Samuel Kilburn

 Housewright/Joiner

by Thomas Whalen

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Looking at the platemakers stamp of Samuel Kilburn, to the right of the name are the letters No with two small dots below the o.. What do the letters mean? To a researcher the first thing that comes to mind is a town or a location. I set my course in that direction. Most of the towns starting with an N are in Franklin, Hampshire   and Worcester County, s The towns included in my research were Northampton, Northborough, Northfield, Norwich, and Northbridge.

 I have three S. Kilburn planes in my collection, two have characteristics of 18th century American wooden planes. I turned to the Massachusetts 1790 census searching for S. Kilburn in the towns and counties listed above. After many hours of research on the web with little progress I began to question if the No.. marked on the planes were representative of a town or a location.

 In my research a Samuel Kilburn of Wilbraham Ma. popped -up several times on the Net which I discounted based on the location. I decided to set my sights on Kilburn in Wilbraham.

 Based on my research, I was surprised that Kilburn of Wilbraham was a housewright and joiner. Is he the maker of the planes marked S Kilburn? I believe so.

Samuel was born in Monson Ma. on September 13, 1731. He was living in Brimfield in 1740, so Samuel returned to Brimfield in 1757 to marry Abigail Colton on August 11, 1757. Samuel and Abigail located in Wilbraham in 1772 where he established a joiner’s shop. Samuel died on January 1, 1809.          Samuel bequeathed the shop and his tools to his oldest son Jonathan, also a joiner.

The Probate Records of February 2, 1811, Inventory & Values list the following items.

Grindstone $1                                        2 axes $1

1 fine saw.75                                         1 joiner .50

1 joiner $1                                             1 joiner .30

1 joiner $1                                             1 smooth plane .35

10 moulding planes $2.50                     2” augur .25

1 smooth plane .66                                1 chisel .12

1 bitstock .75                                         1 great wheel .75

2 files .25                                               1bench dog .66

3 narrow chisels $1.18                           1 knife .06

1 key saw .10                                         1gage .12

1 saw $1.50                                            1 rule measure .12

 

 

Each of the planes in my collection were found in three separate locations in Massachusetts. The first find was a 1 5/8” hollow, years later, what appears to be a matching round plane to the hollow. The planes separated for years are now back together again.