wally was not Jane's sibling, and he could not have been Dorcas's child (as he married her daughter Harriet). Whichever sister was his mother—Clois or an unknown sibling—Wally was Jane's first cousin.Morris Brown and his wife Susan were confirmed at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church on June 22, 1835.19 Brown additionally worked for the church—ringing the bell, sweeping, and making the fire—between 1833 and 1844.20 He was even responsible for opening the Lambert family vault in St. Matthew's cemetery in November 1843.21 These developments may have brought the Browns closer to the Mannings. John C. Wally, at least, was a sometime employee of St. Matthews, was married in the church, and had his son baptized there, too.22While Wally was clearly Episcopalian, the religious affiliation of the Manning family in Wilton is less clear. Jane's aunts and mother were all baptized at the Congregational Church while still enslaved by the Abbott family. As a free woman in 1816, Philes Manning and her husband had their daughter Sarah Ann baptized by a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the Redding circuit.23 No further connections between the Mannings and this church have surfaced. But, from about 1820 onwards, the Poplar Plains Methodist Church of Westport held services on Hurlbutt Street. In addition, beginning in 1790, Methodists were meeting in private residences in North Wilton at Georgetown. Records from both churches might shed further light on the Mannings’ religious affiliation in these years.24 Finally, Jane's younger sister Angeline was baptized at St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church in New Canaan on December 20, 1840.25 Jane clearly was not the only member of the Manning family searching for spiritual fulfilment among different denominations.Returning to the Browns and the Mannings, however their initial bonds were forged, by the mid-1840s they had become close enough that the Browns may even have been inspired to leave their church by Jane and her family's newfound faith. The record books of St. Matthew's indicate that both Susan and Morris Brown left that church, with Morris (but not Susan) later rejoining.26 No date is given for the Browns’ departure or Morris's return, and neither husband nor wife can be found joining any other Wilton church. Yet, the Browns did not leave Wilton for Nauvoo with the Mannings and, in the end, the evidence for their possible interest in Mormonism is inconclusive. What is certain, is that thirty years after leaving Wilton, Jane and her then husband baptized Morris and Susan by proxy at the Salt Lake Endowment House, providing a final confirmation of intimacy forged decades before between the Mannings and the Browns.27While the evidence now available suggests that Isaac Manning supported his family at least in part by working as a shoemaker, Henry J. Wolfinger has reported that Manning was a spinner.28 Wolfinger relied on information provided by Gertrude R. Merwin, administrative assistant of the Wilton Historical Society, in her letter to him dated June 19, 1973. In that letter Merwin wrote: “1816 (mentioned) A. R. Betts acct., spinner.”29 A ledger kept by Asahel Raymond Betts between 1815 and 1819 is in the Wilton History Room and is presumably the “A. R. Betts acct.” that Merwin referenced.30 Betts recorded credits and debits for Manning in this ledger. There are absolutely no indications in Manning's account, however, that he was engaged in spinning. Also in the Wilton History Room are numerous bills and orders received by Betts in his capacity as a local shopkeeper.31 There are no bills from Manning, nor is he ever on record placing an order at the store (nor having one placed on his behalf). He only appears in the ledger. Moreover, there are no other Betts ledgers in the Wilton History Room or at the Wilton Historical Society. Merwin either had access to other documentation, since lost, or she misinterpreted the evidence.32Wolfinger's reliance on Merwin is a cautionary tale, but what researcher hasn't occasionally relied on an informant's word? Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that we invite trouble and potentially miss important data and insights when we rely on the reports of others, rather than putting in the admittedly considerable time, effort, and even expense of going through the contents of local archives. This is not to say that local archivists and historical societies are not to be trusted; the depth and breadth of their knowledge is often invaluable. Rather, the point is that researchers should look for themselves whenever possible. This is particularly true of specialized and often voluminous primary source materials like accounting ledgers.The Manning account with Betts also shows that Isaac's income—like so many of his rural peers in Wilton—was the result of a combination of activities. Morris Brown, for example, was more than just a shoemaker. He also hired himself out for mowing, cutting stalks, digging potatoes, pulling turnips, raking buckwheat, and shelling corn. We also know that he grew his own grain, turnips, and potatoes.33 Similarly, besides Manning's purchase of a shoe knife, his account at the Betts and Raymond store records him paying off his debts with seventeen days of labor in May and June of 1816.34 Unfortunately, the nature of his work was not recorded.Much of the work to be done for hire in rural Connecticut in the early 1800s depended not so much on specialized skills, as it did on an individual's membership in a social network of family, friends, and neighbors willing to hire one over competing laborers equally well-versed in a common body of knowledge and working experience. What mattered most was who (not what) you knew. This sort of in-network hiring was one of the many challenges freed Blacks faced in the northeast in the early 1800s. Lacking many wealthy or landed relatives themselves, and never having had the chance to develop generations-long kinships and associations with neighboring families within a community, freed Blacks found they often had to rely on patronizing associations with their former enslavers to get sufficient work to support themselves.35 Failing such an association (and there is little evidence for or against the Abbott family maintaining any relationship with those they had enslaved), freed Blacks had to rely on other free Blacks for assistance (in the form of employment, credit, and character references) or on whites of the upper echelons (financially and socially), some of whom in these early decades of the nineteenth century viewed it as their duty to support and improve freedmen and women in their communities.36Perhaps Isaac Manning had such a relationship with store owners Capt. Asahel Raymond or Capt. Daniel Betts IV, or with one of their sons and store managers (of whom Asahel Raymond Betts was one) that made it possible for Manning to receive credit at the store in return for his promises of labor. Both Raymond and Daniel Betts lived close to Hurlbutt's Hole. Raymond was just to the west on Raymond Lane, near the base of Sharp Hill Road. Betts was just north of Sharp Hill Road's intersection with Danbury Road.Betts at least was open to having Black neighbors and, quite possibly, Black employees. It was Betts in 1838 who sold 232 Danbury Road to Jane's cousin John C. Wally.37 Notably, Wally's new home was across Danbury Road from Betts's homestead and on a piece of land bordering more of Betts's own acreage and horse barn.38 This strongly suggests that Betts had no objection to a Black man living near him, and it may even imply that he saw advantages in having Wally close at hand. The cumulative evidence, in fact, suggests that Wally may have worked for Betts.Perhaps out of an abundance of caution or a continuing (though legally void) sense of ownership, Betts in his will dated November 1844 bequeathed John C. Wally the buildings and land that Wally had already purchased from him back in 1838.39 Fortunately for Wally his original purchase had been properly recorded in the land records: Betts's estate was found insolvent in the spring of 1846 and sufficient real estate to cover his debts was ordered to be sold. This included Betts's homestead and the land adjacent to Wally's residence. William Sturges purchased both in August 1847. It is perhaps no coincidence that Wally also sold his home a little over a year later.40 Evidentially, Sturges did not take over Betts's patronage. Perhaps Wally was unable to find sufficient work to hold onto his small home, particularly as it only stood on half an acre—nowhere near enough to be self-sustaining. Fortunately, Wally was able to sell his home for four times his original purchase price. Betts had evidently given him a rather good deal on the place.If Daniel Betts had become Wally's patron by the 1830s, as it strongly appears he had, perhaps he (or his store manager sons or his business partner) had also assisted Wally's uncle Isaac Manning by giving him work in 1816 when he, it seems, was temporarily in need. Indeed, in the same time period, one of Manning's purchases was paid for “by Town Order.”41 Calling Betts or Raymond Manning's patron or even his regular employer, however, would be a step too far. Rather what they appear to have had was a fairly typical merchant-customer relationship, where customers paid for goods both in kind and through labor. Manning's work directly paid down his account at the store. At the very least, by maintaining an account with Isaac, the Betts and Raymond store proprietors indicated a measure of trust in Manning's ability to honorably and energetically work to pay off his debts, to reasonably manage his credit, and to remain reliably within reach (as opposed to absconding to parts unknown). Having someone willing to extend him credit, albeit on the small scale of a general store account, was a significant achievement for a Black man at this time and suggests that Manning had a good reputation in the local community.While Isaac Manning may have had a good reputation—and there was scope in early nineteenth-century Connecticut for “increased . . . prosperity and ‘respectability’” among Blacks—there seems at the same time to have been gossip in town about Jane's mother Philes and her aunt Dorcas's family.42 The stories all come from a single, late nineteenth-century source: a local historian and descendant of the Abbott family named David Hermon Van Hoosear. His anecdotes obviously cannot be taken at face value. They may provide, however, some insight into how the local community viewed (or at the very least how they later remembered) Philes and Dorcas's family.According to Van Hoosear, Ebenezer Abbott II gave Philes to his daughter Sarah and her husband Uriah Smith Grumman as a wedding present in 1801. Soon afterwards, the teenaged Philes allegedly stole and drank “all” of Grumman's wine. Grumman sold Philes to a Stamford man in retaliation for her crime.43 As for Dorcas's family, Van Hoosear reports that her husband Jacob Brush was accused by their daughter Harriet of some unspecified transgression. He was tried, convicted, and later died in state prison. In Jacob's absence, the Brush residence devolved into “a place of debauch,” a situation that someone named Ike Treadwell “pretended” to control.44 In addition, “sheep were stolen and other goods.” In response, the neighbors fashioned an “immense torpedo in which they used six pounds of powder.” They assembled the bomb and then Van Hoosear's account abruptly ends, without revealing the outcome.These anecdotes suggest that Philes to some extent, and the Brush family to a greater extent, had less than sterling reputations. Both stories frame all members of the extended Manning-Brush family as thieves. Philes, furthermore, is intemperate (at least in her youth), while the Brush family is more generally immoral, with hints of sexual impropriety lingering even after the main transgressor, Jacob, had been removed. Far from being able to control themselves, the disruptive behavior of Philes and the Brush family ceases only when members of the white community remind them—either cruelly or violently—of their place.In these stories there is also the enigma of Ike Treadwell, the man who “pretended” to control affairs at the Brush residence. No trace of such a person has been found in the primary sources. Is it possible that Van Hoosear meant Cato Treadwell, Philes Manning's second husband? Had Philes appealed to him, hoping to salvage what she could of her extended family's (and her own) reputation? If Philes did try to uplift the Brush family, her actions may have provided an early model for her daughter Jane's distinct “sense of family unity,” evidenced in her continuing efforts to financially aid and morally improve her adult children, in the proxy baptisms of family members that she undertook, and in the ultimately peaceful relationship she seems to have achieved with her ex-husband Isaac James.45Whatever truth there might be in Van Hoosear's anecdotes, it certainly seems that maintaining a good reputation in Wilton was both desirable and challenging for Black individuals and families in the early nineteenth century. For some, like Jacob Brush, bad reputations were likely well deserved—his daughter Harriet did, in fact, accuse him of attempted rape.46 Others seem to have aged (or married) out of their bad reputations, like Philes after returning to Wilton and marrying Isaac Manning, and Harriet Brush after leaving her parents’ household and marrying John C. Wally at St. Matthew's Church in 1830.47 Still others who worked hard for their reputations and were successful in maintaining them—like Isaac Manning, John C. Wally, and Morris Brown—surely knew just how contingent and tenuous their positions in Wilton society really were.If Philes Manning and her children valued reputation and a respectable (if humble) standard of living, her second marriage to Cato Treadwell would have promoted those interests. Prior to marrying Philes, Treadwell lived in the town of Weston, likely near its border with Wilton (a little northeast of Hurlbutt's Hole and just off the map, see Figure 1). He is on Weston's 1830 census living with a middle-aged woman, presumably his first wife Margaret.48 We are used to thinking of Treadwell as relatively impoverished, even incapacitated, on the basis of his 1818 pension application, which revealed his net worth at about forty dollars.49 At that time he owned “an old log house,” some basic furniture and tools, and “sundry small articles consisting of broken crockery and furniture.”50 Although his pension application did not explicitly state his inability to provide for himself due to age or disability, his material condition arguably implied this was so. Nevertheless, new evidence from a general store ledger preserved by the Weston Historical Society suggests that Treadwell—once he had obtained his pension—was doing considerably better.51 This ledger records Treadwell's purchases between 1828 and 1830.Treadwell's account at the store gives no clue as to whether or not he owned his own home in Weston (something Treadwell had achieved in Huntington by 1818 when most free Blacks in Connecticut still rented their accommodations or lived with white patrons or employers). It does suggest, however, that he had access to some amount of farmland—or possibly that he worked as a farm hand for others, using his own tools, and received payment in kind. While he normally gave cash for his purchases, Treadwell once paid with a peck of corn. In addition, he bought a corn basket and hoe. There are also hints in the ledger that Treadwell either owned livestock, or provided his own tools for managing the livestock of others. He purchased a dung fork, hay rake, and cart whip. In addition, like Isaac Manning in Wilton, Treadwell appears to have owned a shotgun, once buying a double flint from the store.The ledger also shows that Treadwell was a shoemaker, once again like Isaac Manning. In December 1828 Treadwell purchased a thousand shoe nails. He also bought a spike gimlet, which was most likely for wood working, but might have doubled as a hole punch in leather working. Finally, Treadwell's purchases include a smattering of nonessentials and luxuries, including oranges, black pepper, nutmeg, and tea. Only once, in November 1829, is there any suggestion that Treadwell was temporarily in need. The store charged the Town of Norwalk for three yards of brown shirting, two balls of cotton, and the cost of making two shirts for “Cato,” presumably Cato Treadwell. If this was indeed him, then the ledger additionally reveals that Norwalk was likely Treadwell's hometown, as that municipality was held financially responsible. Within two months of this, however, Treadwell was back to buying oranges and nutmeg. Besides his pension, Treadwell likely brought significant skills and earning potential to his marriage with Philes Manning, perhaps as