Irish Quakers and compatriots of William Penn, the family of John Holme, Sr., emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania very early in its history. Holme prospered in the new colony. By 1685 he had already established himself as a mill wright in Lower Dublin Township, near Philadelphia. He later came to own numerous tracts of land in and near the city, as well as quarries and mills. He apparently owned at least some slaves. John Holme, Sr., was selected as one of the magistrates of the city of Philadelphia, and presided over the trial of William Bradford for publishing pamphlets of the "Quaker" schismatic, George Keith. His son, John Holme, Jr., and his wife Jane had four sons, John, Thomas, Abel, and Enoch, and three daughters, Hannah, Martha, and Priscilla. The three John Holmes appear to be related to William Penn's well-known Surveyor General, Thomas Holme.
This volume includes accounts of goods sold and services rendered to Philadelphia families in the 1680s and 1690s. The accounts appear to have been kept by several different members of the Holme family. These include records of the sale of shoes, gun powder, grain, cloth, nails, and many other goods. Interspersed throughout the accounts are pages of calculations, numerous medical receipts, and receipts for food and drink, including "To pickle cucumbers," "to pickle wallnuts to eat like mangoes," "to make cyder," and many recipes for wines. Most of the recipes appear to have been recorded in the 1740s, though some are earlier. Medical receipts are indexed under the term "Receipts" while those for foods are indexed as "Cookery." Additional indexing (e.g. for type of food or medicine) is highly selective. Similarly, only the primary names are indexed for the accounts.
John Holme, Sr., also appears to have used the account book to copy the laws of Pennsylvania (copied ca.1685), and he or a later Holme recorded the wills of Captain Thomas Holme (1695; William Penn's Surveyor General), and of one of the John Holmes, probably John Holme, Jr. Finally, a poem and two religious songs were copied into the volume, the former perhaps written by one of the Holmes. It is tempting to attribute the poem to John Holme, Sr., whose poetry is among the earliest known to have been written in the province (see Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vols. 3 and 20).
