Dorchester's Merchants: Middlemen on the Road to Riches

Dorchester's Merchants: Middlemen on the Road to Riches. . , Here on what residents called "Bay Street," Dorchester's merchants conducted a lively trade in imported goods during the 18th century. These important middlemen built shops and warehouses in the area before you. Some of the buildings had space for planters to warehouse up to 400 barrels of rice before shipment, and the shops carried necessities and luxuries from all over the world. Dorchester thrived in the 1700s because local planters could get what they needed here without travelling all the way to Charleston., These merchants provided cloth, tea, wine, rum, sugar, coffee, spices, salt, buttons, hats, hardware, nails, tools, medicines, and more. In short they supplied everything desired by townspeople and planters alike., [Captions:] , Richard Walter's business advertisements reminds us that Dorchester's elite colonists could access specialty goods brought thousands of miles from the British Isles., In 1738, the ship Heylyn's cargo from Bristol, England, was shipped to Gillson Clapp's Department store. The "Negro Cloth" mentioned above referred to coarse fabrics used to make clothing for enslaved people., Archaeologists found numerous wig curlers made of white clay during excavations of Dorchester lot #10 (located nearby). These luxury goods were used to prepare the fashionable wigs worn by wealthy men in the 18th century. Possibly the ones found here were available for purchase in a merchant's shop nearby., You could have seen a similar scene at merchant Gillson Clapp's Dorchester store in the 18th century. Clapp's property on lot #10 included a brick dwelling house, good cellars, a wooden storehouse, and a shop.