The Crowninshield Bentley House c.1727-30
Owned by PEM, and used for house tours.

Though Benjamin Crowninshield and the Widow Hannah lived side by side within the confines of the same handsome house, their lifestyles were hardly comparable. Visitors will note that while the son and his family set their dinner table with valuable china from Asia, his mother and her boarders used American reproductions of Chinese dishes. And while he remodeled his home to reflect the more popular Federal-style flourishes of his time, his mother made do with the exposed beams and oiled floor planks. Her furniture was out of fashion and made in America, and his was collected, in part, from his voyages east.

Hannah's kitchen is furnished with the typical gadgets employed in the late eighteenth century. Of note are the candle boxes to keep the mice from consuming valuable tallow-based candles. There's a pole suspended from the ceiling and a hoop attached at the bottom. A baby is secured in the hoop of this "baby-minder" and the baby spins happily as mother goes about her many chores. The kitchen boasts two beehive ovens, spindle-leg pots, and a brass clock-jack, a device that turns the food as it cooks. There's also a complete set of pewter. In the time of John Ward, only the man of the house would have a pewter dish and utensils. No one in Hannah's house would have had to eat with fingers, except by choice.

Sept 2011, Photo 24a

Crowninshield Bentley House
Part of Peabody Essex Museum

July 2001, Photo crowin