Newtown Historical Society has been offered a chance to buy two outstanding manuscripts relating to the town’s history. One is a 104-page account book kept by Thomas Toucey (also spelled Tousey), the town’s first settled minister, and later the town’s first physician; the second records the farming activities of Philo Tousey Platt, a 19th Century farmer in the Hopewell District.

The Toucey/Tousey journal has two parts, one covering his partnerships with three women weavers between 1751 and 1758, and the other a daybook record of his medical activities, 1751-1758.

The 94-page Platt book details both sales of farm goods and farm working arrangements with several nearby Black residents, and is “thus a step above the average farm journal,” the historical society board of trustees noted in a January 19 announcement about the potential acquisitions.

The cost for the pair of documents is $9,200.

Newtown Historical Society Vice President John Renjilian was reading the December 5, 2025 edition of Antiques and The Arts Weekly — this newspaper’s sister publication — when he encountered “Q&A: Dan Casavant.” A rare book dealer based in Maine, Casavant spoke with then-Editor Madelia Hickman Ring about a collection of primary source materials — ledgers, account books, etc — he was offering for sale.

Casavant’s answer to Hickman Ring’s first question immediately caught Renjilian’s attention when he mentioned an inventory of about 800 handwritten journals and another 200 individual documents that includes four unique Newtown, Conn., journals: a 1727 doctor’s daybook, a 1795 silversmith account book, an 1842 hatbox maker’s journal, and an 1860 farmer’s ledger.

Renjilian has not only given hours of time to Newtown Historical Society, he has also become the special books coordinator for Friends of the C.H. Booth Library’s Annual Book Sale. The major fundraiser has grown into one of the largest used book sales in New England, with its own section for antique and highly collectible books. Renjilian, who has become an expert in such items, immediately jumped on the recent mention of the Newtown journals in Antiques and The Arts Weekly.

“I reached out and learned that two of the journals are no longer available, but the others still are and we are hoping to get those two added to the historical society’s collection,” Renjilian told The Newtown Bee on February 2.

Casavant has reportedly agreed to work with the local historical society, and is giving it time to fundraise.

Recognizing the importance of the documents, Town Historian Ben Cruson has secured a matching donation of up to $3,500. The society has already received a pledge of $500 toward the match as a starter.

As of last week, the historical society had received $1,525 toward that goal. Renjilian shared that another $500 pledge and $525 in donations had been received following the publication three weeks ago of a press release and an e-blast to historical society members, friends, and other supporters.

NHS is hoping supporters and other members of the public will help with this acquisition. The society has some funds available in an Accessions & Acquisitions Fund, but not enough to cover the full cost of the two documents.

While Casavant has not given NHS an immediate deadline, the board would like to raise the remaining matching funds as soon as possible.

“Both these manuscripts are of extra importance as they deal not only with the state of medical care in colonial Newtown, but with two town populations about whom we have little knowledge, colonial women and Blacks before, during and after the Civil War,” the board said in its January 19 announcement.

Thomas Toucey/Tousey

Thomas Toucey was born in Wethersfield in 1688. He graduated from Yale College in 1707 and accepted an invitation in 1713 to preach in Newtown. He began his ministry the following year.

Newtown Congregational Church was organized in May 1714, with about 30 families. Toucey ministered for the Newtown church for approximately ten years.

Casavant has already provided Newtown Historical Society with copies of his very detailed notes concerning each lot. The notes for the journal, a copy of which was shared with The Newtown Bee, refer to Toucey as “defrocked minister.”

Renjilian thinks otherwise.

“The congregation asked him to resign over doctrinal issues, he refused, and so the congregation voted to stop paying him to force him out,” Renjilian said. “He was not a poor man, and it took about a year before he finally gave in.”

Toucey then went to England, where he bought an army commission. Toucey was a captain in the King’s Army.

Renjilian says after two years Toucey “realized that wasn’t what he wanted and resigned, going up to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. Once completing his studies he apparently felt no ill will toward the town, nor the town toward him, and he returned to Newtown.”

That was when Toucey became the town’s first trained physician. He lived in town and conducted “a very successful practice until his death in 1761,” Renjilian said.

The collection of Toucey’s journals consists of 134 pages in nine small fascicles “neatly handsewn together, in ink,” according to Casavant, measuring four by six inches. The journals, written while Dr Toucey was ages 66-73, include seven years of medical data, including treatments of several dozen Newtown residents and several patients from Stratford and Redding also noted.

Patients included soldiers of the French and Indian Wars. Familiar surnames include Botsford, Sherman, Brisco, Henry, Hubbel, and Blackman.

Medical And Textile History

While Casavant’s notes take a deep dive into the ownership of slaves by Toucey and others, and the physician’s treatment of them as patients, Renjilian says the bigger interest in obtaining Toucey’s journals is the look at medical and textile history.

Medications included lavender, camphor, ammoniac, balsam, oil of juniper, and blister and fever plasters, according to the seller’s notes.

Toucey’s father was a weaver by trade, according to Casavant’s notes, and one of the daybooks being offered to the historical society consists of records of weaving.

“It is clear that Toucey is familiar with and engaged in the industry of weaving using other employees,” Casavant noted. “He trades their labor for a ½ share of woven goods. For anyone, the economics of owning a thriving active business like this is obvious, but for a medical professional, it facilitates provision of medical wraps and bandages. It is the perfect second enterprise for a practicing doctor.”

Renjilian finds Toucey’s partnerships with three women weavers — Mary Knapp, Alice Northrup and Phebe Lyon, who each had equal partnerships in the production of cloth — “very unusual” in that full-size loom weavers were generally men.

“His partnerships with the three women may indicate smaller looms,” he suggested, echoing notes from the seller that the women were weaving bandages for the doctor. “I find this part fascinating,” he added.

While Casavant also notes it is not clear whether the main journal is complete with all sections together, he does call it “a valuable relic, uncovered and toned over time — 270-year-old American voice from a local labor; textile; medical perspective.”

Toucey was 74 years old when he died on March 14, 1761. He is buried in Newtown Village Cemetery.

His journals would be the first items from the town’s first minister and its first trained doctor to be added to the Newtown Historical Society archives, according to Renjilian.

Philo Toucey Platt

Philo Toucey Platt was born September 3, 1811, according to notes shared by Renjilian from The Commemorative Biographical Record of Fairfield County, 1899. Interestingly, Renjilian said Platt is a descendant of Toucey.

“The documents will certainly complement each other,” he said.

Philo Platt married Jeanette Tuttle of Southbury on November 24, 1841. They were the parents of two sons, Johnson and Theron.

The Platt family farm was in the Eden Hill Road/Hopewell District.

The journals being offered by Casavant cover the last 20 years of Platt’s life. It is a mix of accounts “of both Irish and people of color,” according to his notes.

“The dozen or so people of color named in his farm journal define Platt’s tolerance and acceptance, and demonstrate strong numbers in and around the immediate Hopewell District where Platt lived,” Casavant noted.

He later notes the collection may to some be “‘just a farmer’s journal,’ for those of us who live for the discovery, it is a story book and so much more.” Entries include the names of people who worked for Platt, how long they worked for him, and what they received as payment.

Jacob Potter, for instance, worked for Platt from December 1860 to February 19, 1861, and received an “axe helve, potatoes, turnips, apples, pork, a white oak tree, and meat.” Ira Pease worked for Platt for five months and was paid with cash, pork, potatoes, vinegar, and tobacco.

Casavant describes the ledger as “a well-organized general store hard cover ledger book with entries beginning in 1860 and ending in 1879. It carries an alpha index of accounts on the very last page, a two page account which carries notations for all pages…

“The text includes 47 hand-numbered double pages, or 94 pages total; all numbered pages are filled or partially filled with both debits on one side and credits on the other.” The cover spine is missing, the binding is tight, and the interior of the book “is in very good condition.”

Casavant does note, however, that “no where in the journal does it name Philo T. Platt as the writer, but the clues are there and we have with certainty identified it correctly.”

Philo Platt died on March 10, 1880, at age 68. Like Toucey, he is also buried in Newtown Village Cemetery.

Plans For The Journals

Ben Cruson said one of the first things the historical society will do if it is successful in purchasing the journals is study them. Renjilian said he and Cruson, and others, will create their own notes, adding to those already done by Casavant.

“It would also be ideal to have a transcription, to make it easy for anyone doing research,” Cruson said.

Casavant’s notes will also be kept with the journals, “so that we can refer people to those if they’d like to learn from them,” Cruson said.

Both men agreed they would also like to put the journals on display, at least temporarily, as soon as possible, “to thank the public for their support” in acquiring them, Renjilian said.

Donations can be sent by check to Newtown Historical Society, PO Box 189, Newtown CT 06470; or made online at newtownhistory.org (click on the yellow Donate button toward the top of the page).

=====

Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.