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CUTTING ACROSS TIME

By Erica Lome, Ph.D.

CESAR CHELOR:

Planemaker-

Craftsman

n 2014, a guest on Antiques Roadshow brought a wooden plane Chelor was enslaved by toolmaker Francis Nicholson (1683-1753),
which belonged to his grandfather. This humble tool, used to who is credited as the first documented professional planemaker in
Ismooth and shape wood for architectural moldings, bore the mark North America. Planemaking did not become a legally identifiable
“C.E. Chelor, living in Wrentham.” Dated to about 1755, this plane trade until the late seventeenth century, as the earliest identified
proved to be far more than the sum of its parts. Appraisers placed its planemaker in the British Atlantic world was Thomas Granford II, a
estimated value at between $8,000 and $12,000. London craftsman who was active in the 1690s. British-made planes
were regularly imported and sold in the American colonies and were
also brought over by English immigrants.
It is unknown whether Francis Nicholson was born and trained in
England; he first appears in church records in Rehoboth, Massachusetts
in 1713 where he is listed as a joiner. By the 1720s he was in Wrentham
practicing a new trade, “Tool Maker.” As colonial towns expanded their
borders and grew their populations, Nicholson met local demand for
quality woodworking tools. He taught several apprentices the trade of
planemaking, including his son John and Cesar Chelor.

This tongue plane can cut interlocking wood joints, also known as tongue and
groove, for making flooring and furniture. In the eighteenth century, skilled artisans
crafted homes and furnishings using a variety of planes—the power tools of their
time—created by talented, trained toolmakers. This maker’s mark on the end or
“toe” of the plane: “CE Chelor, Living in Wrentham.” Anacostia Community Museum
In the antique tool collector world, the name Cesar Chelor is as
recognizable as Thomas Chippendale or Paul Revere. Chelor was the
first documented Black planemaker in North America. Formerly
enslaved by Francis Nicholson, Chelor learned the trade in a small shop Francis Nicholson Molding Plane. Photo Courtesy of Brown Auction Services.
in Wrentham, producing a moderate number of planes using hand
tools. In 1753, Nicholson died and left the bulk of his estate to Chelor, In colonial New England, many master craftsmen brought enslaved
emancipating him in the process. Chelor went on to become a people into their shops as a source of unpaid labor. Chelor and
successful craftsman, evidenced by the material legacy he left behind. Nicholson were not bound by an indenture, a contract detailing the
Several hundred planes stamped by Chelor exist, and hundreds more obligations master and apprentice had to the other, including for
are yet to be discovered. Yet, even with all this evidence, much of Cesar training, room, board, clothing, and other services. Apprentices as
Chelor’s life remains shrouded in mystery. This article reconstitutes our young as fourteen would serve the needs of the shop for about six years,
knowledge of Chelor and explores the world of a free Black craftsman while the master taught them the “arts and mysteries” of their chosen
in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. trade. An apprentice would graduate to become a journeyman and
provide skilled, paid labor for a shop. In the best-case scenario, an
ORIGINS apprentice-turned-journeyman would leave to start their own venture
When Cesar Chelor was born in 1720, slavery was part of daily life and begin the cycle anew, perpetuating the craft tradition.
Francis Nicholson took ownership of Chelor when he was sixteen
in Massachusetts. The enslaved included men, women, and children of years old and put him to work rough cutting and smoothing wood. As
African and Indigenous ancestry. In Wrentham, the number hovered Nicholson's business expanded, and Chelor became more skilled, it
between 5 and 30 out of a total town population of about 1,500. made sense to train him to make entire planes. The extra pair of hands
Without legal rights or access to an education, few enslaved people had was necessary: between 1720 and 1740, Wrentham constructed eleven
the opportunity to leave written records of their thoughts and activities schools to serve over 200 families, and a separate parish was established
during their lives in colonial America. Their presence was registered in in 1737 to support the growing population. Neighboring towns also
legal documents like probate inventories or wills recording the owner- supplied workers and worshippers to Wrentham, which soon had
ship and sale of people who were at the time termed “servants for life.”
shops, taverns, and other businesses in the town center.

24 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles