ACCOUNTING RECORDS OF QUAKERS OF WEST FALMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS (1796-1860): AN ANALYSIS

The village of West Falmouth, Massachusetts was settled in the 1660s by William Gifford and other Quakers who came there to avoid persecution. They lived relatively isolated from other settlers in the region. The accounting records of Prince Gifford, Jr. (1771-1853) and Prince Gifford Moore (1812-1885), descendants of William Gifford, are still in existence. This paper provides an analysis of these records, which reflect the simplicity, frugality, honesty, and equality of early West Falmouth Quakers. Littleton's antecedents of double-entry bookkeeping are applied to explain the use of the single-entry system of accounting by West Falmouth Quakers during the same period that Philadelphia Quakers were using the double-entry system.